Imperfectly Perfect Chp 9
Title: Imperfectly Perfect
Author: xlolitsnozomix
Pairing: Hankyung / Heechul
Rating: R
Genre: angst, romance, fluff, AU, suspense
Words: 3400
Summary: Life has always been sort of quiet, content, and dreamlike for Kim Heechul. Unfortunately, nothing gold can stay, as he learns the hard way, when his perfect world goes tumbling upside down, inside out, and everything he thought he knew crumbles to ruins. Hankyung and Heechul are put through the ultimate test to see just how strong their love is for each other. How far would they go?
A/N: I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING THIS FOR LIKE 20+ DAYS T__T I have been extremely caught up with other things and I have been so busy it's almost insane! I hope you'll forgive me and I hope you'll still want to read this fic~! thanks for reading it ♥ Enjoy this chapter :)
| Prologue | Chp 1 | Chp 2 | Chp 3 | Chp 4 | Chp 5 | Chp 6 | Chp 7 | Chp 8 |
---
Their time in Paris passes almost too quickly, like a sudden mirage fading as soon as it has come. They fall asleep on the hotel beds the first day after their arrival -- completely passed out after their intense lovemaking and they don't stir an inch until morning hits and the sun filters gently through the window, invading the dark sanctuary in Hangeng's vision.
He blinks then, awaking suddenly and shielding the bright sun from his face. He almost starts panicking because he thinks he should be at work and that he's probably already late, but then he sees the pretty face beside him smothered in fresh linen sheets and the strangely decorated room he's in; he remembers where they are and relief crashes over him suddenly like a wave.
After sinking back into the bed calmly, he lays and stares at Heechul for a long time -- stares at the way those red strands fall perfectly over his face, stares at the way his eyelashes look so soft and perfect on his milky white skin.
There are still traces of dark circles under Heechul's eyes from the neglect he's been putting on his body, and Hangeng can't help but reach his hand out suddenly, reaching forward to brush softly against the skin under his eyes, wishing he could just simply touch them and brush them away from that beautiful, flawless face.
"I love you," he whispers ever so softly it's almost like the breeze simply wafted in the room and floated back out.
But Heechul catches it and blinks, opening his eyes to a Hangeng who’s staring intently at him, and he flushes before sleepily pressing his lips against Hangeng's.
---
It turns out that their hotel is conveniently only a thirty minute walk to the Eiffel Tower and they can see the top of it from their hotel window and Heechul almost runs around shouting with glee.
That morning, they leave their hotel without unpacking anything, and Hangeng watches with a smile as Heechul bounds down the sidewalk, breathing in the air invigoratingly.
"This is great," he exclaims and Hangeng grins widely, nodding at the overexcited red-head.
"Would you like some breakfast?" Hangeng asks, approaching Heechul who has stopped a couple meters from their hotel entrance, staring into a certain spot in the sky.
"Sure," Heechul nods, eyes wandering over their entire surroundings.
In the end, they end up at an extremely quaint, cozy cafe with actual real French pastries and Heechul almost sobs because he's so excited.
Without a doubt, Hangeng spoils Heechul and orders every single pastry and baked good that they have on display.
He also orders a large hazelnut coffee and Heechul has to bite his tongue in order to not squeal at the excitement.
---
It's perfect, it really is, the way they sit at the cute little table in the corner of the cafe, in complete privacy and isolation. The table has a little yellow checkered tablecloth and a false flower pot of sunflowers in the middle, and everyone is muttering softly in French. Heechul inhales again deeply, taking in the luscious scent of freshly made bread and pastries. They don't say many words as they look outside of the window in front of them, watching the people stroll by casually, watching the way the sun shines through the thin clouds in the sky, watching the way their hands twine over the coffee cup and the smoke curls up to tickle both of their faces, as if trying to draw the two of them through a ribbon.
"It's perfect," Heechul smiles brightly, and his eyes almost light up like the night sky and Hangeng thinks that yes, yes, it really is perfect.
---
There are too many museums to remember and too many walks in the parks to recall, but everything is beautiful and breathtaking and just so new. It's so refreshing that Heechul is almost homesick already after just three days. They stroll around all day, sometimes shopping, sometimes sightseeing and sometimes just exploring the huge, enormous city.
