drops of jupiter [2/3]
Title: drops of jupiter
Author: salted_taiyaki
Pairing(s): Jonghyun x Onew
Genre: Romance, Fantasy, AU
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3349
Summary: onew is a star who happens to fall into jonghyun's lap one day, quite literally.
chapter one |
a/n: oh my god finally. btw i gave jonghyun's sister the name jonghee b/c i don't...know what her name is l o l
drops of jupiter, chapter 2;
Jonghyun slowly opens his eyes and sees the ceiling (his eyes don't want to stray and possibly land on a naked Onew again), warped and spinning. He groans, rolls around onto his side, before heavy breathing hits his ears and Jonghyun tenses. He feels a hand roughly skim his back and he bristles. Once the fingers stop, Jonghyun flips out of bed and hollers, "Why are you touching-"
"Morning!" Onew blinks the sleep out of his eyes and stretches his arms, smiling brightly at Jonghyun as if he wasn't just touching his back seconds ago. "What's wrong with you?"
I don't know, Jonghyun thinks to himself bitterly, I mean, all I have is this complete stranger who turns into a goddamn star and-
"Oh," Onew mutters as realization hits, "I'm sorry. I like to stretch a lot so I might've hit you in my sleep."
Jonghyun snorts. "What, is it to practice your twinkling and shining at night?"
"Yeah, it's pretty important!"
They look at each other, one in sheer honesty and the other in utter disbelief, before Jonghyun croaks. "Oh God," he whispers. "Fuck, what am I going to do with you?"
Onew looks out the window and frowns. "I could just hang around in the tree, I guess." But Jonghyun quickly shakes his head.
"If my mom-"
"Jonghyun-ah!"
"Shit!" Onew's large eyes meet his and he grips the hem of his shirt. "Shit, shit, shit, jump out the window!" The boy blanches. "Go!" Onew squeaks and then he hurls himself out of the partially opened window.
"Jonghyun-ah," his mother calls out again as she pushes the door open, a heap of laundry in her arms, "breakfast."
"Yeah, I know." Hurriedly he shoos his mom away before she could even realize that there are fingers gripping onto the edge of the window rather eerily. "I'm done for," Jonghyun groans lowly to himself and as Onew heaves himself up, Jonghyun lets his shoulders droop with a sigh. "This is fucking crazy."
"What is?" the boy chirps a bit too brightly, leaning back on the ledge and then sticking his head out of the window. He sniffs loudly.
"What, you part dog or something?"
"I smell food." Jonghyun smacks his forehead. "Jonghyun, Jonghyun, can I try some?"
Jonghyun scoffs. "How're you gonna get it, huh? March down the stairs and-"
"Jjong!" His sister barges through the door, comb and can in hand. "I need hair spray, so..." Her words die off with a splutter as her eyes spot Onew, basking and smiling in the morning light. "Who-?"
"A friend! Go away, noona." Frantically Jonghyun shoves her out the door (and she doesn't put up much of a fight, too stunned to relent). "Don't tell umma, it's just-stop-God, noona!"
Onew blinks as Jonghyun's sister slowly comes to life and begins to flail her arms about. "Who is-Jjong, don't pull my hair!"
"Umma," Jonghyun hollers before his sister clobbers him on the head. "Ow, umma, noona's hitting me!"
"Just come down and eat!" their mother snaps and the two let go of their hair and shirts, eyes burning and lips tight.
"I hate you," they bark together and his sister turns around with a huff. Jonghyun stalks back into the bedroom with his shoulders squared, only stopping when Onew starts to clap loudly, amusement written all over the boy's face.
"Wow," he balks, "that was..." Jonghyun's gaze cuts him off, and Onew clears his throat. "Um, Jjong?"
"Don't," Jonghyun warns. "Only my family can call me that. And close friends."
A slight look of hurt crosses the bridge of Onew's scrunched nose before he tries, "I can't-"
"No."
"But what if I-"
"No."
The star sighs. "All right, so what do I do?"
Get out of here? Jonghyun seethes. "I don't know. Just-Just stay out of my room, and don't run into my mom or my sister. Why don't you just walk around town or something? Use some inborn navigational skills to get you around town." With that, the brunet yanks his bag over his shoulder and turns for the door. He casts a disgruntled look over his shoulder to where Onew is, back hunched and eyes nervous. Jonghyun rolls his eyes, pushes the door open, and then kicks his sister's door before bolting down the steps as he hears the cry of a banshee fill the hallway.
