[Fic] Endlessly - 6/7
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
***
Kyuhyun tried not to pace outside of the door, definitely did not push the buzzer again. Zhou Mi wasn’t like some drama celebrity with half a building, so he couldn’t have been coming from too far to get the door. Maybe Kyuhyun had caught him in the bathroom. Or maybe-
The door open and Kyuhyun grinned, stepping forward as Zhou Mi all but reached to pull him in.
“I was about to text you to see what was wrong,” Kyuhyun joked.
“I was getting dressed! You must have run,” Zhou Mi said, but he closed the door and he kept right on pulling Kyuhyun in until they were all snugged in front of the door. He was pretty sure Zhou Mi was going to let him get out of his shoes.
“You didn’t have to get dressed just for me,” Kyuhyun teased, and Zhou Mi laughed loudly right in his ear.
“You don’t want to have something to take off?” Zhou Mi asked, and had his revenge on Kyuhyun thoroughly as Kyuhyun sputtered. He’d barely gotten in the door before he was turning red, though he’d caused that himself.
Zhou Mi got far enough away to look at, and Kyuhyun stomped on his glee mixed with some vestigial shyness that he wanted to shout right out. Then again, maybe it tempered him somehow so he wasn’t just leaping into Zhou Mi’s arms. Well, more than he was already.
“Hi,” he said, not even able to fight the grin by any means. He’d already eaten, and not having work the next day, he didn’t mind getting called out to come over and hang out a while. There was no rush, and if he got a snuggly Zhou Mi, all the better.
“Hi,” Zhou Mi answered him. The kiss was slow, tiny adjustments made until Zhou Mi all but jumped.
“Oh! I have something to show you.”
Zhou Mi waggled his eyebrows and Kyuhyun was moderately alarmed, because he wasn’t sure what caused that much glee. If he shouldn’t be concerned-
But he caught sight of the new space on the shelf, cleared for Zhou Mi’s new awards, and almost laughed. Of course, he should have known. Zhou Mi had been hot to show him them the night of the ceremony, and they finally had their own place of honor now that they’d been able to meet up again. Still, seeing pictures of the awards and being close to them and seeing Zhou Mi’s name, it was different.
“Wow,” Kyuhyun said, putting his fingertip against the base of one of them. He hardly wanted to touch it, but Zhou Mi did that for him, tracing the swooping design. One of Zhou Mi’s arms snugged against his middle and Kyuhyun leaned back into the hold. “Did you know you’d be getting some of these so soon?”
“I hoped. I thought- It feels different than I thought it would be, but it’s better, too. I don’t know how soon I’ll ever get more, or what kind they’ll be… But I’ll remember these,” Zhou Mi said.
“Did you cry when you watched yourself win again?” Kyuhyun asked.
“I…Yes,” Zhou Mi said.
“Me, too.”
He sighed a little, Zhou Mi rocking him as he squeezed Kyuhyun a little tighter.
“At least someone know’s you’re good with the social media award. I want everyone with even a fragment of a heart to love you.”
Zhou Mi chuckled, kissing against his jaw. “I don’t need everyone to. Family and my friends. My fans. You.”
“A few more fans can be added along the way.”
“A few more,” Zhou Mi agreed.
“We’ll see what happens next year.”
Zhou Mi hummed his agreement, and helped to turn Kyuhyun around.
“I have something to show you,” Zhou Mi said, and led him to the couch that Kyuhyun was beginning to like very much. Only, Zhou Mi had very specific ideas about how they were sitting, getting himself settled and pulling Kyuhyun down too, but Kyuhyun ended up with his legs draped over Zhou Mi’s thighs and all pressed up against him.
He’d filled his dirty joke quota for the night, so all he could do was eye Zhou Mi and wonder just exactly what Zhou Mi wanted to show him with them all squeezed together like that.
“Perfect,” Zhou Mi declared when they were settled, and comfortable. He leaned in and pecked a kiss against Kyuhyun’s mouth, and then- Then there was his large and glossy tablet coming out, and Kyuhyun was really curious then. Maybe they were going to re-watch the awards ceremony, and Zhou Mi wanted a front row seat to Kyuhyun snotting all over him. But the screen came on, and Zhou Mi unlocked it, and-
Kyuhyun’s neck craned forward, lips parting as he stared at the picture on the screen. Zhou Mi was in a tuxedo against a white background, his fingers tugging at the bow tie, a knowing little smile starting on his lips as he stared directly into the camera. It wasn’t a picture he’d ever seen before, he was absolutely certain of that.
And he was panting over a picture of the man currently watching him like he was primetime TV.
“Wow. What is that for?”
“Guess!” Zhou Mi cheered back at him, absolutely smug and ridiculous as Kyuhyun floundered. And he made a sound as Zhou Mi moved his fingers apart on the screen and zoomed in. Zhou Mi’s hands. The subtle makeup on his face. How soft his lips looked.
“A magazine shoot?” Kyuhyun offered. That was shot down. “A new endorsement?”
Oh, fuck him, if Zhou Mi was endorsing menswear, Kyuhyun was just never going to leave his apartment ever again.
“No,” Zhou Mi said, still too amused. “Keep going?”
“A new album?” Kyuhyun asked, more hopeful than anything as Zhou Mi shook his head. Probably too soon, even with Zhou Mi hinting at the possibility of new songs the last time they’d met. It could’ve been for a single or something, a soundtrack. But Zhou Mi’s eyebrows rose and Kyuhyun was nearly stumped. It wasn’t something Zhou Mi was being paid to do, and it wasn’t to do with his music. Or at least not an album. The only other-
Kyuhyun tore his eyes away from the picture and looked to Zhou Mi again. “Concert promo?”
“Whose, though?”
And his back stiffened as Zhou Mi began to grin.
“Yours? Your concert! You’re having a concert!”
It was too hard to try and hug and shake someone simultaneously when they were all squished together like that but he did his best, laughing, almost gasping with it as Zhou Mi giggled delightedly.
“It’s always been a plan, but with the awards, we’ll be able to call it a thank-you to the fans, and visit a bunch of cities, and-“
“When! How many?”
“Within the month, if we can. The first venue will be here in Seoul, and then others will come after that. They’re just working through venues now, I think. I was looking through song lists earlier before you got here, and- It doesn’t seem real yet!”
“You’ll get to sing for so many of your fans that you haven’t seen!”
“Yes!”
Zhou Mi, who loved to sing, who loved sharing with others. All those people who would buy his tickets, bring their friends, their family.
“I’ll have to watch when tickets start to be sold,” Kyuhyun said.
“I will get you a ticket,” Zhou Mi said. “It might not be quite as close as the fanmeeting, but especially here for Seoul, you don’t have to buy a ticket.”
“When the dates are set and we know what your schedule is like, I can see if maybe I can go to any others. Or you can just take me in your suitcase. One of your suitcases.”
“Kyuhyun,” Zhou Mi scolded, but he clearly wasn’t upset because then they were kissing. Their hands slid together, squeezing as Kyuhyun’s arm slid up a little further around Zhou Mi’s back and Zhou Mi’s cradled his neck. “So glad you’re excited.”
How could he not be, really. It was going to be more times for Zhou Mi to be busy, possibly long stretches of being apart. But the excitement rode over all of that, in sputters of laughter, and kisses, and a little gasp of horror as the tablet started to slide.
“Just the one picture?” Kyuhyun asked when all was safe.
They nudged each other, leaning together and continuing to flip through some other pictures Zhou Mi had. No more of the concert pictures, but images from Zhou Mi’s cooking experiments, weird cracks on the side of buildings, and then a picture that Kyuhyun had sent him. That had Kyuhyun laughing because he looked like he just crawled out from under a rock, like one nudge and he was just going to fall asleep again.
“So cozy,” Zhou Mi said, in what surely echoed what he’d said about the picture when Kyuhyun had first sent it. Zhou Mi stroked along Kyuhyun’s thigh as they spoke, distracted from the pictures again. It meandered, from what shirt Kyuhyun was wearing, to Zhou Mi’s thoughts on fabric, to Kyuhyun grumbling a little about work. His back was starting to ache a little, from being twisted, but he was too comfortable, being close, being warm. He lifted his hand, hooking his finger over the soft cotton edge of Zhou Mi’s collar. The solid line of his collarbones, the thump of his heart as Kyuhyun’s hand slid down and felt him breathing.
Zhou Mi kissed him, slow, lingering there against his mouth and nuzzling against his face.
“Remember when you could barely look at me?” Zhou Mi teased.
“I wanted to look at you too much,” Kyuhyun said.
But that confession just led to more kisses, and a frustrated noise from Zhou Mi when he could get no closer.
“Here,” Zhou Mi said, and they wiggled, and struggled, and stood up like old men, laughing and stealing another kiss. But Zhou Mi led him, his hand gripping Kyuhyun’s and taking him back toward part of the apartment that he’d never seen. All the oxygen left the room when Zhou Mi pushed open a door, bringing Kyuhyun in with him. The brighter light from behind them spilled in at an angle, but the main light was soft and amber-colored, from some kind of blown glass globe in the corner.
But the real focus of the room was the big, wide bed. The big, wide bed in the room that Zhou Mi slept in. Zhou Mi’s bedroom. The room of the bed of-
Kyuhyun almost squawked when Zhou Mi let his hand go, getting a knee up onto the bed and stretching out, patting the blanket in front of him. No stripping, no bump and grind music. Just Zhou Mi on a bed. Unlike in the hotel, they weren’t separated by a blanket, and Kyuhyun moved on autopilot, crawling up over the length of the bed and easing down like he might fall through it. It was just Zhou Mi. Same guy he’d been kissing on the couch. Same gorgeous smile, and warm hands that tugged him in.
Just Zhou Mi, whatever. Zhou Mi wiggled up on him, nuzzling against him, kissing him. One second Kyuhyun had been both flushed and frozen, and the next he had one of Zhou Mi’s thighs sliding between his, and his hand sliding up the back of Zhou Mi’s shirt with Zhou Mi making a soft sound that Kyuhyun was certain he was never going to stop replaying.
“Is that better?” Zhou Mi asked, like it had a possibility of not being better. He wasn’t just on Zhou Mi’s bed, he was on Zhou Mi’s bed with Zhou Mi. And Zhou Mi was showing in no uncertain terms just how much that he loved to kiss. And Kyuhyun was not just kissed, but invited in, Zhou Mi sharing his joy. It felt like learning to kiss all over again, the slide of lips, the presses, and tugs. There was nothing tentative about it, nothing to get bored of as they moved and stroked. He felt over the breadth of Zhou Mi’s back, slipped his hand up Zhou Mi’s neck and into his hair. The tip of his thumb rubbed around the edge of Zhou Mi’s earring, and Zhou Mi moaned against his mouth. Sensitive ears. He was going to remember that.
And the softer the kisses, the more that Zhou Mi wanted to tell him something.
“Remember when we had that chat on the phone?”
With that eyebrow waggle, Zhou Mi could only mean one conversation. “Yes?” Kyuhyun said, half not sure he wanted to know where Zhou Mi was going. Not like he could forget having phone sex with Zhou Mi. He was pretty sure that was seared in permanently.
“This is where I was.”
“In just a sheet,” Kyuhyun said, and Zhou Mi grinned.
“How did that make you feel?”
“I think you heard how I felt not long after that,” Kyuhyun retorted. Zhou Mi just hummed, closing his eyes like he was remembering.
“I’ve thought a lot about how you said my name,” Zhou Mi said.
The air clicked in Kyuhyun’s throat, because Zhou Mi was playing so unfairly. One second, Kyuhyun was thinking about Zhou Mi hard and naked while he’d been talking to Kyuhyun. The next, he was introduced to the thought of Zhou Mi maybe getting off remembering it. Obviously, Kyuhyun had as well, plus with the spin of Zhou Mi having wanted to fool around in the hotel room after getting his awards.
“And what you mentioned you might want to do with me,” Zhou Mi acknowledged.
If there was one man in the whole of the earth that Kyuhyun wanted to practice his blowjob skills on, he was in bed with him. He didn’t know what he wanted that night, though. He was already starting to ache, from the kissing, and the venue change, and Zhou Mi being all up against him. There were a number of things he could think of to say, but all that he really wanted to say was one thing.
“Zhou Mi.”
And he said it again between kisses, half sighing it, sometimes in mumbles, muffled against Zhou Mi’s lips, and moaned for certain as Zhou Mi squeezed his ass.
“Yeah, I like that, too,” Zhou Mi said, and pushed Kyuhyun back, licking his lips as he arranged himself straddling Kyuhyun’s hips. “I want to touch- Just a second.”
Kyuhyun hissed, really throbbing as Zhou Mi almost ground down against him, leaning and reaching out to snatch something out of a drawer to the left of Kyuhyun’s head. Lube. A brand new bottle, as Zhou Mi tore off the seal.
Zhou Mi wanted to touch? He slipped his fingers against Kyuhyun’s waistband as Kyuhyun tried to keep up with the simple task of breathing.
“I am definitely into that,” Kyuhyun got out. The grin was gorgeous to behold and Zhou Mi leaned forward, his thighs sliding wider.
“You want to open my pants for me?” Zhou Mi asked, his fingers stroking Kyuhyun’s neck.
“Oh? Is there something there for me?”
“I think you’ll find out.”
The button was backwards, because he was working on someone else, not himself. Zhou Mi helped, angling his hips, as Kyuhyun tugged at the zipper. Tugged, because Zhou Mi was clearly hard beneath it. And he had the first feel of Zhou Mi through his underwear, hard, heavy against his fingers as Zhou Mi made soft noises and swayed over him.