The Eiffel Tower is pretty magnificent and breathtaking like Heechul had predicted before, but it literally takes his breath away when they walk to it and he gets to just stand there and stare at it for the longest time.
Although the sightseeing and the touring of the city is really fun and entertaining and Heechul learns a lot from them all, all he can really, actually remember is the way Hangeng's legs wrap around his body at night and his arms curl around Heechul's waist, trying to pull him closer to his body as they lay together in the dark of the hotel.
"It's weird," Heechul says one night, turning over suddenly in the darkness to make out Hangeng's face in the darkness.
"Hmm?" Hangeng grunts sleepily, forcing his eyes open to try and see Heechul in the dark.
"Well..." Heechul begins and pauses a little while, not whether he's going to make any sense at all. But then he remembers that most of the time he doesn't really make sense anyways so he continues, "it's just kind of weird to me that we're thousands and thousands of miles away from home, and yeah I kind of miss our bedroom, but at the same time, I feel strangely at home here."
Smiling at the latter, Hangeng wraps his arms around Heechul's thin waist again.
"I'll tell you why you feel at home," Hangeng whispers into his ear, tickling him with his own hair. Heechul perks up now, staring up at the other man, "It's because you're with me."
Heechul pretends to stifle his laughter.
Before they fall asleep though, Heechul thinks to himself in the dark that he's pretty sure what Hangeng said is the utter and complete truth
"Don't ever leave me," he wants to whisper in the dark, but doesn't because he's afraid to leave himself too vulnerable.
"Don't leave me because I never want to feel away from home again..."
---
The thing Hangeng likes the most so far throughout the entire trip and the entire week is the mornings that he blinks his eyes open in the sunshine, and the first thing he sees is Heechul peacefully asleep, eyelashes slightly fluttering when he opens his eyes slowly, yawns, and then sees Hangeng and smiles slowly, as if he's perfectly content being lazy.
But it's so lovely to Hangeng because he knows that they can be so calm and relaxed in the mornings since they don't have anything to worry about and they're never in a hurry.
It's definitely one of the perks of vacation is that they don't ever have to rush in the morning and Hangeng can just stare at Heechul wake up leisurely while looking perfectly peaceful and delicate while doing so. They can just waltz down together unhurriedly to the lounge and order a cup of delicious, fresh coffee in the morning - perfectly genuine French coffee that Heechul always makes such a fuss about. They really can’t ask for anything more and Heechul feels bad for wishing that every day of his life is this laid back and relaxing - but then there would be no fun and excitement in that, would there?
---
Heechul is never really sure where it is that Hangeng's gets all the money to fund their entire trip since they have been saving up for other things, rather than just this single trip.
But the money never seems to run out and Heechul never asks, slightly afraid of what the answer might be. He just happily goes along with the passing days -- and doesn't question Hangeng as they travel to more and more places. In the end, he just wants them to spend their precious time together on vacation without having to worry about money issues and trivial matters like that -- he's learned to live in the moment and he just wants to spend as much undisturbed time with Hangeng as possible.
They stay at Paris for a total of two weeks and three days.
It's that morning that Heechul wakes up and suddenly ultimately decides that they've spent enough time in France and he announces that they should go on to the next place.
And just like that, they leave, not another single word spoken in hesitation.
The next thing Heechul remembers is that they are clattering over the ancient cobblestones in London on a genuine horse and carriage ride -- it's really just so breathtaking.
Heechul sticks his head out of the carriage and yells out random Korean words into the air, raising his hands up high above his head at times and catching the attention of everyone within a half mile radius and Hangeng hides in the backseat of the carriage, laughing at the silliness that his Heechul.
"Yahh~!" Heechul shouts into the bright blue sky above them. The driver doesn't even turn around to glance strangely at Heechul anymore. He's probably gotten used to it by now.
"Heechul," Hangeng laughs, sticking his head out too and checking out where they're going. "You might want to quiet down. People might be annoyed by us."
Laughing, Heechul scoffs nonchalantly and says, "Well they can just deal with me then. I'm here to have fun and I'm going to make every moment count!"
At this, Hangeng can't help but smile broadly, simply shaking his head for a moment before he sinks back into the carriage, still chuckling to himself.
And sometimes I wonder how I fell in love with him.
---
A loud thrumming of music pulsed deafeningly through Heechul’s ears as he sat at the countertop, staring at all the various bottles of alcohol lining the shelves behind the counter. He almost couldn’t hear his thoughts because everything was too hot and loud and throbbing in his head.
