free fall ; 1/1
Title: Free Fall
Pairing: Luhan/Yixing
Rating: PG
W/C: ~2k
Genre: Fluff/Romance
Summary: In which Luhan is afraid of heights, and Yixing is a skydiving instructor.
Luhan thinks a bet shouldn’t be valid if you’re drunk when you make it. “If you’re drunk,” he says, “then it doesn’t count.”
Tao, on the other hand, disagrees. He twists terms from his pre law classes into a garish explanation as to why Luhan needs to go on with it, and by the end of it Luhan agrees because his head hurts and what the hell does ex parte mean anyways? “Besides,” Tao continues, “if you go by your logic, then nothing in your life counts.”
And that’s how he gets into the situation he’s in now; he’s standing in the parking lot of the local drop zone, with Tao - who sports the most obnoxious shit-eating grin known to man - at his left, and Minseok - who brought a camera to capture his terror with, the asshole - to his right.
“You know,” Luhan says, looking at the runway, where the airplane that’s going to bring him to his doom is stationed. “We could just come back. I’ll honor my side of the bet another day.”
“Nice try,” Tao says, pushing him forward. “You already have an appointment, anyways.”
Next to the runway is a large gymnasium type building. The door to it opens, and a man, who Luhan assumes to be his skydiving instructor, exits. This is really happening. There’s an instructor approaching him, equipment in hand, and Luhan’s really going to jump out of an airplane.
“I hate you guys,” he says, throwing a look back at Minseok and Tao, who have to be the world’s worst friends. “I hate you more than eight a.m. lectures. I really do.”
“I can live with that,” Minseok replies back, shrugging. “So long as you don’t hate us as much as you hate heights.”
As the instructor gets closer, Luhan can finally make out his face. He’s younger than Luhan expected, and holy shit, he looks like a modern day Adonis. He had been fully prepared to embarrass himself in front of someone older, most likely middle aged. This he had not expected. And while it’s neither Zitao or Minseok’s fault that he’s going to be jumping off a plane and screaming in the ear of a very, very attractive stranger, he’s still going to blame it on them. A good old fashioned scapegoat never hurt anyone.
“Hey there,” the guy says, nodding at the trio. “I’m Yixing. Which one of you is jumping today?”
Tao pats him on the shoulder, and Luhan doesn’t even need to look back at him to know that he’s still wearing his trademark feline grin. “Luhan is,” he says, nudging him forward once again.
“Okay,” he says, nodding. “I’m going to need you to put on these super fashionable glasses, alright?” He hands him a pair of goggles, and semi reluctantly, Luhan puts them on. “We’re going to head over to the plane now,” he continues. “You two should go wait over by the building, since you’re not jumping. You’re going to want to stay clear of the runway.”
Luhan feels a small bit of relief at that. Not having Minseok or Tao close by to taunt should make this a little easier - or, he hopes it will, at least. When they’re in front of the plane, Yixing holds out a harness, similar to the one he’s wearing. “This is what’s going to attach you and I, so we stay together in midair.”
He stares at the metal links and clasps on the harness for a moment. They better be a lot sturdier than they look, because he sure as hell is not about to plummet to his death because Minseok can throw back more shots than he can. “These are well tested, right?” he asks, glancing up from the harness at Yixing. “It’s not going to break and send me falling to the ground?” Maybe that is the least cool thing he can say in this situation, but Luhan decides, in a split second choice, that safety is far more important than embarrassing himself in front of a cute boy. He might beat himself up about it later - no, he definitely will - but in the moment, he doesn’t give a damn.
Yixing laughs. “Of course they are,” he assures him. “You’re safe with me!” He grins, and Luhan decides that the world is really, really not fair. The other looks gorgeous when he smiles, and then here he is, his fear clearly written on his face. “So you step into it like this,” he says, helping Luhan into the harness. “Put your arm through here and... done!”
“It’s a little loose,” he says, shifting uncomfortably.
Nodding, Yixing leans closer to adjust the straps at his shoulder. “I have to tighten all the straps. I promise I’m not just getting handsy.” Luhan is about to ask what exactly that means, but then Yixing kneels, one hand pressed against his thigh, and the other pulling at the strap around his leg. “How’s that feel?”
Luhan sputters for a moment before reminding himself that this man is a professional skydiving instructor, and he’s asking about the harness, you dumbass, not what being groped by him feels like. “That’s good,” he says tightly. Yixing only hums before moving onto his other leg. And if Luhan thinks he feels his thigh a little more than necessary, he doesn’t mention it, because Yixing had said he wasn’t trying to be handsy, after all.
“And now,” he says, standing up again. “We board the plane.”
When Luhan is comfortably seated on the plane, Yixing sitting behind him, and the plane starts picking up speed down the runway, the reality of what he’s about to do hits him. He’s in a plane. He’s in a plane he’s about to jump out of. He’s about to jump out of a plane, thousands of feet above the ground, because he lost a bet to his friends. A drunken bet. “I need new friends,” he mumbles aloud to himself.
