[Fic] Endlessly - 3/7
Title: Endlessly
Pairing: Zhou Mi/Kyuhyun
Rating: up to NC-17
Genre: AU, romance, smut
Summary: Kyuhyun's life changes when he gets the chance to meet his favorite singer. (Or, as the prompt put it: fanboy!kyu finally meets his bias.)
***
Part One * Part Two * Part Three * Part Four * Part Five * Part Six * Part Seven
***
Date three was impromptu coffee picked up by Kyuhyun on the way and again sitting in the back of an SUV and talking while Zhou Mi’s manager pretended to have other things to do for the fifteen minutes Zhou Mi had to wait. It was private but not private enough for more than a hug and a few brushes of hands, but it also kept them from not seeing other almost at all for almost a week with Zhou Mi leaving the country for a string of recordings and then coming back to some variety shooting. And who knew what all he did at the company. Kyuhyun was interested, if Zhou Mi opted to tell him, but he didn’t really ask beyond asking what Zhou Mi had been up to that made him look so tired. He wasn’t sure what reasons Zhou Mi would have it be weird for Kyuhyun to poke for details, but it still didn’t feel right yet, so he wasn’t going to push it.
Zhou Mi was probably glad to get away from it, too. He could talk about it, knowing Kyuhyun would be glad to listen, but he could also talk about any other things that were interesting to him, too.
Because they were dating.
Dating. Capital letters. They were Dating.
“We’re dating,” he had told the very cute picture of Zhou Mi that was his phone background. It was not a fan picture or an album picture, but one he’d taken himself when Zhou Mi had poked his lips out and looked a little like a perturbed duck. He’d burst into a brilliant smile just after that, but Kyuhyun couldn’t have that as any kind of display picture or his heart would just explode into sparkles at the first sign of danger.
He’d been Very Alarmed when Zhou Mi had nearly caught sight of that picture, too. His lock screen was a very nice, very calming meadow, and he was content instead to tease Zhou Mi by text that Kyuhyun’s background was a picture of him and letting Zhou Mi stew about which picture it was exactly. Before, he’d have dissolved of embarrassment. But he could then, because…
Well. Because they were dating.
***
“Please tell me you’re free tonight,” was the first thing Zhou Mi pleaded after he’d all but sang a cheerful hello into the phone. And a “Kyuhyun!” that had Kyuhyun looking around as though maybe there was some other Kyuhyun that Zhou Mi was calling up.
“I can be? Why?” Kyuhyun asked.
“I just looked at the schedule my manager gave me, and one of the shows I recorded here in Korea is going to air tonight! We can get food and watch it together, if you want? I think it starts at eight…?”
“At your place?”
“Yes!”
Kyuhyun blinked. Normally watching Zhou Mi do things on TV was done in private so he could cover his face and throw pillows if he needed to. Also, to make sounds of outrage or horror when Zhou Mi was being particularly cute, or nice, or handsome, or embarrassing.
There were two possible outcomes. 1. The fact that they had gone on dates and wiggled around and hugged and kissed was going to dull his reactions and he would watch like a normal human, or 2. All of those facts and not being able to react because Zhou Mi was right beside him were going to make him like a shaken bottle of champagne with a faulty cork.
There was a third more normal option but his brain was betting heavily against him. And yet still, his response came after only the slightest hesitation.
“Yeah, I can come over.”
That sent Zhou Mi off on a string of conversation about food and what they should get, and Kyuhyun didn’t have time to be nervous until they’d hammered out their plans and Zhou Mi had hung up with what had sounded suspiciously like a blown kiss.
What if Zhou Mi was going to watch Kyuhyun watch Zhou Mi on TV. He was turning red just thinking about it, and he thought maybe if they just sat really close. Really close would make it easier. Though, possibly harder. Not…not in that way.
Kyuhyun pressed his fingers against his forehead. No, he’d be good. Having Zhou Mi nearby, it would allow him to detach in a way he couldn’t when he was watching alone. It had to, for his own sake.
Fifteen minutes later, his phone chimed and it was Zhou Mi.
“I was wrong!! It was at seven, can you come earlier??”
And then a bunch of horrified-face emojis right after it.
Kyuhyun laughed, texting Zhou Mi back to let him know that yes, he would be there in time to watch.
***
The beginning of the visit was incredibly normal. Kyuhyun arrived with the food a good twenty minutes before the show was to start and Zhou Mi exclaimed both at him and his bags, ushering him and taking the food from him. He was waved toward slippers like he was a contestant on a game show, and Zhou Mi hopped slightly as he almost lost a slipper of his own as he deposited the bags. Purple shirt. Soft jeans. It was a good look, as Zhou Mi turned right back and beelined for Kyuhyun
A hug, Kyuhyun was expecting. Oh, but no, a kiss, Zhou Mi’s lips pressing lavishly against his, and- Oh, another one. And another.
“Hi,” Zhou Mi said finally, all smiley and mostly bare faced and so close that Kyuhyun had to kiss him again.
“Hi,” Kyuhyun said, and half instigated, half got squished by a hug as they rocked together.
“It was too long since we got to see each other.”
“It’s been two days.”
“Way too long!” Zhou Mi grumbled, and Kyuhyun laughed into his shoulder. “Even longer since I got to kiss you. I missed it.”
“Yeah,” Kyuhyun wheezed.
Good behavior, he reminded himself, as Zhou Mi’s lips skimmed his jaw and they moved over so they could actually get ready to dig into the food. They served themselves, opening drinks, catching up a little on the day that had been spent texting. The TV was on mute so they could see when the show started, though that didn’t keep him from glancing up every so often just to make sure they were missing something. His stomach was piping down since he’d held off eating until he got there and a well-timed joke had Zhou Mi trying not to spit out his food. It was mostly a timing accident. But also mostly him giggling and then almost jumping as Zhou Mi reached out and smacked his knee.
“It’s starting!” Zhou Mi said, arranging himself more toward the TV than toward Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun did the same, putting down his empty plate and half-full drink. Even if he wanted something to do with his hands, he didn’t want to accidentally drown himself, or maybe spill something all over Zhou Mi. Zhou Mi finished eating during the first few minutes of previous and updates, settling back and being not-subtle about getting his arm over Kyuhyun’s shoulders. And he was just smirking when Kyuhyun glanced at him.
“Wow, who is that handsome guy,” Zhou Mi said, as they watched him walk out on screen.
“Such humility.”
“Shhh,” Zhou Mi teased, and Kyuhyun pinched his leg, ending in a war between their thighs before they quieted to actually listen to the conversation.
It wasn’t anything Kyuhyun hadn’t heard before, talk about Zhou Mi’s album, his promotions, the fanmeetings, his desires for a concert tour. A concert tour would be amazing, and Kyuhyun absolutely would’ve leaped out of his chair and went to as many as possible. But a tour also meant Zhou Mi being away. That kind of came with the territory and he’d already gotten a taste of it, and they’d just barely started dating. But he didn’t think it was going to be something he regretted.
But Zhou Mi started getting all squirmy beside him as one question faded into the next, and Kyuhyun didn’t really get why until he looked to the TV and listened to the next question.
“Tell us about the ideal person you’d like to date.”
“Person,” Kyuhyun said, interjecting that as the Zhou Mi on screen went thoughtful.
“I didn’t even have to ask for that,” Zhou MI said, but his voice was odd as Kyuhyun glanced at him. Zhou Mi’s head was tilted like he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to look at the TV.
Though whether Zhou Mi did or not, Kyuhyun turned back and he watched a smile spread on Zhou Mi’s on-screen face.
“My ideal person is someone who can be my friend, and make me laugh. Someone, we can think of each other’s happiness and protect that.”
Zhou Mi made a soft sound beside him, twisting like maybe he was trying to disappear from off the couch. The way Zhou Mi was reacting, the words he’d said, it was like Zhou Mi was talking about him. About…him. His ideal type. Zhou Mi’s head was tilted away, staring above the TV and definitely not at Kyuhyun.
“You just recorded this not long ago, didn’t you?”
Zhou Mi nodded, clearing his throat.
“You’re going to give me a big head,” Kyuhyun said, and Zhou MI huffed, actually looking at him that time. “That’s…”
It was sweet. It was more than sweet. It was kind of eating him up inside, and there on the screen Zhou Mi was laughing and the host was praising his answer and teasing him telling him the fans would fall for him when he gave answers like that.
Kyuhyun blinked.
Kyuhyun blinked again.
Fans, or at least one fan, had.
Zhou Mi made a sound beside him that sounded like pain, and Kyuhyun couldn’t stand it, letting out a belly laugh that couldn’t be contained as he flopped back and Zhou Mi stared at him like he was stomping on puppies.
“What!” Zhou Mi cried.
“You! Wait, you’re talking again.”
Not about ideal types or anything like that thought, so Zhou Mi perked up a little bit, actually acting like he was watching, making fun of the faces he was making.
“You’re so cute,” Kyuhyun whispered, enjoying Zhou Mi’s pain as Zhou Mi quite literally squirmed and was embarrassed enough for the both of them.
Kyuhyun managed to get both his arms around Zhou Mi’s torso before he could just melt away from Kyuhyun entirely.
“You talked about me,” Kyuhyun said.
“I didn’t realize it was going to be so embarrassing being right next to you while you saw it.”
“Why? It was nice. Though, it might have been hard hearing that if we weren’t dating,” Kyuhyun mused.
“What did you think before when you heard me talk about my ideal type?” Zhou MI asked.
“That I hoped you found someone who really appreciated you and made you happy.”
“Well, you do make me happy. Do you appreciate me?” Zhou Mi asked, fluttering his eyelashes.
They made faces at each other, until the music started and the show was showing Zhou Mi prepared to sing.
“We don’t have to watch this if you don’t want,” Zhou Mi said.
“What, no!”
All thoughts were banished of reaching for the remote when Zhou Mi was crooning a ballad into the camera.
“The sound’s not bad,” Zhou Mi muttered under his breath. Though he was obviously making some critiques, too, and Kyuhyun was just not having it.
It was his turn to be embarrassed. He put his head down, and there he was with his head nestled on Zhou Mi’s chest, trying not to sigh at listening to Zhou Mi sing on the TV.
“Was it okay?” Zhou Mi whispered, muting the TV after focus turned to a different guest.
“It’s a good thing I’m not watching it with a bunch of other people,” Kyuhyun said, lifting his head. “I’d have had to have stood up and pointed at the screen and said, ‘I’m dating him!’ Though they might have thought it was wishful thinking. It was great. Fans will will definitely fall for you.”
Zhou Mi’s eyes were both bright and soft. “Really?”
“Really,” Kyuhyun confirmed.
Zhou Mi grinned, wiggling closer, and that was really all it took to start them kissing, Zhou Mi’s hand cradling his neck and Kyuhyun’s arms tightening around him.
“There’s only one person I want to fall for me right now,” Zhou Mi half whispered, and it was said so sweetly and so cute at the same time that Kyuhyun almost didn’t know what to do.
“You’ve got that,” he said, but it was nearly slurred as he kissed Zhou Mi again, feeling Zhou Mi’s pleased hum. Zhou Mi’s fingers were stroking along his back and nothing else really existed to him as they squeezed a little closer.
Zhou Mi’s thigh slid between his and that was nice, and new, solid and warm and right there. Close enough almost that with a little maneuvering, Kyuhyun would be rubbing against him. And with a little adjustment, rubbing against a whole lot more. His neck burned but he wasn’t moving, shivering at the gentle catch of Zhou Mi’s teeth against his lip.
“I love your mouth,” Zhou Mi murmured.