“So, you should go dance with him,” Sungmin urged, almost yelling over the pulsating music in the background.
Shrugging, Heechul turned his head over to the side and stared warily at the dance floor which was packed with scantily clad bodies and glistening sweat and too much skin on skin. There was not even space to imagine himself a part of that because there were just too many people and he was afraid he would be lost in it forever. He had always been kind of brave and didn’t really care what he did, but for some reason, imagining himself dancing with Hangeng in this mob of bodies. It felt different somehow. A little bit intimidating if not downright frightening.
“You don’t want to dance?” Sungmin gasped, leaning in closer to Heechul to stare at him intensely in the face, scrutinizing.
“I don’t know,” Heechul said, almost resigned, “It might be kind of weird…”
“What?” Sungmin replied, exasperated, rolling his eyes and pushing him off his stool from the counter. “You’re being kind of ridiculous.
Chullie. Since when did you not want to dance?” He scoffed, and Heechul found himself flush against a familiar face as he slipped off the seat.
“Go have some fun,” Sungmin whispered in his ear as he slinked away into the darkness of the club.
Heechul tried sputtering an excuse, but then he saw Hangeng’s expression and his resolve faded.
“Wanna dance?” Heechul asked, trying to bite back the nervousness in his voice. For some reason he just felt that it might be an entire different experience with someone like Hangeng.
He wasn’t wrong.
The other man cocked an eyebrow at him. “Yeah of course we can dance. Is something wrong though?” he asked in concern. His voice was low and husky in the darkness and the erratic flashing lights, but for some reason Heechul heard him perfectly fine.
He shook his head and told himself, Whatever. It’s just a dance anyways. It couldn’t hurt.
On that note, Heechul grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the dance floor. He began weaving his way through the heavy, pulsing crowd of people.
By the time they had reached a spot that was decent enough for them to actually move around in, Heechul could already feel the heat from under his skin and in a moment, there was a stream of sweat pouring down his temples and another one trailing down his chest. He thanked God for earlier when Sungmin had forced him to wear the ridiculously open collared shirt and Heechul had protested that he would look too…gay. Sungmin had almost choked on his water when Heechul said that and just shook his head incredulously. “You ARE gay,” he reminded Heechul and threw some form-fitting jeans at him.
Unfortunately Heechul was torn away from his amusing thoughts when he felt heat pressing too close against his back and he looked up, turning around to see that Hangeng was behind him, smirking slightly as the shadows defined his features and sharpened the intense look in his eyes.
Before Heechul even knew what was happening, they were moving together. Slowly together at first, and Heechul had almost passed out just from that because this was the first time they had been that close together - pressing bodies and exertion of heat against his neck and back and shoulders and also because he was acting like a goddamn virgin or something all of sudden.
Heechul couldn’t help it then, he felt Hangeng’s hands gently holding on to his hips as they moved together, body flush against body and he gasped slightly and blushed. He closed his eyes slightly and was glad that the darkness and the loudness of the music blocked out the strange noises he had just made and slightly shadowed his flushed exterior.
At that moment, he decided, oh alright, what the hell, just go along with it, and he did just that, leaning suggestively back against the heated body behind him and just then, Hangeng had decided to roll his hips against Heechul’s body. Heechul nearly shrieked then, thrusting his hips forward from the shock of heeling Hangeng’s hips pressing abruptly against his backside, and trying to figure out how he was going to deal with this situation.
It was getting to hot suddenly - Hangeng’s hands were fisting almost desperately into Heechul’s loose blouse, and his own sweat poured through the shirt as they rocked together, hips rolling together in one fluid motion and oh God, if Hangeng does that thing where he presses his hips right against my ass one more time I’m gonna-
He did just that, and Heechul fiercely bit back a loud moan, feeling himself grow hot and weak underneath Hangeng’s grasp. It was scary at the moment when he tasted fresh blood on his tongue from his bruised lip and he knew that this wasn’t just anything normal if he had to hold back that much just to suppress his desires.
The pulsing beat of the music coursed through their bodies angrily, causing Heechul’s temperature to rise and his heart to race in his chest, almost falling out his body from the momentum it was beating - really, he didn’t know how much more of this hot, hot heat he could stand. The tight clutching on his hips forced his hips backwards so that Hangeng could thrust deliciously against his body - how much more could he stand?
