[fic] daisy, 2/2
part two;
“Can we get a divorce?” Kyuhyun asks as soon as his parents are out the door. “Like, now?”
Zhou Mi stares at him, feeling something well up in his chest. Kyuhyun actually looks half serious, but he doesn’t even care right now. “Oh, Kyuhyun,” he breathes, rushing over to him and folding him up in his arms.
“Um. Are you okay?”
“Thank you for saying all of those nice things about me. No one has ever done that before.”
Kyuhyun carefully extricates himself from his grasp. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. Why do you look so surprised?”
“I don’t know. I thought you attracted all types of people, since you’re so bright and…sunshiny.”
“Um.” Zhou Mi scratches his head. “I think I just attract assholes who like long legs.”
He glances down. “You do have very long legs.”
“Thanks. Your legs are nice, too.”
“…Thanks.”
Awkward silence. Zhou Mi coughs. “Anyways,” he says, “I guess I’ll help clean up, then I’ll head home. I’ll preoccupy my parents for the rest of the week, so you don’t have to worry about that ever happening again.” He rolls up his sleeves and heads to the kitchen, ready to take on the task of doing all of those dishes.
“You can-” Kyuhyun clears his throat, and Zhou Mi looks back at him. “It’s late, and you shouldn’t be out driving so late. You can…stay the night, if you want.”
And it shouldn’t have-it really shouldn’t have, but the offer alone has him grinning like the biggest idiot alive. “Really?”
“No, I changed my mind. Now do the dishes and go home.”
Zhou Mi catches him off guard with a hug for the second time in five minutes. “I totally underestimated you,” he coos, nuzzling Kyuhyun’s hair. Kyuhyun makes a choking sound. “You surprise me more every day.”
“Right.” He sounds a little strained. “Can you let go of me now?”
“What, does hugging a gay guy make you uncomfortable?”
“…Something like that.”
“Y’know, just because we’re married and you have a penis, doesn’t mean I’m going to jump you. You’re not my type, anyway.”
Kyuhyun eyes him. “Are you going to do the dishes, or what?”
-
“Kyuhyun says he’s going to see if he can get his job back,” Zhou Mi says through a mouthful of food to Sungmin and Hyukjae. “Apparently, he used to be a professor. Which isn’t surprising, I guess, since he’s so smart-but I didn’t think he’d have a job where he’d be required to socially interact with people and deal with others’ stupidity. He seems to have a low tolerance for stupidity.”
“You know,” Hyukjae says thoughtfully through his fries, “with the way you go on about him, people would think that he’s really your husband.”
“He really is my husband, Hyukjae.”
Hyukjae rolls his eyes. “You know what I mean.”
He hasn’t actually seen Kyuhyun for about a month, but they’ve been keeping up with texts and phone calls. Zhou Mi’s a busy person, and straight men generally don’t like associating with their husbands too much, so he’s fine with that. It’s not like he’s in love with him or anything, so yeah. Totally fine.
“But we are having dinner tonight,” he continues excitedly. “His treat.”
“Aw, he’s taking you on a date!” Sungmin coos. “How romantic.”
“We’re just keeping in touch in case my parents randomly spring up again. I wouldn’t put it past them, y’know.”
“Then wouldn’t they wonder why you two aren’t living together?” Hyukjae shoves more fries in his mouth. Zhou Mi hands him a napkin.
“We will…deal with that when it comes.” His pager beeps in his pocket, and he checks it. “Oh, got to go, guys. Guess who gets to watch Heechul peel a patient’s face off and put an entirely new one on?”
“Oh, I hate you!” Sungmin cries. “You got in on that and you didn’t tell me?”
“There was only room for one more resident, and I wasn’t going to give it to you.”
Sungmin throws one of Hyukjae’s fries at him. It lands at his feet. “Fine, I don’t care,” he retorts. “Just wait ‘til you realize that you’re married to a guy that’ll never have a thing for penises.”
Oh. Ouch. Sticking his tongue out at Sungmin, Zhou Mi quickly makes his way to the operating room.