Onew looks up at the sky. He'd learned that Jonghyun's window doesn't creak as much when the pressure is applied near the hinges while slipping in and out of the bedroom, trying his best to stay under the radar of Jonghyun's mother. It was difficult, because his feet got caught up in the windowsill every once in a while, but otherwise Onew managed to sneak up a few pillows for extra comfort in his little resting area on the tiled roof.
He cracks his knuckles high above his head again with his arms stretched far out and a loud groan tumbles from his lips. His neck snaps left right while his legs shake out tight knots. When he's finally done, he drops his arms back down by his sides and sighs.
"I wonder where you are," he thinks aloud to himself, eyes searching far and wide past the huge clouds and soaring birds. "You probably left without me."
He doesn't say anything after that, only lets silence wrap him up in place of the blanket he could have brought up (but that's too much work, and if the blanket got dirty, they'd both be uncomfortable tonight). When he hears a car rumble in the driveway and, a few half hours later, a door click open, Onew decides it's time for him to roll out. He tucked the pillows under his shirt and stumbles back into the bedroom.
Jonghyun comes back with his arms filled with books and papers again, and he isn't too surprised by the scene before him: his window is wide open, curtains flapping wildly in the chill breeze, and dead leaves are scattered across his floor. Jonghyun doesn't even question where Onew is as he drops everything onto his bed and throws himself on top of the covers, a deep groan muffled by his pillows. After a few minutes of silent moping Jonghyun flips onto his side and stares out the window, finally wondering where Onew could be.
Suddenly, as if hearing his unspoken question, Onew's upper body swings into view, an upside down smile nearly blinding Jonghyun's vision as the brunet screams in shock. He watches Onew swing a bit from what he presumes to be the roof (and Jonghyun recalls just how unstable those shingles are but doesn't say anything because he can't) before the star calls out, "Welcome back!"
Jonghyun simply watches as Onew slips into the room with uncanny ease. "How was school?" he asks, all smiles. It takes a while for Jonghyun to formulate his words, and he barely manages to get a "Good" past his teeth. Onew nods twice before plopping onto the floor.
"Oh," he giggles a bit shyly, "sorry about the leaves, I think I left the window open too wide."
Grumbling Jonghyun squats and begins to pick some of the leaves up in bundles, "Yeah, I think so, too." He sighs. "You didn't-my mom didn't see you, right?"
"I don't think so," the star mumbles. "I mean, she went out to go food shopping a few hours ago, and I think she said on the phone that she was going to meet up with some of her friends from a cooking club." Jonghyun gives him a discriminatory look that almost makes Onew curl up and whimper. "What, I can't help but pick those waves up!"
Despite himself Jonghyun starts to chuckle into the palm of his hand as Onew fumbles with his shirt and some of the bits of dead leaves that stick to his pants. "You're weird," Jonghyun states and Onew smiles a bit. "But anyway, you hungry?"
Onew sticks out his tongue and thinks for a bit before he replies, "I don't know."
Jonghyun blanches. "Oh," his voice dies before he can help himself, "right, you-stars don't really eat, do they?"
"I don't think we do," Onew laughs. "But I'd like to try food anyway! Sometimes I hear about stuff like McDonald's and steakhouses from the static we get."
Jonghyun stares for a bit at the boy in front of him who stares back quizzically. In those eyes are unmistakable streaks of blue and yellow and light that overpower the soft brown and Jonghyun almost shivers under his gaze, a gaze that nearly envelops him in worry and fear. But a low gurgle in his stomach cuts off his thoughts, a soft sigh quickly following from his lips, and so the boy points to his door and says, "All right, follow me."
As the two make their way down the stairs Jonghyun checks over his shoulder to make sure that Onew won't slip and break his leg. He jumps, though, when he sees Onew levitating over the steps, trying to fix all the pictures that were probably set askew after all the stampedes up and down the staircase since Jonghyun's childhood. Onew's fingers linger around the wooden frames and a soft smile sets itself on his lips.
"Is that you?" the boy asks, eyes slowly slipping from the glass to Jonghyun's face. Jonghyun climbs up a few stairs and then peers over Onew's shoulder.
"Yeah," he laughs, "that's me. Cute, huh?"
Onew scrunches his nose. "Boy, what happened to you?" Jonghyun splutters and Onew laughs in his face. "Just kidding."