Kyuhyun’s sound was meant to be agreement, but he was afraid it came out a little more like a moan. He was glad the back of the couch was plush with the way they leaned against it, but it was also deceptive. It gave him just enough, just enough to imagine how it would be horizontal, struggling to be closer. His barely suppressed some kind of shiver at the impossible softness of Zhou Mi’s tongue, but it was left to be tantalizing as Zhou Mi withdrew a little, pressing even softer kisses and nearly breathing in time with him. Each kiss following his jaw down toward his neck had his breath coming shallower, sounds stirring in his throat as Zhou Mi nuzzled.
A phone rattling on a hard surface had both of them freezing, a chill of alarm going through him until Zhou Mi groaned and half turned away from him, reaching back awkwardly over the arm of the couch to get his phone. Zhou Mi kept one hand anchored on Kyuhyun, which was good, because otherwise Kyuhyun would have ended up flat on the floor trying to catch his runaway heart. He didn’t like the downturn that Zhou Mi’s mouth took, though.
“A text to remind me that I have an early schedule,” Zhou Mi sighed.
Ah. Alone, but not actually alone and free. “Does your manager know…?”
Zhou Mi blinked at him. “About us? Enough. I trust him, and he looks out for my best interests, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
“Did he try and warn you away?”
“No. But he wouldn’t have had a chance,” Zhou Mi teased.
It brought them to a different type of question, one Kyuhyun hadn’t been able to voice, but that had popped up even in the midst of him being almost unable the way they’d fallen in together.
“You said you’d sent someone away before, because he was a man. Do you… Is that going to be a problem?”
Zhou Mi put aside his phone and turned back fully to Kyuhyun so that they were in their own little world, close and focused. But Zhou Mi didn’t try to kiss him, though there was something almost worried in his eyes that Kyuhyun couldn’t quite pin down.
“I’ve been thinking about that, too, and I’m sorry you had to wonder,” Zhou Mi said, his thumb stroking Kyuhyun’s cheek. “I think it was because I didn’t need him enough. I never felt like this with him.”
Need. It was a word of so many meanings, but the last thing he wanted was Zhou Mi to feel regret. Zhou Mi was taking the bigger risk, and he was brave enough to reach for something he wanted. Kyuhyun was just happy to-
He was not going to tear up, he wasn’t.
“If you worry, or if you- If something bothers you, anything, you can tell me,” Kyuhyun said. Not just worrying about the relationship, but anything. Their meetings didn’t have to be just fun and light, and kisses. He wanted to be there. He wanted, if he could, to maybe make Zhou Mi feel a little lighter, knowing he had someone he could count on.
“I will,” Zhou Mi told him. “I hope you will, too.”
Kyuhyun nodded, leaning into the kiss Zhou Mi brushed against his cheek and into the way that Zhou Mi held him closer, hugging in an awkward kind of way. His arm lifted, stroking over Zhou Mi’s hair and feeling him sigh into Kyuhyun’s neck.
“Kyuhyun,” Zhou Mi murmured. Kyuhyun’s body betrayed him, shivering, and it made him giggle in embarrassment and Zhou Mi in enjoyment.
It was the first time he’d touched Zhou Mi’s hair, really, he realized. It was soft under his fingers, thick. And if Zhou Mi had any weird feelings about being petted or having his scalp massaged, he didn’t show it as just slowly all but melted into Kyuhyun.
“If you have to get up in the morning, you should probably find your bed,” Kyuhyun said as softly as he could so that Zhou Mi didn’t startle.
Zhou Mi mumbled something like “Don’t want you to go,” but he was the one who sighed a few moments later and got himself straightened up so that he wasn’t all but pinning Kyuhyun to the couch. It definitely hadn’t been that Kyuhyun was complaining. Probably he needed some sleep of his own, and it was definitely regret that Zhou Mi slid his thigh away. It was a good deal colder like that.
“I owe you dinner,” Zhou Mi said, getting up, and Kyuhyun allowed himself a full second to admire Zhou Mi’s legs before he did the right thing and stood up, too.
“You don’t really, but I’d accept it anyway. Hey!”
Zhou Mi was backing him away from being able to clean up their mess, and he caught Kyuhyun right before he got to the door, kissing him, snuggling him again.
“I’m glad you could come over tonight.”
“Me, too,” Kyuhyun said.
He was going to have to ask what scent Zhou Mi wore as he nosed against Zhou Mi’s shoulder. Zhou Mi’s breathing sort of paused, like he wanted to tell or ask something, but he let Kyuhyun get into his shoes.
“You have your phone? Good. I’ll see you soon,” Zhou Mi told him.
“Yeah. I-“ Kyuhyun cleared his throat, swallowing. “Sleep.”
He almost had the urge to blow a kiss himself, which was certainly a sign of Zhou Mi’s influence. He held himself back, opting for a little wave with their goodbyes. He sent a text message full of sheep and z’s on the taxi ride back, and Zhou Mi texted back a picture of him snuggling with his pillow. There was some kind of Mickey behind him and Kyuhyun almost snorted.
Zhou Mi had talked about him on a program. Zhou Mi was charming, and fun, and easy to talk to. Weird. Sweet. Far too kissable. But beyond all of that, what maybe scared him the most of what he’d learned that night was that he liked being near Zhou Mi when it was still, and quiet. Without nerves, or lust, or wondering. He wasn’t just falling. It wasn’t just that any more. It was no crush. It was something far more overwhelming. And Zhou Mi trusted him. Maybe, in his implication, in some way needed him.
He didn’t really notice the half smile on his face as he leaned his head on the window and watched the city pass.
***
“So, I got a call today,” Zhou Mi led with, leaving Kyuhyun not knowing if that was a good or bad thing as the words trailed off and Kyuhyun’s head slowly sank waiting for the follow-up to that. “So, you know how I had told my friends about us.”
“Yes?” Kyuhyun said, slowly nodding against the phone and waiting for the point.
“They were really excited for me. And Jia and Fei are so excited that…they want to meet you!”
The sentence started slowly, built up momentum, and was presented on a pile of shining gold discs so much that Kyuhyun almost got excited by the prospect, too.
“Meet me?” Kyuhyun said, startled for no good reason. Obviously, Zhou Mi’s friends would want to meet him. If he’d been in their place he’d probably have wanted to inspect any person Zhou Mi talked to much less took occasion to kiss.
“Meet you, yes. Though, I’ll be there, too! I wouldn’t just throw you at them. Apparently I talked about you too much, and they want to see who I’m talking about. I’d really like you to meet them, too.”
Oh. Oh, that was terrible. Just an awful low blow, right to the gut just before Kyuhyun really fell down the rabbit hole of wondering if Zhou Mi would give him up if Zhou Mi’s friends hated him or thought he wasn’t good enough.
“That would be fine,” he said, and he actually heard Zhou Mi clap on the other end of the line before rambling about going off to make plans and texting him a date.
“Fuck,” he said brightly at the wall after Zhou Mi had smacked a kiss at him and hung up. It had to happen eventually, but he wasn’t sure than a year, or two years, or ten would’ve been enough time. Zhou Mi’s friends weren’t just his friends, they were damn near family, so Kyuhyun comforted himself with the fact that surely with all the varying schedules, a time wouldn’t come up soon. Zhou Mi just wanted to get his okay before planning such an eventuality was all.
Zhou Mi texted back within fifteen minutes. Everyone was free tomorrow. Was Kyuhyun?
Kyuhyun typed yes, closed his eyes, and hit send.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
***
On the bright side, he’d had less than 24 hours to really get his head around the idea. He’d seen pictures of Jia and Fei, had listened to some of their music, had seen videos of them and Zhou Mi on various outings. Basically, he knew them in the sense they were connected in some way to Zhou Mi.
He sank so low as to send Zhou Mi a picture of three different shirts so that Zhou Mi could choose which he should wear. Though obviously it was no effort on Zhou Mi’s part. He’d taken on that duty like it was his solemn oath to see Kyuhyun through life with appropriate clothing. But he wore the shirt Zhou Mi had settled on, anyway, so if they had anything to say about that, he was probably throwing Zhou Mi under the bus just a little.
Jia and Fei were already seated and Zhou Mi was lurking outside wearing a mask and casual clothes when Kyuhyun arrived with almost five minutes to spare.
“You look a little worried,” Zhou Mi said, amused as Kyuhyun squinted at him. “That shirt looks nice on you!”
“Thanks,” Kyuhyun said. Zhou Mi in a way was complimenting his own good taste, too. But so it went. His brain scrambled for a return compliment but he didn’t get there fast enough before Zhou Mi was opening the door for them.
“I didn’t want you to have to go in alone,” Zhou Mi said, taking off his mask as they wandered back. “Don’t worry.”
Easy for him to say. Though he’d pep talked himself. Zhou Mi saw something in him. They couldn’t just hang out alone forever even if that sounded pretty appealing. He had to have some faith in that, in himself. Whatever they might fear he was, he didn’t think he would or could be. They had the chance of hurting each other, but that was life.
Zhou Mi made a little sound of greeting, darting up the last couple of steps and waiting until Kyuhyun was right there, sliding in to sit against the wall and reaching over to touch hands with Fei and Jia, all the while guiding Kyuhyun in to sit like he was an air traffic controller.
“This is Kyuhyun,” Zhou Mi told them, gripping and shaking Kyuhyun’s arm. “He is… You’ll get to know him. But this is Fei and Jia, and… You’ll get to know them, too.”
Zhou Mi just sort of deflated adorably, smiling between all of them like he was just so happy to have all of them there.
“We’ve been nagging him about wanting to meet you, so I’m glad you could make it,” Jia said, shooting Zhou Mi a look. His face went completely innocent. “He wasn’t willing to share.”
“He’s told me how happy it makes him to be able to meet up with you guys,” Kyuhyun said. Which was a reflection on them as well.
They got their food ordered, making small talk about Zhou Mi and his convoluted schedules that Zhou Mi seemed not to know enough about (Fei lamented for Zhou Mi’s managers), and their own upcoming comeback. Kyuhyun’s life felt a bit mundane up aside all of that, but maybe it was interesting to them to hear his regret of lagging e-mail servers and an offendingly loud cubicle neighbor.
And Kyuhyun knew it was coming. Knew after the waitress left them alone, knew at some point it was going to come up. And he still went blank a little as a shrewd look was sent his way.
“So, Zhou Mi has told us a little about how you met. There was a letter from you he remembered, and he called you out to meet him.”
Okay, that wasn’t quite the interrogation he’d been expecting, and Kyuhyun had to correct that.
“No, not exactly. He made the staff make me think they were going to bring a group photo I’d been in and he showed up instead. I nearly had a heart attack,” Kyuhyun mock complained, as Jia and Fei sputtered laughing at the deception.
“But you were happy,” Zhou Mi prodded.
“Before or after I remembered how to breathe?”
Zhou Mi beamed, kneading at Kyuhyun’s thigh. It just made him smile back, and he realized that yes, they were not alone. Jia was a bit bemused, but Fei had sat back, judging them.
“Wow, no wonder you guys haven’t wanted to meet up with anyone. You’re still in the completely gross stage.”
“Just imagine what they’re like when they’re alone,” Jia said, and Fei shuddered, laughing.
“No, thank you. But you kept meeting up and this happened.”
“It was a shock to me,” Kyuhyun said.
“I was so obvious,” Zhou Mi moaned. “Don’t shake your head. I was!”
Kyuhyun just kept shaking his head. “Only in retrospect.”
They probably would have had a standoff but Jia was rolling her eyes.
“It sure was obvious to us, even before. Zhou Mi told us when he let you in on a different secret. He was giddy as a drunken bee.”
“I’d been nervous!” Zhou Mi argued.
Nervous? About telling Kyuhyun he liked guys too?