“Nothing like someone else’s hand, right?” Kyuhyun asked. And he tested the girth of him, pulling him free from his underwear and his eyes nearly crossing because he had Zhou Mi’s cock in his hand and Zhou Mi was nearly writhing on top of him as Kyuhyun took a couple of experimental strokes. He was pretty much a connoisseur of jerking off, and what he saw he liked, and what he saw on Zhou Mi’s face, he definitely liked.
He’d have gladly kept on like that, with his pants too tight and Zhou Mi making desperate little noises in his throat, but Zhou Mi inhaled sharply, pushing up a little so he could fumble at Kyuhyun’s pants. Oh. Oh, together. The sound he made was embarrassing as Zhou Mi stroked him through his underwear.
“Oh, yes,” Zhou Mi said, and Kyuhyun lifted his lips, struggling for air as Zhou Mi tugged at cloth and set him free. Zhou Mi’s skin against his. He- Kyuhyun’s eyes closed, his head almost spinning as he dragged in air and felt Zhou Mi throbbing against his fingers. “Here.”
It was lube that Zhou Mi offered, and he warmed it, cupped in his hand and smoothed it as he stroked. Zhou Mi braced himself with one hand, doing the same to Kyuhyun, and all that could be heard was the harsh sound of their breathing, and the slick sounds of their hands. Zhou Mi’s hair was flopping forward as he lowered down, scooting his arm up so he could touch Kyuhyun’s head and get closer. Zhou Mi’s hips lowered too, and Kyuhyun realized what he was trying to do, opening his hand and inhaling as instead, they began to rub together. It was a bit like they had done on the couch only, there wasn’t anything between them.
“I like seeing you like this,” Zhou Mi said, his words a bit breathless as his fingertips stroked beside Kyuhyun’s ear.
Like…what? With his pants open, or wheezing, or- But Zhou Mi was looking down at him so significantly, a smile at the corner of his lips, and Kyuhyun realized no, Zhou Mi meant Kyuhyun being under him, being spread out below him.
“Oh,” Kyuhyun said, before his mind could catch up and stop him.
“Oh,” Zhou Mi agreed, still smiling as he tugged Kyuhyun into a kiss.
In any way, in all ways Zhou Mi wanted him, he was going to be willing to satisfy. Images flashed through his head and he moaned for Zhou Mi, rocking his hips up, rubbing them together, stroking them both with his hand in counterpoint to Zhou Mi doing the same. It was too much, the slick, the warm, feeling Zhou Mi against him, the hot breaths that gusted against his neck as Zhou Mi’s head leaned against his. If he’d had a smidgen more control, he’d have been begging Zhou Mi to get his pants off, but his mind was overwrought with an onslaught of images. Blowing Zhou Mi. Zhou Mi inside of him. Zhou Mi pinned under him.
The breath he blew out was shaky, moaning, and then gasping for air against Zhou Mi’s cheek.
“Zhou Mi,” he moaned. He couldn’t. He just couldn’t, and Zhou Mi didn’t make it easier for him because instead of rubbing his cheek against Zhou Mi’s, suddenly he had an eyeful of Zhou Mi’s flushed face, his desperate eyes. Hot. Gorgeous. Painfully turned on. All of those ran across his mind, fueling his desperation. And then Zhou Mi’s eyes slammed closed, a moan tearing out of him, and Kyuhyun was desperate for air, and oblivious to the need of it at the same time as he watched Zhou Mi come. He felt almost superfluous, his whole body going tight as Zhou Mi’s hand was the only one stroking them, like he was drawing out his own pleasure.
But he was rocketing up Kyuhyun’s - Zhou Mi was drawing such heavy breaths, having come for him, looking back to him to see his face, to implore him. He wanted that looming pleasure so bad. He needed it. He needed Zhou Mi- Kyuhyun came in Zhou Mi’s hand, his moans almost sighs because he could get no more sound out than that.
They were still, and his hand was sticky, and he had no doubt that his face was bright red, and he couldn’t even begin to care. Zhou Mi’s head had plonked down beside his like a deflating balloon, and Kyuhyun untangled the hand that had nearly become one with the blanket under him, and stroked between Zhou Mi’s shoulder blades.
“Ah, Kyuhyun,” Zhou Mi gusted, and Kyuhyun nearly shivered at the contentment in that one small sound. Zhou Mi kissed against his jaw, his cheek, and their lips bumped together a few times. Kyuhyun could almost feel the individual beats of his heart again, and he wasn’t nearly as embarrassed as he thought he would be, meeting Zhou Mi’s eyes.
“I’d say that was a long time coming, but it didn’t take us very long,” Kyuhyun said, and Zhou Mi sputtered, which made Kyuhyun smile in turn.
“I don’t mind,” Zhou Mi said, levering himself up a bit and making both of them hitch in a breath as their hips moved together a bit. “I think we made a mess of your shirt. I guess we should’ve taken it off first.”
Oh, and he was teasing there, his eyes glinting as he looked to Kyuhyun.
“It seems like I do a lot more laundry because of you,” Kyuhyun said. But he couldn’t say he minded either.
“Oh? Please, share why.”
“Dirty,” Kyuhyun accused.
“Me!”
Kyuhyun got himself sitting, pulling at the front of Zhou Mi’s shirt until Zhou Mi took the hint and kissed him. And Zhou Mi’s mouth really was magic, because it made him forget for a few minutes that he was sitting there with his pants still open, and that Zhou Mi’s were in the same state.
“I have a schedule tomorrow,” Zhou Mi said, pressing his nose beside Kyuhyun’s for a moment before looking at him, and stroking along Kyuhyun’s shoulder with his clean hand. “But it’s not very early. If you don’t have anything to do, you can stay over.”
Kyuhyun blinked at him. Getting together, getting off together, he’d mostly been prepared for variations of that. Staying over-
“I didn’t bring any clothes,” Kyuhyun said.
“I can get you something to sleep in, and a shirt to go home in. I haven’t shown you where I keep my clothes!”
They were cackling together, clutching at each other, and Kyuhyun’s brain threw caution out the window.
“Sure, I don’t have plans in the morning. As long as you don’t send me home in sequins.”
“Deal,” Zhou Mi said.
“Not going to just wear a sheet?” he ventured after a second, unable to resist the tease.
Though Zhou Mi got him right back by pretending to look thoughtful and then laughing when Kyuhyun shoved at him.
He was glad the light wasn’t all bright and blaring, at least as they had to roll themselves upright off the bed. Zhou Mi sent him out to the bathroom first, calling in that he’d left clothes there, and half sad, half glad that Zhou Mi hadn’t just stripped his shirt right off of him. Still, there was a certain satisfaction in pulling a shirt of Zhou Mi’s over his head, and wiggling into the shorts that were a little loose even on him.
He posed as he came out of the bathroom, with his clothes all rolled up under one arm, and Zhou Mi oohed and ahhed and turned him around.
“I did well,” Zhou Mi said, complimenting what, Kyuhyun didn’t know. His choice of clothes, his choice of Kyuhyun. Whatever it was, while Zhou Mi was in the bathroom, Kyuhyun found a place to stash his clothes, putting his shirt in a bag and then dawdling because he didn’t just want to go sit on Zhou Mi’s bed like he belonged there. He admired the corner that was a shrine to Zhou Mi’s life as a singer, and the framed prints of distant places on one wall. Zhou Mi’s awards. Gifts from fans. Things important to him. It wasn’t just Zhou Mi’s bed he wanted to belong in, but he looked around and saw Zhou Mi, everywhere. It was his place. But it caused an ache in his chest of just wanting to belong there. Wanting to see something, even something small, that proved he’d been there, that he was a small part at least of Zhou Mi’s world. Of course he knew that didn’t make it legitimate, that he was just as much in love and Zhou Mi’s boyfriend without any proof at all. Even if he scrawled his name on the wall, it didn’t change anything. But he hadn’t really given Zhou Mi much, either. Zhou Mi got so many gifts, and could buy himself whatever he wanted. A framed picture of them together didn’t make any sense, because if Zhou Mi had guests, they’d wonder who the strange guy was. So it had to be subtle. It had to be-
The bathroom door opened, and Kyuhyun didn’t hesitate, making his way to Zhou Mi and getting a minty-fresh kiss.
“I am going to take you to bed,” Zhou Mi said rather grandly.
“Lead the way,” Kyuhyun said.
Zhou Mi squeezed his hand tight and hard and led him back into the bedroom, pestering if Kyuhyun needed a drink and getting him one. Then, they hand a standoff over which side of the bed to sleep on. Well, Kyuhyun was operating on the “it’s your bed, I’ll sleep wherever” reasoning, and Zhou Mi on the “tell me which side you want, or else,” type.
“Which side do you normally sleep on?” Kyuhyun asked. Though Zhou Mi could tell it was a trap, he also couldn’t just not answer Kyuhyun’s question.
“The right side,” Zhou Mi said.
And so, Kyuhyun made his way to the left side. The covers were rumpled from what they’d been doing earlier, and that was nice. So were Zhou Mi’s sheets, as Kyuhyun started to get in at Zhou Mi’s motions, and Zhou Mi was turning out the lights around them, leaving the room illuminated only from vague light outside the window, and a clock by Zhou Mi’s side of the bed. It stripped them of almost everything, visual cues, all of that. Zhou Mi slid into the bed, and instead of sticking on his own side, Kyuhyun heard him take a gulp of water, and then he was sliding right into the neutral zone and reaching for Kyuhyun. Their legs slid together, his hand rubbing against Zhou Mi’s arm.
“Now that I’m in bed, I’m not that tired,” Zhou Mi said, and it wasn’t said like a come-on. Kyuhyun was still pleasantly buzzed, but it made it easy to be close, trading a couple of kisses at first, but lapsing into conversation. It was not awkward or weird for the fact that they were in bed talking. Zhou Mi’s hand was stroking along his lower back, and they could feel as well as hear the little laughs as they talked. It felt so bizarre, so utterly normal, like Zhou Mi’s warmth against him just lulled him into a gentle kind of complacency. There was no room for nerves, for disbelief, not when Zhou Mi’s voice was so low, so intimate, just for him. And he might not have realized that Zhou Mi was getting tired, except that Zhou Mi yawned like a lion. And even if he couldn’t see, it hitched a giggle into him, rocked by Zhou Mi’s hand as they continued cuddling.
“Maybe it’s time to sleep,” Kyuhyun said.
“Maybe,” Zhou Mi agreed.
And he had a sleepy man surrounding him, still smelling of mint, of sex, and sweat. He kissed Zhou Mi back, kisses soft, and getting softer.
“I’m so happy you stayed,” Zhou Mi said.
They arranged themselves to sleep, still touching, but not constricting each other’s movements. At least for a second anyway.
“You have an alarm set, right?” Kyuhyun asked.
“Oh!” Zhou Mi said, rolling away to grab at his phone. Kyuhyun watched, amused, as the room lit from the phone’s light, eyeing the straps of Zhou Mi’s tank top and his shoulders on either side of them.
The room went dark again, and Zhou Mi rolled back to him. Kyuhyun accepted another kiss, feeling Zhou Mi relax.
“What would I do without you?” Zhou Mi teased.
“Sleep in?”
Not like he was a good alarm clock himself. He liked to sleep as much as the next person, and having even a part of Zhou Mi against him was as good a reason as any to keep sinking deeper. He heard Zhou Mi’s breathing even out, and even in an unfamiliar place, he gave in.
***
Kyuhyun didn’t know what woke him up. A sound from outside maybe, as he squinted against the encroaching daylight. He knew where he was, having rolled over very gingerly in the middle of the night a few times. However, knowing and opening his eyes and seeing were two different things. The walls were neutral, not that he’d been paying attention to the walls last night at all. There was a marching line of dressers on one wall, stands of accessories, and a little bookshelf in the middle of that. It almost made him laugh, and he turned his head. The room wasn’t as important as the man beside him in bed was. He was in Zhou Mi’s bed, and it seized him with a wave of surreality, like maybe he was somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be, his hand caught in the cookie jar. But he smiled at the way that Zhou Mi’s face was a little slack, a little misshapen against the pillow. They weren’t touching, but Kyuhyun could see feel all the warmth generated. Zhou Mi had wanted him there, and instead of questioning if he should be there, his next action was a stupid sigh. It was another two or three minutes, Kyuhyun drifting and pleased with the universe, before he heard Zhou Mi take a deep inhale. He waited a few moments for Zhou Mi to wake fully before opening his eyes, and there was Zhou Mi, looking back at him.
Zhou Mi didn’t have a speck of makeup on, and it was a belated realization there. Maybe it was the morning light that emphasized it, just Zhou Mi’s face, the angles of cheekbones and the softness of his mouth. But his mouth didn’t stay soft long, stretching into a smile to see Kyuhyun there, and all Kyuhyun had to do was hold out an arm for Zhou Mi to scoot in, burying his face against Kyuhyun’s chest and sighing. Kyuhyun touched Zhou Mi’s neck for a moment before stroking against his hair, and Zhou Mi chuckled.
“You’re going to put me back to sleep,” Zhou Mi said, his voice a bit gravelly.
“I might sleep again too if you do,” Kyuhyun warned.
“Good morning, anyway,” Zhou Mi said, taking Kyuhyun’s free hand and kissing against his fingers.
“Good morning,” Kyuhyun said. No worries, that was just his heart soaring, nothing to see.
“Did you sleep okay?”
“I did. Did I disturb you?”
