of pancakes and puppies ( sungyeol x myungsoo, pg-13 )
It’s the light dusting of snow on the tree tops and the wonderfully post-festive chill in the air that causes Sungyeol so much excitement that morning; he’s always the first to wake up out of the two of them, and it’s that same morning Myungsoo wakes up to the delicious scent of breakfast from the far-too-small box kitchen that they both share. He doesn’t realise the weather until he’s out of bed and tugging a shirt over his head, scanning the room to find Sungyeol’s things everywhere, from his shoes to his smell, still lingering faintly on the bedsheets.
It’s been exactly 2 years, 4 months, 3 weeks and 1 day since the beginning and Myungsoo still needs to remind himself every morning that Sungyeol’s smell on their shared sheets is real, still needs to slap himself to make sure he’s not dreaming.
He feels the goosebumps crawl up his skin at the cold air seeming to drift through the thin apartment walls, deciding it’s maybe better if he starts wearing warmer clothes to bed, but in the end he knows that he won’t because Sungyeol, his self-proclaimed teddy bear, keeps everything warm enough without them. He knows the older boy is happy because it’s winter - Sungyeol’s favourite season, because he likes the rosiness of cheeks, the abundance of joy, the sickly sweet taste of maple syrup and pancakes on cold mornings, the warmth felt with sitting near a fire, both in body and mind.
“Let’s get a puppy,” Sungyeol says the moment Myungsoo walks into the kitchen, eyes wide and hopeful, looking at him through his eyelashes.
Myungsoo isn’t at all surprised by his boyfriend’s absurd request because it’s winter, the season when he’s happiest and Sungyeol never plays his happiness in halves. He tends to say things without thinking a lot when he’s happy - “can we get married?” and “let’s take a vacation to France” and “I want to adopt a daughter” - but he knows he will forget about those things with the passing of days and weeks and reality will hit Sungyeol, remembering they barely have enough money to live as they do now and they really cannot afford any of his fantasies.
One day, though, when they are married and do have a daughter and a puppy, Myungsoo really wants to go to France.
They made the decision to move in together when they both finished college, working various shitty jobs to earn enough to get them started. Neither of them really knew how a domestic relationship would go because both of them lived with their parents during college, and the only evidence they had were the nights spent curled in bed together at sleepovers, one of them stealing the covers but neither knowing which. When they finally moved in, after Sungyeol complained about the amount of lifting he had to do to bring a total of 5 boxes inside their apartment, they argued a lot: about Sungyeol’s ridiculous taste of wallpaper and not having enough room for Myungsoo’s manga collection and Sungyeol leaving his clothes on the floor and Myungsoo’s plaid shirts filling up their closet space, shouting at each other for stupid reasons and giving each other the silent treatment until morning. Whoever caused the argument would apologise the next day with either breakfast or a blowjob, the trivial matter forgotten about in the passing of minutes and hours, wondering why they even fought in the first place.
Myungsoo only nods his head in agreement, fixing himself his daily cup of strong coffee.
“Sure, let’s get a puppy.” He says it uninterestedly, not looking at the eager boy in front of him; he knows Sungyeol too well to need to say anything else. The electronic egg timer Sungyeol placed on the side of the hob beeps, interrupting both of their thoughts, and nothing else is said as Sungyeol cracks each egg with a knife, giving one for himself and one for Myungsoo.
“What shall we name it?” Sungyeol asks, chewing on a piece of bread, small bit of egg yolk running down his chin, and Myungsoo temporarily loses his bearings.
“Whatever you want, Yeol. Your choice,” he mutters, not really paying attention to his own words as he grabs a napkin to wipe the mess off his boyfriend’s mouth; Sungyeol’s face lights up in delight, either because of his words or his gesture, and Myungsoo pretends not to notice.
It comes as a shock, though, when Myungsoo comes home from work one day, absolutely exhausted and wanting nothing more than to take a nice hot shower and get a good night’s sleep, to see that Sungyeol has actually got them a dog, a small brown terrier that he apparently named “Dino”.
Myungsoo feels a headache coming on.
“Sungyeol, did it even occur to you that we sometimes don’t have enough money to pay our electricity bill? Or that some weeks we can’t go grocery shopping because we can barely feed ourselves, let alone a dog?”
Sungyeol shrugs, not looking up from the magazine he’s flipping through lazily. “You agreed we could get a dog.”