-
“Have you ever seen a guy with his face peeled off?” He flails his arms, and Kyuhyun cringes. “Like, everything was intact-the muscle, his eyes, his nose-but the top layer was peeled off. You can’t even comprehend how cool it is.”
“You’re right,” Kyuhyun replies, putting his fork down, looking a little green. “I can’t.”
“Oh, sorry. Did I make you queasy?” Zhou Mi’s brow furrows with worry.
“You would make most people queasy,” he says, taking a sip of his wine.
Zhou Mi sighs. “I’m sorry. I just find these things interesting.”
“It’s okay. I spend my free time reading up on Einstein’s research and playing StarCraft.” Kyuhyun fixes his tie, and Zhou Mi can’t help but think that he looks really good tonight. And it might just be because the restaurant is kind of dim, but it looks like his skin has been getting better, too.
“Have you finally gone to that dermatologist?”
Kyuhyun glances at him. “Yes, I did,” he says, voice clipped. “He also gave me about twenty different type of lotions and cleansers to use at different times of every day.” He pauses for dramatic effect. “Every day.”
“You need it, dear,” he tells him honestly.
Glaring at him, Kyuhyun returns to his food, stabbing at it like it’s a baby hamster. Zhou Mi flinches.
“You, um,” he tries, changing the topic, “never really told me much about yourself. You know a lot about me, but it seems like I don’t know anything about you.”
“What do you want to know?” Kyuhyun asks, albeit a little grudgingly. Is he that sensitive about his skin?
Zhou Mi fidgets in his seat, feeling apologetic. “Well, you never told me much about your family. You live alone, so I’ve never seen them…”
Kyuhyun avoids eye contact. “There’s nothing much to know about.”
“C’mon, tell me! I feel like I’m married to a rock.” Kyuhyun doesn’t bother him with a response, though, so Zhou Mi just sighs in defeat and returns to his food. Well, it’s not like he should expect any different. They’re bound together by only one goal, and that that was to make sure Kyuhyun lives for several years to come. That’s over now, so in reality, they shouldn’t even be seeing each other anymore-and ideally, they should’ve gotten divorced, but neither of them have mentioned it in a serious manner, so it was never discussed. This all makes logical sense in Zhou Mi’s mind, which most things do, since he’s a doctor and all, but-
He finds himself wanting to know more about Kyuhyun. He finds himself wanting to spend time with him-to have dinner with him and get the chance to clean his apartment again. As weird as it is, Kyuhyun’s become his friend, and he doesn’t really want to let it go.
The other man pauses in the middle of his eating, and Zhou Mi looks at him. “My parents”-he pauses, as if he’s saying this with much difficulty-“died in a car crash when I was in middle school. My older sister took care of me from then on-but two years ago, she went to the hospital due to some chest pains.” He avoids Zhou Mi’s eyes. “She called and told me she’d be fine and she’d text me once she was out-but one hour became two, and two became six…” He breathes in deeply. Zhou Mi doesn’t breathe at all. “When I called to check up on her, a doctor picked up. I don’t remember what she died from-I really should, but I don’t, because all I do remember is that I couldn’t bring myself to hate the doctor, because she was-she was crying as she told me this. She was in tears, as if Ara was her sister and not mine and-” He looks at Zhou Mi then, eyes wide and frightened. “What do you do when you have no one to blame?”
Zhou Mi can usually handle hopeless questions like these fairly well, since patients go through breakdowns and do that all the time, but for some reason, when he looks at Kyuhyun, his mind goes blank, and all he can think about is how much he wants to give him a hug right now.
“Sorry,” Kyuhyun mutters, looking away. “I didn’t mean to spill that much. I just figured it’d be okay to tell you, since…”
“I’m bright and sunshiny?” he offers weakly.
“Yeah, that. And you’re my husband, so.” He clears his throat. “Well. That never happened.”
Zhou Mi looks at him with soft eyes. “Do you want a hug later?”
Kyuhyun doesn’t answer. He takes it as a yes. When they return to his apartment after dinner, Zhou Mi does just that-hug him. He has long limbs, and he figures they’re probably made for hugging people of all sizes, so he takes advantage of that. Kyuhyun smells nice, anyway-he might have a gross face, but his hair is really soft and well taken care of. And he’s working on his face, anyway.