“How come?” Yixing asks from behind him.
“Well,” Luhan says, turning his head to smile sheepishly at him. “I’m fucking terrified of heights.”
Yixing stares back at him, deadpan. “So you decided that throwing yourself off a plane, thirteen thousand feet above land, was a good idea?”
“They decided that was a good idea.” He points out the window at Tao and Minseok, who look like small figurines behind them. “I kind of... lost a bet?”
Yixing looks at him for a long moment before breaking into laughter. “You’re right,” he says. “You do need new friends.” He grins at him, lighthearted, and Luhan is grateful. This small talk is nice; it makes a good distraction, and his heart stills a bit. “Don’t worry,” Yixing continues. “You couldn’t have gotten a better instructor for your first jump, if I do say so myself.”
“How long have you been jumping?” he asks, because Yixing looks incredibly young, maybe even younger than he is.
“Eight years,” he replies back. “My family actually owns this place, so even though the minimum age here is sixteen, I’ve been jumping since I was thirteen.”
The pilot turns around briefly to shoot a thumbs up sign at the two of them, and Yixing stands up. “That’s our cue,” he say. “Are you ready?”
He pulls the door to the plane open, and Luhan is immediately assaulted with a heavy blast of cold air. A strangled noise escapes his mouth, some weird, hybrid cross between a shriek and a groan. Whatever it was, it was mortifying. “I’m sorry.” He has to shout over the roar of the wind. “When I said I was terrified of heights, I meant it.” He peers out the door, and holy shit, you really do not understand how high thirteen thousand feet is until you’re staring down at it, about to jump.
“It’s okay,” Yixing shouts back. Luhan is acutely aware of Yixing hooking their harnesses together, so that his back is flush to the instructor’s chest. “It’s kind of cute, to be honest.”
Luhan barely has time to process that, because before he knows it, Yixing has guided both of them to the very edge of the plane. His toes hang over the edge of the plane’s surface, and then suddenly he’s jumping.
There are absolutely no words to describe the feeling of free fall. It’s indescribable, the way it feels to have nothing underneath you besides the wind. The wind is deafening, but Luhan doesn’t mind because he’s flying. The thirty seconds of free fall is gone in a quick instant. Above him Yixing pulls the chute and the parachute is released. Their fall stills to a glide.
“Oh my god,” Luhan says, after a beat or two, when his heart rate finally returns to normal. “Oh my god.”
“Amazing, right?” Yixing says above him.
And it really, really is. Around him the earth looks beautiful, like a mosaic of greens, browns, and blues. His view is seemingly endless, and he doesn’t quite know where to look. He glances in every direction around himself - left, right, down, up - and it’s breathtaking.
As they come nearer and nearer to the ground, things come into focus. Luhan can see the building of the dropzone below him, and next to it, two tiny little dots that represent Minseok and Zitao.
“You need to put your feet above mine,” Yixing says. “I need to touch the ground first so we can have a safe landing, alright?”
Luhan does just that. The last thing he wants is to come this far in one piece, only to go splat right above the ground.
Yixing, Luhan decides, really is the best person to skydive with. They land smoothly, the parachute scattered on the ground around them. Completely overcome with adrenaline, Luhan takes large breaths. They’re not the panicky sort like he thought they’d be, though. Surprisingly, he feels amazing. He thinks he might be able to understand why adrenaline junkies do ridiculous stunts now.
“You did really great for your first time,” Yixing says, unhooking their harnesses. He removes his own before starting on Luhan’s. “Still afraid of heights?”
“Yeah.” Luhan laughs, breathless. “But maybe not so much anymore.”
Yixing kneels down in front of him again to loosen the thigh straps, and Luhan is suddenly thankful for the rosy tint he knows the wind has given his face. Once again Yixing seems to be a little too friendly - one of his hands rests on the back of Luhan’s thigh as he pulls at the harness.
Luhan throws a look behind him, and sees Tao and Minseok - who’s waving his camera in the air like an idiot - coming towards him at an alarming rate. “Oh, what the hell,” he mumbles to himself. “Listen, Yixing...” The words come out a little too rushed together, because if he really wants to do this, he only has a few taunt-free moments to do so. And he can do this, because if he can jump out of a plane, then he can do a trivial thing like ask Yixing for his number. “Can I have your number?”
Yixing looks at him through his eyelashes, and the angle Luhan sees him at - he’s on his knees for god’s sake - makes him blush. “You want me to give you my number,” he says slowly, undoing the last clasp of the harness. “I’ve only been feeling you up all day,” he says as he stands up. “Of course I’m going to give you my number.” He grins, and Luhan can’t help but smile back.
