[Fic] More Than This - 13/15
Title: More Than This
Author: Coley Merrin
Pairings: Zhou Mi/Kyuhyun, Tablo/Eunhyuk
Other: various
Rating: R
Genre: AU, crime, romance
Warnings: violence, death (not of main characters), sexual situations
Summary: Zhou Mi’s focus is Heartstrings, a dating company where love is more than just a guarantee - it's in Zhou Mi’s blood. A matchmaking gift he’s used with gladness, until a series of murders has it shaping his nightmares.
Eunhyuk, his business partner, can’t let go of his tumultuous past. But finding a man he’s been looking for over half his life has repercussions not only for him, but for Zhou Mi and their future.
Chapter One * Chapter Two * Chapter Three * Chapter Four * Chapter Five * Chapter Six * Chapter Seven * Chapter Eight * Chapter Nine * Chapter Ten * Chapter Eleven * Chapter Twelve * Chapter Thirteen * Chapter Fourteen
***
Kyuhyun had a few thoughts that perhaps offering to plan their first date had been a mistake. At the time, it had seemed natural. Zhou Mi had asked him out, he responded in the way that seemed most normal. A “date with Zhou Mi” didn’t have some terrible happening hinging on its outcome. Zhou Mi wasn’t some kind of deity stepping down who could smite Kyuhyun if the date went awry. Zhou Mi was just a guy. Beyond his boss, most assuredly, he was just a guy. So when Kyuhyun squashed all thoughts of reluctance, he went with that. In asking what Zhou Mi liked to do, he got all sorts of wild answers. Amusement parks, zoos, restaurants, shopping malls, beaches. He didn’t think going shopping for their first date was going to be as exciting as he would hope.
It hadn’t been too long until Eunhyuk had ended up talking to Kyuhyun. I twas kind of hard to avoid, working in such close proximity. Though to get “The Talk” with Zhou Mi’s best friend, even before the first had, had his insides jumping.
“You know I haven’t really been a big fan of the people Zhou Mi has dated in the past,” Eunhyuk said, while Zhou Mi was firmly involved with other things. “But I didn’t know they were jerks to start with.”
All those things Kyuhyun had heard before. If Eunhyuk really went all-out in objecting to them dating, Kyuhyun had virtually no chance. There was no way, as someone who’d known Zhou Mi for less than six months, that he’d win out in the end against someone who’d known Zhou Mi half his life. Though Zhou Mi was loyal, not stupid. He thought he could say the same for both of them.
“Zhou Mi thinks a lot of other people. Obviously, or he couldn’t do this. But I just want you to know I don’t have any objection to him dating you. He’s a big boy.”
“No objection yet,” Kyuhyun said.
Eunhyuk grinned. “Yet, right.”
“I hope you don’t ever have any,” Kyuhyun said, shrugging.
Though after he’d said it, he realized that it sounded vaguely like he meant to keep Zhou Mi around long term. Really long term. But maybe Eunhyuk would take it the way he’d meant it, in that he hoped there would be no objections from Eunhyuk for the duration he and Zhou Mi dated. However long that might be.
Eunhyuk’s mouth opened and closed, a little sheepish. “I guess I should stop before I start interrogating you like a father of a teenage girl. What are your intentions, and why do you want to go out with him, and- Well, some of those are obvious.”
There was one thought at least that had occurred to him, as they had gotten closer, evolved toward dating from being just friends. And it wasn’t that he owed it to Eunhyuk, so much as it was a truth he did not feel awkward revealing to someone who was both a boss, and friend to them both.
“He’s a really nice guy. And you don’t find nice guys out there available that often.”
“That’s the truth. I worry a lot more about him than I should, but I was worried for a while that you weren’t as interested as he was.”
Subtle. Not a question, but a question all the same. He thought of Zhou Mi dancing around the edge of his kitchen, and had to squeeze his thigh to hold back the stupid smile.
“Not something to worry about,” he said.
“We’ll set up a double date sometime,” Eunhyuk promised.