“What for? That was going to be upset? How hypocritical would that have been!” Kyuhyun said.
Zhou Mi sulked at him, nudging against his shoulder. “I wanted you to think it was a good thing, and maybe then think that we could be a good thing.”
Jia wilted a little at that, and Kyuhyun half wanted to shake Zhou Mi and half wanted to crawl into his lap.
“Just good?”
“Kyuhyun!”
That was what was good. Just him being himself, with Zhou Mi who couldn’t help laughing and telling a tale on him. As long as he held onto that, he didn’t have anything to worry about.
***
“So, you were a fan. This must have been kind of hard to believe,” Fei said, falling into step with Kyuhyun after their dinner. They had enough time left they’d decided to wander, maybe to find some other place to get a snack to compliment the meal. “It’s good to see that he can’t just sweep you up and carry you along.”
“Sometimes it’s hard to remember I haven’t known him my whole life.”
“He has a way of making you feel like that,” Fei agreed.
It wasn’t really his job to soothe her mind, but there were things he didn’t mind saying, in a way something he was still sort of reconciling for himself. They were dating, and he was meeting Zhou Mi’s friends, and instead of it being some floating imaginary land, it was real, and grounding, even if Kyuhyun still had moments he found it all surreal. All his fears when they had met, when Zhou Mi was some shiny paragon had shifted.
“I don’t know if he showed you my letter?” Kyuhyun asked, and Fei shook her head. “I told him things about myself that only a few people knew. I didn’t know if he was the same, but I wanted him to know that at least one person out there wanted him to be happy no matter what. He makes you want to protect him. Though, then he shows you he’s strong enough to do that himself.”
“It always helps to have people to back you up, though. He’s such…social person, even though he can hole up and be alone happily, too. It’s nice to see him have someone he’s so happy with.”
Even though they’d staple Kyuhyun to the ground if he hurt Zhou Mi, he totally got the undercurrent there.
Zhou Mi craned his neck around, trying to be sure they were still following but also clearly checking up on them. Fei sensed that, too, waving cheerfully.
“Don’t worry, I’m telling him terrible things about you.”
Zhou Mi looked affronted, sending desperate eyes to Kyuhyun before Jia got the upper hand and turned him around before he could mow over someone.
“He’s a little peacock, but a really loving one. Ew. I’m going to make myself gag,” Fei complained.
Kyuhyun laughed. “And here I thought the worst was him answering the door in shorts that were barely there.”
Fei’s eyebrows raised and Kyuhyun thought maybe he’d put his foot in it until she laughed, shaking her head at Zhou Mi’s back.
“Oh? He just answers without pants if we’re early. I guess things are different when he’s trying to impress someone. Was that before or after you guys started being gross together?”
“Before…?” Kyuhyun offered, trying not to get derailed by the thought of Zhou Mi answering the door in his underwear.
“Going right for the jugular. He was reeling you in. Our Xiao Mi, trying his hand at seduction.”
Kyuhyun choked on an inhale, and Fei’s laugh had Zhou Mi turning immediately like he was going to have to fly back and protect Kyuhyun like a dragon or something. It just let them stop, standing so they weren’t blocking anyone, and Kyuhyun touched Zhou Mi’s arm, reassuring him.
“Well?” Jia wanted to know, like they’d planned it to separate Kyuhyun from Zhou Mi, which they maybe had.
“He’s totally sunk. And he blushes too easily for them to have gotten naked yet,” Fei said, grimacing as though the words pained her to say.
“Way too much information!” Jia groaned.
“I did not say anything about that,” Kyuhyun said. He was talking to Zhou Mi, but not so much meeting his eyes as Zhou Mi tsked into the air.
“Stop trying to embarrass him.”
“Oh yes, Mr. Shameless,” Jia said, all droll and sass.
“I don’t think we’ll advertise that, anyway,” Kyuhyun said, catching up to his sense of humor, anyway.
He got three different kinds of chortles, but the one he paid most attention to was the admiring one from Zhou Mi. He lifted an eyebrow and Zhou Mi lifted one back, just the barest hint of a smirk on his face. Good to know they were on the same page.
“Not here,” Fei said, grabbing Zhou Mi’s arm and pulling him along. They’d decided on something icy and sweet, eating along the building and Kyuhyun’s thigh pressed to Zhou Mi’s. He handed Zhou Mi a napkin, so he didn’t drip all over himself, laughing at Zhou Mi’s brain freeze, and letting himself relax into listening to their conversations. Most of it was in Korean, but there were some interjections in Mandarin that someone almost always translated for him.
They all said their goodbyes not long after, and Zhou Mi likely had an early morning but he still opted on keeping Kyuhyun with him instead of them splitting up then.
“Did you like them?” Zhou Mi asked, having herded Kyuhyun into the taxi.
They’d been funny, and warm, and using Korean mostly for his benefit. They’d been protective, and curious, and he had no doubt if they found a reason to worry that they’d say something.
“I did. Do you think they liked me?”
“How couldn’t they?” Zhou Mi said, loyal right on through. “I said you didn’t have to worry. Though I didn’t realize they were going to get you alone.”
“She didn’t actually tell me anything bad about you,” Kyuhyun assured him. Though. “Except about answering the door without pants.”
“Well,” Zhou Mi sniffed.
“Though she said it like I would’ve minded,” Kyuhyun said, his voice perfectly even, his face calm on purpose.
Zhou Mi made a sound that almost had him cracking, glancing over to find Zhou Mi silently huffing in laughter.
“I’ll remember that,” Zhou Mi promised. “You’re terrible.”
He was going to argue back, but they’d just pulled up to his apartment building, and that was the end of the evening. No option for kisses, just Zhou Mi pulling him into a one-armed hug on the sidewalk and whispering that he’d see Kyuhyun soon.
Soon wouldn’t be soon enough, waving goodbye to Zhou Mi, and then going inside to settle in for the night. He got comfortable clothes on, texting Zhou Mi to let him know he’d made it the 20 feet inside to the elevator and was safe and to thank him for the outing.
Zhou Mi was live-texting his ride home, and Kyuhyun grinned and opened his laptop so that he could well and truly relax.
***
“Are you free?? Can you come over tonight?? Come over!!! Come over!”
Zhou Mi’s text didn’t indicate if it was good, or bad, but all the punctuation seemed to indicate urgency at the very least, and Kyuhyun was texting back asking what was up and that he was on his way as he shut off his work computer and got his bag together.
“Secret!!!” Zhou Mi texted back, which calmed him considerably because that was too coy a response to be something horrible.
Kyuhyun caught up on his emails, trashing spam, while on his ride over. He texted Zhou Mi every couple of stations to keep him apprised of where he was, and Zhou Mi’s near-wheezes as he got closer got even more apparent. It had him laughing, and Zhou Mi’s urgency to see him had him fluffing up a little bit inside. There was no need to be concerned that he was bothering Zhou Mi when Zhou Mi was nearly reaching through the phone and dragging him faster.
And there was no need to announce his arrival, because Zhou Mi was standing with the door partly open when the elevator opened, and then Kyuhyun really laughed, silently so he didn’t alert the whole hallway. Zhou Mi just pouted at him, bringing him in like a doorman and wiggling back and forth as Kyuhyun got off his shoes.
“You’re finally here!” Zhou Mi said, wrapping his arms around Kyuhyun and nearly picking him up.
“Yeah! What’s up? It sounded important.”
“It is. Oh, look.”
Zhou Mi untangled himself and fished out his phone, turning on the screen and presenting it to Kyuhyun.
Confirmation for award nominations: Zhou Mi - best male solo artist, album of the year, song of the year. Ah, and he finally understood what had had Zhou Mi flailing and what had him right then staring at Kyuhyun and waiting for Kyuhyun to join him in his excitement.
“Wow, that’s amazing!”
“My manager just e-mailed me before I texted you,” Zhou Mi said, wheeling off and pacing, too excited to stay still. That was huge, really. From where Zhou Mi had started from, being in a country that wasn’t his own, building a base of fans who were fiercely loving- He had to pull himself back before he did something silly like throw his hands up in the air and shout. He suspected if he did that the atmosphere would change from ecstatic excitement to post-winning goal of a huge game celebration.
“You’ve gotten awards before,” Kyuhyun said, not trying to be a downer but instead enjoying the way that Zhou Mi looked about ready to shimmy into another universe or something. “Those this is bigger than those!”
“I guess the album came out at the right time? I don’t know if it’ll stack up against- I didn’t even ask who else was nominated,” Zhou Mi said, turning back to him on a belly laugh. “I guess it doesn’t matter!”
“It’s an accomplishment. And you might win! Will you get to dress up to attend the ceremony? Will they let you perform?”
He was blowing Zhou Mi’s mind with the possibilities that he clearly hadn’t gotten around to considering.
“Oh! The red carpet! Oh!”
“You don’t have to dress for it quite yet,” Kyuhyun teased.
“I don’t. Though, I’ll have to show you! And we-“
Kyuhyun’s eyebrows rose as Zhou Mi’s words cut off abruptly. Zhou Mi was staring at him like he hadn’t realized Kyuhyun was there before, only he was looking Kyuhyun up and down. Kyuhyun had to look himself up and down for that matter to make sure he hadn’t spilled something on himself or didn’t have paint smeared on his suit pants. The way Zhou Mi looked at him, walked up to him, made him a little fidgety.
“I’ve never seen you in your work clothes,” Zhou Mi said.
That wasn’t the bright and excited Zhou Mi. That was something else.
“Oh. This is pretty standard?” Kyuhyun said, resisting the urge to look down again. He fumbled with the only button still buttoned on his jacket, undoing it and then failing to get it buttoned again. But Zhou Mi didn’t let him try again, keeping his hands apart. Kyuhyun was pretty sure he wasn’t just admiring the boring print of his tie.
“I don’t think I said hello properly,” Zhou Mi said.
All of that excitement, that enthusiasm, that joy, Zhou Mi poured into the kiss. Kyuhyun certainly wasn’t going to turn away a proper greeting of any kind, and Zhou Mi’s hands were warm, sliding along his sides inside of his jacket. They kissed through half smiles, jostling closer. Zhou Mi kept gripping at him, pulling at his dress shirt until it came loose. There was the sound of disappointment to find more cloth beneath, but Kyuhyun was too busy breathing. His hand smoothed from the softness of Zhou Mi’s hair, down his neck. Zhou Mi’s fingers wrapped around his belt, a breath of a moan against his mouth, and heat pooled through Kyuhyun. Zhou Mi, making those sounds. There had been songs, when background vocals had been almost sexual, but Zhou Mi was right there, wrapped around him, kissing him.
“That’s one way to deal with excitement,” Kyuhyun said, having to clear his throat to keep from gasping as Zhou Mi began to kiss along his neck. “Best male solo artist.”
“I’ll jump out of my skin!” Zhou Mi laughed, almost shaking him.
“Do you still have that wine I brought?”
“Oh! I do!”
His neck felt completely abandoned as Zhou Mi kissed him smartly and then went to find the wine. But that was good. It gave him a chance to get himself together so that he wasn’t just climbing Zhou Mi like a tree. Zhou Mi regaled him with all kinds of acceptance speeches, some a bit irreverent, as they wrestled with the cork. Zhou Mi didn’t have wine glasses, but it tasted just fine from the glasses he did have.
“I’ll have to feed you since I dragged you all the way out here,” Zhou Mi said. Kyuhyun tossed his suit jacket over his bag, laughing a bit as he undid his loosened tie the rest of the way and undid the button at his neck.
“Lunch was a while ago. I wouldn’t mind eating.”
He didn’t realize Zhou Mi was watching him until he put his tie down, too. He made a little ta-da motion and Zhou Mi grinned, motioning him over. He didn’t mind kissing, either, keeping a good grip on his glass as Zhou Mi hummed against him.