(And he also likes having someone depend on him. It’s nice to know that he’s needed, even if it’s by his straight husband.)
“You should go to bed,” he tells Kyuhyun when he pulls away. “Take a bath and just go straight to bed. You’ll feel better tomorrow morning.” Kyuhyun doesn’t look at him. His eyes are a little red, and Zhou Mi knows it’s because he’s been keeping his tears in all evening. Kyuhyun doesn’t cry for anyone, and he especially isn’t going to cry in front of Zhou Mi. “Do you…want me to start your bath for you?”
“I don’t want a bath. I just want to sleep.”
Zhou Mi smiles. “Then go sleep.”
Kyuhyun reaches out, fingers wrapping around Zhou Mi’s wrist. Just holds it. Doesn’t look at him. Zhou Mi’s breath catches in his throat. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
With his free hand, Kyuhyun points at his eyes. Traces his eye bags with the tip of his finger-the eye bags that Zhou Mi had noticed since their first meeting, and haven’t disappeared during the duration that he’s known him for. “I suffer from insomnia.”
He feels a small part of him crumble. “Oh, Kyuhyun,” he breathes, pulling him into his arms again. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You’re not obligated to take care of me just because you’re a doctor.”
“I’m your husband! I should take care of you!” Zhou Mi turns Kyuhyun around by his shoulders and gently pushes him towards his room. “I’ll wait out here while you change, okay?” Kyuhyun nods, and Zhou Mi closes the door behind him, before leaning against the wall and taking a deep breath. Wow. Okay. He was not expecting that.
He supposes he’s only ever seen Kyuhyun as the guy whose life he saved-the guy with the nice adrenal gland, the guy who he’s tied to by a few documents. Kyuhyun was just one of his patients with a few special needs, and Zhou Mi doesn’t mind taking care of a few patients with special needs. He’s a doctor, and that’s what he does best-taking care of people. And no matter how impassive, how quiet, how inexpressive the patient is, he’ll do it. Because he’s a doctor.
Then why is his heart racing in his chest? Why does it feel like he’s on the verge of breaking?
Kyuhyun opens the door a minute later, and Zhou Mi manages a smile. “Do you think you’ll be okay now?”
His eyes shift. “Yeah.” No.
Sighing, Zhou Mi opens the door wider and steps in. “Go on, get in bed.” Wow, his room is a pigsty. No wonder his father called this place out; it’s absolutely disgusting.
Kyuhyun listens, and climbs into bed. Zhou Mi pulls up the chair from his desk, and sits down; gets comfortable in it. Kyuhyun rolls over so his back is facing him.
He doesn’t ask him to stay. He does anyway.
-
One week later, and Kyuhyun throws a cushion at Zhou Mi’s face. It almost actually hits him. “It was one time, get over it!”
Zhou Mi looks at him over the rim of his glasses. “As your personal doctor and your husband, I am seriously worried about your mental health. How long have you had insomnia for? What about those nightmares? Other than having cancer, you’re probably traumatized and afraid of people, which is why you spend your time either inside, playing StarCraft, or at the university library, reading about Einstein’s research.”
“I hate you,” Kyuhyun says, and Zhou Mi just smiles cheerfully.
“It’s not like you see me too often, anyway. I sometimes have forty-eight hour shifts, sometimes I work the night shift and sleep all day-”
“Clearly, you don’t work enough, because I still see your face enough to want to kill myself.”
(In other words, one week later, and Zhou Mi has decided to move in.)
“Oh, I love you, dearest husband of mine,” he sings with mock affection as he stands up from the couch. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to make us some dinner. Because that’s what good husbands do. Good husbands don’t yell at their significant other for caring.”
“I hate you,” Kyuhyun repeats with resolution.
“That’s what Sungmin says too, but he’s still around!”
“From what you’ve told me about him, Sungmin’s stupid.”
Zhou Mi pauses. “Does seducing half of the hospital staff mean you’re stupid? Because if that’s the case, then yes, he’s very stupid.”