It was so, so hard, to stop himself from going too far that night, but when Hangeng was blatantly grinding his body right against Heechul at that moment, he lost all self composure and he felt himself thrusting back, not giving a damn care in the world anymore.
Within the crowd of all those bodies rocking together, pulsating together, there was no stopping because he felt like he belonged here - pressed against Hangeng’s perfectly toned body, feeling more turned on than he’d ever felt in his life. The two of them moved together like that for a long time, Heechul’s hands wound up to wrap around the back of Hangeng’s neck and their hips thrusting and rolling and swiveling together perfectly - way too close for comfort and Heechul could feel Hangeng’s reaction to the whole situation right against the back of his thigh the whole time their bodies moved together. It wasn’t exactly subtle.
Baby let your mind go, let me take control.
Let your inhibitions go.
The lyrics whispered into his ear, taunting him, teasing him and he felt heat curl in the pit of his stomach. Everything was just too hot and intense.
"Geng," he accidentally moaned at one point, letting his head fall back and land on top of Hangeng's shoulder, sweaty hair and all brushing against the latter's open neck, and he looked up at the Chinese man boldly, losing his previous shy and bashful reaction completely.
It was then that he made Hangeng bite back a moan as well when Heechul locked eyes with the other man the entire time as he rolled his hips and thrust backwards especially hard, pressing right against a certain anatomy part that had Hangeng's gaze going hazy and his eyes glassy and no longer as intense because they were half-lidded and Heechul had smirked satisfactorily.
Suddenly, he peeled himself from the other's body, both of them sweating profusely now, a sheen of sweat shining on both of their chests.
Hangeng looked up, surprised as to why Heechul suddenly pulled away, but then he saw that mischievous smile on Heechul's lips and his eyes shining with something else.
He watched, still panting from the intense way their bodies moved smoothly together, as Heechul crooked a finger at him, motioning for him to come closer.
Instead, Hangeng grabbed Heechul's waist and yanked him towards his body suddenly, whispering something roughly in a hot whisper into Heechul's ear -- surprisingly something that Heechul did not understand at all because it was in Mandarin, but just the way his voice rolled smoothly and lowly off that tongue had Heechul mewling and whimpering into that crushing embrace.
They somehow found their way to Hangeng's car outside and fell into the back seat, bodies colliding heavily against one another but this time, there were no clothes getting in the way.
---
"Let's go clubbing," Heechul announces, standing up from the new hotel bed they were spending their nights in during their stay in London.
Hangeng looks up curiously, blinking once at Heechul. "How come so suddenly?" he asks, almost trying to hide a knowing smile.
Of course, Heechul shakes his head and says, "Nothing, I just wanna check out what the night life is like here, you know?"
"I thought you didn't like to dance?" Hangeng retorts, raising a suspicious eyebrow.
"I-I just feel like drowning myself in loud music and booze tonight, is that too much to ask for?" Heechul replies, trying to play the nonchalant card on Hangeng but he doesn't buy it at all.
However, in the end, he gives in and they end up going, riding up to the hottest club in town in a taxi -- Hangeng had suggested that they rent out a limousine for the occasion and the purpose of arriving in style but in the end, Heechul had thrown a fit that they should definitely not be just randomly spending money for useless things.
He had always dreamed of appearing somewhere in a limo for a special occasion though, and never had the chance. It would have been great if they really did just drive up to the club flocked with tons of people in such a fancy ride though, it really would have been quite the grand night.
But Heechul knows that just spending this time with Hangeng is enough and he doesn't want to ask for anything more from him.
"You ready to dance?" Hangeng is shouting over the deafening music blasting with a heavy bass from the speakers.
Heechul looks up at the other man, this perfect being, so perfect yet so flawed that it only makes him more beautiful in Heechul's eyes, and there are so many things wrong with them right now, so many frightening things ahead of them that he cannot foresee, but he also sees a beautiful, perfect future filled with happy days and no worries and melting kisses. This man that is his Chinese prince -- it's perfect just this way.
"Yeah!" Heechul shouts back, grabbing onto Hangeng's hand tightly, dragging them through the crowd energetically and not even once letting go of that hand for he never wants to lose the love of his life ever again.
---