“I like watching you strip,” Zhou Mi said, their lips still brushing.
It took his thoughts from interested to filthy in a heartbeat.
“Well,” he said, clearing his throat.
He had to put down his glass beside Zhou Mi’s as Zhou Mi graced him with a little smile, his eyes amused as they met Kyuhyun’s and then focused down below. He was just trying to breathe, really, as Zhou Mi slipped each button free, working down his chest and getting quicker. He pulled the shirt up and out fully, undoing the last buttons. Zhou M kissed him again and for a moment Kyuhyun thought that was it, he was just going to be there in an unbuttoned shirt. But Zhou Mi caught his arm, popping the button at one wrist and then the other. He was the one who kissed Zhou Mi then, feeling the air on his arms as Zhou Mi pushed the shirt down and off. He shook it off and kept it from catching at his hands and Zhou Mi rubbed against his back and kissed him back like he was trying to absorb him.
“No fair,” Kyuhyun teased, a little breathless as he tugged at Zhou Mi’s collar. There were no buttons to undo, no layers to take off or tease with.
He thought Zhou Mi was joking. He thought it was a joke, when Zhou Mi started to pull on his shirt. He thought- His brain faulted as more and more cloth lifted and left behind Zhou Mi’s hair a little fluffed. And Zhou Mi’s shoulders, sloped and impossibly broad. And Zhou Mi’s torso. So much skin. His ribs, his waist, how his underwear peeked up over one edge of his pants and clung to his side. So much skin, and Kyuhyun’s mouth was the Sahara. He was kind of afraid to touch, like Zhou Mi was some fragile work of art that would just shatter and disappear.
Zhou Mi’s face, though. He was a little shy, a little proud. Of course, with Kyuhyun blubbering who wouldn’t have been. But he didn’t reach to touch, except to put his hands on the warmth of Zhou Mi’s sides.
“Okay, it’s definitely fair again,” Kyuhyun said. His voice was far too hoarse, but Zhou Mi saved him from himself, kissing him. It was an illusion. Zhou Mi had been warm before his shirt came off, but he seemed to be radiating heat right then. Maybe it was because Kyuhyun had flushed so hot, generating heat between them that couldn’t be sustained. He worried Zhou Mi’s lower lip, and the little groan he got almost had him stumbling, clutching at Zhou Mi’s back, the skin of his arms against so much of Zhou Mi’s. He forgot the wine and dinner and anything else as Zhou Mi kissed him, pulled him. Zhou Mi sank onto the couch, still holding Kyuhyun’s hand.
“Come here.”
Kyuhyun was glad he wasn’t still holding his glass in his hand when his knee sank rather inelegantly into the cushion. Zhou Mi’s lips clung to his when he leaned in, kissing, Zhou Mi steadying him with hands on his waist. But it was awkward, bordering on pain, half standing, half almost in Zhou Mi’s lap.
“There’s room enough,” Zhou Mi half whispered, Zhou Mi’s lips brushing against his face. If he hadn’t been flushed already, he would have then. There was room enough, with a little moving, for Kyuhyun’s knees to sink in on other side of Zhou Mi’s hips. Zhou Mi’s arms wrapped around his waist, and it was different like that. They’d kissed standing up, kissed pressed together beside each other. It was a different angle and a different way of moving, something that kept him off balance and to secure at the same time. There was no rush - all he had to do was enjoy Zhou Mi’s lips, the warmth and the plushness of them. He enjoyed immensely the way that Zhou Mi kissed, sometimes demanded, sometimes making him shiver.
He was getting too hot, and he cleared his throat, looking and when he picked up a glass of wine, for the life of him couldn’t remember which spot he’d put down his own at.
“Do you remember which one is yours?” Kyuhyun asked.
“Does it matter?” Zhou Mi asked, staring at Kyuhyun’s mouth and Kyuhyun watched him lick his kiss-reddened lips.
He guessed not, offering it to Zhou Mi first and watching him take another drink. It left little more than a swallow, but he downed the remnants of the glass and put it aside to focus on more important things like his fingers becoming intimately acquainted with Zhou Mi’s collarbones.
“I didn’t expect this when I invited you over,” Zhou Mi confessed, and that was certainly not a shocker to him. “I just wanted to be happy with you.”
It made him want to squirm and he was already all over Zhou Mi as it was. But he wasn’t far enough gone to forget how to tease.
“We can stop…?”
Zhou Mi tsked at him, squeezing at Kyuhyun’s back as they kissed.
“Not unless you want to.”
“Don’t want to stop,” Kyuhyun muttered between kisses. No, not when he could wind around Zhou Mi like that, to feel so much of him. He liked feeling Zhou Mi give a little, Zhou Mi’s soft sounds. But he also was keenly aware if Zhou Mi shifted, trying to note whether it was to pull Kyuhyun closer or push him away. ZHOU MI WANTS was the headline blazing across his brain, and it could have been wanting him or wanting contact, he just knew that Zhou Mi wanted and that was incredible.
They were celebrating in a bit of a different way than Zhou Mi had thought, though he hoped making out had crossed Zhou Mi’s mind just a little. But what they were doing had crossed so many lines that they hadn’t before. He had his hands all over a gorgeous, naked torso and broad shoulders, and a man kissing him like it would save both their lives. The only way he wasn’t getting hard was if he was dead, and he was very much not dead.
But if he hadn’t been turned on already, he would’ve been as Zhou Mi’s hips lifted against his, knowing. Zhou Mi was hard rubbing against him, humming against Kyuhyun’s lips. It satisfied a fantasy of Zhou Mi, a portion of it anyway. From the time Zhou Mi had taken his hand at the first meeting, to the first time Zhou Mi had kissed him, almost all of his pleasure had come thinking of Zhou Mi. From the kiss onwards, all of it had. He’d thought of it, rubbing against Zhou Mi, feeling him want, imagining what sounds Zhou Mi made when his need was too great. They slid together, slow, purposely, and Zhou Mi hummed, clutching at him.
Kyuhyun felt a bit out breath, but he could still speak. “I can feel already that there’s not a single part of you that’s disappointing.”
Zhou Mi’s head fell back and he laughed, fading into pleased chuckles as he kneaded against Kyuhyun’s back. They considered each other as Zhou Mi tugged at Kyuhyun’s shirt. One of his hands went under it, traveling up along sparking skin. And the other went down, past his belt, and getting a good, healthy handful of Kyuhyun’s butt. He didn’t pull Kyuhyun against him, but that didn’t keep him from throbbing in his pants, his eyelids dipping as he fought back the worst of the ragged moan.
Zhou Mi’s squeezing hands kept him rocking, and the movement, the angles, it made it harder to kiss but they did their best.
“Kyuhyun!” Zhou Mi burst out, and Kyuhyun’s head dipped, trying too hard to breathe, gasping, tingling as Zhou Mi began to kiss against his neck. “Oh. Yes.”
Zhou Mi was making little sounds that shot right through him, his teeth just barely catching at Kyuhyun’s skin. And Kyuhyun was trying to hard to breathe, to move. His thighs were straining, pleasure building way too fast. One moment it was all he wanted, and the next thinking, too fast, too fast.
“Kyuhyun,” Zhou Mi moaned.
And that was it. His hips were frantic, his body wracked with his orgasm as Zhou Mi rocked him. Zhou Mi squeezed him, pulled him closer, breath gusting out in tiny pants until he almost seemed to stop breathing and Zhou Mi’s head fell back, moving against Kyuhyun. Coming against him. An exhale came with the start of a moan, both of them still except for labored breathing. He felt like he was sweating through his undershirt, and- He’d just come in his underwear. And he was almost certainly cutting off the blood supply to Zhou Mi’s legs.
The protocol for “Hey, I just got off on you,” was escaping him, but practicality won the day hands down.
“I still have to go home in these pants,” Kyuhyun lamented as he pushed back a little. Zhou Mi wheezed, kissing his cheek. And his voice was quiet as he tilted his head and considered Kyuhyun.
“I wouldn’t mind if you didn’t have to go.”
“I definitely can’t go to work like this,” Kyuhyun laughed. Wrinkled clothes being only the start of that.
“Maybe another time, then,” Zhou Mi said, his eyes saying so much more.
Sleeping over. Maybe not doing more than they’d just done but maybe.
And he was going to spend very good amounts of time thinking about just that, as soon as he wasn’t in danger of a bigger mess than he’d already caused, either soaking through his pants or Zhou Mi through his. Zhou Mi kept a hand on his arm like he was trying to keep him from falling backwards, at least until he got stood up.
“I’ll be right back,” he gusted, and beelined for the bathroom to get clean. He’d just have to do without underwear on the ride back home, but that he wasn’t so worried about.
“Hey, do you have-“ he half shouted through the door.
“Just left you a bag on the outside door handle,” Zhou Mi replied, having apparently read his mind. And there it was, a plastic bag just for him.
He got everything all tied up, washing his hands, and transferring the bag to be near his belongings. He made his way back to the couch. Zhou Mi had changed pants altogether, lamentably with a tank top on that still showed that his skin was still a little sweaty. But he also wore a smile, and offered a half-full glass of wine.
“I went and got the bottle,” Zhou Mi said, and Kyuhyun sank down beside him, groaning a little, relaxing. The wine was good, but watching Zhou Mi take a drink from his own glass and sigh was better.
He shifted his glass, reaching out a hand to stroke along Zhou Mi’s arm. Zhou Mi sighed again, leaning into him.
“Oh, dinner!” Zhou Mi realized.
“Now I’m really hungry,” Kyuhyun joked, and Zhou Mi shot him the brightest smile, getting up and going for the menus so they could decide what they wanted. It didn’t really matter. Zhou Mi could’ve handed him a box of musty jerky, as long as he got to stay there. They cuddled together on the couch as they waited for the food, sipping the wine and really finally relaxing. He didn’t feel as awkward as he thought he would, though he was still riding high on feelings. Still, when he pressed a kiss against Zhou Mi’s shoulder Zhou Mi hummed against him, nuzzling at him.
“If it’s a time you can go, if I was able to get you a seat, would you want to go to the awards ceremony?”
Kyuhyun lifted his head, looking at Zhou Mi like he’d said something ridiculous.
“How can you even ask that! Of course!” Maybe it was a sign that things had changed, that he didn’t even have to stop or wonder or second-guess himself that he was somehow taking advantage.
Zhou Mi laughed, rocking a little. “Even if we can’t sit together, I’d like knowing you were there somewhere if we can make it work out.”
That sobered Zhou Mi a little, and Kyuhyun didn’t like it, rubbing over his shoulder instead.
“Do you think there’ll ever be a time when I can get you in a tuxedo and show you off someplace like that?” Zhou Mi asked.
“I want to think that things could be like that someday,” Kyuhyun said. “If you get to perform, they’ll have to carry me out, you know that right? And maybe I could be there to help you get ready.”
To get dressed. Or undressed. Or to hold his hand before there were people around to keep him from being nervous.
“And I could take you home with me, like an award,” Zhou Mi said, all magnanimous. His following giggle told the story of a little bit of wine imbibed on an empty stomach.
Kyuhyun stayed on the couch and mostly out of sight while Zhou Mi got the food at the door, and they both ate with enthusiasm. The TV provided a little backdrop of sound, ankles crossed over each other’s as they enjoyed the food, of sharing it together. Zhou Mi helped him back into his shirt when he reached the point where it was go home or else, and seemed to like that almost as much as he had taking it off of Kyuhyun. He pretty much did, too, since it was easy to steal a few more kisses.
At home, Kyuhyun slept deeply. He was alone, but at least right then, he didn’t feel it.