Jonghyun struts down the rest of the stairs as Onew wordlessly floats behind him, his toes barely scraping the polished wood as he throws his head this way and that once the living room comes to view. "Don't hurt yourself," Jonghyun murmurs because he feels like it's simply second nature for the older boy to tumble and scrape his knees despite his levitating. "And I'm serious when I say don't touch-"
"Oh!" Jonghyun hears Onew stutter and he quickly turns about to find Onew on one foot, a rather expensive vase barely in his trembling grasp. "S-Sorry."
Sighing roughly, Jonghyun simply shakes his head and points to the table, and Onew wordlessly places the piece of pottery back. "So, I don't think we have much today." Jonghyun pulls open the cupboards and Onew spends his time closing them after Jonghyun inspects the shelves (though, never the top, Onew realizes after a while). "Jeez, we really don't have anything. Oh, wait. I think I can make you a grilled cheese sandwich or something."
Onew blinks blankly at him. "Whatever you want!" he ends up laughing, causing Jonghyun to smile quietly into the crook of his arm as he jostles bread, butter and slices of cheese in his arms. "Want me to help?"
It takes a second for Jonghyun to reply before the boy sighs, "Honestly speaking, I think you'll somehow set the stove on fire." Onew doesn't really object.
"Jjong!"
The two freeze at the call of Jonghyun's name.
"Jjong, are you in the kitchen?"
"Shit," Jonghyun groans while setting down all of the food on the counter, "sister's home already."
"You better be making food for me." Jonghyun's sister pops her head into the kitchen and sniffs. "I don't-" Her words die on her tongue as she spots Onew-thankfully with both feet on the floor-leaning over Jonghyun, inspecting the cheese with much curiosity. "Your friend again?"
Jonghyun laughs nervously, "Yeah, this is Onew."
She scrunches her nose. "Wow," she mumbles, "seems to fit him."
"Right?" the boy snorts but quickly catches himself at the sight of Onew's pout. "Anyway, this is my sister, Jonghee. Onew, Jonghee. The bitch." Jonghyun keeps an eye on his sister as she silently fumes, reflexively bringing his arms high above his head to block any attacks, but they don't come. Instead, Jonghee stands there, fiddling with her blouse.
"Well then," she mutters before glancing at Onew and ducking her head. "I'm gonna go to the mall, so don't wreck the house. Bye." Flabbergasted, Jonghyun simply gapes at his sister's retreating back.
He takes in a small breath. "I think you have the magical ability of keeping my sister away." The boy glances back at Onew and smiles widely. "I might be keeping you around."
As Jonghyun turns back to face the stove and heat up a few pans, Onew shimmies up close to him at the counter, a goofy grin plastered crookedly on his lips, so large that Jonghyun turns around during his flipping and asks if anything's wrong with him.
"Nope, nothing wrong." Onew beams. "Just happy."
With a snort Jonghyun goes back to pressing down on the toasted bread, but even he can't deny the small curl of his lips.
Jonghyun decides to explain to his mom that Onew's a friend from the opposite side of town who has no where to stay because his parents are both in Beijing for a business trip. She doesn't really question him because she finds Onew's clumsiness to be endearing, and he's like the son she's always wished she had, so when Jonghyun stumbles into her bedroom sweating and panicking, his mom just shrugs it off and says that she'll dock Jonghyun's allowance to feed the extra mouth.
Jonghyun forces Onew to do his math homework for him in return (not that Onew really minded, because he discovered he had a knack for trigonometry).
To Jonghyun's surprise, the two became close, almost like brothers, with their bickering and video gaming and similar interest in singing. Their opinions on Jonghee differ-Onew simply shrugged when he said that Jonghee was pretty as Jonghyun silently fumed-and Onew loves the crust of his bread while Jonghyun detests it, but the two get along well during the day and night. They stay up, Jonghyun doing half of his homework and Onew doing the other, sometimes playing games and oftentimes singing Jonghyun's original songs.
Jonghyun silently praises Onew's singing (his pride won't let him admit that Onew's better than him though) as they sit on the floor with the light dim and guitar out. He finds Onew's fluency in different languages admirable, his pronunciation near perfect, his pitch better than any other tuning note he's heard in his life.
And he also realizes that if Onew were a girl and not partially extraterrestrial, he'd want to date him.
At first the thought passed through his mind like his mom's reminder that he has to stop by the convenience store for some milk, but when the thought dawned once more, it returned full force, smacking him straight up in the face and punching him in the gut.
Jonghyun finds himself spending half the nights wide awake as the ball of light buzzes near his ear on the pillow, wondering what would happen if, what would happen when, what would, what would-and then starts writing his thoughts out as songs.