Not a threat, he told himself. They’d spent a lot of time together, the four of them. But if Eunhyuk was subtly holding power over him, it worked. Still, he wasn’t worried.
Still, the rest of the conversation had been good. Eunhyuk letting him know that he could come to him for any kind of work problem, and have it be separate from the relationship. He wasn’t particularly worried. If things really got hairy, he could ask Tablo for reassignment, but the gesture had been appreciated. Eunhyuk had called him his partner in looking out for Zhou Mi once. Kyuhyun just had a new reason to do so. Like the date he was waiting for Zhou Mi to arrive at.
They had discussed sports a while, which was his excuse, with tickets in hand as he waited for Zhou Mi at the subway stop.
It wasn’t a soccer game, which would’ve been his first preference. No games near enough in time. He wasn’t willing to wait that long. And he wanted a fun date. Not some stodgy restaurant. Because they’d done that, and he wanted to be able to laugh and feel comfortable, and he really wanted Zhou Mi to like what he’d set up.
As Zhou Mi’s head appeared, as he rode up the escalator, Kyuhyun’s spine stiffened. He could only see what Zhou Mi was wearing as he stepped off the escalator. Pants of a dark blue, with a thickly striped flapping sweater and shirt that opened to hint at his collar bones. Bold clothes that a lesser man would’ve drowned in. That was the man coming to meet Kyuhyun. From the bottom of his dark shoes, to his sleekly burnished hair.
And then Zhou Mi spotted him, smile dashing immediately across his face. All the tension and low level anxiety in Kyuhyun’s body seemed to go into hibernation at that expression. Zhou Mi. It was Zhou Mi, not some paragon. But he was smiling back.
“Nice to see you,” Zhou Mi said, stepping up to him. “Sorry, I’m a few minutes late. You look nice.”
Jeans and a carefully selected t-shirt. Casual, he’d texted Zhou Mi. Just casual. And right then, he was trying to get words out of his mouth, not because he was nervous, but because he had Zhou Mi right in front of him, and Kyuhyun was trying not to thrust his fist into the air and shout “YES!” As he might have done into Ryeowook’s ear at one point.
Also the sweater Zhou Mi was wearing looked a bit snuggly, even if it was thin, and he wondered if it was beneath himself to imagine a nice tight hug inside of it.
“You look great, too,” he said. “We should go before we get run over.”
More people were beginning to stream up out of the subway, and he knew it wasn’t any mystery what they were about to do as the stadium appeared in front of them once on the street.
“Baseball!” Zhou Mi said, looking around at everything.
“You said you’d been here before?”
Zhou Mi laughed. “A few times, but it’s been a while. Don’t worry, I know how to do the cheers.”
Mental sigh of relief. Not that Zhou Mi knew the cheers, but that he seemed excited. Excited to walking next to Kyuhyun, brushing arms with him. Pointing out noisemakers, and making thoughtful noises as they decided what food they wanted to buy to take into the stadium with them.
It was a different side of Zhou Mi, watching him when the crowd hushed as their team’s player was up to bat. Zhou Mi and his serious eyes, watching the wide up, and the pitch.
A player got caught in the rundown, and Kyuhyun was nearly strangled as Zhou Mi grabbed him around the neck and bounced. Their player made it into second after a bobbled ball and Zhou Mi was laughing almost against his face. Around them everyone was cheering, the thudding sound of the thunder sticks, the cheerleaders, flash of the reader board, and music.
For a few moments he didn’t hear them at all, meeting Zhou Mi’s eyes. Close up beaming. Zhou Mi’s arm slid from around him, letting him breathe, but what came after was better. Fingers sliding between his and squeezing.
Not a sweet kind of squeeze, like they were five, and holding hands for the first time. Hand he’d admired joined with his. Absolutely. His brain skipped the last half of the date and went straight to the kissing he hoped was going to be a feature at the end. Maybe he had a mint in his bag. Probably.
But he jerked himself back to reality and realized it didn’t matter if they just kept holding onto each other. And Zhou Mi seemed to concur.