“Only once. When I woke up and almost couldn’t go back to sleep because I realized you were really here,” Zhou Mi said, and cackled as Kyuhyun tugged his hair. Way to give him a heart attack.
Though they both jerked a second later when Zhou Mi’s alarm started going off.
“Why did I set that,” Zhou Mi moaned, glomming onto Kyuhyun like a reluctant koala.
“Because your manager would be knocking on your door and marching you down in your pajamas otherwise?”
“So rude,” Zhou Mi gusted. The phone pealed off again, and Zhou Mi rolled over, stabbing at it and putting it on snooze. “Just a few more minutes.”
Kyuhyun rolled over with him, pressing against Zhou Mi’s back and tucking his face against Zhou Mi’s neck. They rested like that until the phone rudely went off again, and waking up could be put off no longer. It took a little doing but eventually they were slouched together, their legs hanging off the bed. He was admiring Zhou Mi’s knees for fuck’s sake, and he looked up as Zhou Mi tugged at the shirt Kyuhyun was wearing.
“I should find you something to wear home,” Zhou Mi said.
Kyuhyun looked down. There was nothing fancy about the t-shirt, but even for having slept in it, it was fine.
“I can just wear this home. It’s not wrinkled, and no one will see anything under my jacket anyway.”
Zhou Mi made a noise that might’ve been agreement.
“I should send you home in my clothes every time,” Zhou Mi said. And he looked up sharply. “You’re thinking something dirty!”
“You’re thinking something dirty!” Kyuhyun shot right back, because clearly Zhou Mi wouldn’t have accused him if he hadn’t been. The tickle fest kept either of them from being close to falling back asleep. But it brought up a thought, a question he never thought he’d be asking with his face plastered to Zhou Mi’s collarbone. “You have condoms…? Not for right now, but just-“
In case. In case, as his face burned and he tried not to stare down at Zhou Mi’s lap.
“Yes. I have us covered,” Zhou Mi said, and sounded oddly proud of that. Kyuhyun didn’t realize why until he started nudging Kyuhyun’s side, and the double meaning of that sank in, and he groaned.
“That’s terrible!”
Zhou Mi just laughed and squished him, and nipped at his neck. Kyuhyun was going to have to check to be sure he had supplies at his own home, because he didn’t-
Home. He had to go home, and Zhou Mi had to go, and they still hadn’t gotten off the bed.
“You have to get dressed,” Kyuhyun said, wiggling up and pulling Zhou Mi with him. “When are you supposed to go?”
Zhou Mi squinted. “Ten minutes?”
“Go. Go!”
Kyuhyun got into his pants while Zhou Mi threw himself into the bathroom to do whatever mysterious things he needed to do. He realized he really hadn’t been in Zhou Mi’s place in the daylight. He had windows and everything, albeit covered with cloth to keep out prying eyes. Kyuhyun peeked out at the view, hauling out his glass from the bedroom and getting another drink. When Zhou Mi raced out of the bathroom in little but his underwear, Kyuhyun stared at the ceiling and slipped in, washing his face and patting down his hair before going back out.
He was ready to go, phone, his dirty shirt, his jacket on, everything he’d arrived with. He was pushing his feet into his shoes as Zhou Mi thundered out and did a frantic three second check through a little backpack.
“Phone? Charger? Wallet?” Kyuhyun said.
“All of those,” Zhou Mi said, and hauled it over his shoulder. He got into his own shoes, and cupped Kyuhyun’s face, kissing him.
“I love you,” Zhou Mi said. He said it so obviously, like he was telling Kyuhyun the earth revolved around the sun. It felt good to steal a few more seconds with their arms wrapped around each other.
“Love you,” Kyuhyun said into Zhou Mi’s shoulder. Zhou Mi just squeezed him tighter, like he was trying to absorb Kyuhyun right in. It felt like part of him was trying to rip away, now that he was facing reality that they were going to have to go their separate ways. “Soon, I hope?”
He said, thinking of when they’d be able to meet up next.
“Very soon,” Zhou Mi agreed. They shared one more kiss, and the door had just opened when Zhou Mi’s phone rang. He answered it, laughing as he made sure the door was locked behind them. Kyuhyun stared at the door for a second, like it was some kind of weird portal to another world of them being together, before walking with Zhou Mi toward the elevator. “Yeah, I’m heading down right now.
“I’m going to go out the back,” Kyuhyun said. Maybe a little safer, so it didn’t look like they were leaving together. Zhou Mi nodded him, reaching out and squeezing his arm.
“I’ll be texting you,” Zhou Mi said.
Kyuhyun smiled, waving a little as Zhou Mi waved with both hands as the elevator door closed between them. He let out a long, slow breath, and hiked back to the other side of the building to go down that way. He didn’t know what he was going to do with himself at home. Laundry, maybe. And he snorted at himself, as he pressed the down button. No, he still knew how to exist on his own.
***
It wasn’t like there was a ray of sunshine that came out from behind a cloud and shone down on Zhou Mi’s head as Kyuhyun approached like they were in some kind of play. There on some yonder balcony, the man he’d been half naked with the last time they’d met up, and the guy he’d slept next to, and the guy who-
The guy who was just hanging out near a trash can and had on some old jeans, a normal shirt and baseball cap, a gray mask, and minimal makeup. And he still looked like he was made of unicorn thread or something.
Kyuhyun could see the smile just by seeing Zhou Mi’s eyes as he approached.
“Long time no see,” he said. Two whole days. He tried to be embarrassed for a few whole seconds, the whole half-naked thing latching onto his brain again. Instead he was just pleased. Pleased he wasn’t more embarrassed than he was, pleased that he didn’t have to wonder at them growing closer.
“The longest time ever,” Zhou Mi whined a little, leaning into his side and wrapping an arm around him for a moment. “I was pouting at my manager yesterday, so he told me I had some time today.”
“And after you’re finished with everything, you’ll go home and sleep?”
“Yeah,” Zhou Mi gusted.
“You’re not getting sick, right?”
It was kind of fun to nag as they walked, to hear Zhou Mi refute his accusations, and assure Kyuhyun he was taking care of himself. And he was just as prepared when Zhou Mi flipped the table over and started drilling him, too. Did he stay up late? Did he close his laptop before he was keeping his eyelids up by force?
“I’d have let you close my laptop for me,” Kyuhyun offered. In a certain situation anyway. If Zhou Mi wanted to drag him off his laptop at will, they were going to have some negotiations. There was love, but there was also his computer best buddy, the other love of his life. So Kyuhyun amended. “If you’d said please.”
“Oh, I’m very good at saying please,” Zhou Mi boasted, patting at his own chest.
Kyuhyun was going to laugh back at him, when a couple of people who seemed to be about to pass them instead stopped and gaped.
“You’re- You’re Zhou Mi, right?”
After his big awards wins, his songs were getting more play in stores and in random places, but for all their being careful, their meetings, it was the first time that Zhou Mi had been spotted. For a second, Kyuhyun froze. He wanted to wheel around, turn his back, hide. He turned his head, staring forward and heard Zhou Mi agreeing, greeting the two women warmly. Kyuhyun finally got his limbs under control and he edged forward, stopping about ten feet away and window shopping aggressively, his back tense as he could hear them talking, hear Zhou Mi’s subtle laughs. Zhou Mi signed autographs for them, chatting with them, and Kyuhyun’s thoughts swirled. What if they’d taken note of Kyuhyun walking with Zhou Mi. What had they even been talking about just before then? What if they wondered who Kyuhyun was, or if they took pictures, or spread rumors.
It wasn’t like they’d been making out, and people walking around together as friends wasn’t cause for suspicion last time he checked. It just felt so raw, so exposed, like if someone saw him looking at Zhou Mi, really looked, then they would see everything. Every time they met, every time they went out, it was a subtle kind of danger. Getting noticed once was one thing. Getting noticed multiple times-
It still wasn’t a crime to meet up with friends, but that wasn’t what they were.
“Ready?” Zhou Mi asked, coming up beside him, blocking him from any eyes that might have been in the direction of Zhou Mi meeting his fans.
“Yeah,” Kyuhyun said, and they started walking again, turning off down a quieter side street with different shops once they were sure they weren’t being trailed. “Sorry to have gone off all awkward like that. I knew- I knew someone might recognize you one day, but apparently I didn’t think hard enough about what I’d do. Was it suspicious that I-?”
He grimaced, and Zhou Mi tugged him to a stop, buying drinks and letting them settle for a few minutes together in some shade.
“It wasn’t suspicious. They probably were curious but plenty of people like me have friends not in the business who just want to stay anonymous. It’s not like we’re doing anything wrong. I’m sorry that you felt like you had to go, though.”
Oh, and he kicked himself for that. Zhou Mi definitely didn’t have anything to feel sorry for, and he didn’t want Zhou Mi being sad about it either.
“No, I know people will recognize you a lot. I bet that’s kind of cool,” Kyuhyun said, nudging Zhou Mi with an elbow.
“Most of the time,” Zhou Mi allowed. “You did look kid of cute scuttling off.”
“I’ll be better prepared next time,” Kyuhyun said.
Zhou Mi looked so cute, his mask hanging off one ear, his upper lip stained pink in a couple of places by his drink, and his smile bright. Yeah. Inevitably, there would be a next time. Maybe it wouldn’t be soon, but unless they were never in public again, Zhou Mi would get recognized. Their charmed meetings couldn’t continue. Maybe Kyuhyun would be a little more aware of that, since it had finally happened.
“Come on, let’s go before someone recognizes you again. They were clearly big fans to spot you like this.”
“What does that mean!” Zhou Mi demanded, and Kyuhyun laughed, tossing his empty bottle to be recycled and leading Zhou Mi around to different shops to just browse. He knew Zhou Mi’s proclivities well. Kyuhyun’s eyes fixed on something on the wall. It was a pretty kind of sign, carved and unique. He noted the name of the shop, for the future.
“I have concert news, too,” Zhou Mi said, batting at Kyuhyun’s arm, once he’d satisfied himself that Kyuhyun hadn’t insulted his appearance. “Once I make my case for songs, I’ll start recording a couple of new ones. Do you have one you think I should do?”
Kyuhyun made a show of thinking, before tossing out three or four joking suggestions including a trot song. He grinned the whole rest of the time together, because no one was going to recognize him instead, but even with Zhou Mi having been spotted, hearing Zhou Mi sputter and whine and squeeze him in retaliation, he wouldn’t have traded it for a moment.
***
“The drama episode I have a little part in is airing tomorrow! I’ll be busy or we could watch it together. :( :( Don’t miss it!!”
The text from Zhou Mi had been so very unassuming. Kyuhyun knew that Zhou Mi liked to watch things with him. Zhou Mi had admitted he liked seeing Kyuhyun admire him in real time, no surprise to either of them. There was no pretense to that which made Kyuhyun happy. There was a certain amount of insecurity underneath of the whole self-admiration, but Kyuhyun knew that his finding that little peacocking part of Zhou Mi to be precious was a direct effect of first being an adoring fan, and then all of the gooey feelings that came after.
So he settled in prepared to note both critique and admiration.
And then ended up texting Zhou Mi a string of periods in lieu of any text whatsoever.
He’d been duped. He’d been had. Zhou Mi had gotten him in the absolutely worst way possible, and he was never going to recover from it.
But that didn’t keep him from answering his phone the second it rang two hours later.
“You are in huge trouble,” Kyuhyun grumbled.
“Am I?” Zhou Mi asked, sounding utterly delighted that such a thing was possible. Okay, so he hadn’t sounded very menacing. The fact that Zhou Mi was pleased meant that he’d known just exactly why Kyuhyun was upset.
“When you said- You told me you had a little cameo in this drama. But you didn’t tell me you’d be taking a shower in it.”
He said shower like it was a dirty word, and it was. Just not dirty in the conventionally understood way. He’d been expecting Zhou Mi to be cute, to show up as some friend of a friend and being cute and having his I’m An Actor Really face on. But no, 30 minutes in, there had been the sound of a shower. And then a naked back. And then there had been Zhou Mi with water streaming down his face and all over his perfect shoulders and chest, and making the main lead - and likely half the audience - swoon.
Kyuhyun was telling Zhou Mi about the hand he’d had to slam down on his chair to keep himself upright as he’d gaped.
“Ooh,” Zhou Mi all but cooed at him. “I wanted that to be a surprise!”
Kyuhyun was silent for a moment. “So you didn’t warn me on purpose?”
It was official. Zhou Mi was out to kill him. He needed warning before that much skin was on display. Zhou Mi’s last music video, he’d been surprise!shirtless, and Kyuhyun hadn’t made much but garbled noises for about five minutes while he’d tried to process. He’d obviously seen all that skin up close and touched at least some of it. And knew how warm Zhou Mi was, and- Zhou Mi snapped him back to reality.
“Should I have? Why, did you like it?”
“Obviously I liked it,” Kyuhyun scoffed.
“How much?” Zhou Mi pressed. “A whole lot?”
“Yes, a lot,” Kyuhyun said. There was a rather significant pause in there, as he tried to give weight to his words. He couldn’t exactly leer over the phone. “You can guess how much.”
Zhou Mi actually gasped and understood him perfectly. “And you didn’t call me!”
“I texted you! Besides, am I supposed to call you every time I get off?” Kyuhyun hissed, the words not coming out nearly as indignant as they’d been in his head.
“When it has to do with me, yes,” Zhou Mi said, and they both burst out laughing.
“I can just imagine calling you while you’re getting your makeup done all, hey, just to let you know I’m thinking dirty things about you.”
“Now I’m going to think about that the next time I’m getting my makeup done!”