***
Pairing: Zhou Mi/Kyuhyun
Rating: up to NC-17
Genre: AU, romance, smut
Summary: Kyuhyun's life changes when he gets the chance to meet his favorite singer. (Or, as the prompt put it: fanboy!kyu finally meets his bias.)
***
Part One * Part Two * Part Three * Part Four * Part Five * Part Six * Part Seven
***
Date three was impromptu coffee picked up by Kyuhyun on the way and again sitting in the back of an SUV and talking while Zhou Mi’s manager pretended to have other things to do for the fifteen minutes Zhou Mi had to wait. It was private but not private enough for more than a hug and a few brushes of hands, but it also kept them from not seeing other almost at all for almost a week with Zhou Mi leaving the country for a string of recordings and then coming back to some variety shooting. And who knew what all he did at the company. Kyuhyun was interested, if Zhou Mi opted to tell him, but he didn’t really ask beyond asking what Zhou Mi had been up to that made him look so tired. He wasn’t sure what reasons Zhou Mi would have it be weird for Kyuhyun to poke for details, but it still didn’t feel right yet, so he wasn’t going to push it.
Zhou Mi was probably glad to get away from it, too. He could talk about it, knowing Kyuhyun would be glad to listen, but he could also talk about any other things that were interesting to him, too.
Because they were dating.
Dating. Capital letters. They were Dating.
“We’re dating,” he had told the very cute picture of Zhou Mi that was his phone background. It was not a fan picture or an album picture, but one he’d taken himself when Zhou Mi had poked his lips out and looked a little like a perturbed duck. He’d burst into a brilliant smile just after that, but Kyuhyun couldn’t have that as any kind of display picture or his heart would just explode into sparkles at the first sign of danger.
He’d been Very Alarmed when Zhou Mi had nearly caught sight of that picture, too. His lock screen was a very nice, very calming meadow, and he was content instead to tease Zhou Mi by text that Kyuhyun’s background was a picture of him and letting Zhou Mi stew about which picture it was exactly. Before, he’d have dissolved of embarrassment. But he could then, because…
Well. Because they were dating.
***
“Please tell me you’re free tonight,” was the first thing Zhou Mi pleaded after he’d all but sang a cheerful hello into the phone. And a “Kyuhyun!” that had Kyuhyun looking around as though maybe there was some other Kyuhyun that Zhou Mi was calling up.
“I can be? Why?” Kyuhyun asked.
“I just looked at the schedule my manager gave me, and one of the shows I recorded here in Korea is going to air tonight! We can get food and watch it together, if you want? I think it starts at eight…?”
“At your place?”
“Yes!”
Kyuhyun blinked. Normally watching Zhou Mi do things on TV was done in private so he could cover his face and throw pillows if he needed to. Also, to make sounds of outrage or horror when Zhou Mi was being particularly cute, or nice, or handsome, or embarrassing.
There were two possible outcomes. 1. The fact that they had gone on dates and wiggled around and hugged and kissed was going to dull his reactions and he would watch like a normal human, or 2. All of those facts and not being able to react because Zhou Mi was right beside him were going to make him like a shaken bottle of champagne with a faulty cork.
There was a third more normal option but his brain was betting heavily against him. And yet still, his response came after only the slightest hesitation.
“Yeah, I can come over.”
That sent Zhou Mi off on a string of conversation about food and what they should get, and Kyuhyun didn’t have time to be nervous until they’d hammered out their plans and Zhou Mi had hung up with what had sounded suspiciously like a blown kiss.
What if Zhou Mi was going to watch Kyuhyun watch Zhou Mi on TV. He was turning red just thinking about it, and he thought maybe if they just sat really close. Really close would make it easier. Though, possibly harder. Not…not in that way.
Kyuhyun pressed his fingers against his forehead. No, he’d be good. Having Zhou Mi nearby, it would allow him to detach in a way he couldn’t when he was watching alone. It had to, for his own sake.
Fifteen minutes later, his phone chimed and it was Zhou Mi.
“I was wrong!! It was at seven, can you come earlier??”
And then a bunch of horrified-face emojis right after it.
Kyuhyun laughed, texting Zhou Mi back to let him know that yes, he would be there in time to watch.
***
The beginning of the visit was incredibly normal. Kyuhyun arrived with the food a good twenty minutes before the show was to start and Zhou Mi exclaimed both at him and his bags, ushering him and taking the food from him. He was waved toward slippers like he was a contestant on a game show, and Zhou Mi hopped slightly as he almost lost a slipper of his own as he deposited the bags. Purple shirt. Soft jeans. It was a good look, as Zhou Mi turned right back and beelined for Kyuhyun
A hug, Kyuhyun was expecting. Oh, but no, a kiss, Zhou Mi’s lips pressing lavishly against his, and- Oh, another one. And another.
“Hi,” Zhou Mi said finally, all smiley and mostly bare faced and so close that Kyuhyun had to kiss him again.
“Hi,” Kyuhyun said, and half instigated, half got squished by a hug as they rocked together.
“It was too long since we got to see each other.”
“It’s been two days.”
“Way too long!” Zhou Mi grumbled, and Kyuhyun laughed into his shoulder. “Even longer since I got to kiss you. I missed it.”
“Yeah,” Kyuhyun wheezed.
Good behavior, he reminded himself, as Zhou Mi’s lips skimmed his jaw and they moved over so they could actually get ready to dig into the food. They served themselves, opening drinks, catching up a little on the day that had been spent texting. The TV was on mute so they could see when the show started, though that didn’t keep him from glancing up every so often just to make sure they were missing something. His stomach was piping down since he’d held off eating until he got there and a well-timed joke had Zhou Mi trying not to spit out his food. It was mostly a timing accident. But also mostly him giggling and then almost jumping as Zhou Mi reached out and smacked his knee.
“It’s starting!” Zhou Mi said, arranging himself more toward the TV than toward Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun did the same, putting down his empty plate and half-full drink. Even if he wanted something to do with his hands, he didn’t want to accidentally drown himself, or maybe spill something all over Zhou Mi. Zhou Mi finished eating during the first few minutes of previous and updates, settling back and being not-subtle about getting his arm over Kyuhyun’s shoulders. And he was just smirking when Kyuhyun glanced at him.
“Wow, who is that handsome guy,” Zhou Mi said, as they watched him walk out on screen.
“Such humility.”
“Shhh,” Zhou Mi teased, and Kyuhyun pinched his leg, ending in a war between their thighs before they quieted to actually listen to the conversation.
It wasn’t anything Kyuhyun hadn’t heard before, talk about Zhou Mi’s album, his promotions, the fanmeetings, his desires for a concert tour. A concert tour would be amazing, and Kyuhyun absolutely would’ve leaped out of his chair and went to as many as possible. But a tour also meant Zhou Mi being away. That kind of came with the territory and he’d already gotten a taste of it, and they’d just barely started dating. But he didn’t think it was going to be something he regretted.
But Zhou Mi started getting all squirmy beside him as one question faded into the next, and Kyuhyun didn’t really get why until he looked to the TV and listened to the next question.
“Tell us about the ideal person you’d like to date.”
“Person,” Kyuhyun said, interjecting that as the Zhou Mi on screen went thoughtful.
“I didn’t even have to ask for that,” Zhou MI said, but his voice was odd as Kyuhyun glanced at him. Zhou Mi’s head was tilted like he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to look at the TV.
Though whether Zhou Mi did or not, Kyuhyun turned back and he watched a smile spread on Zhou Mi’s on-screen face.
“My ideal person is someone who can be my friend, and make me laugh. Someone, we can think of each other’s happiness and protect that.”
Zhou Mi made a soft sound beside him, twisting like maybe he was trying to disappear from off the couch. The way Zhou Mi was reacting, the words he’d said, it was like Zhou Mi was talking about him. About…him. His ideal type. Zhou Mi’s head was tilted away, staring above the TV and definitely not at Kyuhyun.
“You just recorded this not long ago, didn’t you?”
Zhou Mi nodded, clearing his throat.
“You’re going to give me a big head,” Kyuhyun said, and Zhou MI huffed, actually looking at him that time. “That’s…”
It was sweet. It was more than sweet. It was kind of eating him up inside, and there on the screen Zhou Mi was laughing and the host was praising his answer and teasing him telling him the fans would fall for him when he gave answers like that.
Kyuhyun blinked.
Kyuhyun blinked again.
Fans, or at least one fan, had.
Zhou Mi made a sound beside him that sounded like pain, and Kyuhyun couldn’t stand it, letting out a belly laugh that couldn’t be contained as he flopped back and Zhou Mi stared at him like he was stomping on puppies.
“What!” Zhou Mi cried.
“You! Wait, you’re talking again.”
Not about ideal types or anything like that thought, so Zhou Mi perked up a little bit, actually acting like he was watching, making fun of the faces he was making.
“You’re so cute,” Kyuhyun whispered, enjoying Zhou Mi’s pain as Zhou Mi quite literally squirmed and was embarrassed enough for the both of them.
Kyuhyun managed to get both his arms around Zhou Mi’s torso before he could just melt away from Kyuhyun entirely.
“You talked about me,” Kyuhyun said.
“I didn’t realize it was going to be so embarrassing being right next to you while you saw it.”
“Why? It was nice. Though, it might have been hard hearing that if we weren’t dating,” Kyuhyun mused.
“What did you think before when you heard me talk about my ideal type?” Zhou MI asked.
“That I hoped you found someone who really appreciated you and made you happy.”
“Well, you do make me happy. Do you appreciate me?” Zhou Mi asked, fluttering his eyelashes.
They made faces at each other, until the music started and the show was showing Zhou Mi prepared to sing.
“We don’t have to watch this if you don’t want,” Zhou Mi said.
“What, no!”
All thoughts were banished of reaching for the remote when Zhou Mi was crooning a ballad into the camera.
“The sound’s not bad,” Zhou Mi muttered under his breath. Though he was obviously making some critiques, too, and Kyuhyun was just not having it.
It was his turn to be embarrassed. He put his head down, and there he was with his head nestled on Zhou Mi’s chest, trying not to sigh at listening to Zhou Mi sing on the TV.
“Was it okay?” Zhou Mi whispered, muting the TV after focus turned to a different guest.
“It’s a good thing I’m not watching it with a bunch of other people,” Kyuhyun said, lifting his head. “I’d have had to have stood up and pointed at the screen and said, ‘I’m dating him!’ Though they might have thought it was wishful thinking. It was great. Fans will will definitely fall for you.”
Zhou Mi’s eyes were both bright and soft. “Really?”
“Really,” Kyuhyun confirmed.
Zhou Mi grinned, wiggling closer, and that was really all it took to start them kissing, Zhou Mi’s hand cradling his neck and Kyuhyun’s arms tightening around him.
“There’s only one person I want to fall for me right now,” Zhou Mi half whispered, and it was said so sweetly and so cute at the same time that Kyuhyun almost didn’t know what to do.
“You’ve got that,” he said, but it was nearly slurred as he kissed Zhou Mi again, feeling Zhou Mi’s pleased hum. Zhou Mi’s fingers were stroking along his back and nothing else really existed to him as they squeezed a little closer.
Zhou Mi’s thigh slid between his and that was nice, and new, solid and warm and right there. Close enough almost that with a little maneuvering, Kyuhyun would be rubbing against him. And with a little adjustment, rubbing against a whole lot more. His neck burned but he wasn’t moving, shivering at the gentle catch of Zhou Mi’s teeth against his lip.
“I love your mouth,” Zhou Mi murmured.