He doesn't answer Onew when the boy peers over his shoulder to take a gander at the foreign chicken scratch native to the single resident of Jonghyun's mind and almost feels guilty when he takes secret glances, but everyone turns to Onew's smiling eyes and warm aura, so Jonghyun's doesn't feel all too guilty.
That is, before Onew thinks it's all right to strip right in front of him to change in the middle of Jonghyun's bedroom. Then no innocent bunny-like giggles can do him any good.
Jonghyun folds and refolds the notebook in his lap as his pen stops along the margin once more. Silence fills the room with Onew rolling left and right on the bed, singing smalls tunes that Jonghyun's become used to after a few sleepless nights, and Jonghyun struggling mentally to sift through his mind for the right words. As even the silence begins to get aggravated with the mood, Onew sits up on the bed, a lopsided smile in place.
"Why don't we go elsewhere? You might find inspiration."
Jonghyun doesn't lift his head from his notebook and only murmurs, "If you're suggesting the bathroom or kitchen, I'll pass." He finally looks up when Onew sighs.
"No," he murmurs, "just follow me." The boy quietly pushes the door open as to not alarm Jonghyun's mother in the room next to theirs. "Come here." With a hand extended towards the curious teen still perched on his chair, Onew lets a leg dangle daringly over the windowsill. "Come on."
Sighing, Jonghyun takes the boy's hand and in a second screams as his feet are lifted off the floor and into the air thirty feet above ground, and he struggles and kicks and yells in horror, overlapping the grunts that Onew makes as he tries to fly the both of them over to the large tree in the backyard.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Jonghyun finally puffs out when his arms shoot out to grab at the tree, his wobbling knees not even to keep him still on the thick bough.
Onew quietly sits on the branch opposite of the panic-stricken boy and sighs. "You're a lot heavier than I thought."
"I'm gonna die," Jonghyun moans, "I'm gonna slip and then I'll plummet face first into the earth and then holy fuck I'm gonna die."
"No, you're not." Onew stares at him with the most bemused, snide look he can muster. "You're fine. Just sit." He doesn't give Jonghyun a second to act as he leaps from his branch to Jonghyun's, slightly shaking the tree. "See, isn't this nice?"
After what feels like ten minutes and the tree stills under their weight, Jonghyun cracks open an eye, then the other, to stare out into the sky. His eyes widen as the blend of orange and pink and yellow fills his senses, the new altitude and angle changing his entire perspective on sunsets. He doesn't know when to take a breath, but when he does, a small laugh quickly follows.
"I told you," the star smiles softly, "that it'll inspire you."
Breathing in shakily, Jonghyun nestles an inch away from the body of the tree and closer to Onew. "Yeah," whispers the boy, his eyes busily trying to absorb the skyline as the sun slowly sinks away. "You're lucky." Jonghyun turns his head to look at Onew, who only shrugs a bit with his shoulders though a bright light glistens in his squinting eyes.
It takes a moment for Jonghyun to realize that he's been staring at Onew and the way the diminishing orange light frames his hair and contrasts, almost sparks with the little spots of blue that crackle and disappear. He opens his mouth and then closes it, a grin taking the words' place.
As the sun begins to close its blinds, Jonghyun notices that Onew's actually glowing and the boy realizes too, jumping a bit in his skin when his skin begins to turn blue.
"Whoops," Onew laughs stupidly, one hand scratching at the back of his head, "guess it's time for me to change!" And not too long after the words leave Onew's mouth, a small flash of light consumes him and then the human body disappears, replaced by the floating ball of light that still seems to resemble Onew, just slightly. Jonghyun barely reacts as the star begins to fly around him.
The star chirps, "So did you finish the song?"
Jonghyun looks down at his lap and sees the lines of his pages crammed with scribbles of ink of different shades and widths. He grins.
"Yeah, I did." Holding up the notebook like it's his greatest accomplishment, Jonghyun shouts, "My muse is back!"
But quickly after that outburst Jonghyun grumbles, "Hey, Onew?"
"Yeah?"
"How am I supposed to get down?"
Jonghyun gives Onew a second to panic before he throws his notebook at the star, narrowly missing it and hitting his parents' window instead.
The two go to sleep with Onew locked up in the walk-in closet and Jonghyun wrapped up in bandages.
a/n: oh my god finally. kinamona 's been pestering me about this for weeks and i kept forgetting and yeah omg ;__; and this sucks too SIGH but i need to get this out there hahaha.