Myungsoo rubs his temples to calm himself down, not wanting to fight with him because he’s much too tired. “Sungyeol, you ask for a lot of things when you’re happy. I don’t want a dog-we can’t afford a dog. Do you even know how to take care of it?”
Sungyeol’s face falls, visible hurt going across his features. “Of course I know how to-why did you lie to me? If you didn’t want him then you shouldn’t have said yes.”
“I didn’t think you’d actually go and get one. For fuck sake, Yeol.”
Sungyeol purses his lips in anger, grabs Dino by the waist and lifts him into his arms. “Well fine then. If you’re going to be an asshole about it, sleep on the couch tonight.” With that, Sungyeol locks himself in their bedroom for the rest of the night, not coming out until morning, carrying Dino out with him.
Like an unspoken promise between them, Myungsoo corners Sungyeol as he’s about to leave and gives him a blowjob against the wall, the silly disagreement slipping from both of their minds at the tugging of hair and the pulling of clothes.
He’ll just have to work more hours. He convinces himself it’s because Dino’s probably the most adorable dog he’s ever seen and maybe he has always wanted a puppy, but when Sungyeol comes home, all smiles and kisses and cooey voices, he realises that’s not the only reason and he’s doing this because he loves him too much to say no.
The snow is still settled in fluffy white bunches against the apartment building, the surrounding park decorated with icicles hanging from tree branches and the soft crunching sound of ice beneath feet, the playground empty and glittering with untouched snow. Bundling themselves with coats and scarves and attaching a makeshift leash to Dino’s makeshift collar, they head outside, gloves not needed because the holding of hands will keep them warm. Dino grows impatient several hours later, whining and tugging in the ‘home’ direction, and with red ears and noses the three of them go back, freezing and shivering and happy. Dino chooses a spot on Myungsoo’s lap to sleep on, the three of them sat together watching a random movie on the TV that he hadn’t been paying attention to.
Myungsoo watches as Sungyeol’s eyes droop tiredly and he leans against the back of the sofa, and soon enough it’s morning and Dino is barking loudly at the door, his tail flapping excitedly; Sungyeol is up and making breakfast again, the first signs of spring on the horizon and he knows, once again, that Sungyeol is in one of his seasonal happy moods.
“Can we get a cat, too?” Sungyeol jokes when Myungsoo backhugs him against the stove and presses cold hands to his tummy, sneaking them up his chest. This time, Myungsoo knows exactly the right answer.
“No. Absolutely not. No cats.”
Sungyeol simply grins.
It’s been exactly 2 years, 4 months, 3 weeks and 1 day since the beginning and Myungsoo still needs to remind himself every morning that Sungyeol’s smell on their shared sheets is real, still needs to slap himself to make sure he’s not dreaming.
He feels the goosebumps crawl up his skin at the cold air seeming to drift through the thin apartment walls, deciding it’s maybe better if he starts wearing warmer clothes to bed, but in the end he knows that he won’t because Sungyeol, his self-proclaimed teddy bear, keeps everything warm enough without them. He knows the older boy is happy because it’s winter - Sungyeol’s favourite season, because he likes the rosiness of cheeks, the abundance of joy, the sickly sweet taste of maple syrup and pancakes on cold mornings, the warmth felt with sitting near a fire, both in body and mind.
“Let’s get a puppy,” Sungyeol says the moment Myungsoo walks into the kitchen, eyes wide and hopeful, looking at him through his eyelashes.
Myungsoo isn’t at all surprised by his boyfriend’s absurd request because it’s winter, the season when he’s happiest and Sungyeol never plays his happiness in halves. He tends to say things without thinking a lot when he’s happy - “can we get married?” and “let’s take a vacation to France” and “I want to adopt a daughter” - but he knows he will forget about those things with the passing of days and weeks and reality will hit Sungyeol, remembering they barely have enough money to live as they do now and they really cannot afford any of his fantasies.
One day, though, when they are married and do have a daughter and a puppy, Myungsoo really wants to go to France.
They made the decision to move in together when they both finished college, working various shitty jobs to earn enough to get them started. Neither of them really knew how a domestic relationship would go because both of them lived with their parents during college, and the only evidence they had were the nights spent curled in bed together at sleepovers, one of them stealing the covers but neither knowing which. When they finally moved in, after Sungyeol complained about the amount of lifting he had to do to bring a total of 5 boxes inside their apartment, they argued a lot: about Sungyeol’s ridiculous taste of wallpaper and not having enough room for Myungsoo’s manga collection and Sungyeol leaving his clothes on the floor and Myungsoo’s plaid shirts filling up their closet space, shouting at each other for stupid reasons and giving each other the silent treatment until morning. Whoever caused the argument would apologise the next day with either breakfast or a blowjob, the trivial matter forgotten about in the passing of minutes and hours, wondering why they even fought in the first place.