Maybe taking risks is worth it after all.
Pairing: Luhan/Yixing
Rating: PG
W/C: ~2k
Genre: Fluff/Romance
Summary: In which Luhan is afraid of heights, and Yixing is a skydiving instructor.
Luhan thinks a bet shouldn’t be valid if you’re drunk when you make it. “If you’re drunk,” he says, “then it doesn’t count.”
Tao, on the other hand, disagrees. He twists terms from his pre law classes into a garish explanation as to why Luhan needs to go on with it, and by the end of it Luhan agrees because his head hurts and what the hell does ex parte mean anyways? “Besides,” Tao continues, “if you go by your logic, then nothing in your life counts.”
And that’s how he gets into the situation he’s in now; he’s standing in the parking lot of the local drop zone, with Tao - who sports the most obnoxious shit-eating grin known to man - at his left, and Minseok - who brought a camera to capture his terror with, the asshole - to his right.
“You know,” Luhan says, looking at the runway, where the airplane that’s going to bring him to his doom is stationed. “We could just come back. I’ll honor my side of the bet another day.”
“Nice try,” Tao says, pushing him forward. “You already have an appointment, anyways.”
Next to the runway is a large gymnasium type building. The door to it opens, and a man, who Luhan assumes to be his skydiving instructor, exits. This is really happening. There’s an instructor approaching him, equipment in hand, and Luhan’s really going to jump out of an airplane.
“I hate you guys,” he says, throwing a look back at Minseok and Tao, who have to be the world’s worst friends. “I hate you more than eight a.m. lectures. I really do.”
“I can live with that,” Minseok replies back, shrugging. “So long as you don’t hate us as much as you hate heights.”
As the instructor gets closer, Luhan can finally make out his face. He’s younger than Luhan expected, and holy shit, he looks like a modern day Adonis. He had been fully prepared to embarrass himself in front of someone older, most likely middle aged. This he had not expected. And while it’s neither Zitao or Minseok’s fault that he’s going to be jumping off a plane and screaming in the ear of a very, very attractive stranger, he’s still going to blame it on them. A good old fashioned scapegoat never hurt anyone.
“Hey there,” the guy says, nodding at the trio. “I’m Yixing. Which one of you is jumping today?”
Tao pats him on the shoulder, and Luhan doesn’t even need to look back at him to know that he’s still wearing his trademark feline grin. “Luhan is,” he says, nudging him forward once again.
“Okay,” he says, nodding. “I’m going to need you to put on these super fashionable glasses, alright?” He hands him a pair of goggles, and semi reluctantly, Luhan puts them on. “We’re going to head over to the plane now,” he continues. “You two should go wait over by the building, since you’re not jumping. You’re going to want to stay clear of the runway.”
Luhan feels a small bit of relief at that. Not having Minseok or Tao close by to taunt should make this a little easier - or, he hopes it will, at least. When they’re in front of the plane, Yixing holds out a harness, similar to the one he’s wearing. “This is what’s going to attach you and I, so we stay together in midair.”
He stares at the metal links and clasps on the harness for a moment. They better be a lot sturdier than they look, because he sure as hell is not about to plummet to his death because Minseok can throw back more shots than he can. “These are well tested, right?” he asks, glancing up from the harness at Yixing. “It’s not going to break and send me falling to the ground?” Maybe that is the least cool thing he can say in this situation, but Luhan decides, in a split second choice, that safety is far more important than embarrassing himself in front of a cute boy. He might beat himself up about it later - no, he definitely will - but in the moment, he doesn’t give a damn.
Yixing laughs. “Of course they are,” he assures him. “You’re safe with me!” He grins, and Luhan decides that the world is really, really not fair. The other looks gorgeous when he smiles, and then here he is, his fear clearly written on his face. “So you step into it like this,” he says, helping Luhan into the harness. “Put your arm through here and... done!”
“It’s a little loose,” he says, shifting uncomfortably.
Nodding, Yixing leans closer to adjust the straps at his shoulder. “I have to tighten all the straps. I promise I’m not just getting handsy.” Luhan is about to ask what exactly that means, but then Yixing kneels, one hand pressed against his thigh, and the other pulling at the strap around his leg. “How’s that feel?”
Luhan sputters for a moment before reminding himself that this man is a professional skydiving instructor, and he’s asking about the harness, you dumbass, not what being groped by him feels like. “That’s good,” he says tightly. Yixing only hums before moving onto his other leg. And if Luhan thinks he feels his thigh a little more than necessary, he doesn’t mention it, because Yixing had said he wasn’t trying to be handsy, after all.
“And now,” he says, standing up again. “We board the plane.”
When Luhan is comfortably seated on the plane, Yixing sitting behind him, and the plane starts picking up speed down the runway, the reality of what he’s about to do hits him. He’s in a plane. He’s in a plane he’s about to jump out of. He’s about to jump out of a plane, thousands of feet above the ground, because he lost a bet to his friends. A drunken bet. “I need new friends,” he mumbles aloud to himself.