Author: salted_taiyaki
Pairing(s): Jonghyun x Onew
Genre: Romance, Fantasy, AU
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3349
Summary: onew is a star who happens to fall into jonghyun's lap one day, quite literally.
chapter one |
a/n: oh my god finally. btw i gave jonghyun's sister the name jonghee b/c i don't...know what her name is l o l
drops of jupiter, chapter 2;
Jonghyun slowly opens his eyes and sees the ceiling (his eyes don't want to stray and possibly land on a naked Onew again), warped and spinning. He groans, rolls around onto his side, before heavy breathing hits his ears and Jonghyun tenses. He feels a hand roughly skim his back and he bristles. Once the fingers stop, Jonghyun flips out of bed and hollers, "Why are you touching-"
"Morning!" Onew blinks the sleep out of his eyes and stretches his arms, smiling brightly at Jonghyun as if he wasn't just touching his back seconds ago. "What's wrong with you?"
I don't know, Jonghyun thinks to himself bitterly, I mean, all I have is this complete stranger who turns into a goddamn star and-
"Oh," Onew mutters as realization hits, "I'm sorry. I like to stretch a lot so I might've hit you in my sleep."
Jonghyun snorts. "What, is it to practice your twinkling and shining at night?"
"Yeah, it's pretty important!"
They look at each other, one in sheer honesty and the other in utter disbelief, before Jonghyun croaks. "Oh God," he whispers. "Fuck, what am I going to do with you?"
Onew looks out the window and frowns. "I could just hang around in the tree, I guess." But Jonghyun quickly shakes his head.
"If my mom-"
"Jonghyun-ah!"
"Shit!" Onew's large eyes meet his and he grips the hem of his shirt. "Shit, shit, shit, jump out the window!" The boy blanches. "Go!" Onew squeaks and then he hurls himself out of the partially opened window.
"Jonghyun-ah," his mother calls out again as she pushes the door open, a heap of laundry in her arms, "breakfast."
"Yeah, I know." Hurriedly he shoos his mom away before she could even realize that there are fingers gripping onto the edge of the window rather eerily. "I'm done for," Jonghyun groans lowly to himself and as Onew heaves himself up, Jonghyun lets his shoulders droop with a sigh. "This is fucking crazy."
"What is?" the boy chirps a bit too brightly, leaning back on the ledge and then sticking his head out of the window. He sniffs loudly.
"What, you part dog or something?"
"I smell food." Jonghyun smacks his forehead. "Jonghyun, Jonghyun, can I try some?"
Jonghyun scoffs. "How're you gonna get it, huh? March down the stairs and-"
"Jjong!" His sister barges through the door, comb and can in hand. "I need hair spray, so..." Her words die off with a splutter as her eyes spot Onew, basking and smiling in the morning light. "Who-?"
"A friend! Go away, noona." Frantically Jonghyun shoves her out the door (and she doesn't put up much of a fight, too stunned to relent). "Don't tell umma, it's just-stop-God, noona!"
Onew blinks as Jonghyun's sister slowly comes to life and begins to flail her arms about. "Who is-Jjong, don't pull my hair!"
"Umma," Jonghyun hollers before his sister clobbers him on the head. "Ow, umma, noona's hitting me!"
"Just come down and eat!" their mother snaps and the two let go of their hair and shirts, eyes burning and lips tight.
"I hate you," they bark together and his sister turns around with a huff. Jonghyun stalks back into the bedroom with his shoulders squared, only stopping when Onew starts to clap loudly, amusement written all over the boy's face.
"Wow," he balks, "that was..." Jonghyun's gaze cuts him off, and Onew clears his throat. "Um, Jjong?"
"Don't," Jonghyun warns. "Only my family can call me that. And close friends."
A slight look of hurt crosses the bridge of Onew's scrunched nose before he tries, "I can't-"
"No."
"But what if I-"
"No."
The star sighs. "All right, so what do I do?"
Get out of here? Jonghyun seethes. "I don't know. Just-Just stay out of my room, and don't run into my mom or my sister. Why don't you just walk around town or something? Use some inborn navigational skills to get you around town." With that, the brunet yanks his bag over his shoulder and turns for the door. He casts a disgruntled look over his shoulder to where Onew is, back hunched and eyes nervous. Jonghyun rolls his eyes, pushes the door open, and then kicks his sister's door before bolting down the steps as he hears the cry of a banshee fill the hallway.