Zhou Mi hummed and murmured almost directly in his ear, “They look really good in their uniforms.”
Kyuhyun shoved a piece of candy into his mouth and chuckled. They definitely did look good. And he thought Zhou Mi would probably look good in one of those uniforms, too. Something nice to strip off, he thought, as he stared down Zhou Mi’s legs. Maybe one day.
“What’s your favorite part about baseball? Besides the uniforms.”
“The excitement when someone is up to bat. Waiting for the pitches, and hits, and calls. Watching it with someone else, though, is the most fun,” Zhou Mi said.
That was it exactly. It was hard not to be into the game, with the crowd singing and cheering around them. He enjoyed sports as a rule, the competition and the excitement. But there was lots of other excitement tied up in him that had nothing to do with the game.
Their team lost, and it didn’t really even matter as he got onto the subway car with Zhou Mi right behind him. They grabbed ahold of hanging rings, standing close. It wasn’t terribly early, but it wasn’t late either. Early enough that he wondered if he should bring up doing something else. A snack, dropping by either apartment.
They were a couple of stops away from his, when he made his choice. “Did you want to come up to my apartment for a little bit?”
Zhou Mi shifted his bag, considering. “I have an early morning tomorrow, but I can walk you up.”
There was that smile, that had Kyuhyun’s stomach clutching. Walking him up. A good night kiss. Official end to official date number one.
Not that he was wishing it over, as he followed Zhou Mi up to street level, and then to the entrance of his apartment building. His lower back was tight by the time he got his key into the lock of his door, craftily naming what shopping was nearby for Zhou Mi’s future reference. Not very subtle at all, that. All the tension settled instead between his shoulders, as Zhou Mi pulled the door closed behind himself.
The nice thing was, and it had mostly been that way at the beach, and other times, too, that he didn’t feel like he was on an outing with his boss. The flirting, the conversation. Zhou Mi had seemed to keep the conversation away from work almost entirely, maybe so they weren’t reminded. He felt like Zhou Mi’s date. His friend.
A friend who quite desperately wanted a kiss.
“I really can’t stay,” Zhou Mi said, not making to take off his shoes. “But I wanted to say goodnight where it was a little more comfortable.”
Exactly that. And he stepped close, stayed closer. Meeting Zhou Mi’s eyes and knowing neither of them was going to settle for a hug.
“Thank you for setting this up tonight,” Zhou Mi said. “I had a really good time. I can plan next time, if you’re up for another date?”
“I am,” Kyuhyun told him.
“Good.”
The word was so soft, but Kyuhyun nearly felt it. Watching Zhou Mi’s eyelashes dip, letting his eyes sweep past Zhou Mi’s nose to the softened lips. He wasn’t caught in indecision as much as he was in admiration, anticipation. And the only one making him wait was himself.
Rocking forward onto the balls of his feet, and remembering to inhale, kissing Zhou Mi. A bit too hard for half a second, gentling at their mouths fit. Zhou Mi’s hand at his waist, nudging into Kyuhyun’s face. Exploring, soft. But not too soft, as Zhou Mi’s lips curved against his as the result of a nearly accidental nip. Between the thoughts of soft, sweet, more, and hoping he wasn’t mucking it up, he felt the chill down the back of his neck and arms. Kissing Zhou Mi.
Kissing until their lips naturally parted, and his eyes opened like a man who’d been asleep and forced to wake up. Only to see that Zhou Mi’s eyes were still closed, breathing lightly. He searched Zhou Mi’s face, so still and serious. Like he was concentrating on a really important problem, and raising Kyuhyun’s blood pressure while he did it.
“That bad, was it?” he prodded gently.
Zhou Mi’s eyes sprang wide, almost comically so.
“No!” he burst out, before he realized that Kyuhyun was teasing. Laughing and wrapping his arms around Kyuhyun’s neck. A hug that sent almost as many chills through him as the kiss had, breathing in and taking in Zhou Mi’s scent. The soft sweater that he’d admired beneath his hands as he stroked Zhou Mi’s back.
