Title: A Basket Full of Softened You and Me
Pairing: Donghae/Zhoumi
Genre: Fluff
Rating: G
Disclaimer: All characters mentioned here belong to SME.
Summary: In which Zhoumi buys enough clothes for an army, Donghae is the resident laundromat and everyone wants to keep the pair of them in their pockets.
A/N: For
amalious Zhoumi woke up reluctantly to the few stubborn strips of sunlight that managed to defy the thick fabric curtain hanging by the bed. He turned his head, eyes blinking blearily when he realized that his personal heater had somehow managed to slip out of his clingy grasp. Wiggling in closer to the dent left behind, he noticed the chill left behind. So his silly heater must have gotten up for a long while now.
The clock by the bedside table told him it was now 11:15am. Burying his head into the pillow, he let out a low groan. Zhoumi was reluctant to leave the bed. It was Saturday. Saturday meant the first lie-in of the weekend, cuddling and maybe lazy late morning sex before brunch at 2. His stomach growled loudly at the thought of food. Ok. Maybe brunch should be moved up to the top of the agenda.
Hauling himself out of bed, he stumbled out of bed and into the en-suite bathroom to freshen up. Feeling marginally better after brushing his teeth and washing his face, he grabbed some random clothes off the floor by the foot of the bed before making his way out of the room.
He was treated to the smell of freshly brewed oolong tea and the sight of his boyfriend with his sleep tousled hair quietly humming to music from iPod earphones as he moved around gracefully around the room.
Zhoumi never got tired of watching Donghae moved. There was this smooth gentle grace in those limbs as they moved, something Zhoumi was always envious of because no matter how long it has been, he had never really fully grown into his limbs. Donghae loved to tease him during the rare times his inane clumsiness made itself known unwittingly. Zhoumi would pretend to be annoyed as he pouted and complained loudly, but he was secretly pleased that he could make Donghae laughed over the silliest of things.
It was one of the many million things he loved about Donghae.
He leaned into the shadow of the hallway as he watched his boyfriend brought out several baskets of laundry and began sorting them out. Once he was done, Donghae quickly brought out the ironing board and started picking through the sorted piles to iron.
In the beginning of their relationship, they had quickly established that Donghae and electronics should be kept as far apart as possible. Something about his hands was incredibly determined to mess up whatever electronic items that came between them. The only things that were safe from his hands were his iPod, his phone and his notebook.
So imagine Zhoumi's surprise when he happen upon Donghae ironing a few months into their relationship. Not only did the iron not fall apart beneath his hands, Donghae was actually a wonder with it.
Zhoumi, despite being a shopaholic, was an absolute failure when it came to clothes maintenance. He usually just took his clothes to the local laundromat and picked them out a few days later. He had actually burned his clothes through a few times by then (ok fine. It was more than a few times) and he was not tempted to test fate again by burning more of his spoils from his shopping escapades.
Their mutual friends teased and joked about how they domesticated and utterly married they were when they found out Donghae had already taken over laundry duty even before they moved in together. The irony of their reversed roles was not lost on anyone.
In spite of the constant ribbing, Donghae simply blinked his eyes and beamed because he was happy that he could take care of Zhoumi even if it was something simple as doing his laundry when the topic ever came up. At which point, all of their friends would dissolve into giggles and start cooing over his impossibly adorable boyfriend. Even Zhoumi was hard pressed to be annoyed by their friends' pointed jokes about gender stereotypes in their relationship when faced with Donghae's bright enthusiasm and contentment. But he drew the line when their friends started sending Donghae checked shirts whenever they happened to come across a particular design or colour combination.
It wasn't fair. They knew what seeing Donghae in checkered tees did to him. The way the shirt hid his biceps and played up his skin tone. The way those blasted shirts tapered to his narrow waist when he buttoned it over a simple tee. Especially when Donghae rolled his sleeves up while he was working, or when he thought the sleeves were chaffing his wrists, edging him up with stupid macho masculinity, capable of taking care of Zhoumi and all of his baggage (literally and figuratively). No one had any right to look downright adorable, gorgeous and sexy all at the same time.
It was as if they were conspiring to kill him with sudden bouts of lust and sappiness and giddiness from how he managed to snag someone like Donghae as his boyfriend. His feelings were being pulled apart in so many different directions that he was literally spinning out of control with them.
It. Was. Just. Unfair. Damn it.
Now, watching Donghae ironing, his heart was suddenly bursting with overpowering fondness and contentment. It struck him at that very moment that this was how he wanted his life to always be like - Donghae dressed in those ridiculously checkered tees that brought out all his best features, fussing over his shopping habits while going about laundering all of them anyway. Smiling that soft smile he reserved for these little moments of domesticity when it was just the two of them and the stretch of the quiet days. Always smelling of the fabric softeners Donghae used for laundry days and basking in the care and little love notes left behind with each carefully ironed stitch.
Zhoumi knew he was grinning maniacally when he tip-toed behind Donghae and hugged him. Plucking out one of his earphones, he lightly kissed the place right below his earlobe and rested his chin on Donghae's shoulder.
"Good morning bao~bei~"
He could feel Donghae's chest shaking from the silent laugh at the silly nickname and patted Zhoumi's clasped hands at his waist.
"Go get your tea stick man. I'm not listening to you grumble about how sorting out your latest shopping escapade is more important than your lazy morning sex until you think through the benefits of peeling these clothes off you. Slowly."
Zhoumi gave him a tighter hug, planting another kiss by the corner of Donghae's lips this time before releasing him.
"Only if I get to peel you out of that ridiculous checkered tee baobei."
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A/N: First post for 2013! It's been a while but hopefully this doesn't off as rusty as I feel.
In case anyone is interested, I'm in the slow process of moving my fics to
A03.
Cross-posted to
my_prection.