From the plaintive note in Zhou Mi’s voice, at least he was sharing the pain.
“I think the water did more work than you did anyway,” Kyuhyun said. “All you had to do was stand there and smolder.”
“As long as the smolder was good for you,” Zhou Mi teased.
“I think it was rude. How did today go, anyway?”
Since he’d aired his grievances with the surprise nakedness, he settled in to the rhythm of Zhou Mi’s voice, the way he laughed, described things. It was easy to feel like he’d been there, too, and easy to believe that Zhou Mi, on describing a huge meal he wanted to take Kyuhyun back for, had wished he’d been there. Kyuhyun thought of the gift in progress, and wondered what Zhou Mi’s reaction to it would be.
“Tell me about your day,” Zhou Mi urged.
Kyuhyun wondered if Zhou Mi had the same silly smile on his face that Kyuhyun had when listening to Zhou Mi. To be able to share like that, without worrying, without-
“When can we meet up again next?” Kyuhyun asked.
The phone calls, the texting, the teasing, they were all a connection. The way, too, that Zhou Mi said, “I love you,” whether it was in a cute tone, offhand, or so soft that it had his lungs tightening.
But there was a huge and hungry place in him to bask in being near him, to watch Zhou Mi’s face as he talked, press his face into Zhou Mi’s shoulder, and to wrap Zhou Mi up tight, and secure, and safe. Apparently his urge to protect hadn’t decreased on getting to know Zhou Mi. Though, he had gotten even more aware of Zhou Mi’s strength, too. And his weaknesses.
“I want hugs,” Zhou Mi said.
They were definitely on the same page.
***
Anniversaries were important. Days, commemorations. Kyuhyun had a memory a little slippery when it came to that, which was why all his important birthdays were saved in his phone, the anniversary of his parents. Things like that. When he’d entered in his “First date!!!” notation into his calendar, he’d calculated the hundred day mark right away, because otherwise he’d have realized a month after the fact. But Kyuhyun was ready, when he got Zhou Mi’s coy little invitation. He had his present already wrapped and ready to go, no last minute panicking for him.
Okay, some last minute panicking, but he had talked himself down from totally questioning his taste at least five minutes before walking in Zhou Mi’s door.
“Hugs,” Zhou Mi intoned as they rocked back and forth together, and Kyuhyun laughed into Zhou Mi’s shirt, squeezing him back like they were playing some kind of Morse code with their hugs.
“You’d think it’s been a year.”
“Long enough,” Zhou Mi said. “I was worried I’d be out of town today.”
“We could’ve still talked. We’d have made it special,” Kyuhyun said.
He wasn’t going to hold to some silly rules, not when there were a lot of things they had to be thankful for.
“I couldn’t exactly give you a gift over the phone,” Zhou Mi said.
Well. He could’ve, but probably the time for a dirty joke wasn’t then.
“I couldn’t have given you mine either,” Kyuhyun told him.
“Oh?”
Zhou Mi’s eyes lit up when Kyuhyun took the package out of his bag, the sleek red paper wrapping it all up.
“I feel like I’m being greedy,” Zhou Mi said, flexing his fingers as he considered the package. “Did you want to wait to open presents after?”
Kyuhyun just laughed as he shook his head, because it was going to be all he could think about until Zhou Mi opened it anyway. Better to get it out of the way, so he could relax.
“I was hoping to give you this first anyway,” Kyuhyun said.
“Oh, good!”
It was offered, and taken carefully with both hands, and they sat down on the couch together. Kyuhyun both wanted to savor the moment and also to have Zhou Mi rip into it. Zhou Mi shook the box gently, and Kyuhyun didn’t bother trying to hide his laugh, because Zhou Mi was taking so much glee in it. He shoved back every questioning though, as Zhou Mi undid the paper, exposing the solid white paper box beneath. Almost there, Kyuhyun thought, blowing out a breath as Zhou Mi lifted the plain lid, and lifted away the red tissue paper that covered what was inside.
“Oh,” Zhou Mi said, lifting his gift out.
It was a single word. It was a wall decoration, maybe eighteen inches long, the word “Endlessly” in English carved out of wood and displayed in a scrolling script. On the back Kyuhyun had inscribed their initials, which Zhou Mi caught almost immediately.
“It’s beautiful. Endlessly,” Zhou Mi said, tracing the swells of the word and the dips of empty space. “From my song?”
A song whose lyrics Zhou Mi had written himself. Kyuhyun inhaled, launching into his explanation.
“When I heard that song, I had to look this word up, and it just stuck with me, the meaning of it. Obviously, I’d never expected this, and I knew the lyric wasn’t about me, but it had a lot of meaning to me as a fan. And then now…“
He bumped his face into Zhou Mi’s shoulder before he rambled right on, and Zhou Mi’s arm curled around him.
“I didn’t want to get you a picture of us, because then if people saw, they’d ask questions. But I wanted you to have something here that was…ours.”
And for Zhou Mi to think of him. That sounded too needy, as Zhou Mi kissed him, and then pulled Kyuhyun right up onto his feet. Kyuhyun for some reason expected Zhou Mi to think about where he wanted it, to have a picture sent to him one day of it all hung up and showcased. Instead, Zhou Mi let him go and surveyed the walls. A conglomeration of postcards in a frame was taken down and set on the floor as Kyuhyun’s mouth opened and then closed. The little hook on the back of the wood fit on the top loop of the middle E fit right into the nail, and there it was, hung on the wall right there in Zhou Mi’s living room.
“I’ll put that other one in the kitchen or something,” Zhou Mi said, like Kyuhyun was going to feel guilt for an inanimate frame. “Do you think it looks good there?”
Kyuhyun chuckle felt a bit weak. “Do you think I’m going to say no?”
Zhou Mi looked a little bit like a bird as he moved around and considered it from different angles.
“Yes, I like it there. I’ll give it a few days to settle. I can always move one of the other pictures over if I need to.”
“What will you say if someone asks you where it came from?” Kyuhyun asked.
They managed not to step on each other’s toes as Zhou Mi came up to him.
“I’ll just tell them it was a gift from someone very precious to me,” Zhou Mi said. He cupped Kyuhyun’s elbows, holding them as they kissed. Kyuhyun did an admirable job not squirming, but he was still smiling when Zhou Mi waggled his eyebrows at him. “Speaking of, I have a gift, too. Come on.”
The box that Zhou Mi offered him when they settled back on the couch was quite a bit smaller. It was wrapped, rather amusingly, in little rabbits, and Kyuhyun tucked that back, opening up the black box under it. And inside of that, another black box, only made of velvet. It made him pause, almost looking to Zhou Mi as though to be sure yes, he was opening the right thing.
It was a soft sheen of silver that he touched, a ring similar to one Zhou Mi often wore. A ring. Zhou Mi had gotten him a ring. It made him feel a little disconnected from himself, like he was watching someone else get a ring. Except, no, he was there on the couch, and Zhou Mi was beside him.
“Wow,” Kyuhyun mouthed, looking up at Zhou Mi to see if he could help Kyuhyun get out of his own head.
“Wow, huh? I wanted to celebrate with you today. I used to wonder if it was just some excuse for people to celebrate, but…” Zhou Mi nuzzled against his face. “When I think how happy I’ve been, I know it’s more than that.”
It was like Zhou Mi telling him he loved him all over again, the way it buoyed through him.
“Look inside,” Zhou Mi urged.
All that was engraved there was a heart. Just a heart. And Kyuhyun’s heart, his poor heart, had just about given up soaring to heaven and having to come right back.
“Wow,” he said again, and absolutely his next word was going to be something other than that, he swore it.
“I know I saw you wear a ring once, so I thought… I hoped you’d like it.”
“I do. Very much. Will-“
He didn’t even have to ask his question, as Zhou Mi took the ring from him, sliding it down Kyuhyun’s finger until it rested just so. It looked good there. Zhou Mi’s hand looked good there, too, and when he turned to comment on just that, Zhou Mi yawned baldly, and then looked horribly embarrassed and Kyuhyun hicced back a laugh. Then, concern came roaring after.
“How long have you been awake, anyway?”
“I-“ Zhou Mi started, and then stopped. He had the glazed look of someone who couldn’t really quite remember, which was never a good sign.
“Maybe some sleep would be good.”
“I want to eat with you,” Zhou Mi protested. “It’s a special day!”
Zhou Mi’s health was special, too, but they weren’t going to get far arguing that.
“It is. And, thank you,” Kyuhyun said, and the ring was so solid there, but he knew he’d start not noticing it after a while. A long while probably. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Zhou Mi said, letting Kyuhyun kiss him. That steadied him, a little. He just wanted to crawl into Zhou Mi’s lap and maybe not let go. But Zhou Mi’s lap wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was Kyuhyun.
“What if you napped for an hour, and we can get food after,” Kyuhyun suggested. “Will you still be able to sleep tonight, if you nap?”
“Oh yes. There’s no danger of that. An hour,” Zhou Mi almost whined. “But you’ll be alone out here!”
“I have my laptop in my bag. If you give me your wifi password, I’ll keep busy,” Kyuhyun joked, and Zhou Mi looked the tiniest bit relieved.
“Will you promise you’ll come wake me up if I’m not out here by an hour?”
And Zhou Mi gave him the Puppy Eyes of Doom.
“Promise.”
They pinky swore, and sealed that with a kiss, too. Or two, or three, or four kisses until Kyuhyun pushed Zhou Mi away with a groan. One wifi password later, and Zhou Mi admiring him sitting there until Kyuhyun silently pointed toward the bedroom, and Zhou Mi disappeared to go get some sleep. Kyuhyun took note of the time, because he had promised. But an hour on his laptop was hardly a hardship, since that would’ve been what he’d been doing at home anyway.
Maybe he glanced up a few times to admire the way his gift looked on the wall. It looked nice, like it belonged. He tried not to read too much into what he thought of that. He held up his hand to admire the ring against that backdrop. And then he hung his head because there were too many feelings all at once.
Forty-seven minutes into the hour, Zhou Mi came shuffling out. He curled right onto the couch beside Kyuhyun, leaning his head on the top of Kyuhyun’s shoulder.
“Good morning,” Kyuhyun said rubbing his cheek against Zhou Mi’s hair.
“Don’t tease,” Zhou Mi chuckled.
“Did you sleep okay? Do you feel better?”
“I did. Don’t worry.”
Zhou Mi reached out and grabbed his phone, curling right back up to where he had been before. They sat for a few moments in silence as Kyuhyun continued finishing up a game he had been playing. It was comfortable, the silence, Zhou Mi against him with his phone. Kyuhyun was back on his desktop - stopping for a moment when he realized it was on a picture of Zhou Mi from his last fanmeeting looking like the Earth’s own angelic being. He got a rusty laugh for that.
“I like this guy,” Zhou Mi said, nudging against him. “He has good taste.”
“Now who’s teasing,” Kyuhyun said, but he didn’t even grumble it. He was so sunk.
“Ready for me to call for dinner?” Zhou Mi asked.
“Yes, please.”
All Kyuhyun had to do was wait as Zhou Mi got the order put in, sticking his laptop on the table.
“Twenty minutes,” Zhou Mi said, as he hung up. He reached out, tracing the edge of the ring on Kyuhyun’s finger. Another thing that Zhou Mi liked, he supposed.
“How did you even know what size I wear?” Kyuhyun wondered, touching the underside of the ring with his thumb.
“Ryeowook,” Zhou Mi said, giggling with his own cleverness as Kyuhyun goggled at him. “When I came over to visit and he was there, I let him in on my plan. When he went to the bathroom, he traced one of your rings for me.”
“He did not. He was barely gone for- And he didn’t even say anything! Not a word. Not even a hint that I should be looking for a gift.”
“Maybe he thought I would forget.”
“I doubt it. I bet the first thing he says when he confirms who this is from is that he knew you’d pick out a good one. Now I kind of wish I’d picked out something like this.”
Though, even to think of it he would have felt too forward. And Zhou Mi, questionable sartorial choices though he sometimes made, had a bit more of a discerning taste. If Zhou Mi had presented him a ring made of twist ties, Kyuhyun would’ve been enamored. Though he wasn’t sure what he was even worried about, because if Zhou Mi was half as gone as he was, he would’ve been happy with whatever, too.
“I have lots of jewelry. Only one home, though,” Zhou Mi said, lifting Kyuhyun’s hand and kissing against the ring.
Rings had a lot of different meanings. His fingers curled over Zhou Mi’s as Zhou Mi kissed him, and they leaned together, rearranging themselves so they could kiss, and talk. Zhou Mi had stories of his day, and he apparently needed kisses against Kyuhyun’s chin and the corner of his lips. He still looked tired, but at least he knew Zhou Mi was a little refreshed as well. Kyuhyun kissed there, right there where a dimple formed when Zhou Mi smiled, and stroked at Zhou Mi’s neck, the short hair, warm skin.
The chime had them both jolting.
“Hold that thought,” Zhou Mi said, kissing him one more time and going to let the delivery man into the building.
Kyuhyun hummed, tapping on his belly as he relaxed. He’d stay a little while after they ate so it didn’t seem like he was just there for the food, and then leave Zhou Mi to his sleep. Or he hoped Zhou Mi would sleep. He glared a little at Zhou Mi’s backside, questioning that. At least it’d give Zhou Mi the chance, and then they’d be able to meet up again as soon as Zhou Mi’s schedule would allow.
Zhou Mi walked back over with the food with such ceremony anyone would’ve thought he was carrying the crown jewels. When Zhou Mi bowed, they were both laughing, grinning at each other.