Kyuhyun’s sound was meant to be agreement, but he was afraid it came out a little more like a moan. He was glad the back of the couch was plush with the way they leaned against it, but it was also deceptive. It gave him just enough, just enough to imagine how it would be horizontal, struggling to be closer. His barely suppressed some kind of shiver at the impossible softness of Zhou Mi’s tongue, but it was left to be tantalizing as Zhou Mi withdrew a little, pressing even softer kisses and nearly breathing in time with him. Each kiss following his jaw down toward his neck had his breath coming shallower, sounds stirring in his throat as Zhou Mi nuzzled.
A phone rattling on a hard surface had both of them freezing, a chill of alarm going through him until Zhou Mi groaned and half turned away from him, reaching back awkwardly over the arm of the couch to get his phone. Zhou Mi kept one hand anchored on Kyuhyun, which was good, because otherwise Kyuhyun would have ended up flat on the floor trying to catch his runaway heart. He didn’t like the downturn that Zhou Mi’s mouth took, though.
“A text to remind me that I have an early schedule,” Zhou Mi sighed.
Ah. Alone, but not actually alone and free. “Does your manager know…?”
Zhou Mi blinked at him. “About us? Enough. I trust him, and he looks out for my best interests, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
“Did he try and warn you away?”
“No. But he wouldn’t have had a chance,” Zhou Mi teased.
It brought them to a different type of question, one Kyuhyun hadn’t been able to voice, but that had popped up even in the midst of him being almost unable the way they’d fallen in together.
“You said you’d sent someone away before, because he was a man. Do you… Is that going to be a problem?”
Zhou Mi put aside his phone and turned back fully to Kyuhyun so that they were in their own little world, close and focused. But Zhou Mi didn’t try to kiss him, though there was something almost worried in his eyes that Kyuhyun couldn’t quite pin down.
“I’ve been thinking about that, too, and I’m sorry you had to wonder,” Zhou Mi said, his thumb stroking Kyuhyun’s cheek. “I think it was because I didn’t need him enough. I never felt like this with him.”
Need. It was a word of so many meanings, but the last thing he wanted was Zhou Mi to feel regret. Zhou Mi was taking the bigger risk, and he was brave enough to reach for something he wanted. Kyuhyun was just happy to-
He was not going to tear up, he wasn’t.
“If you worry, or if you- If something bothers you, anything, you can tell me,” Kyuhyun said. Not just worrying about the relationship, but anything. Their meetings didn’t have to be just fun and light, and kisses. He wanted to be there. He wanted, if he could, to maybe make Zhou Mi feel a little lighter, knowing he had someone he could count on.
“I will,” Zhou Mi told him. “I hope you will, too.”
Kyuhyun nodded, leaning into the kiss Zhou Mi brushed against his cheek and into the way that Zhou Mi held him closer, hugging in an awkward kind of way. His arm lifted, stroking over Zhou Mi’s hair and feeling him sigh into Kyuhyun’s neck.
“Kyuhyun,” Zhou Mi murmured. Kyuhyun’s body betrayed him, shivering, and it made him giggle in embarrassment and Zhou Mi in enjoyment.
It was the first time he’d touched Zhou Mi’s hair, really, he realized. It was soft under his fingers, thick. And if Zhou Mi had any weird feelings about being petted or having his scalp massaged, he didn’t show it as just slowly all but melted into Kyuhyun.
“If you have to get up in the morning, you should probably find your bed,” Kyuhyun said as softly as he could so that Zhou Mi didn’t startle.
Zhou Mi mumbled something like “Don’t want you to go,” but he was the one who sighed a few moments later and got himself straightened up so that he wasn’t all but pinning Kyuhyun to the couch. It definitely hadn’t been that Kyuhyun was complaining. Probably he needed some sleep of his own, and it was definitely regret that Zhou Mi slid his thigh away. It was a good deal colder like that.
“I owe you dinner,” Zhou Mi said, getting up, and Kyuhyun allowed himself a full second to admire Zhou Mi’s legs before he did the right thing and stood up, too.
“You don’t really, but I’d accept it anyway. Hey!”
Zhou Mi was backing him away from being able to clean up their mess, and he caught Kyuhyun right before he got to the door, kissing him, snuggling him again.
“I’m glad you could come over tonight.”
“Me, too,” Kyuhyun said.
He was going to have to ask what scent Zhou Mi wore as he nosed against Zhou Mi’s shoulder. Zhou Mi’s breathing sort of paused, like he wanted to tell or ask something, but he let Kyuhyun get into his shoes.
“You have your phone? Good. I’ll see you soon,” Zhou Mi told him.
“Yeah. I-“ Kyuhyun cleared his throat, swallowing. “Sleep.”
He almost had the urge to blow a kiss himself, which was certainly a sign of Zhou Mi’s influence. He held himself back, opting for a little wave with their goodbyes. He sent a text message full of sheep and z’s on the taxi ride back, and Zhou Mi texted back a picture of him snuggling with his pillow. There was some kind of Mickey behind him and Kyuhyun almost snorted.
Zhou Mi had talked about him on a program. Zhou Mi was charming, and fun, and easy to talk to. Weird. Sweet. Far too kissable. But beyond all of that, what maybe scared him the most of what he’d learned that night was that he liked being near Zhou Mi when it was still, and quiet. Without nerves, or lust, or wondering. He wasn’t just falling. It wasn’t just that any more. It was no crush. It was something far more overwhelming. And Zhou Mi trusted him. Maybe, in his implication, in some way needed him.
He didn’t really notice the half smile on his face as he leaned his head on the window and watched the city pass.
***
“So, I got a call today,” Zhou Mi led with, leaving Kyuhyun not knowing if that was a good or bad thing as the words trailed off and Kyuhyun’s head slowly sank waiting for the follow-up to that. “So, you know how I had told my friends about us.”
“Yes?” Kyuhyun said, slowly nodding against the phone and waiting for the point.
“They were really excited for me. And Jia and Fei are so excited that…they want to meet you!”
The sentence started slowly, built up momentum, and was presented on a pile of shining gold discs so much that Kyuhyun almost got excited by the prospect, too.
“Meet me?” Kyuhyun said, startled for no good reason. Obviously, Zhou Mi’s friends would want to meet him. If he’d been in their place he’d probably have wanted to inspect any person Zhou Mi talked to much less took occasion to kiss.
“Meet you, yes. Though, I’ll be there, too! I wouldn’t just throw you at them. Apparently I talked about you too much, and they want to see who I’m talking about. I’d really like you to meet them, too.”
Oh. Oh, that was terrible. Just an awful low blow, right to the gut just before Kyuhyun really fell down the rabbit hole of wondering if Zhou Mi would give him up if Zhou Mi’s friends hated him or thought he wasn’t good enough.
“That would be fine,” he said, and he actually heard Zhou Mi clap on the other end of the line before rambling about going off to make plans and texting him a date.
“Fuck,” he said brightly at the wall after Zhou Mi had smacked a kiss at him and hung up. It had to happen eventually, but he wasn’t sure than a year, or two years, or ten would’ve been enough time. Zhou Mi’s friends weren’t just his friends, they were damn near family, so Kyuhyun comforted himself with the fact that surely with all the varying schedules, a time wouldn’t come up soon. Zhou Mi just wanted to get his okay before planning such an eventuality was all.
Zhou Mi texted back within fifteen minutes. Everyone was free tomorrow. Was Kyuhyun?
Kyuhyun typed yes, closed his eyes, and hit send.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
***
On the bright side, he’d had less than 24 hours to really get his head around the idea. He’d seen pictures of Jia and Fei, had listened to some of their music, had seen videos of them and Zhou Mi on various outings. Basically, he knew them in the sense they were connected in some way to Zhou Mi.
He sank so low as to send Zhou Mi a picture of three different shirts so that Zhou Mi could choose which he should wear. Though obviously it was no effort on Zhou Mi’s part. He’d taken on that duty like it was his solemn oath to see Kyuhyun through life with appropriate clothing. But he wore the shirt Zhou Mi had settled on, anyway, so if they had anything to say about that, he was probably throwing Zhou Mi under the bus just a little.
Jia and Fei were already seated and Zhou Mi was lurking outside wearing a mask and casual clothes when Kyuhyun arrived with almost five minutes to spare.
“You look a little worried,” Zhou Mi said, amused as Kyuhyun squinted at him. “That shirt looks nice on you!”
“Thanks,” Kyuhyun said. Zhou Mi in a way was complimenting his own good taste, too. But so it went. His brain scrambled for a return compliment but he didn’t get there fast enough before Zhou Mi was opening the door for them.
“I didn’t want you to have to go in alone,” Zhou Mi said, taking off his mask as they wandered back. “Don’t worry.”
Easy for him to say. Though he’d pep talked himself. Zhou Mi saw something in him. They couldn’t just hang out alone forever even if that sounded pretty appealing. He had to have some faith in that, in himself. Whatever they might fear he was, he didn’t think he would or could be. They had the chance of hurting each other, but that was life.
Zhou Mi made a little sound of greeting, darting up the last couple of steps and waiting until Kyuhyun was right there, sliding in to sit against the wall and reaching over to touch hands with Fei and Jia, all the while guiding Kyuhyun in to sit like he was an air traffic controller.
“This is Kyuhyun,” Zhou Mi told them, gripping and shaking Kyuhyun’s arm. “He is… You’ll get to know him. But this is Fei and Jia, and… You’ll get to know them, too.”
Zhou Mi just sort of deflated adorably, smiling between all of them like he was just so happy to have all of them there.
“We’ve been nagging him about wanting to meet you, so I’m glad you could make it,” Jia said, shooting Zhou Mi a look. His face went completely innocent. “He wasn’t willing to share.”
“He’s told me how happy it makes him to be able to meet up with you guys,” Kyuhyun said. Which was a reflection on them as well.
They got their food ordered, making small talk about Zhou Mi and his convoluted schedules that Zhou Mi seemed not to know enough about (Fei lamented for Zhou Mi’s managers), and their own upcoming comeback. Kyuhyun’s life felt a bit mundane up aside all of that, but maybe it was interesting to them to hear his regret of lagging e-mail servers and an offendingly loud cubicle neighbor.
And Kyuhyun knew it was coming. Knew after the waitress left them alone, knew at some point it was going to come up. And he still went blank a little as a shrewd look was sent his way.
“So, Zhou Mi has told us a little about how you met. There was a letter from you he remembered, and he called you out to meet him.”
Okay, that wasn’t quite the interrogation he’d been expecting, and Kyuhyun had to correct that.
“No, not exactly. He made the staff make me think they were going to bring a group photo I’d been in and he showed up instead. I nearly had a heart attack,” Kyuhyun mock complained, as Jia and Fei sputtered laughing at the deception.
“But you were happy,” Zhou Mi prodded.
“Before or after I remembered how to breathe?”
Zhou Mi beamed, kneading at Kyuhyun’s thigh. It just made him smile back, and he realized that yes, they were not alone. Jia was a bit bemused, but Fei had sat back, judging them.
“Wow, no wonder you guys haven’t wanted to meet up with anyone. You’re still in the completely gross stage.”
“Just imagine what they’re like when they’re alone,” Jia said, and Fei shuddered, laughing.
“No, thank you. But you kept meeting up and this happened.”
“It was a shock to me,” Kyuhyun said.
“I was so obvious,” Zhou Mi moaned. “Don’t shake your head. I was!”
Kyuhyun just kept shaking his head. “Only in retrospect.”
They probably would have had a standoff but Jia was rolling her eyes.
“It sure was obvious to us, even before. Zhou Mi told us when he let you in on a different secret. He was giddy as a drunken bee.”
“I’d been nervous!” Zhou Mi argued.
Nervous? About telling Kyuhyun he liked guys too?
“What for? That was going to be upset? How hypocritical would that have been!” Kyuhyun said.