Kyuhyun shudders. “Please stop talking.”
“Okay,” he says happily.
(“So…you’re officially living together now?” said stupid person will ask Zhou Mi later, who will nod. “Wow, it’s like you guys are actually taking the steps to engage in a healthy relationship, or something. Have you guys fucked yet?”
“I will forever be amazed by your choice of language,” Zhou Mi will mutter.
“Do you love him?” Hyukjae will ask.
“And I will wonder how you haven’t been fired yet, considering you lack any sort of social skills, and have probably offended every single patient you’ve ever had.”
“Aw, you’re avoiding the question!” Sungmin will clap delightedly. “You guys have definitely fucked.”
“I hate you both.”)
-
“How do people fall in love?” he asks one day, stalking through the door. Kyuhyun pokes his head out of the kitchen, which should be rather disconcerting, because Zhou Mi can smell something burning in the air-but the apartment burning down isn’t at the top of his list of priorities right now. “How on earth do people fall in love?”
“Slowly?” Kyuhyun supplies, waving his spatula around. Zhou Mi stares, because he’s being domestic. Which, in itself, should be kind of creepy. (It’s cute instead.)
Tossing his jacket onto the couch, he marches into the kitchen, pacing back and forth. “Hyukjae’s been seeing this pathologist for a while, and he’s actually pretty into her-but she totally blew him off for some anesthesiologist-which isn’t surprising, I guess. I mean, she’s a pathologist-her job is to pick apart dead bodies in hopes of telling its family that their loved one didn’t die for no reason.” Kyuhyun stares at him. Whatever he’s cooking continues to burn. “What I want to know is how people fall in love, because it just makes no sense to me whatsoever that one person can fall in love while the other person doesn’t. Don’t people fall in love together? Part of it is feeling that you’re being loved back, because psychologically, people should be more attracted to others who love them back as compared to people who don’t love them back, unless you’re a little messed up like you or me, or you’re a masochist or something-” He stops, not sure what he’s talking about.
Just to be safe, Kyuhyun waits for a moment. “Do you feel better now?” he asks calmly.
Zhou Mi takes a deep breath. “Yes.”
“Good. Now make something edible for dinner, because clearly, I’m never going to be able to cook no matter how many times I try.”
He glances at the mess on the counter. “Kyuhyun, you don’t need a frying pan for Kraft Dinner. You just put the pasta in some boiling water, wait for a few minutes, and add the powdered cheese in. Did you not read the instructions?”
“I figured it’d taste better this way,” he sniffs.
“God, you’re impossible. Go dump that out-I’ll make something better than Kraft Dinner.”
While Kyuhyun cleans up, Zhou Mi continues to rant about how people fall in love and how pathologists should never be trusted-and in fact, you should never date anyone who you overrule in rank, which means nurses and interns-and, by principal, dermatologists, lab techs, and definitely anesthesiologists and pathologists.
“Hyukjae’s just an idiot.” He pours a small amount of oil on a clean frying pan, and watches it sizzle. “He’s always been an idiot, and always will be. I mean, how do you fall in love with someone who doesn’t fall in love with you?” He turns around and looks at Kyuhyun for some confirmation. “I mean, that’s happened to me before, and I can sure as hell tell you that I’ve learned my lesson. I do not let myself fall for someone unless there are clear signs that he likes me back, or else I’m just setting myself up for disappointment that that really wouldn’t be good for my already unstable mental health.”
Halting his current mission of wiping the counter clean, Kyuhyun walks over to Zhou Mi and smoothes down the collar of his shirt. Zhou Mi’s heart skips a beat. “Are you certified to be a doctor if your mental health is unstable?”
“Well, it’s not completely unstable-only when I’m questioning how people fall in love-”
“Shut up,” he says irritably, and Zhou Mi shuts up, because he realizes that he’s probably been babbling nonstop for the past ten minutes, and Kyuhyun is most likely that close to knocking him out with that frying pan that he hasn’t even finished washing yet.