***
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
***
Kyuhyun tried not to pace outside of the door, definitely did not push the buzzer again. Zhou Mi wasn’t like some drama celebrity with half a building, so he couldn’t have been coming from too far to get the door. Maybe Kyuhyun had caught him in the bathroom. Or maybe-
The door open and Kyuhyun grinned, stepping forward as Zhou Mi all but reached to pull him in.
“I was about to text you to see what was wrong,” Kyuhyun joked.
“I was getting dressed! You must have run,” Zhou Mi said, but he closed the door and he kept right on pulling Kyuhyun in until they were all snugged in front of the door. He was pretty sure Zhou Mi was going to let him get out of his shoes.
“You didn’t have to get dressed just for me,” Kyuhyun teased, and Zhou Mi laughed loudly right in his ear.
“You don’t want to have something to take off?” Zhou Mi asked, and had his revenge on Kyuhyun thoroughly as Kyuhyun sputtered. He’d barely gotten in the door before he was turning red, though he’d caused that himself.
Zhou Mi got far enough away to look at, and Kyuhyun stomped on his glee mixed with some vestigial shyness that he wanted to shout right out. Then again, maybe it tempered him somehow so he wasn’t just leaping into Zhou Mi’s arms. Well, more than he was already.
“Hi,” he said, not even able to fight the grin by any means. He’d already eaten, and not having work the next day, he didn’t mind getting called out to come over and hang out a while. There was no rush, and if he got a snuggly Zhou Mi, all the better.
“Hi,” Zhou Mi answered him. The kiss was slow, tiny adjustments made until Zhou Mi all but jumped.
“Oh! I have something to show you.”
Zhou Mi waggled his eyebrows and Kyuhyun was moderately alarmed, because he wasn’t sure what caused that much glee. If he shouldn’t be concerned-
But he caught sight of the new space on the shelf, cleared for Zhou Mi’s new awards, and almost laughed. Of course, he should have known. Zhou Mi had been hot to show him them the night of the ceremony, and they finally had their own place of honor now that they’d been able to meet up again. Still, seeing pictures of the awards and being close to them and seeing Zhou Mi’s name, it was different.
“Wow,” Kyuhyun said, putting his fingertip against the base of one of them. He hardly wanted to touch it, but Zhou Mi did that for him, tracing the swooping design. One of Zhou Mi’s arms snugged against his middle and Kyuhyun leaned back into the hold. “Did you know you’d be getting some of these so soon?”
“I hoped. I thought- It feels different than I thought it would be, but it’s better, too. I don’t know how soon I’ll ever get more, or what kind they’ll be… But I’ll remember these,” Zhou Mi said.
“Did you cry when you watched yourself win again?” Kyuhyun asked.
“I…Yes,” Zhou Mi said.
“Me, too.”
He sighed a little, Zhou Mi rocking him as he squeezed Kyuhyun a little tighter.
“At least someone know’s you’re good with the social media award. I want everyone with even a fragment of a heart to love you.”
Zhou Mi chuckled, kissing against his jaw. “I don’t need everyone to. Family and my friends. My fans. You.”
“A few more fans can be added along the way.”
“A few more,” Zhou Mi agreed.
“We’ll see what happens next year.”
Zhou Mi hummed his agreement, and helped to turn Kyuhyun around.
“I have something to show you,” Zhou Mi said, and led him to the couch that Kyuhyun was beginning to like very much. Only, Zhou Mi had very specific ideas about how they were sitting, getting himself settled and pulling Kyuhyun down too, but Kyuhyun ended up with his legs draped over Zhou Mi’s thighs and all pressed up against him.
He’d filled his dirty joke quota for the night, so all he could do was eye Zhou Mi and wonder just exactly what Zhou Mi wanted to show him with them all squeezed together like that.
“Perfect,” Zhou Mi declared when they were settled, and comfortable. He leaned in and pecked a kiss against Kyuhyun’s mouth, and then- Then there was his large and glossy tablet coming out, and Kyuhyun was really curious then. Maybe they were going to re-watch the awards ceremony, and Zhou Mi wanted a front row seat to Kyuhyun snotting all over him. But the screen came on, and Zhou Mi unlocked it, and-
Kyuhyun’s neck craned forward, lips parting as he stared at the picture on the screen. Zhou Mi was in a tuxedo against a white background, his fingers tugging at the bow tie, a knowing little smile starting on his lips as he stared directly into the camera. It wasn’t a picture he’d ever seen before, he was absolutely certain of that.
And he was panting over a picture of the man currently watching him like he was primetime TV.
“Wow. What is that for?”
“Guess!” Zhou Mi cheered back at him, absolutely smug and ridiculous as Kyuhyun floundered. And he made a sound as Zhou Mi moved his fingers apart on the screen and zoomed in. Zhou Mi’s hands. The subtle makeup on his face. How soft his lips looked.
“A magazine shoot?” Kyuhyun offered. That was shot down. “A new endorsement?”
Oh, fuck him, if Zhou Mi was endorsing menswear, Kyuhyun was just never going to leave his apartment ever again.
“No,” Zhou Mi said, still too amused. “Keep going?”
“A new album?” Kyuhyun asked, more hopeful than anything as Zhou Mi shook his head. Probably too soon, even with Zhou Mi hinting at the possibility of new songs the last time they’d met. It could’ve been for a single or something, a soundtrack. But Zhou Mi’s eyebrows rose and Kyuhyun was nearly stumped. It wasn’t something Zhou Mi was being paid to do, and it wasn’t to do with his music. Or at least not an album. The only other-
Kyuhyun tore his eyes away from the picture and looked to Zhou Mi again. “Concert promo?”
“Whose, though?”
And his back stiffened as Zhou Mi began to grin.
“Yours? Your concert! You’re having a concert!”
It was too hard to try and hug and shake someone simultaneously when they were all squished together like that but he did his best, laughing, almost gasping with it as Zhou Mi giggled delightedly.
“It’s always been a plan, but with the awards, we’ll be able to call it a thank-you to the fans, and visit a bunch of cities, and-“
“When! How many?”
“Within the month, if we can. The first venue will be here in Seoul, and then others will come after that. They’re just working through venues now, I think. I was looking through song lists earlier before you got here, and- It doesn’t seem real yet!”
“You’ll get to sing for so many of your fans that you haven’t seen!”
“Yes!”
Zhou Mi, who loved to sing, who loved sharing with others. All those people who would buy his tickets, bring their friends, their family.
“I’ll have to watch when tickets start to be sold,” Kyuhyun said.
“I will get you a ticket,” Zhou Mi said. “It might not be quite as close as the fanmeeting, but especially here for Seoul, you don’t have to buy a ticket.”
“When the dates are set and we know what your schedule is like, I can see if maybe I can go to any others. Or you can just take me in your suitcase. One of your suitcases.”
“Kyuhyun,” Zhou Mi scolded, but he clearly wasn’t upset because then they were kissing. Their hands slid together, squeezing as Kyuhyun’s arm slid up a little further around Zhou Mi’s back and Zhou Mi’s cradled his neck. “So glad you’re excited.”
How could he not be, really. It was going to be more times for Zhou Mi to be busy, possibly long stretches of being apart. But the excitement rode over all of that, in sputters of laughter, and kisses, and a little gasp of horror as the tablet started to slide.
“Just the one picture?” Kyuhyun asked when all was safe.
They nudged each other, leaning together and continuing to flip through some other pictures Zhou Mi had. No more of the concert pictures, but images from Zhou Mi’s cooking experiments, weird cracks on the side of buildings, and then a picture that Kyuhyun had sent him. That had Kyuhyun laughing because he looked like he just crawled out from under a rock, like one nudge and he was just going to fall asleep again.
“So cozy,” Zhou Mi said, in what surely echoed what he’d said about the picture when Kyuhyun had first sent it. Zhou Mi stroked along Kyuhyun’s thigh as they spoke, distracted from the pictures again. It meandered, from what shirt Kyuhyun was wearing, to Zhou Mi’s thoughts on fabric, to Kyuhyun grumbling a little about work. His back was starting to ache a little, from being twisted, but he was too comfortable, being close, being warm. He lifted his hand, hooking his finger over the soft cotton edge of Zhou Mi’s collar. The solid line of his collarbones, the thump of his heart as Kyuhyun’s hand slid down and felt him breathing.
Zhou Mi kissed him, slow, lingering there against his mouth and nuzzling against his face.
“Remember when you could barely look at me?” Zhou Mi teased.
“I wanted to look at you too much,” Kyuhyun said.
But that confession just led to more kisses, and a frustrated noise from Zhou Mi when he could get no closer.
“Here,” Zhou Mi said, and they wiggled, and struggled, and stood up like old men, laughing and stealing another kiss. But Zhou Mi led him, his hand gripping Kyuhyun’s and taking him back toward part of the apartment that he’d never seen. All the oxygen left the room when Zhou Mi pushed open a door, bringing Kyuhyun in with him. The brighter light from behind them spilled in at an angle, but the main light was soft and amber-colored, from some kind of blown glass globe in the corner.
But the real focus of the room was the big, wide bed. The big, wide bed in the room that Zhou Mi slept in. Zhou Mi’s bedroom. The room of the bed of-
Kyuhyun almost squawked when Zhou Mi let his hand go, getting a knee up onto the bed and stretching out, patting the blanket in front of him. No stripping, no bump and grind music. Just Zhou Mi on a bed. Unlike in the hotel, they weren’t separated by a blanket, and Kyuhyun moved on autopilot, crawling up over the length of the bed and easing down like he might fall through it. It was just Zhou Mi. Same guy he’d been kissing on the couch. Same gorgeous smile, and warm hands that tugged him in.
Just Zhou Mi, whatever. Zhou Mi wiggled up on him, nuzzling against him, kissing him. One second Kyuhyun had been both flushed and frozen, and the next he had one of Zhou Mi’s thighs sliding between his, and his hand sliding up the back of Zhou Mi’s shirt with Zhou Mi making a soft sound that Kyuhyun was certain he was never going to stop replaying.
“Is that better?” Zhou Mi asked, like it had a possibility of not being better. He wasn’t just on Zhou Mi’s bed, he was on Zhou Mi’s bed with Zhou Mi. And Zhou Mi was showing in no uncertain terms just how much that he loved to kiss. And Kyuhyun was not just kissed, but invited in, Zhou Mi sharing his joy. It felt like learning to kiss all over again, the slide of lips, the presses, and tugs. There was nothing tentative about it, nothing to get bored of as they moved and stroked. He felt over the breadth of Zhou Mi’s back, slipped his hand up Zhou Mi’s neck and into his hair. The tip of his thumb rubbed around the edge of Zhou Mi’s earring, and Zhou Mi moaned against his mouth. Sensitive ears. He was going to remember that.
And the softer the kisses, the more that Zhou Mi wanted to tell him something.
“Remember when we had that chat on the phone?”
With that eyebrow waggle, Zhou Mi could only mean one conversation. “Yes?” Kyuhyun said, half not sure he wanted to know where Zhou Mi was going. Not like he could forget having phone sex with Zhou Mi. He was pretty sure that was seared in permanently.
“This is where I was.”
“In just a sheet,” Kyuhyun said, and Zhou Mi grinned.
“How did that make you feel?”
“I think you heard how I felt not long after that,” Kyuhyun retorted. Zhou Mi just hummed, closing his eyes like he was remembering.
“I’ve thought a lot about how you said my name,” Zhou Mi said.
The air clicked in Kyuhyun’s throat, because Zhou Mi was playing so unfairly. One second, Kyuhyun was thinking about Zhou Mi hard and naked while he’d been talking to Kyuhyun. The next, he was introduced to the thought of Zhou Mi maybe getting off remembering it. Obviously, Kyuhyun had as well, plus with the spin of Zhou Mi having wanted to fool around in the hotel room after getting his awards.
“And what you mentioned you might want to do with me,” Zhou Mi acknowledged.
If there was one man in the whole of the earth that Kyuhyun wanted to practice his blowjob skills on, he was in bed with him. He didn’t know what he wanted that night, though. He was already starting to ache, from the kissing, and the venue change, and Zhou Mi being all up against him. There were a number of things he could think of to say, but all that he really wanted to say was one thing.
“Zhou Mi.”
And he said it again between kisses, half sighing it, sometimes in mumbles, muffled against Zhou Mi’s lips, and moaned for certain as Zhou Mi squeezed his ass.
“Yeah, I like that, too,” Zhou Mi said, and pushed Kyuhyun back, licking his lips as he arranged himself straddling Kyuhyun’s hips. “I want to touch- Just a second.”
Kyuhyun hissed, really throbbing as Zhou Mi almost ground down against him, leaning and reaching out to snatch something out of a drawer to the left of Kyuhyun’s head. Lube. A brand new bottle, as Zhou Mi tore off the seal.
Zhou Mi wanted to touch? He slipped his fingers against Kyuhyun’s waistband as Kyuhyun tried to keep up with the simple task of breathing.
“I am definitely into that,” Kyuhyun got out. The grin was gorgeous to behold and Zhou Mi leaned forward, his thighs sliding wider.
“You want to open my pants for me?” Zhou Mi asked, his fingers stroking Kyuhyun’s neck.
“Oh? Is there something there for me?”
“I think you’ll find out.”
The button was backwards, because he was working on someone else, not himself. Zhou Mi helped, angling his hips, as Kyuhyun tugged at the zipper. Tugged, because Zhou Mi was clearly hard beneath it. And he had the first feel of Zhou Mi through his underwear, hard, heavy against his fingers as Zhou Mi made soft noises and swayed over him.