Zhou Mi sulked at him, nudging against his shoulder. “I wanted you to think it was a good thing, and maybe then think that we could be a good thing.”
Jia wilted a little at that, and Kyuhyun half wanted to shake Zhou Mi and half wanted to crawl into his lap.
“Just good?”
“Kyuhyun!”
That was what was good. Just him being himself, with Zhou Mi who couldn’t help laughing and telling a tale on him. As long as he held onto that, he didn’t have anything to worry about.
***
“So, you were a fan. This must have been kind of hard to believe,” Fei said, falling into step with Kyuhyun after their dinner. They had enough time left they’d decided to wander, maybe to find some other place to get a snack to compliment the meal. “It’s good to see that he can’t just sweep you up and carry you along.”
“Sometimes it’s hard to remember I haven’t known him my whole life.”
“He has a way of making you feel like that,” Fei agreed.
It wasn’t really his job to soothe her mind, but there were things he didn’t mind saying, in a way something he was still sort of reconciling for himself. They were dating, and he was meeting Zhou Mi’s friends, and instead of it being some floating imaginary land, it was real, and grounding, even if Kyuhyun still had moments he found it all surreal. All his fears when they had met, when Zhou Mi was some shiny paragon had shifted.
“I don’t know if he showed you my letter?” Kyuhyun asked, and Fei shook her head. “I told him things about myself that only a few people knew. I didn’t know if he was the same, but I wanted him to know that at least one person out there wanted him to be happy no matter what. He makes you want to protect him. Though, then he shows you he’s strong enough to do that himself.”
“It always helps to have people to back you up, though. He’s such…social person, even though he can hole up and be alone happily, too. It’s nice to see him have someone he’s so happy with.”
Even though they’d staple Kyuhyun to the ground if he hurt Zhou Mi, he totally got the undercurrent there.
Zhou Mi craned his neck around, trying to be sure they were still following but also clearly checking up on them. Fei sensed that, too, waving cheerfully.
“Don’t worry, I’m telling him terrible things about you.”
Zhou Mi looked affronted, sending desperate eyes to Kyuhyun before Jia got the upper hand and turned him around before he could mow over someone.
“He’s a little peacock, but a really loving one. Ew. I’m going to make myself gag,” Fei complained.
Kyuhyun laughed. “And here I thought the worst was him answering the door in shorts that were barely there.”
Fei’s eyebrows raised and Kyuhyun thought maybe he’d put his foot in it until she laughed, shaking her head at Zhou Mi’s back.
“Oh? He just answers without pants if we’re early. I guess things are different when he’s trying to impress someone. Was that before or after you guys started being gross together?”
“Before…?” Kyuhyun offered, trying not to get derailed by the thought of Zhou Mi answering the door in his underwear.
“Going right for the jugular. He was reeling you in. Our Xiao Mi, trying his hand at seduction.”
Kyuhyun choked on an inhale, and Fei’s laugh had Zhou Mi turning immediately like he was going to have to fly back and protect Kyuhyun like a dragon or something. It just let them stop, standing so they weren’t blocking anyone, and Kyuhyun touched Zhou Mi’s arm, reassuring him.
“Well?” Jia wanted to know, like they’d planned it to separate Kyuhyun from Zhou Mi, which they maybe had.
“He’s totally sunk. And he blushes too easily for them to have gotten naked yet,” Fei said, grimacing as though the words pained her to say.
“Way too much information!” Jia groaned.
“I did not say anything about that,” Kyuhyun said. He was talking to Zhou Mi, but not so much meeting his eyes as Zhou Mi tsked into the air.
“Stop trying to embarrass him.”
“Oh yes, Mr. Shameless,” Jia said, all droll and sass.
“I don’t think we’ll advertise that, anyway,” Kyuhyun said, catching up to his sense of humor, anyway.
He got three different kinds of chortles, but the one he paid most attention to was the admiring one from Zhou Mi. He lifted an eyebrow and Zhou Mi lifted one back, just the barest hint of a smirk on his face. Good to know they were on the same page.
“Not here,” Fei said, grabbing Zhou Mi’s arm and pulling him along. They’d decided on something icy and sweet, eating along the building and Kyuhyun’s thigh pressed to Zhou Mi’s. He handed Zhou Mi a napkin, so he didn’t drip all over himself, laughing at Zhou Mi’s brain freeze, and letting himself relax into listening to their conversations. Most of it was in Korean, but there were some interjections in Mandarin that someone almost always translated for him.
They all said their goodbyes not long after, and Zhou Mi likely had an early morning but he still opted on keeping Kyuhyun with him instead of them splitting up then.
“Did you like them?” Zhou Mi asked, having herded Kyuhyun into the taxi.
They’d been funny, and warm, and using Korean mostly for his benefit. They’d been protective, and curious, and he had no doubt if they found a reason to worry that they’d say something.
“I did. Do you think they liked me?”
“How couldn’t they?” Zhou Mi said, loyal right on through. “I said you didn’t have to worry. Though I didn’t realize they were going to get you alone.”
“She didn’t actually tell me anything bad about you,” Kyuhyun assured him. Though. “Except about answering the door without pants.”
“Well,” Zhou Mi sniffed.
“Though she said it like I would’ve minded,” Kyuhyun said, his voice perfectly even, his face calm on purpose.
Zhou Mi made a sound that almost had him cracking, glancing over to find Zhou Mi silently huffing in laughter.
“I’ll remember that,” Zhou Mi promised. “You’re terrible.”
He was going to argue back, but they’d just pulled up to his apartment building, and that was the end of the evening. No option for kisses, just Zhou Mi pulling him into a one-armed hug on the sidewalk and whispering that he’d see Kyuhyun soon.
Soon wouldn’t be soon enough, waving goodbye to Zhou Mi, and then going inside to settle in for the night. He got comfortable clothes on, texting Zhou Mi to let him know he’d made it the 20 feet inside to the elevator and was safe and to thank him for the outing.
Zhou Mi was live-texting his ride home, and Kyuhyun grinned and opened his laptop so that he could well and truly relax.
***
“Are you free?? Can you come over tonight?? Come over!!! Come over!”
Zhou Mi’s text didn’t indicate if it was good, or bad, but all the punctuation seemed to indicate urgency at the very least, and Kyuhyun was texting back asking what was up and that he was on his way as he shut off his work computer and got his bag together.
“Secret!!!” Zhou Mi texted back, which calmed him considerably because that was too coy a response to be something horrible.
Kyuhyun caught up on his emails, trashing spam, while on his ride over. He texted Zhou Mi every couple of stations to keep him apprised of where he was, and Zhou Mi’s near-wheezes as he got closer got even more apparent. It had him laughing, and Zhou Mi’s urgency to see him had him fluffing up a little bit inside. There was no need to be concerned that he was bothering Zhou Mi when Zhou Mi was nearly reaching through the phone and dragging him faster.
And there was no need to announce his arrival, because Zhou Mi was standing with the door partly open when the elevator opened, and then Kyuhyun really laughed, silently so he didn’t alert the whole hallway. Zhou Mi just pouted at him, bringing him in like a doorman and wiggling back and forth as Kyuhyun got off his shoes.
“You’re finally here!” Zhou Mi said, wrapping his arms around Kyuhyun and nearly picking him up.
“Yeah! What’s up? It sounded important.”
“It is. Oh, look.”
Zhou Mi untangled himself and fished out his phone, turning on the screen and presenting it to Kyuhyun.
Confirmation for award nominations: Zhou Mi - best male solo artist, album of the year, song of the year. Ah, and he finally understood what had had Zhou Mi flailing and what had him right then staring at Kyuhyun and waiting for Kyuhyun to join him in his excitement.
“Wow, that’s amazing!”
“My manager just e-mailed me before I texted you,” Zhou Mi said, wheeling off and pacing, too excited to stay still. That was huge, really. From where Zhou Mi had started from, being in a country that wasn’t his own, building a base of fans who were fiercely loving- He had to pull himself back before he did something silly like throw his hands up in the air and shout. He suspected if he did that the atmosphere would change from ecstatic excitement to post-winning goal of a huge game celebration.
“You’ve gotten awards before,” Kyuhyun said, not trying to be a downer but instead enjoying the way that Zhou Mi looked about ready to shimmy into another universe or something. “Those this is bigger than those!”
“I guess the album came out at the right time? I don’t know if it’ll stack up against- I didn’t even ask who else was nominated,” Zhou Mi said, turning back to him on a belly laugh. “I guess it doesn’t matter!”
“It’s an accomplishment. And you might win! Will you get to dress up to attend the ceremony? Will they let you perform?”
He was blowing Zhou Mi’s mind with the possibilities that he clearly hadn’t gotten around to considering.
“Oh! The red carpet! Oh!”
“You don’t have to dress for it quite yet,” Kyuhyun teased.
“I don’t. Though, I’ll have to show you! And we-“
Kyuhyun’s eyebrows rose as Zhou Mi’s words cut off abruptly. Zhou Mi was staring at him like he hadn’t realized Kyuhyun was there before, only he was looking Kyuhyun up and down. Kyuhyun had to look himself up and down for that matter to make sure he hadn’t spilled something on himself or didn’t have paint smeared on his suit pants. The way Zhou Mi looked at him, walked up to him, made him a little fidgety.
“I’ve never seen you in your work clothes,” Zhou Mi said.
That wasn’t the bright and excited Zhou Mi. That was something else.
“Oh. This is pretty standard?” Kyuhyun said, resisting the urge to look down again. He fumbled with the only button still buttoned on his jacket, undoing it and then failing to get it buttoned again. But Zhou Mi didn’t let him try again, keeping his hands apart. Kyuhyun was pretty sure he wasn’t just admiring the boring print of his tie.
“I don’t think I said hello properly,” Zhou Mi said.
All of that excitement, that enthusiasm, that joy, Zhou Mi poured into the kiss. Kyuhyun certainly wasn’t going to turn away a proper greeting of any kind, and Zhou Mi’s hands were warm, sliding along his sides inside of his jacket. They kissed through half smiles, jostling closer. Zhou Mi kept gripping at him, pulling at his dress shirt until it came loose. There was the sound of disappointment to find more cloth beneath, but Kyuhyun was too busy breathing. His hand smoothed from the softness of Zhou Mi’s hair, down his neck. Zhou Mi’s fingers wrapped around his belt, a breath of a moan against his mouth, and heat pooled through Kyuhyun. Zhou Mi, making those sounds. There had been songs, when background vocals had been almost sexual, but Zhou Mi was right there, wrapped around him, kissing him.
“That’s one way to deal with excitement,” Kyuhyun said, having to clear his throat to keep from gasping as Zhou Mi began to kiss along his neck. “Best male solo artist.”
“I’ll jump out of my skin!” Zhou Mi laughed, almost shaking him.
“Do you still have that wine I brought?”
“Oh! I do!”
His neck felt completely abandoned as Zhou Mi kissed him smartly and then went to find the wine. But that was good. It gave him a chance to get himself together so that he wasn’t just climbing Zhou Mi like a tree. Zhou Mi regaled him with all kinds of acceptance speeches, some a bit irreverent, as they wrestled with the cork. Zhou Mi didn’t have wine glasses, but it tasted just fine from the glasses he did have.
“I’ll have to feed you since I dragged you all the way out here,” Zhou Mi said. Kyuhyun tossed his suit jacket over his bag, laughing a bit as he undid his loosened tie the rest of the way and undid the button at his neck.
“Lunch was a while ago. I wouldn’t mind eating.”
He didn’t realize Zhou Mi was watching him until he put his tie down, too. He made a little ta-da motion and Zhou Mi grinned, motioning him over. He didn’t mind kissing, either, keeping a good grip on his glass as Zhou Mi hummed against him.