“Um,” he says intelligently when Kyuhyun stares at him intently. “Sorry?” Kyuhyun smoothes down his collar again, fingers brushing the bare skin of Zhou Mi’s neck. He stops breathing for a moment. “Kyuhyun?”
“Shut up for a sec, Mi. Just let me think.”
“Oh. Um, okay.”
Kyuhyun’s hands remain on his collar and his heart keeps skipping beats and he’s breathing a little shallowly and okay, this is cool, it’s not like he’s hyperventilating or anything and oh my God okay he is totally hyperventilating-
“That’s how people fall in love,” Kyuhyun mutters, stepping away from Zhou Mi and returning to the counter, scrubbing it with renewed vigor. Zhou Mi can only stare in awe and utter bewilderment, because he’s pretty sure that Kyuhyun just kissed him and that’s just weird because the last time he checked, Kyuhyun was straight and that shouldn’t just change now, even though they are married and Zhou Mi did save his life and all and-
Oh. Kyuhyun just kissed him.
-
Sungmin screams. “Legit? Legit?”
“You mean legitimate? Yeah.” Zhou Mi flushes, feeling his heartbeat race. “It was pretty legitimate.”
“What did you do after that? You jumped him, didn’t you?”
“Obviously not.” Hyukjae rolls his eyes. “Does he look like he has the balls to jump him?”
“I have balls, thank you very much,” Zhou Mi snaps.
“Yeah, except they’re small,” Sungmin snickers. Zhou Mi is tempted to whack him in the face with his stethoscope.
“This was last week, by the way. We haven’t done anything since.” He’s scared to do anything. Not that he doesn’t want to, but to him, Kyuhyun’s already pretty fragile, and he doesn’t want to do anything that’ll scare him off. And he’s not exactly sure where Kyuhyun stands on the sexuality spectrum anymore. He supposes he has a knack for making straight guys not straight.
He goes home late that night, hoping that Kyuhyun left some food in the fridge for him. Instead, he’s surprised to find him still awake, sitting on the couch with his laptop.
“Why aren’t you sleeping yet? It’s past midnight.”
Kyuhyun looks at him. “You’re late.”
Zhou Mi blinks. “…Yes, well, that happens sometimes, when I have to save lives. I get caught up in being a hero, so I come home late.”
The other man snorts. “You probably don’t do anything. You probably spend most of your time gossiping with Sungmin or whoever your friends are at the nurses’ station.” How did you know is at the tip of Zhou Mi’s tongue, but he decides that it’s better not to say it; Kyuhyun’s ego is big enough as it is. “Anyway, let’s have dinner. I’m starving.”
Zhou Mi blanches. “You didn’t eat yet?”
“I was waiting for you, moron.”
“What-” He’s about to reprimand Kyuhyun for keeping his unhealthy diet going and how he never takes care of himself and you haven’t used those facial creams for the past week, have you, but then he wonders why Kyuhyun would wait up for him-and he smiles.
“You’re really sweet,” he tells him, and Kyuhyun rolls his eyes.
“You just noticed?”
“Well, I mean-”
“When are you going to kiss me, Mi?” Zhou Mi blinks. “Do I need to initiate it again?”
“I-but-what?” he sputters. “I didn’t think you’d-I mean, you like boobs, right, I mean, boobs are really nice and round and squishy, and I don’t really have boobs, so I figured you’d rule me out as far as romantic partners go-”
“I still like boobs, stupid,” Kyuhyun interrupts (he has a knack for doing that). “I can like you too, right?”
“I, um-” He swallows. “Yeah. Definitely.”
“So are you going to kiss me or not?”
“Uh-right. Getting on that right now.” He takes a step towards Kyuhyun, almost afraid to touch his face (it seriously feels like he’s just going to break). His fingers ghost across his cheekbone, and Kyuhyun closes his eyes and shivers. Zhou Mi thinks he’s breathtaking.
He could spend the rest of his life kissing Kyuhyun, he decides moments later, when their lips touch. He tastes like Coke and a stale mouth and it’s actually kind of gross, but it makes his heart skip a beat for inexplicable reasons, so he figures it has something to do with being a little overly attached to his fake-but-not-really-husband. He could probably indulge in Kyuhyun forever and wouldn’t mind.