“Nothing like someone else’s hand, right?” Kyuhyun asked. And he tested the girth of him, pulling him free from his underwear and his eyes nearly crossing because he had Zhou Mi’s cock in his hand and Zhou Mi was nearly writhing on top of him as Kyuhyun took a couple of experimental strokes. He was pretty much a connoisseur of jerking off, and what he saw he liked, and what he saw on Zhou Mi’s face, he definitely liked.
He’d have gladly kept on like that, with his pants too tight and Zhou Mi making desperate little noises in his throat, but Zhou Mi inhaled sharply, pushing up a little so he could fumble at Kyuhyun’s pants. Oh. Oh, together. The sound he made was embarrassing as Zhou Mi stroked him through his underwear.
“Oh, yes,” Zhou Mi said, and Kyuhyun lifted his lips, struggling for air as Zhou Mi tugged at cloth and set him free. Zhou Mi’s skin against his. He- Kyuhyun’s eyes closed, his head almost spinning as he dragged in air and felt Zhou Mi throbbing against his fingers. “Here.”
It was lube that Zhou Mi offered, and he warmed it, cupped in his hand and smoothed it as he stroked. Zhou Mi braced himself with one hand, doing the same to Kyuhyun, and all that could be heard was the harsh sound of their breathing, and the slick sounds of their hands. Zhou Mi’s hair was flopping forward as he lowered down, scooting his arm up so he could touch Kyuhyun’s head and get closer. Zhou Mi’s hips lowered too, and Kyuhyun realized what he was trying to do, opening his hand and inhaling as instead, they began to rub together. It was a bit like they had done on the couch only, there wasn’t anything between them.
“I like seeing you like this,” Zhou Mi said, his words a bit breathless as his fingertips stroked beside Kyuhyun’s ear.
Like…what? With his pants open, or wheezing, or- But Zhou Mi was looking down at him so significantly, a smile at the corner of his lips, and Kyuhyun realized no, Zhou Mi meant Kyuhyun being under him, being spread out below him.
“Oh,” Kyuhyun said, before his mind could catch up and stop him.
“Oh,” Zhou Mi agreed, still smiling as he tugged Kyuhyun into a kiss.
In any way, in all ways Zhou Mi wanted him, he was going to be willing to satisfy. Images flashed through his head and he moaned for Zhou Mi, rocking his hips up, rubbing them together, stroking them both with his hand in counterpoint to Zhou Mi doing the same. It was too much, the slick, the warm, feeling Zhou Mi against him, the hot breaths that gusted against his neck as Zhou Mi’s head leaned against his. If he’d had a smidgen more control, he’d have been begging Zhou Mi to get his pants off, but his mind was overwrought with an onslaught of images. Blowing Zhou Mi. Zhou Mi inside of him. Zhou Mi pinned under him.
The breath he blew out was shaky, moaning, and then gasping for air against Zhou Mi’s cheek.
“Zhou Mi,” he moaned. He couldn’t. He just couldn’t, and Zhou Mi didn’t make it easier for him because instead of rubbing his cheek against Zhou Mi’s, suddenly he had an eyeful of Zhou Mi’s flushed face, his desperate eyes. Hot. Gorgeous. Painfully turned on. All of those ran across his mind, fueling his desperation. And then Zhou Mi’s eyes slammed closed, a moan tearing out of him, and Kyuhyun was desperate for air, and oblivious to the need of it at the same time as he watched Zhou Mi come. He felt almost superfluous, his whole body going tight as Zhou Mi’s hand was the only one stroking them, like he was drawing out his own pleasure.
But he was rocketing up Kyuhyun’s - Zhou Mi was drawing such heavy breaths, having come for him, looking back to him to see his face, to implore him. He wanted that looming pleasure so bad. He needed it. He needed Zhou Mi- Kyuhyun came in Zhou Mi’s hand, his moans almost sighs because he could get no more sound out than that.
They were still, and his hand was sticky, and he had no doubt that his face was bright red, and he couldn’t even begin to care. Zhou Mi’s head had plonked down beside his like a deflating balloon, and Kyuhyun untangled the hand that had nearly become one with the blanket under him, and stroked between Zhou Mi’s shoulder blades.
“Ah, Kyuhyun,” Zhou Mi gusted, and Kyuhyun nearly shivered at the contentment in that one small sound. Zhou Mi kissed against his jaw, his cheek, and their lips bumped together a few times. Kyuhyun could almost feel the individual beats of his heart again, and he wasn’t nearly as embarrassed as he thought he would be, meeting Zhou Mi’s eyes.
“I’d say that was a long time coming, but it didn’t take us very long,” Kyuhyun said, and Zhou Mi sputtered, which made Kyuhyun smile in turn.
“I don’t mind,” Zhou Mi said, levering himself up a bit and making both of them hitch in a breath as their hips moved together a bit. “I think we made a mess of your shirt. I guess we should’ve taken it off first.”
Oh, and he was teasing there, his eyes glinting as he looked to Kyuhyun.
“It seems like I do a lot more laundry because of you,” Kyuhyun said. But he couldn’t say he minded either.
“Oh? Please, share why.”
“Dirty,” Kyuhyun accused.
“Me!”
Kyuhyun got himself sitting, pulling at the front of Zhou Mi’s shirt until Zhou Mi took the hint and kissed him. And Zhou Mi’s mouth really was magic, because it made him forget for a few minutes that he was sitting there with his pants still open, and that Zhou Mi’s were in the same state.
“I have a schedule tomorrow,” Zhou Mi said, pressing his nose beside Kyuhyun’s for a moment before looking at him, and stroking along Kyuhyun’s shoulder with his clean hand. “But it’s not very early. If you don’t have anything to do, you can stay over.”
Kyuhyun blinked at him. Getting together, getting off together, he’d mostly been prepared for variations of that. Staying over-
“I didn’t bring any clothes,” Kyuhyun said.
“I can get you something to sleep in, and a shirt to go home in. I haven’t shown you where I keep my clothes!”
They were cackling together, clutching at each other, and Kyuhyun’s brain threw caution out the window.
“Sure, I don’t have plans in the morning. As long as you don’t send me home in sequins.”
“Deal,” Zhou Mi said.
“Not going to just wear a sheet?” he ventured after a second, unable to resist the tease.
Though Zhou Mi got him right back by pretending to look thoughtful and then laughing when Kyuhyun shoved at him.
He was glad the light wasn’t all bright and blaring, at least as they had to roll themselves upright off the bed. Zhou Mi sent him out to the bathroom first, calling in that he’d left clothes there, and half sad, half glad that Zhou Mi hadn’t just stripped his shirt right off of him. Still, there was a certain satisfaction in pulling a shirt of Zhou Mi’s over his head, and wiggling into the shorts that were a little loose even on him.
He posed as he came out of the bathroom, with his clothes all rolled up under one arm, and Zhou Mi oohed and ahhed and turned him around.
“I did well,” Zhou Mi said, complimenting what, Kyuhyun didn’t know. His choice of clothes, his choice of Kyuhyun. Whatever it was, while Zhou Mi was in the bathroom, Kyuhyun found a place to stash his clothes, putting his shirt in a bag and then dawdling because he didn’t just want to go sit on Zhou Mi’s bed like he belonged there. He admired the corner that was a shrine to Zhou Mi’s life as a singer, and the framed prints of distant places on one wall. Zhou Mi’s awards. Gifts from fans. Things important to him. It wasn’t just Zhou Mi’s bed he wanted to belong in, but he looked around and saw Zhou Mi, everywhere. It was his place. But it caused an ache in his chest of just wanting to belong there. Wanting to see something, even something small, that proved he’d been there, that he was a small part at least of Zhou Mi’s world. Of course he knew that didn’t make it legitimate, that he was just as much in love and Zhou Mi’s boyfriend without any proof at all. Even if he scrawled his name on the wall, it didn’t change anything. But he hadn’t really given Zhou Mi much, either. Zhou Mi got so many gifts, and could buy himself whatever he wanted. A framed picture of them together didn’t make any sense, because if Zhou Mi had guests, they’d wonder who the strange guy was. So it had to be subtle. It had to be-
The bathroom door opened, and Kyuhyun didn’t hesitate, making his way to Zhou Mi and getting a minty-fresh kiss.
“I am going to take you to bed,” Zhou Mi said rather grandly.
“Lead the way,” Kyuhyun said.
Zhou Mi squeezed his hand tight and hard and led him back into the bedroom, pestering if Kyuhyun needed a drink and getting him one. Then, they hand a standoff over which side of the bed to sleep on. Well, Kyuhyun was operating on the “it’s your bed, I’ll sleep wherever” reasoning, and Zhou Mi on the “tell me which side you want, or else,” type.
“Which side do you normally sleep on?” Kyuhyun asked. Though Zhou Mi could tell it was a trap, he also couldn’t just not answer Kyuhyun’s question.
“The right side,” Zhou Mi said.
And so, Kyuhyun made his way to the left side. The covers were rumpled from what they’d been doing earlier, and that was nice. So were Zhou Mi’s sheets, as Kyuhyun started to get in at Zhou Mi’s motions, and Zhou Mi was turning out the lights around them, leaving the room illuminated only from vague light outside the window, and a clock by Zhou Mi’s side of the bed. It stripped them of almost everything, visual cues, all of that. Zhou Mi slid into the bed, and instead of sticking on his own side, Kyuhyun heard him take a gulp of water, and then he was sliding right into the neutral zone and reaching for Kyuhyun. Their legs slid together, his hand rubbing against Zhou Mi’s arm.
“Now that I’m in bed, I’m not that tired,” Zhou Mi said, and it wasn’t said like a come-on. Kyuhyun was still pleasantly buzzed, but it made it easy to be close, trading a couple of kisses at first, but lapsing into conversation. It was not awkward or weird for the fact that they were in bed talking. Zhou Mi’s hand was stroking along his lower back, and they could feel as well as hear the little laughs as they talked. It felt so bizarre, so utterly normal, like Zhou Mi’s warmth against him just lulled him into a gentle kind of complacency. There was no room for nerves, for disbelief, not when Zhou Mi’s voice was so low, so intimate, just for him. And he might not have realized that Zhou Mi was getting tired, except that Zhou Mi yawned like a lion. And even if he couldn’t see, it hitched a giggle into him, rocked by Zhou Mi’s hand as they continued cuddling.
“Maybe it’s time to sleep,” Kyuhyun said.
“Maybe,” Zhou Mi agreed.
And he had a sleepy man surrounding him, still smelling of mint, of sex, and sweat. He kissed Zhou Mi back, kisses soft, and getting softer.
“I’m so happy you stayed,” Zhou Mi said.
They arranged themselves to sleep, still touching, but not constricting each other’s movements. At least for a second anyway.
“You have an alarm set, right?” Kyuhyun asked.
“Oh!” Zhou Mi said, rolling away to grab at his phone. Kyuhyun watched, amused, as the room lit from the phone’s light, eyeing the straps of Zhou Mi’s tank top and his shoulders on either side of them.
The room went dark again, and Zhou Mi rolled back to him. Kyuhyun accepted another kiss, feeling Zhou Mi relax.
“What would I do without you?” Zhou Mi teased.
“Sleep in?”
Not like he was a good alarm clock himself. He liked to sleep as much as the next person, and having even a part of Zhou Mi against him was as good a reason as any to keep sinking deeper. He heard Zhou Mi’s breathing even out, and even in an unfamiliar place, he gave in.
***
Kyuhyun didn’t know what woke him up. A sound from outside maybe, as he squinted against the encroaching daylight. He knew where he was, having rolled over very gingerly in the middle of the night a few times. However, knowing and opening his eyes and seeing were two different things. The walls were neutral, not that he’d been paying attention to the walls last night at all. There was a marching line of dressers on one wall, stands of accessories, and a little bookshelf in the middle of that. It almost made him laugh, and he turned his head. The room wasn’t as important as the man beside him in bed was. He was in Zhou Mi’s bed, and it seized him with a wave of surreality, like maybe he was somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be, his hand caught in the cookie jar. But he smiled at the way that Zhou Mi’s face was a little slack, a little misshapen against the pillow. They weren’t touching, but Kyuhyun could see feel all the warmth generated. Zhou Mi had wanted him there, and instead of questioning if he should be there, his next action was a stupid sigh. It was another two or three minutes, Kyuhyun drifting and pleased with the universe, before he heard Zhou Mi take a deep inhale. He waited a few moments for Zhou Mi to wake fully before opening his eyes, and there was Zhou Mi, looking back at him.
Zhou Mi didn’t have a speck of makeup on, and it was a belated realization there. Maybe it was the morning light that emphasized it, just Zhou Mi’s face, the angles of cheekbones and the softness of his mouth. But his mouth didn’t stay soft long, stretching into a smile to see Kyuhyun there, and all Kyuhyun had to do was hold out an arm for Zhou Mi to scoot in, burying his face against Kyuhyun’s chest and sighing. Kyuhyun touched Zhou Mi’s neck for a moment before stroking against his hair, and Zhou Mi chuckled.
“You’re going to put me back to sleep,” Zhou Mi said, his voice a bit gravelly.
“I might sleep again too if you do,” Kyuhyun warned.
“Good morning, anyway,” Zhou Mi said, taking Kyuhyun’s free hand and kissing against his fingers.
“Good morning,” Kyuhyun said. No worries, that was just his heart soaring, nothing to see.
“Did you sleep okay?”
“I did. Did I disturb you?”