Zhou Mi rubbed his head against Kyuhyun’s. “If I tell you how long I’ve wanted this, will it scare you?”
“First time you saw me?” Kyuhyun joked.
“That might’ve scared me,” Zhou Mi shot back. “But no, just… Kyuhyun.”
He knew the feeling. And maybe one day he’d get out of Zhou Mi exactly when that was. His own answer was pretty complicated. The situation was complicated.
“Yeah, me too,” he said, letting Zhou Mi pull back. “It’s been a while.”
Speaking of time had regret showing in Zhou Mi’s momentary frown.
“I should get going. I really do need to get up early. I guess I’ll see you when I pick up my cell phone tomorrow,” Zhou Mi said, smirking at him in the cutest way possible. “Do you think you could put in a word for me with the boss about that?”
“I think that might get me in a lot of trouble,” Kyuhyun said, knowing Eunhyuk wasn’t going to relent and let Zhou Mi keep his cell phone while he ate. “Unless we started eating lunch together.”
“We could probably try next week,” Zhou Mi said, eyes lighting. “See how it goes.”
“Which are you going to look forward to seeing more when you get back tomorrow? Your phone or me?”
Zhou Mi actually paused, drawing his eyebrows together as though the choice was a hard one. There was no other option for Kyuhyun but to jab him. And Zhou Mi laughed, pulling Kyuhyun closer and pressing their cheeks together. Warm and solid.
“Depends on if Eunhyuk averts his eyes so I can kiss you hello,” Zhou Mi murmured against his ear.
“Even if he doesn’t, I have to come in and bring your mail.”
Those things were the things that would make it hard, if dating Zhou Mi went south. Those were the things he’d deal with, then. Who knew what would happen. But he did know, the thought of repeating the earlier kisses when he saw Zhou Mi next, appealed. If it was any indication, he thought they had a lot more to show each other.
And the kiss Zhou Mi pressed to his mouth then was both tease and promise, both thumbs rubbing circles on Kyuhyun’s skin. Sensitive on his neck, and feeding his inhale as Zhou Mi’s tongue teased his lip.
He didn’t press it, wanting another kiss, wanting to taste. Taking back the hands he’d gripped Zhou Mi’s sweater with, and watching as Zhou Mi bit his lip, checking his bag.
“Thanks again,” Zhou Mi said. “Have a good night, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, have a good night, too,” Kyuhyun said, and the door closed with him on one side, and Zhou Mi far on the other. He sagged against it, reliving the kiss, and feeling a bit like a teenager again. He hadn’t been on a first date that inspired that many feelings in years, all kinds of joy, and hope that Zhou Mi really had a good time, and wondering what the next date would be.
He mentally patted himself on the back, and gamed until his phone yelled at him to stop.
Their silly faces at the baseball game was the background of his phone. And Zhou Mi still looked ridiculously gorgeous. He’d snagged a 10, and he hadn’t even been looking.
And he bet Zhou Mi probably had a saying for that.
***
Eunhyuk knew better than to visit his father without making plans, as well as giving him foresight into what the visit was about. Eunhyuk had never brought home a man to meet his dad. A few girls, yeah, but since he’d let his father know that he was also dating men, they’d skipped around that fact. His dad asked fewer and fewer questions about who Eunhyuk was dating. He was pretty sure his dad was interested, but not interested enough to possibly hear about a man. Though he considered himself lucky. Some of his friends couldn’t even do that.
“Hey, Dad. Are you free tonight? Yeah. I want to bring someone for you to meet,” Eunhyuk said. “We won’t stay long, but I just wanted to let you know. It’s a man I’ve started dating.”
“You don’t need to bring him by,” Eunhyuk heard his father say, and knew why. Maybe his father knew, but that didn’t mean he wanted to see evidence of it.
“I really need to bring him to see you. Part of it is something I want to tell you in person. Please, Dad.”