“How come?” Yixing asks from behind him.
“Well,” Luhan says, turning his head to smile sheepishly at him. “I’m fucking terrified of heights.”
Yixing stares back at him, deadpan. “So you decided that throwing yourself off a plane, thirteen thousand feet above land, was a good idea?”
“They decided that was a good idea.” He points out the window at Tao and Minseok, who look like small figurines behind them. “I kind of... lost a bet?”
Yixing looks at him for a long moment before breaking into laughter. “You’re right,” he says. “You do need new friends.” He grins at him, lighthearted, and Luhan is grateful. This small talk is nice; it makes a good distraction, and his heart stills a bit. “Don’t worry,” Yixing continues. “You couldn’t have gotten a better instructor for your first jump, if I do say so myself.”
“How long have you been jumping?” he asks, because Yixing looks incredibly young, maybe even younger than he is.
“Eight years,” he replies back. “My family actually owns this place, so even though the minimum age here is sixteen, I’ve been jumping since I was thirteen.”
The pilot turns around briefly to shoot a thumbs up sign at the two of them, and Yixing stands up. “That’s our cue,” he say. “Are you ready?”
He pulls the door to the plane open, and Luhan is immediately assaulted with a heavy blast of cold air. A strangled noise escapes his mouth, some weird, hybrid cross between a shriek and a groan. Whatever it was, it was mortifying. “I’m sorry.” He has to shout over the roar of the wind. “When I said I was terrified of heights, I meant it.” He peers out the door, and holy shit, you really do not understand how high thirteen thousand feet is until you’re staring down at it, about to jump.
“It’s okay,” Yixing shouts back. Luhan is acutely aware of Yixing hooking their harnesses together, so that his back is flush to the instructor’s chest. “It’s kind of cute, to be honest.”
Luhan barely has time to process that, because before he knows it, Yixing has guided both of them to the very edge of the plane. His toes hang over the edge of the plane’s surface, and then suddenly he’s jumping.
There are absolutely no words to describe the feeling of free fall. It’s indescribable, the way it feels to have nothing underneath you besides the wind. The wind is deafening, but Luhan doesn’t mind because he’s flying. The thirty seconds of free fall is gone in a quick instant. Above him Yixing pulls the chute and the parachute is released. Their fall stills to a glide.
“Oh my god,” Luhan says, after a beat or two, when his heart rate finally returns to normal. “Oh my god.”
“Amazing, right?” Yixing says above him.
And it really, really is. Around him the earth looks beautiful, like a mosaic of greens, browns, and blues. His view is seemingly endless, and he doesn’t quite know where to look. He glances in every direction around himself - left, right, down, up - and it’s breathtaking.
As they come nearer and nearer to the ground, things come into focus. Luhan can see the building of the dropzone below him, and next to it, two tiny little dots that represent Minseok and Zitao.
“You need to put your feet above mine,” Yixing says. “I need to touch the ground first so we can have a safe landing, alright?”
Luhan does just that. The last thing he wants is to come this far in one piece, only to go splat right above the ground.
Yixing, Luhan decides, really is the best person to skydive with. They land smoothly, the parachute scattered on the ground around them. Completely overcome with adrenaline, Luhan takes large breaths. They’re not the panicky sort like he thought they’d be, though. Surprisingly, he feels amazing. He thinks he might be able to understand why adrenaline junkies do ridiculous stunts now.
“You did really great for your first time,” Yixing says, unhooking their harnesses. He removes his own before starting on Luhan’s. “Still afraid of heights?”
“Yeah.” Luhan laughs, breathless. “But maybe not so much anymore.”
Yixing kneels down in front of him again to loosen the thigh straps, and Luhan is suddenly thankful for the rosy tint he knows the wind has given his face. Once again Yixing seems to be a little too friendly - one of his hands rests on the back of Luhan’s thigh as he pulls at the harness.
Luhan throws a look behind him, and sees Tao and Minseok - who’s waving his camera in the air like an idiot - coming towards him at an alarming rate. “Oh, what the hell,” he mumbles to himself. “Listen, Yixing...” The words come out a little too rushed together, because if he really wants to do this, he only has a few taunt-free moments to do so. And he can do this, because if he can jump out of a plane, then he can do a trivial thing like ask Yixing for his number. “Can I have your number?”
Yixing looks at him through his eyelashes, and the angle Luhan sees him at - he’s on his knees for god’s sake - makes him blush. “You want me to give you my number,” he says slowly, undoing the last clasp of the harness. “I’ve only been feeling you up all day,” he says as he stands up. “Of course I’m going to give you my number.” He grins, and Luhan can’t help but smile back.
Maybe taking risks is worth it after all.