“I like watching you strip,” Zhou Mi said, their lips still brushing.
It took his thoughts from interested to filthy in a heartbeat.
“Well,” he said, clearing his throat.
He had to put down his glass beside Zhou Mi’s as Zhou Mi graced him with a little smile, his eyes amused as they met Kyuhyun’s and then focused down below. He was just trying to breathe, really, as Zhou Mi slipped each button free, working down his chest and getting quicker. He pulled the shirt up and out fully, undoing the last buttons. Zhou M kissed him again and for a moment Kyuhyun thought that was it, he was just going to be there in an unbuttoned shirt. But Zhou Mi caught his arm, popping the button at one wrist and then the other. He was the one who kissed Zhou Mi then, feeling the air on his arms as Zhou Mi pushed the shirt down and off. He shook it off and kept it from catching at his hands and Zhou Mi rubbed against his back and kissed him back like he was trying to absorb him.
“No fair,” Kyuhyun teased, a little breathless as he tugged at Zhou Mi’s collar. There were no buttons to undo, no layers to take off or tease with.
He thought Zhou Mi was joking. He thought it was a joke, when Zhou Mi started to pull on his shirt. He thought- His brain faulted as more and more cloth lifted and left behind Zhou Mi’s hair a little fluffed. And Zhou Mi’s shoulders, sloped and impossibly broad. And Zhou Mi’s torso. So much skin. His ribs, his waist, how his underwear peeked up over one edge of his pants and clung to his side. So much skin, and Kyuhyun’s mouth was the Sahara. He was kind of afraid to touch, like Zhou Mi was some fragile work of art that would just shatter and disappear.
Zhou Mi’s face, though. He was a little shy, a little proud. Of course, with Kyuhyun blubbering who wouldn’t have been. But he didn’t reach to touch, except to put his hands on the warmth of Zhou Mi’s sides.
“Okay, it’s definitely fair again,” Kyuhyun said. His voice was far too hoarse, but Zhou Mi saved him from himself, kissing him. It was an illusion. Zhou Mi had been warm before his shirt came off, but he seemed to be radiating heat right then. Maybe it was because Kyuhyun had flushed so hot, generating heat between them that couldn’t be sustained. He worried Zhou Mi’s lower lip, and the little groan he got almost had him stumbling, clutching at Zhou Mi’s back, the skin of his arms against so much of Zhou Mi’s. He forgot the wine and dinner and anything else as Zhou Mi kissed him, pulled him. Zhou Mi sank onto the couch, still holding Kyuhyun’s hand.
“Come here.”
Kyuhyun was glad he wasn’t still holding his glass in his hand when his knee sank rather inelegantly into the cushion. Zhou Mi’s lips clung to his when he leaned in, kissing, Zhou Mi steadying him with hands on his waist. But it was awkward, bordering on pain, half standing, half almost in Zhou Mi’s lap.
“There’s room enough,” Zhou Mi half whispered, Zhou Mi’s lips brushing against his face. If he hadn’t been flushed already, he would have then. There was room enough, with a little moving, for Kyuhyun’s knees to sink in on other side of Zhou Mi’s hips. Zhou Mi’s arms wrapped around his waist, and it was different like that. They’d kissed standing up, kissed pressed together beside each other. It was a different angle and a different way of moving, something that kept him off balance and to secure at the same time. There was no rush - all he had to do was enjoy Zhou Mi’s lips, the warmth and the plushness of them. He enjoyed immensely the way that Zhou Mi kissed, sometimes demanded, sometimes making him shiver.
He was getting too hot, and he cleared his throat, looking and when he picked up a glass of wine, for the life of him couldn’t remember which spot he’d put down his own at.
“Do you remember which one is yours?” Kyuhyun asked.
“Does it matter?” Zhou Mi asked, staring at Kyuhyun’s mouth and Kyuhyun watched him lick his kiss-reddened lips.
He guessed not, offering it to Zhou Mi first and watching him take another drink. It left little more than a swallow, but he downed the remnants of the glass and put it aside to focus on more important things like his fingers becoming intimately acquainted with Zhou Mi’s collarbones.
“I didn’t expect this when I invited you over,” Zhou Mi confessed, and that was certainly not a shocker to him. “I just wanted to be happy with you.”
It made him want to squirm and he was already all over Zhou Mi as it was. But he wasn’t far enough gone to forget how to tease.
“We can stop…?”
Zhou Mi tsked at him, squeezing at Kyuhyun’s back as they kissed.
“Not unless you want to.”
“Don’t want to stop,” Kyuhyun muttered between kisses. No, not when he could wind around Zhou Mi like that, to feel so much of him. He liked feeling Zhou Mi give a little, Zhou Mi’s soft sounds. But he also was keenly aware if Zhou Mi shifted, trying to note whether it was to pull Kyuhyun closer or push him away. ZHOU MI WANTS was the headline blazing across his brain, and it could have been wanting him or wanting contact, he just knew that Zhou Mi wanted and that was incredible.
They were celebrating in a bit of a different way than Zhou Mi had thought, though he hoped making out had crossed Zhou Mi’s mind just a little. But what they were doing had crossed so many lines that they hadn’t before. He had his hands all over a gorgeous, naked torso and broad shoulders, and a man kissing him like it would save both their lives. The only way he wasn’t getting hard was if he was dead, and he was very much not dead.
But if he hadn’t been turned on already, he would’ve been as Zhou Mi’s hips lifted against his, knowing. Zhou Mi was hard rubbing against him, humming against Kyuhyun’s lips. It satisfied a fantasy of Zhou Mi, a portion of it anyway. From the time Zhou Mi had taken his hand at the first meeting, to the first time Zhou Mi had kissed him, almost all of his pleasure had come thinking of Zhou Mi. From the kiss onwards, all of it had. He’d thought of it, rubbing against Zhou Mi, feeling him want, imagining what sounds Zhou Mi made when his need was too great. They slid together, slow, purposely, and Zhou Mi hummed, clutching at him.
Kyuhyun felt a bit out breath, but he could still speak. “I can feel already that there’s not a single part of you that’s disappointing.”
Zhou Mi’s head fell back and he laughed, fading into pleased chuckles as he kneaded against Kyuhyun’s back. They considered each other as Zhou Mi tugged at Kyuhyun’s shirt. One of his hands went under it, traveling up along sparking skin. And the other went down, past his belt, and getting a good, healthy handful of Kyuhyun’s butt. He didn’t pull Kyuhyun against him, but that didn’t keep him from throbbing in his pants, his eyelids dipping as he fought back the worst of the ragged moan.
Zhou Mi’s squeezing hands kept him rocking, and the movement, the angles, it made it harder to kiss but they did their best.
“Kyuhyun!” Zhou Mi burst out, and Kyuhyun’s head dipped, trying too hard to breathe, gasping, tingling as Zhou Mi began to kiss against his neck. “Oh. Yes.”
Zhou Mi was making little sounds that shot right through him, his teeth just barely catching at Kyuhyun’s skin. And Kyuhyun was trying to hard to breathe, to move. His thighs were straining, pleasure building way too fast. One moment it was all he wanted, and the next thinking, too fast, too fast.
“Kyuhyun,” Zhou Mi moaned.
And that was it. His hips were frantic, his body wracked with his orgasm as Zhou Mi rocked him. Zhou Mi squeezed him, pulled him closer, breath gusting out in tiny pants until he almost seemed to stop breathing and Zhou Mi’s head fell back, moving against Kyuhyun. Coming against him. An exhale came with the start of a moan, both of them still except for labored breathing. He felt like he was sweating through his undershirt, and- He’d just come in his underwear. And he was almost certainly cutting off the blood supply to Zhou Mi’s legs.
The protocol for “Hey, I just got off on you,” was escaping him, but practicality won the day hands down.
“I still have to go home in these pants,” Kyuhyun lamented as he pushed back a little. Zhou Mi wheezed, kissing his cheek. And his voice was quiet as he tilted his head and considered Kyuhyun.
“I wouldn’t mind if you didn’t have to go.”
“I definitely can’t go to work like this,” Kyuhyun laughed. Wrinkled clothes being only the start of that.
“Maybe another time, then,” Zhou Mi said, his eyes saying so much more.
Sleeping over. Maybe not doing more than they’d just done but maybe.
And he was going to spend very good amounts of time thinking about just that, as soon as he wasn’t in danger of a bigger mess than he’d already caused, either soaking through his pants or Zhou Mi through his. Zhou Mi kept a hand on his arm like he was trying to keep him from falling backwards, at least until he got stood up.
“I’ll be right back,” he gusted, and beelined for the bathroom to get clean. He’d just have to do without underwear on the ride back home, but that he wasn’t so worried about.
“Hey, do you have-“ he half shouted through the door.
“Just left you a bag on the outside door handle,” Zhou Mi replied, having apparently read his mind. And there it was, a plastic bag just for him.
He got everything all tied up, washing his hands, and transferring the bag to be near his belongings. He made his way back to the couch. Zhou Mi had changed pants altogether, lamentably with a tank top on that still showed that his skin was still a little sweaty. But he also wore a smile, and offered a half-full glass of wine.
“I went and got the bottle,” Zhou Mi said, and Kyuhyun sank down beside him, groaning a little, relaxing. The wine was good, but watching Zhou Mi take a drink from his own glass and sigh was better.
He shifted his glass, reaching out a hand to stroke along Zhou Mi’s arm. Zhou Mi sighed again, leaning into him.
“Oh, dinner!” Zhou Mi realized.
“Now I’m really hungry,” Kyuhyun joked, and Zhou Mi shot him the brightest smile, getting up and going for the menus so they could decide what they wanted. It didn’t really matter. Zhou Mi could’ve handed him a box of musty jerky, as long as he got to stay there. They cuddled together on the couch as they waited for the food, sipping the wine and really finally relaxing. He didn’t feel as awkward as he thought he would, though he was still riding high on feelings. Still, when he pressed a kiss against Zhou Mi’s shoulder Zhou Mi hummed against him, nuzzling at him.
“If it’s a time you can go, if I was able to get you a seat, would you want to go to the awards ceremony?”
Kyuhyun lifted his head, looking at Zhou Mi like he’d said something ridiculous.
“How can you even ask that! Of course!” Maybe it was a sign that things had changed, that he didn’t even have to stop or wonder or second-guess himself that he was somehow taking advantage.
Zhou Mi laughed, rocking a little. “Even if we can’t sit together, I’d like knowing you were there somewhere if we can make it work out.”
That sobered Zhou Mi a little, and Kyuhyun didn’t like it, rubbing over his shoulder instead.
“Do you think there’ll ever be a time when I can get you in a tuxedo and show you off someplace like that?” Zhou Mi asked.
“I want to think that things could be like that someday,” Kyuhyun said. “If you get to perform, they’ll have to carry me out, you know that right? And maybe I could be there to help you get ready.”
To get dressed. Or undressed. Or to hold his hand before there were people around to keep him from being nervous.
“And I could take you home with me, like an award,” Zhou Mi said, all magnanimous. His following giggle told the story of a little bit of wine imbibed on an empty stomach.
Kyuhyun stayed on the couch and mostly out of sight while Zhou Mi got the food at the door, and they both ate with enthusiasm. The TV provided a little backdrop of sound, ankles crossed over each other’s as they enjoyed the food, of sharing it together. Zhou Mi helped him back into his shirt when he reached the point where it was go home or else, and seemed to like that almost as much as he had taking it off of Kyuhyun. He pretty much did, too, since it was easy to steal a few more kisses.
At home, Kyuhyun slept deeply. He was alone, but at least right then, he didn’t feel it.
***