“It’s not as though you are getting married or having a child,” his father said a little crossly. “But fine. I’m going out after.”
“That’s okay. We really won’t stay long. Thanks.”
Eunhyuk hung up feeling drained, and he’d known he would be. Two seconds on he phone, preceding what he hoped would be a fifteen minute visit, tops. And he wondered if he’d gotten himself into more trouble than it was worth. Proving a point to his father was only worth it, if his father got the point. And he really wasn’t even sure that was possible.
***
The day and time had already been arranged, so Tablo was waiting for him at the subway stop. Falling into step with him, and calming him a bit with a hand to his lower back.
“You can calm down. He’s not going to cook us for dinner,” Tablo told him.
“I look that worried?”
“You’re sawing on your lower lip, which you used to do a lot. That and I know this has to be nerve-wracking for you.”
“You know me better than I know me,” Eunhyuk said with a breathy chuckle.
“Helps that I care,” Tablo said. But they distracted each other with cell phone games on the way. There wasn’t much to talk about to prepare. Tablo knew everything he needed to, about his dad, about his past. As much as he could think to tell. All he wanted in the process of telling his dad who Tablo was, was hopefully going away with some peace of mind.
“It’s this stop,” Eunhyuk said, and Tablo smiled at him.
It didn’t stop the anxiety as they were let into his father’s apartment, invited to sit and offered tea, which Eunhyuk refused for both of them. Tablo was virtually ignored, which he wasn’t surprised about.
“I brought Tablo to meet you today, for a couple of reasons, Dad.”
“It’s your business who you date,” his dad said.
“I know. I appreciate that. But the real reason we’re here is different. You remember Daniel, the boy from the orphanage that I wanted to see so badly?”
“Hyukjae, not this again. You haven’t brought him up in years.”
Because he got berated if he did, Eunhyuk thought, gritting his teeth.
“No, I’m telling you I found him. Daniel. He’s the one who kept me safe, kept me happy when I was at the orphanage. Tablo is Daniel. That’s his name. I finally found him.”
Even though no one had helped him, no one but he had been looking. And Tablo himself was the only one as truly happy at them finding each other, besides perhaps Zhou Mi. But there were a lot of emotions playing out on his dad’s face. Surprise, disbelief. All written out in his eyebrows, and the way that his father set down his cup.
“What are you saying? You are dating…Daniel?”
“He goes by Tablo now, Dad.”
“Something else you have in common,” his dad muttered. The fact that he went by Eunhyuk had never been something that his dad accepted.
“I told you I’d find him one day,” Eunhyuk said, and felt empowered just looking over and seeing Tablo’s face. The set of his chin, just a little defensive. He’d known it would be a little awkward. Just as long as it didn’t get out of hand. “I know you wanted me to be safe, and happy. So it took a while. But I found him.”
His dad’s eyes focused on Tablo, but Eunhyuk wasn’t sure Tablo was the one his dad was speaking to.
“He wasn’t letting himself grieve. His whole focus was on Daniel, Daniel, Daniel. He wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t sleep. Running away. I gave myself an ulcer trying to help him.”
It had been a long time since they’d actually talked about it. And most of those times, they hadn’t talked much at all. If he’d brought up Daniel, his dad shut down, like he was talking about some imaginary friend that was detrimental to Eunhyuk’s mental health. Even when he’d gotten to be a teenager. In fact, his father had seemed content to forget that Eunhyuk had ever been at the orphanage at all, missing the fact that it was a huge and turbulent time for him. He figured that was why he’d fixated so much on it. Because he’d never gotten a chance to work through it, or let it go.
“I spent a lot of time there hoping that you’d show up, and take both of us away,” Eunhyuk told his dad, and feeling Tablo lean into his shoulder.
“I didn’t even know what to do with one child on my own. I didn’t know what to do without your mother there.”
Tablo cleared his throat. “Your responsibility was to your son. That’s understandable.”
“I didn’t want you to be alone,” Eunhyuk said softly.