“Only once. When I woke up and almost couldn’t go back to sleep because I realized you were really here,” Zhou Mi said, and cackled as Kyuhyun tugged his hair. Way to give him a heart attack.
Though they both jerked a second later when Zhou Mi’s alarm started going off.
“Why did I set that,” Zhou Mi moaned, glomming onto Kyuhyun like a reluctant koala.
“Because your manager would be knocking on your door and marching you down in your pajamas otherwise?”
“So rude,” Zhou Mi gusted. The phone pealed off again, and Zhou Mi rolled over, stabbing at it and putting it on snooze. “Just a few more minutes.”
Kyuhyun rolled over with him, pressing against Zhou Mi’s back and tucking his face against Zhou Mi’s neck. They rested like that until the phone rudely went off again, and waking up could be put off no longer. It took a little doing but eventually they were slouched together, their legs hanging off the bed. He was admiring Zhou Mi’s knees for fuck’s sake, and he looked up as Zhou Mi tugged at the shirt Kyuhyun was wearing.
“I should find you something to wear home,” Zhou Mi said.
Kyuhyun looked down. There was nothing fancy about the t-shirt, but even for having slept in it, it was fine.
“I can just wear this home. It’s not wrinkled, and no one will see anything under my jacket anyway.”
Zhou Mi made a noise that might’ve been agreement.
“I should send you home in my clothes every time,” Zhou Mi said. And he looked up sharply. “You’re thinking something dirty!”
“You’re thinking something dirty!” Kyuhyun shot right back, because clearly Zhou Mi wouldn’t have accused him if he hadn’t been. The tickle fest kept either of them from being close to falling back asleep. But it brought up a thought, a question he never thought he’d be asking with his face plastered to Zhou Mi’s collarbone. “You have condoms…? Not for right now, but just-“
In case. In case, as his face burned and he tried not to stare down at Zhou Mi’s lap.
“Yes. I have us covered,” Zhou Mi said, and sounded oddly proud of that. Kyuhyun didn’t realize why until he started nudging Kyuhyun’s side, and the double meaning of that sank in, and he groaned.
“That’s terrible!”
Zhou Mi just laughed and squished him, and nipped at his neck. Kyuhyun was going to have to check to be sure he had supplies at his own home, because he didn’t-
Home. He had to go home, and Zhou Mi had to go, and they still hadn’t gotten off the bed.
“You have to get dressed,” Kyuhyun said, wiggling up and pulling Zhou Mi with him. “When are you supposed to go?”
Zhou Mi squinted. “Ten minutes?”
“Go. Go!”
Kyuhyun got into his pants while Zhou Mi threw himself into the bathroom to do whatever mysterious things he needed to do. He realized he really hadn’t been in Zhou Mi’s place in the daylight. He had windows and everything, albeit covered with cloth to keep out prying eyes. Kyuhyun peeked out at the view, hauling out his glass from the bedroom and getting another drink. When Zhou Mi raced out of the bathroom in little but his underwear, Kyuhyun stared at the ceiling and slipped in, washing his face and patting down his hair before going back out.
He was ready to go, phone, his dirty shirt, his jacket on, everything he’d arrived with. He was pushing his feet into his shoes as Zhou Mi thundered out and did a frantic three second check through a little backpack.
“Phone? Charger? Wallet?” Kyuhyun said.
“All of those,” Zhou Mi said, and hauled it over his shoulder. He got into his own shoes, and cupped Kyuhyun’s face, kissing him.
“I love you,” Zhou Mi said. He said it so obviously, like he was telling Kyuhyun the earth revolved around the sun. It felt good to steal a few more seconds with their arms wrapped around each other.
“Love you,” Kyuhyun said into Zhou Mi’s shoulder. Zhou Mi just squeezed him tighter, like he was trying to absorb Kyuhyun right in. It felt like part of him was trying to rip away, now that he was facing reality that they were going to have to go their separate ways. “Soon, I hope?”
He said, thinking of when they’d be able to meet up next.
“Very soon,” Zhou Mi agreed. They shared one more kiss, and the door had just opened when Zhou Mi’s phone rang. He answered it, laughing as he made sure the door was locked behind them. Kyuhyun stared at the door for a second, like it was some kind of weird portal to another world of them being together, before walking with Zhou Mi toward the elevator. “Yeah, I’m heading down right now.
“I’m going to go out the back,” Kyuhyun said. Maybe a little safer, so it didn’t look like they were leaving together. Zhou Mi nodded him, reaching out and squeezing his arm.
“I’ll be texting you,” Zhou Mi said.
Kyuhyun smiled, waving a little as Zhou Mi waved with both hands as the elevator door closed between them. He let out a long, slow breath, and hiked back to the other side of the building to go down that way. He didn’t know what he was going to do with himself at home. Laundry, maybe. And he snorted at himself, as he pressed the down button. No, he still knew how to exist on his own.
***
It wasn’t like there was a ray of sunshine that came out from behind a cloud and shone down on Zhou Mi’s head as Kyuhyun approached like they were in some kind of play. There on some yonder balcony, the man he’d been half naked with the last time they’d met up, and the guy he’d slept next to, and the guy who-
The guy who was just hanging out near a trash can and had on some old jeans, a normal shirt and baseball cap, a gray mask, and minimal makeup. And he still looked like he was made of unicorn thread or something.
Kyuhyun could see the smile just by seeing Zhou Mi’s eyes as he approached.
“Long time no see,” he said. Two whole days. He tried to be embarrassed for a few whole seconds, the whole half-naked thing latching onto his brain again. Instead he was just pleased. Pleased he wasn’t more embarrassed than he was, pleased that he didn’t have to wonder at them growing closer.
“The longest time ever,” Zhou Mi whined a little, leaning into his side and wrapping an arm around him for a moment. “I was pouting at my manager yesterday, so he told me I had some time today.”
“And after you’re finished with everything, you’ll go home and sleep?”
“Yeah,” Zhou Mi gusted.
“You’re not getting sick, right?”
It was kind of fun to nag as they walked, to hear Zhou Mi refute his accusations, and assure Kyuhyun he was taking care of himself. And he was just as prepared when Zhou Mi flipped the table over and started drilling him, too. Did he stay up late? Did he close his laptop before he was keeping his eyelids up by force?
“I’d have let you close my laptop for me,” Kyuhyun offered. In a certain situation anyway. If Zhou Mi wanted to drag him off his laptop at will, they were going to have some negotiations. There was love, but there was also his computer best buddy, the other love of his life. So Kyuhyun amended. “If you’d said please.”
“Oh, I’m very good at saying please,” Zhou Mi boasted, patting at his own chest.
Kyuhyun was going to laugh back at him, when a couple of people who seemed to be about to pass them instead stopped and gaped.
“You’re- You’re Zhou Mi, right?”
After his big awards wins, his songs were getting more play in stores and in random places, but for all their being careful, their meetings, it was the first time that Zhou Mi had been spotted. For a second, Kyuhyun froze. He wanted to wheel around, turn his back, hide. He turned his head, staring forward and heard Zhou Mi agreeing, greeting the two women warmly. Kyuhyun finally got his limbs under control and he edged forward, stopping about ten feet away and window shopping aggressively, his back tense as he could hear them talking, hear Zhou Mi’s subtle laughs. Zhou Mi signed autographs for them, chatting with them, and Kyuhyun’s thoughts swirled. What if they’d taken note of Kyuhyun walking with Zhou Mi. What had they even been talking about just before then? What if they wondered who Kyuhyun was, or if they took pictures, or spread rumors.
It wasn’t like they’d been making out, and people walking around together as friends wasn’t cause for suspicion last time he checked. It just felt so raw, so exposed, like if someone saw him looking at Zhou Mi, really looked, then they would see everything. Every time they met, every time they went out, it was a subtle kind of danger. Getting noticed once was one thing. Getting noticed multiple times-
It still wasn’t a crime to meet up with friends, but that wasn’t what they were.
“Ready?” Zhou Mi asked, coming up beside him, blocking him from any eyes that might have been in the direction of Zhou Mi meeting his fans.
“Yeah,” Kyuhyun said, and they started walking again, turning off down a quieter side street with different shops once they were sure they weren’t being trailed. “Sorry to have gone off all awkward like that. I knew- I knew someone might recognize you one day, but apparently I didn’t think hard enough about what I’d do. Was it suspicious that I-?”
He grimaced, and Zhou Mi tugged him to a stop, buying drinks and letting them settle for a few minutes together in some shade.
“It wasn’t suspicious. They probably were curious but plenty of people like me have friends not in the business who just want to stay anonymous. It’s not like we’re doing anything wrong. I’m sorry that you felt like you had to go, though.”
Oh, and he kicked himself for that. Zhou Mi definitely didn’t have anything to feel sorry for, and he didn’t want Zhou Mi being sad about it either.
“No, I know people will recognize you a lot. I bet that’s kind of cool,” Kyuhyun said, nudging Zhou Mi with an elbow.
“Most of the time,” Zhou Mi allowed. “You did look kid of cute scuttling off.”
“I’ll be better prepared next time,” Kyuhyun said.
Zhou Mi looked so cute, his mask hanging off one ear, his upper lip stained pink in a couple of places by his drink, and his smile bright. Yeah. Inevitably, there would be a next time. Maybe it wouldn’t be soon, but unless they were never in public again, Zhou Mi would get recognized. Their charmed meetings couldn’t continue. Maybe Kyuhyun would be a little more aware of that, since it had finally happened.
“Come on, let’s go before someone recognizes you again. They were clearly big fans to spot you like this.”
“What does that mean!” Zhou Mi demanded, and Kyuhyun laughed, tossing his empty bottle to be recycled and leading Zhou Mi around to different shops to just browse. He knew Zhou Mi’s proclivities well. Kyuhyun’s eyes fixed on something on the wall. It was a pretty kind of sign, carved and unique. He noted the name of the shop, for the future.
“I have concert news, too,” Zhou Mi said, batting at Kyuhyun’s arm, once he’d satisfied himself that Kyuhyun hadn’t insulted his appearance. “Once I make my case for songs, I’ll start recording a couple of new ones. Do you have one you think I should do?”
Kyuhyun made a show of thinking, before tossing out three or four joking suggestions including a trot song. He grinned the whole rest of the time together, because no one was going to recognize him instead, but even with Zhou Mi having been spotted, hearing Zhou Mi sputter and whine and squeeze him in retaliation, he wouldn’t have traded it for a moment.
***
“The drama episode I have a little part in is airing tomorrow! I’ll be busy or we could watch it together. :( :( Don’t miss it!!”
The text from Zhou Mi had been so very unassuming. Kyuhyun knew that Zhou Mi liked to watch things with him. Zhou Mi had admitted he liked seeing Kyuhyun admire him in real time, no surprise to either of them. There was no pretense to that which made Kyuhyun happy. There was a certain amount of insecurity underneath of the whole self-admiration, but Kyuhyun knew that his finding that little peacocking part of Zhou Mi to be precious was a direct effect of first being an adoring fan, and then all of the gooey feelings that came after.
So he settled in prepared to note both critique and admiration.
And then ended up texting Zhou Mi a string of periods in lieu of any text whatsoever.
He’d been duped. He’d been had. Zhou Mi had gotten him in the absolutely worst way possible, and he was never going to recover from it.
But that didn’t keep him from answering his phone the second it rang two hours later.
“You are in huge trouble,” Kyuhyun grumbled.
“Am I?” Zhou Mi asked, sounding utterly delighted that such a thing was possible. Okay, so he hadn’t sounded very menacing. The fact that Zhou Mi was pleased meant that he’d known just exactly why Kyuhyun was upset.
“When you said- You told me you had a little cameo in this drama. But you didn’t tell me you’d be taking a shower in it.”
He said shower like it was a dirty word, and it was. Just not dirty in the conventionally understood way. He’d been expecting Zhou Mi to be cute, to show up as some friend of a friend and being cute and having his I’m An Actor Really face on. But no, 30 minutes in, there had been the sound of a shower. And then a naked back. And then there had been Zhou Mi with water streaming down his face and all over his perfect shoulders and chest, and making the main lead - and likely half the audience - swoon.
Kyuhyun was telling Zhou Mi about the hand he’d had to slam down on his chair to keep himself upright as he’d gaped.
“Ooh,” Zhou Mi all but cooed at him. “I wanted that to be a surprise!”
Kyuhyun was silent for a moment. “So you didn’t warn me on purpose?”
It was official. Zhou Mi was out to kill him. He needed warning before that much skin was on display. Zhou Mi’s last music video, he’d been surprise!shirtless, and Kyuhyun hadn’t made much but garbled noises for about five minutes while he’d tried to process. He’d obviously seen all that skin up close and touched at least some of it. And knew how warm Zhou Mi was, and- Zhou Mi snapped him back to reality.
“Should I have? Why, did you like it?”
“Obviously I liked it,” Kyuhyun scoffed.
“How much?” Zhou Mi pressed. “A whole lot?”
“Yes, a lot,” Kyuhyun said. There was a rather significant pause in there, as he tried to give weight to his words. He couldn’t exactly leer over the phone. “You can guess how much.”
Zhou Mi actually gasped and understood him perfectly. “And you didn’t call me!”
“I texted you! Besides, am I supposed to call you every time I get off?” Kyuhyun hissed, the words not coming out nearly as indignant as they’d been in his head.
“When it has to do with me, yes,” Zhou Mi said, and they both burst out laughing.
“I can just imagine calling you while you’re getting your makeup done all, hey, just to let you know I’m thinking dirty things about you.”
“Now I’m going to think about that the next time I’m getting my makeup done!”