Onew looks up at the sky. He'd learned that Jonghyun's window doesn't creak as much when the pressure is applied near the hinges while slipping in and out of the bedroom, trying his best to stay under the radar of Jonghyun's mother. It was difficult, because his feet got caught up in the windowsill every once in a while, but otherwise Onew managed to sneak up a few pillows for extra comfort in his little resting area on the tiled roof.
He cracks his knuckles high above his head again with his arms stretched far out and a loud groan tumbles from his lips. His neck snaps left right while his legs shake out tight knots. When he's finally done, he drops his arms back down by his sides and sighs.
"I wonder where you are," he thinks aloud to himself, eyes searching far and wide past the huge clouds and soaring birds. "You probably left without me."
He doesn't say anything after that, only lets silence wrap him up in place of the blanket he could have brought up (but that's too much work, and if the blanket got dirty, they'd both be uncomfortable tonight). When he hears a car rumble in the driveway and, a few half hours later, a door click open, Onew decides it's time for him to roll out. He tucked the pillows under his shirt and stumbles back into the bedroom.
Jonghyun comes back with his arms filled with books and papers again, and he isn't too surprised by the scene before him: his window is wide open, curtains flapping wildly in the chill breeze, and dead leaves are scattered across his floor. Jonghyun doesn't even question where Onew is as he drops everything onto his bed and throws himself on top of the covers, a deep groan muffled by his pillows. After a few minutes of silent moping Jonghyun flips onto his side and stares out the window, finally wondering where Onew could be.
Suddenly, as if hearing his unspoken question, Onew's upper body swings into view, an upside down smile nearly blinding Jonghyun's vision as the brunet screams in shock. He watches Onew swing a bit from what he presumes to be the roof (and Jonghyun recalls just how unstable those shingles are but doesn't say anything because he can't) before the star calls out, "Welcome back!"
Jonghyun simply watches as Onew slips into the room with uncanny ease. "How was school?" he asks, all smiles. It takes a while for Jonghyun to formulate his words, and he barely manages to get a "Good" past his teeth. Onew nods twice before plopping onto the floor.
"Oh," he giggles a bit shyly, "sorry about the leaves, I think I left the window open too wide."
Grumbling Jonghyun squats and begins to pick some of the leaves up in bundles, "Yeah, I think so, too." He sighs. "You didn't-my mom didn't see you, right?"
"I don't think so," the star mumbles. "I mean, she went out to go food shopping a few hours ago, and I think she said on the phone that she was going to meet up with some of her friends from a cooking club." Jonghyun gives him a discriminatory look that almost makes Onew curl up and whimper. "What, I can't help but pick those waves up!"
Despite himself Jonghyun starts to chuckle into the palm of his hand as Onew fumbles with his shirt and some of the bits of dead leaves that stick to his pants. "You're weird," Jonghyun states and Onew smiles a bit. "But anyway, you hungry?"
Onew sticks out his tongue and thinks for a bit before he replies, "I don't know."
Jonghyun blanches. "Oh," his voice dies before he can help himself, "right, you-stars don't really eat, do they?"
"I don't think we do," Onew laughs. "But I'd like to try food anyway! Sometimes I hear about stuff like McDonald's and steakhouses from the static we get."
Jonghyun stares for a bit at the boy in front of him who stares back quizzically. In those eyes are unmistakable streaks of blue and yellow and light that overpower the soft brown and Jonghyun almost shivers under his gaze, a gaze that nearly envelops him in worry and fear. But a low gurgle in his stomach cuts off his thoughts, a soft sigh quickly following from his lips, and so the boy points to his door and says, "All right, follow me."
As the two make their way down the stairs Jonghyun checks over his shoulder to make sure that Onew won't slip and break his leg. He jumps, though, when he sees Onew levitating over the steps, trying to fix all the pictures that were probably set askew after all the stampedes up and down the staircase since Jonghyun's childhood. Onew's fingers linger around the wooden frames and a soft smile sets itself on his lips.
"Is that you?" the boy asks, eyes slowly slipping from the glass to Jonghyun's face. Jonghyun climbs up a few stairs and then peers over Onew's shoulder.
"Yeah," he laughs, "that's me. Cute, huh?"
Onew scrunches his nose. "Boy, what happened to you?" Jonghyun splutters and Onew laughs in his face. "Just kidding."