“Mi,” Kyuhyun gasps, breath hot against his lips.
“Yeah?”
“This is romantic and all, but you smell like blood and guts.”
Zhou Mi pulls away, wrinkling his nose. “Yeah, well, your mouth is stale. So we’re even.”
-
(Their first time is a little different from what Zhou Mi would’ve expected. Kyuhyun is still new to this, not to mention that he’s halfway there to losing the rest of his sanity, so they take it slow. They spend a lot of time just kissing on Kyuhyun’s bed, hands roaming and just enjoying the moment. Which would be great and all, but then Kyuhyun presses his hand against Zhou Mi’s hip-his really sensitive spot, which-well, you know.
“Turn off the lights,” Kyuhyun mutters when Zhou Mi tries to take off his shirt.
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
So Zhou Mi turns off the lights, and when he returns to Kyuhyun, the other man undresses him instead. Kisses his collarbone with uncertain lips. Fingers running down his sides and sending goosebumps crawling up his arms. He avoids all eye contact, and Zhou Mi is honestly a little worried, but he goes with it-runs his hand through Kyuhyun’s hair, whispers words of encouragement.
It takes a few minutes for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, but they do, and once he finally has Kyuhyun’s shirt off and on the floor somewhere, Zhou Mi carefully lays him back on his bed, splayed out before him and absolutely perfect.
“Kyuhyun…” He trails off, eyes doing a onceover.
Kyuhyun turns his head to the side, voice low. “Don’t look.”
He has three scars-one from the surgery that Zhou Mi had operated, removing his tumor, a long one running down his chest, and the last one almost cutting diagonally across his hipbone. He’s never seen the other two before.
“Remember that car crash my parents died in?” His voice is shaking. “I was in it too. I barely survived.”
Zhou Mi swallows, throat dry. Kyuhyun is spread out in front of him, completely open to him for the very first time, and he’s stuck between crying and kissing him silly. The thing is, Kyuhyun is so quiet and rude, but there is so much to him that people don’t see, because he does such a good job of hiding it. And the fact that Kyuhyun chose him, let him in, when he didn’t do anything special-when he was trying to help just as much as the next person over-
He runs his fingers along the scars, and Kyuhyun shivers. “I know I’m ugly. You don’t have to look.”
“Are you kidding me?” He smiles, and he hopes Kyuhyun can see it through the dark. (Well, he should. He’s bright and sunshiny, after all.) “I’m a doctor. I appreciate the things that most others don’t-mainly adrenal glands and battle scars.” He brushes the hair out of Kyuhyun’s eyes, before slowly moving downward, making sure to kiss every inch of his scars. He feels Kyuhyun’s shuddering breath more than he hears it, and he thinks-maybe he’s finally doing something right.)
-
It’s one in the morning when his cell phone rings. Distorted and groggy, Zhou Mi pulls himself out of Kyuhyun’s arms and blindly makes a grab for it on his bedside table. “Hello?”
“Mi?” It’s Sungmin. “You wouldn’t believe what just happened-Heechul just hit on me! Like, legit hit on me-and he’s taking me somewhere tomorrow. I’m so excited!”
“Are you drunk?” he asks, speech still slurred from the sleep. “Sungmin, you are so not giving our hospital a good name.”
“Yeah, well, some of us aren’t happily married-”
“Goodnight, Min.” He hangs up, turns off his phone, and tosses it somewhere before rolling over and cuddling back into Kyuhyun.
“Is everything alright?” Kyuhyun mumbles sleepily.
“Mhm.” Zhou Mi snuggles closer. “Just go back to sleep.” Because Kyuhyun sleeps better when he’s there.
Yawning widely, Kyuhyun gets comfortable and closes his eyes.
- it’s mi’s birthday. therefore, your argument is invalid and you don’t get to complain about the fact that this isn’t kyumin :D
- i love grey’s anatomy ‘kay, no hate
- sorry for butchering sungmin’s character, i couldn’t help it orz
- 生日快乐啊，周觅～ 我们很爱你啊～～