Myungsoo only nods his head in agreement, fixing himself his daily cup of strong coffee.
“Sure, let’s get a puppy.” He says it uninterestedly, not looking at the eager boy in front of him; he knows Sungyeol too well to need to say anything else. The electronic egg timer Sungyeol placed on the side of the hob beeps, interrupting both of their thoughts, and nothing else is said as Sungyeol cracks each egg with a knife, giving one for himself and one for Myungsoo.
“What shall we name it?” Sungyeol asks, chewing on a piece of bread, small bit of egg yolk running down his chin, and Myungsoo temporarily loses his bearings.
“Whatever you want, Yeol. Your choice,” he mutters, not really paying attention to his own words as he grabs a napkin to wipe the mess off his boyfriend’s mouth; Sungyeol’s face lights up in delight, either because of his words or his gesture, and Myungsoo pretends not to notice.
It comes as a shock, though, when Myungsoo comes home from work one day, absolutely exhausted and wanting nothing more than to take a nice hot shower and get a good night’s sleep, to see that Sungyeol has actually got them a dog, a small brown terrier that he apparently named “Dino”.
Myungsoo feels a headache coming on.
“Sungyeol, did it even occur to you that we sometimes don’t have enough money to pay our electricity bill? Or that some weeks we can’t go grocery shopping because we can barely feed ourselves, let alone a dog?”
Sungyeol shrugs, not looking up from the magazine he’s flipping through lazily. “You agreed we could get a dog.”
Myungsoo rubs his temples to calm himself down, not wanting to fight with him because he’s much too tired. “Sungyeol, you ask for a lot of things when you’re happy. I don’t want a dog-we can’t afford a dog. Do you even know how to take care of it?”
Sungyeol’s face falls, visible hurt going across his features. “Of course I know how to-why did you lie to me? If you didn’t want him then you shouldn’t have said yes.”
“I didn’t think you’d actually go and get one. For fuck sake, Yeol.”
Sungyeol purses his lips in anger, grabs Dino by the waist and lifts him into his arms. “Well fine then. If you’re going to be an asshole about it, sleep on the couch tonight.” With that, Sungyeol locks himself in their bedroom for the rest of the night, not coming out until morning, carrying Dino out with him.
Like an unspoken promise between them, Myungsoo corners Sungyeol as he’s about to leave and gives him a blowjob against the wall, the silly disagreement slipping from both of their minds at the tugging of hair and the pulling of clothes.
He’ll just have to work more hours. He convinces himself it’s because Dino’s probably the most adorable dog he’s ever seen and maybe he has always wanted a puppy, but when Sungyeol comes home, all smiles and kisses and cooey voices, he realises that’s not the only reason and he’s doing this because he loves him too much to say no.
The snow is still settled in fluffy white bunches against the apartment building, the surrounding park decorated with icicles hanging from tree branches and the soft crunching sound of ice beneath feet, the playground empty and glittering with untouched snow. Bundling themselves with coats and scarves and attaching a makeshift leash to Dino’s makeshift collar, they head outside, gloves not needed because the holding of hands will keep them warm. Dino grows impatient several hours later, whining and tugging in the ‘home’ direction, and with red ears and noses the three of them go back, freezing and shivering and happy. Dino chooses a spot on Myungsoo’s lap to sleep on, the three of them sat together watching a random movie on the TV that he hadn’t been paying attention to.
Myungsoo watches as Sungyeol’s eyes droop tiredly and he leans against the back of the sofa, and soon enough it’s morning and Dino is barking loudly at the door, his tail flapping excitedly; Sungyeol is up and making breakfast again, the first signs of spring on the horizon and he knows, once again, that Sungyeol is in one of his seasonal happy moods.
“Can we get a cat, too?” Sungyeol jokes when Myungsoo backhugs him against the stove and presses cold hands to his tummy, sneaking them up his chest. This time, Myungsoo knows exactly the right answer.
“No. Absolutely not. No cats.”
Sungyeol simply grins.