Jonghyun struts down the rest of the stairs as Onew wordlessly floats behind him, his toes barely scraping the polished wood as he throws his head this way and that once the living room comes to view. "Don't hurt yourself," Jonghyun murmurs because he feels like it's simply second nature for the older boy to tumble and scrape his knees despite his levitating. "And I'm serious when I say don't touch-"
"Oh!" Jonghyun hears Onew stutter and he quickly turns about to find Onew on one foot, a rather expensive vase barely in his trembling grasp. "S-Sorry."
Sighing roughly, Jonghyun simply shakes his head and points to the table, and Onew wordlessly places the piece of pottery back. "So, I don't think we have much today." Jonghyun pulls open the cupboards and Onew spends his time closing them after Jonghyun inspects the shelves (though, never the top, Onew realizes after a while). "Jeez, we really don't have anything. Oh, wait. I think I can make you a grilled cheese sandwich or something."
Onew blinks blankly at him. "Whatever you want!" he ends up laughing, causing Jonghyun to smile quietly into the crook of his arm as he jostles bread, butter and slices of cheese in his arms. "Want me to help?"
It takes a second for Jonghyun to reply before the boy sighs, "Honestly speaking, I think you'll somehow set the stove on fire." Onew doesn't really object.
"Jjong!"
The two freeze at the call of Jonghyun's name.
"Jjong, are you in the kitchen?"
"Shit," Jonghyun groans while setting down all of the food on the counter, "sister's home already."
"You better be making food for me." Jonghyun's sister pops her head into the kitchen and sniffs. "I don't-" Her words die on her tongue as she spots Onew-thankfully with both feet on the floor-leaning over Jonghyun, inspecting the cheese with much curiosity. "Your friend again?"
Jonghyun laughs nervously, "Yeah, this is Onew."
She scrunches her nose. "Wow," she mumbles, "seems to fit him."
"Right?" the boy snorts but quickly catches himself at the sight of Onew's pout. "Anyway, this is my sister, Jonghee. Onew, Jonghee. The bitch." Jonghyun keeps an eye on his sister as she silently fumes, reflexively bringing his arms high above his head to block any attacks, but they don't come. Instead, Jonghee stands there, fiddling with her blouse.
"Well then," she mutters before glancing at Onew and ducking her head. "I'm gonna go to the mall, so don't wreck the house. Bye." Flabbergasted, Jonghyun simply gapes at his sister's retreating back.
He takes in a small breath. "I think you have the magical ability of keeping my sister away." The boy glances back at Onew and smiles widely. "I might be keeping you around."
As Jonghyun turns back to face the stove and heat up a few pans, Onew shimmies up close to him at the counter, a goofy grin plastered crookedly on his lips, so large that Jonghyun turns around during his flipping and asks if anything's wrong with him.
"Nope, nothing wrong." Onew beams. "Just happy."
With a snort Jonghyun goes back to pressing down on the toasted bread, but even he can't deny the small curl of his lips.
Jonghyun decides to explain to his mom that Onew's a friend from the opposite side of town who has no where to stay because his parents are both in Beijing for a business trip. She doesn't really question him because she finds Onew's clumsiness to be endearing, and he's like the son she's always wished she had, so when Jonghyun stumbles into her bedroom sweating and panicking, his mom just shrugs it off and says that she'll dock Jonghyun's allowance to feed the extra mouth.
Jonghyun forces Onew to do his math homework for him in return (not that Onew really minded, because he discovered he had a knack for trigonometry).
To Jonghyun's surprise, the two became close, almost like brothers, with their bickering and video gaming and similar interest in singing. Their opinions on Jonghee differ-Onew simply shrugged when he said that Jonghee was pretty as Jonghyun silently fumed-and Onew loves the crust of his bread while Jonghyun detests it, but the two get along well during the day and night. They stay up, Jonghyun doing half of his homework and Onew doing the other, sometimes playing games and oftentimes singing Jonghyun's original songs.
Jonghyun silently praises Onew's singing (his pride won't let him admit that Onew's better than him though) as they sit on the floor with the light dim and guitar out. He finds Onew's fluency in different languages admirable, his pronunciation near perfect, his pitch better than any other tuning note he's heard in his life.
And he also realizes that if Onew were a girl and not partially extraterrestrial, he'd want to date him.
At first the thought passed through his mind like his mom's reminder that he has to stop by the convenience store for some milk, but when the thought dawned once more, it returned full force, smacking him straight up in the face and punching him in the gut.
Jonghyun finds himself spending half the nights wide awake as the ball of light buzzes near his ear on the pillow, wondering what would happen if, what would happen when, what would, what would-and then starts writing his thoughts out as songs.