From the plaintive note in Zhou Mi’s voice, at least he was sharing the pain.
“I think the water did more work than you did anyway,” Kyuhyun said. “All you had to do was stand there and smolder.”
“As long as the smolder was good for you,” Zhou Mi teased.
“I think it was rude. How did today go, anyway?”
Since he’d aired his grievances with the surprise nakedness, he settled in to the rhythm of Zhou Mi’s voice, the way he laughed, described things. It was easy to feel like he’d been there, too, and easy to believe that Zhou Mi, on describing a huge meal he wanted to take Kyuhyun back for, had wished he’d been there. Kyuhyun thought of the gift in progress, and wondered what Zhou Mi’s reaction to it would be.
“Tell me about your day,” Zhou Mi urged.
Kyuhyun wondered if Zhou Mi had the same silly smile on his face that Kyuhyun had when listening to Zhou Mi. To be able to share like that, without worrying, without-
“When can we meet up again next?” Kyuhyun asked.
The phone calls, the texting, the teasing, they were all a connection. The way, too, that Zhou Mi said, “I love you,” whether it was in a cute tone, offhand, or so soft that it had his lungs tightening.
But there was a huge and hungry place in him to bask in being near him, to watch Zhou Mi’s face as he talked, press his face into Zhou Mi’s shoulder, and to wrap Zhou Mi up tight, and secure, and safe. Apparently his urge to protect hadn’t decreased on getting to know Zhou Mi. Though, he had gotten even more aware of Zhou Mi’s strength, too. And his weaknesses.
“I want hugs,” Zhou Mi said.
They were definitely on the same page.
***
Anniversaries were important. Days, commemorations. Kyuhyun had a memory a little slippery when it came to that, which was why all his important birthdays were saved in his phone, the anniversary of his parents. Things like that. When he’d entered in his “First date!!!” notation into his calendar, he’d calculated the hundred day mark right away, because otherwise he’d have realized a month after the fact. But Kyuhyun was ready, when he got Zhou Mi’s coy little invitation. He had his present already wrapped and ready to go, no last minute panicking for him.
Okay, some last minute panicking, but he had talked himself down from totally questioning his taste at least five minutes before walking in Zhou Mi’s door.
“Hugs,” Zhou Mi intoned as they rocked back and forth together, and Kyuhyun laughed into Zhou Mi’s shirt, squeezing him back like they were playing some kind of Morse code with their hugs.
“You’d think it’s been a year.”
“Long enough,” Zhou Mi said. “I was worried I’d be out of town today.”
“We could’ve still talked. We’d have made it special,” Kyuhyun said.
He wasn’t going to hold to some silly rules, not when there were a lot of things they had to be thankful for.
“I couldn’t exactly give you a gift over the phone,” Zhou Mi said.
Well. He could’ve, but probably the time for a dirty joke wasn’t then.
“I couldn’t have given you mine either,” Kyuhyun told him.
“Oh?”
Zhou Mi’s eyes lit up when Kyuhyun took the package out of his bag, the sleek red paper wrapping it all up.
“I feel like I’m being greedy,” Zhou Mi said, flexing his fingers as he considered the package. “Did you want to wait to open presents after?”
Kyuhyun just laughed as he shook his head, because it was going to be all he could think about until Zhou Mi opened it anyway. Better to get it out of the way, so he could relax.
“I was hoping to give you this first anyway,” Kyuhyun said.
“Oh, good!”
It was offered, and taken carefully with both hands, and they sat down on the couch together. Kyuhyun both wanted to savor the moment and also to have Zhou Mi rip into it. Zhou Mi shook the box gently, and Kyuhyun didn’t bother trying to hide his laugh, because Zhou Mi was taking so much glee in it. He shoved back every questioning though, as Zhou Mi undid the paper, exposing the solid white paper box beneath. Almost there, Kyuhyun thought, blowing out a breath as Zhou Mi lifted the plain lid, and lifted away the red tissue paper that covered what was inside.
“Oh,” Zhou Mi said, lifting his gift out.
It was a single word. It was a wall decoration, maybe eighteen inches long, the word “Endlessly” in English carved out of wood and displayed in a scrolling script. On the back Kyuhyun had inscribed their initials, which Zhou Mi caught almost immediately.
“It’s beautiful. Endlessly,” Zhou Mi said, tracing the swells of the word and the dips of empty space. “From my song?”
A song whose lyrics Zhou Mi had written himself. Kyuhyun inhaled, launching into his explanation.
“When I heard that song, I had to look this word up, and it just stuck with me, the meaning of it. Obviously, I’d never expected this, and I knew the lyric wasn’t about me, but it had a lot of meaning to me as a fan. And then now…“
He bumped his face into Zhou Mi’s shoulder before he rambled right on, and Zhou Mi’s arm curled around him.
“I didn’t want to get you a picture of us, because then if people saw, they’d ask questions. But I wanted you to have something here that was…ours.”
And for Zhou Mi to think of him. That sounded too needy, as Zhou Mi kissed him, and then pulled Kyuhyun right up onto his feet. Kyuhyun for some reason expected Zhou Mi to think about where he wanted it, to have a picture sent to him one day of it all hung up and showcased. Instead, Zhou Mi let him go and surveyed the walls. A conglomeration of postcards in a frame was taken down and set on the floor as Kyuhyun’s mouth opened and then closed. The little hook on the back of the wood fit on the top loop of the middle E fit right into the nail, and there it was, hung on the wall right there in Zhou Mi’s living room.
“I’ll put that other one in the kitchen or something,” Zhou Mi said, like Kyuhyun was going to feel guilt for an inanimate frame. “Do you think it looks good there?”
Kyuhyun chuckle felt a bit weak. “Do you think I’m going to say no?”
Zhou Mi looked a little bit like a bird as he moved around and considered it from different angles.
“Yes, I like it there. I’ll give it a few days to settle. I can always move one of the other pictures over if I need to.”
“What will you say if someone asks you where it came from?” Kyuhyun asked.
They managed not to step on each other’s toes as Zhou Mi came up to him.
“I’ll just tell them it was a gift from someone very precious to me,” Zhou Mi said. He cupped Kyuhyun’s elbows, holding them as they kissed. Kyuhyun did an admirable job not squirming, but he was still smiling when Zhou Mi waggled his eyebrows at him. “Speaking of, I have a gift, too. Come on.”
The box that Zhou Mi offered him when they settled back on the couch was quite a bit smaller. It was wrapped, rather amusingly, in little rabbits, and Kyuhyun tucked that back, opening up the black box under it. And inside of that, another black box, only made of velvet. It made him pause, almost looking to Zhou Mi as though to be sure yes, he was opening the right thing.
It was a soft sheen of silver that he touched, a ring similar to one Zhou Mi often wore. A ring. Zhou Mi had gotten him a ring. It made him feel a little disconnected from himself, like he was watching someone else get a ring. Except, no, he was there on the couch, and Zhou Mi was beside him.
“Wow,” Kyuhyun mouthed, looking up at Zhou Mi to see if he could help Kyuhyun get out of his own head.
“Wow, huh? I wanted to celebrate with you today. I used to wonder if it was just some excuse for people to celebrate, but…” Zhou Mi nuzzled against his face. “When I think how happy I’ve been, I know it’s more than that.”
It was like Zhou Mi telling him he loved him all over again, the way it buoyed through him.
“Look inside,” Zhou Mi urged.
All that was engraved there was a heart. Just a heart. And Kyuhyun’s heart, his poor heart, had just about given up soaring to heaven and having to come right back.
“Wow,” he said again, and absolutely his next word was going to be something other than that, he swore it.
“I know I saw you wear a ring once, so I thought… I hoped you’d like it.”
“I do. Very much. Will-“
He didn’t even have to ask his question, as Zhou Mi took the ring from him, sliding it down Kyuhyun’s finger until it rested just so. It looked good there. Zhou Mi’s hand looked good there, too, and when he turned to comment on just that, Zhou Mi yawned baldly, and then looked horribly embarrassed and Kyuhyun hicced back a laugh. Then, concern came roaring after.
“How long have you been awake, anyway?”
“I-“ Zhou Mi started, and then stopped. He had the glazed look of someone who couldn’t really quite remember, which was never a good sign.
“Maybe some sleep would be good.”
“I want to eat with you,” Zhou Mi protested. “It’s a special day!”
Zhou Mi’s health was special, too, but they weren’t going to get far arguing that.
“It is. And, thank you,” Kyuhyun said, and the ring was so solid there, but he knew he’d start not noticing it after a while. A long while probably. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Zhou Mi said, letting Kyuhyun kiss him. That steadied him, a little. He just wanted to crawl into Zhou Mi’s lap and maybe not let go. But Zhou Mi’s lap wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was Kyuhyun.
“What if you napped for an hour, and we can get food after,” Kyuhyun suggested. “Will you still be able to sleep tonight, if you nap?”
“Oh yes. There’s no danger of that. An hour,” Zhou Mi almost whined. “But you’ll be alone out here!”
“I have my laptop in my bag. If you give me your wifi password, I’ll keep busy,” Kyuhyun joked, and Zhou Mi looked the tiniest bit relieved.
“Will you promise you’ll come wake me up if I’m not out here by an hour?”
And Zhou Mi gave him the Puppy Eyes of Doom.
“Promise.”
They pinky swore, and sealed that with a kiss, too. Or two, or three, or four kisses until Kyuhyun pushed Zhou Mi away with a groan. One wifi password later, and Zhou Mi admiring him sitting there until Kyuhyun silently pointed toward the bedroom, and Zhou Mi disappeared to go get some sleep. Kyuhyun took note of the time, because he had promised. But an hour on his laptop was hardly a hardship, since that would’ve been what he’d been doing at home anyway.
Maybe he glanced up a few times to admire the way his gift looked on the wall. It looked nice, like it belonged. He tried not to read too much into what he thought of that. He held up his hand to admire the ring against that backdrop. And then he hung his head because there were too many feelings all at once.
Forty-seven minutes into the hour, Zhou Mi came shuffling out. He curled right onto the couch beside Kyuhyun, leaning his head on the top of Kyuhyun’s shoulder.
“Good morning,” Kyuhyun said rubbing his cheek against Zhou Mi’s hair.
“Don’t tease,” Zhou Mi chuckled.
“Did you sleep okay? Do you feel better?”
“I did. Don’t worry.”
Zhou Mi reached out and grabbed his phone, curling right back up to where he had been before. They sat for a few moments in silence as Kyuhyun continued finishing up a game he had been playing. It was comfortable, the silence, Zhou Mi against him with his phone. Kyuhyun was back on his desktop - stopping for a moment when he realized it was on a picture of Zhou Mi from his last fanmeeting looking like the Earth’s own angelic being. He got a rusty laugh for that.
“I like this guy,” Zhou Mi said, nudging against him. “He has good taste.”
“Now who’s teasing,” Kyuhyun said, but he didn’t even grumble it. He was so sunk.
“Ready for me to call for dinner?” Zhou Mi asked.
“Yes, please.”
All Kyuhyun had to do was wait as Zhou Mi got the order put in, sticking his laptop on the table.
“Twenty minutes,” Zhou Mi said, as he hung up. He reached out, tracing the edge of the ring on Kyuhyun’s finger. Another thing that Zhou Mi liked, he supposed.
“How did you even know what size I wear?” Kyuhyun wondered, touching the underside of the ring with his thumb.
“Ryeowook,” Zhou Mi said, giggling with his own cleverness as Kyuhyun goggled at him. “When I came over to visit and he was there, I let him in on my plan. When he went to the bathroom, he traced one of your rings for me.”
“He did not. He was barely gone for- And he didn’t even say anything! Not a word. Not even a hint that I should be looking for a gift.”
“Maybe he thought I would forget.”
“I doubt it. I bet the first thing he says when he confirms who this is from is that he knew you’d pick out a good one. Now I kind of wish I’d picked out something like this.”
Though, even to think of it he would have felt too forward. And Zhou Mi, questionable sartorial choices though he sometimes made, had a bit more of a discerning taste. If Zhou Mi had presented him a ring made of twist ties, Kyuhyun would’ve been enamored. Though he wasn’t sure what he was even worried about, because if Zhou Mi was half as gone as he was, he would’ve been happy with whatever, too.
“I have lots of jewelry. Only one home, though,” Zhou Mi said, lifting Kyuhyun’s hand and kissing against the ring.
Rings had a lot of different meanings. His fingers curled over Zhou Mi’s as Zhou Mi kissed him, and they leaned together, rearranging themselves so they could kiss, and talk. Zhou Mi had stories of his day, and he apparently needed kisses against Kyuhyun’s chin and the corner of his lips. He still looked tired, but at least he knew Zhou Mi was a little refreshed as well. Kyuhyun kissed there, right there where a dimple formed when Zhou Mi smiled, and stroked at Zhou Mi’s neck, the short hair, warm skin.
The chime had them both jolting.
“Hold that thought,” Zhou Mi said, kissing him one more time and going to let the delivery man into the building.
Kyuhyun hummed, tapping on his belly as he relaxed. He’d stay a little while after they ate so it didn’t seem like he was just there for the food, and then leave Zhou Mi to his sleep. Or he hoped Zhou Mi would sleep. He glared a little at Zhou Mi’s backside, questioning that. At least it’d give Zhou Mi the chance, and then they’d be able to meet up again as soon as Zhou Mi’s schedule would allow.
Zhou Mi walked back over with the food with such ceremony anyone would’ve thought he was carrying the crown jewels. When Zhou Mi bowed, they were both laughing, grinning at each other.
***