He doesn't answer Onew when the boy peers over his shoulder to take a gander at the foreign chicken scratch native to the single resident of Jonghyun's mind and almost feels guilty when he takes secret glances, but everyone turns to Onew's smiling eyes and warm aura, so Jonghyun's doesn't feel all too guilty.
That is, before Onew thinks it's all right to strip right in front of him to change in the middle of Jonghyun's bedroom. Then no innocent bunny-like giggles can do him any good.
Jonghyun folds and refolds the notebook in his lap as his pen stops along the margin once more. Silence fills the room with Onew rolling left and right on the bed, singing smalls tunes that Jonghyun's become used to after a few sleepless nights, and Jonghyun struggling mentally to sift through his mind for the right words. As even the silence begins to get aggravated with the mood, Onew sits up on the bed, a lopsided smile in place.
"Why don't we go elsewhere? You might find inspiration."
Jonghyun doesn't lift his head from his notebook and only murmurs, "If you're suggesting the bathroom or kitchen, I'll pass." He finally looks up when Onew sighs.
"No," he murmurs, "just follow me." The boy quietly pushes the door open as to not alarm Jonghyun's mother in the room next to theirs. "Come here." With a hand extended towards the curious teen still perched on his chair, Onew lets a leg dangle daringly over the windowsill. "Come on."
Sighing, Jonghyun takes the boy's hand and in a second screams as his feet are lifted off the floor and into the air thirty feet above ground, and he struggles and kicks and yells in horror, overlapping the grunts that Onew makes as he tries to fly the both of them over to the large tree in the backyard.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Jonghyun finally puffs out when his arms shoot out to grab at the tree, his wobbling knees not even to keep him still on the thick bough.
Onew quietly sits on the branch opposite of the panic-stricken boy and sighs. "You're a lot heavier than I thought."
"I'm gonna die," Jonghyun moans, "I'm gonna slip and then I'll plummet face first into the earth and then holy fuck I'm gonna die."
"No, you're not." Onew stares at him with the most bemused, snide look he can muster. "You're fine. Just sit." He doesn't give Jonghyun a second to act as he leaps from his branch to Jonghyun's, slightly shaking the tree. "See, isn't this nice?"
After what feels like ten minutes and the tree stills under their weight, Jonghyun cracks open an eye, then the other, to stare out into the sky. His eyes widen as the blend of orange and pink and yellow fills his senses, the new altitude and angle changing his entire perspective on sunsets. He doesn't know when to take a breath, but when he does, a small laugh quickly follows.
"I told you," the star smiles softly, "that it'll inspire you."
Breathing in shakily, Jonghyun nestles an inch away from the body of the tree and closer to Onew. "Yeah," whispers the boy, his eyes busily trying to absorb the skyline as the sun slowly sinks away. "You're lucky." Jonghyun turns his head to look at Onew, who only shrugs a bit with his shoulders though a bright light glistens in his squinting eyes.
It takes a moment for Jonghyun to realize that he's been staring at Onew and the way the diminishing orange light frames his hair and contrasts, almost sparks with the little spots of blue that crackle and disappear. He opens his mouth and then closes it, a grin taking the words' place.
As the sun begins to close its blinds, Jonghyun notices that Onew's actually glowing and the boy realizes too, jumping a bit in his skin when his skin begins to turn blue.
"Whoops," Onew laughs stupidly, one hand scratching at the back of his head, "guess it's time for me to change!" And not too long after the words leave Onew's mouth, a small flash of light consumes him and then the human body disappears, replaced by the floating ball of light that still seems to resemble Onew, just slightly. Jonghyun barely reacts as the star begins to fly around him.
The star chirps, "So did you finish the song?"
Jonghyun looks down at his lap and sees the lines of his pages crammed with scribbles of ink of different shades and widths. He grins.
"Yeah, I did." Holding up the notebook like it's his greatest accomplishment, Jonghyun shouts, "My muse is back!"
But quickly after that outburst Jonghyun grumbles, "Hey, Onew?"
"Yeah?"
"How am I supposed to get down?"
Jonghyun gives Onew a second to panic before he throws his notebook at the star, narrowly missing it and hitting his parents' window instead.
The two go to sleep with Onew locked up in the walk-in closet and Jonghyun wrapped up in bandages.
a/n: oh my god finally. kinamona 's been pestering me about this for weeks and i kept forgetting and yeah omg ;__; and this sucks too SIGH but i need to get this out there hahaha.