“I was a moody teenager,” Tablo said, shrugging a shoulder. “When I was moved to a new place, I did find friends. We both got in better places. You didn’t belong with me.”
Not like you do now.
“It’s nice that you two can be…friends again,” his father said.
Friends. He waned to roll his eyes but there was acceptance in Tablo’s expression. If that was what his father wanted to think, that was okay. At least his father knew that he’d accomplished what he’d set out to do. Causing them both trauma 20 years ago. But a door that could finally be shut.
***
“As long as he doesn’t tell you that you need to get rid of me,” Tablo said, as they stood together on the subway.
“When he’s that heavily in denial?” Eunhyuk asked. “No. I mean, unless we started making out in front of him.”
“Don’t want to give him a heart attack,” Tablo said, smirking a little. But the expression softened as Tablo leaned into him. “You asked him to take me too.”
“Of course. You were my whole world for those weeks. I heard him talking once. He was…He meant it when he said he didn’t know what to do with me. He told someone he thought of leaving me in the orphanage, because he wasn’t sure he could raise me on his own.”
Tablo cursed almost under his breath, but Eunhyuk still heard it, slipping an arm around Tablo’s waist.
“How old were you when you heard that?” Tablo asked.
“Fifteen? Something like that. When I was really angry I half wished he had left me. But, even if he had, we still would’ve been split up.”
“Yeah, don’t even think that.” Tablo squeezed him. “I assume that comment wasn’t ever meant for your ears. He’d probably feel devastated that you heard. Did he make you feel wanted?”
Going to games with his dad, going to his dad when he felt sick. Talking about his first crush, and getting help with homework. Everything that hadn’t been about the orphanage, or his mom, had been great. But his father had been too damaged to help his son through the loss.
“Yeah,” he said, and realized that he understood his dad a little better than he had. Thanks to Tablo.
***
If only he’d known. Daniel came for him, because they knew he trusted Daniel.
“It’s okay,” Daniel said. “They just want to talk. Maybe your family?”
“I don’t want to.” But Daniel wouldn’t budge. “You’ll stay with me?”
“Sure.”
He wanted to be a big boy. Show Daniel what he could do. Braver than any other boy the age of six.
But that didn’t mean he walked alone. A finger caught on his lip, his other hand solidly in Daniel’s, he walked into the room. Eyes darting from faces. Faces he knew, faces who made sure he was clean and fed every day.
And his father. A face that widened with a smile, man and boy both recognizing each other. That moment was pure joy, the shout that leapt from him.
“Daddy!”
“Hyukjae.”
His hand slid from Daniel’s, from one embrace, to another, lifted up against his father’s strong chest. Laughing. More home than he’d been in weeks.
Turning back over his shoulder to share his jubilation with Daniel. Look, my father. My father can do anything! We’re saved!
But Daniel was being led out, protesting. Jerking against the hands of the women who told him he’d done his duty and it was time to go.
“Daniel!” Hyukjae called out, trying to get down to go to him. Struggled and shoved. “Daniel, come back!”
“Who is the boy?” his father asked.
“Just another child here who looked after Hyukjae. No one to worry about, sir.”
“No. Daniel is my friend,” Hyukjae protested. “He can come home with us, right Daddy?”
All he had was the sad look Daniel had shot over his shoulder. Sad for who, he didn’t know. The feeling of home was gone. That wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Daniel had promised him they’d stay together.
The tears went on forever. First ones that were pleading, begging his father to listen.
Then there were the screams, as he was buckled into the car. He could run back in, hide under Daniel’s bed, and no one would know.
He cried until he had nothing left, until his breath was hitching. Voice raw. He threw up before they even made it home, and had his father’s disgust to deal with.
The failed attempts to run away. Years had past, but the twist in his gut was always the same. He hadn’t gotten to say goodbye.
***
Tablo grunted and rolled over beside him, reacting to his waking movements.
“You okay?” Tablo asked, voice rough with sleep.
“Yes, I am.”
And he was. Some of the fears that had driven him, the sick worry. The obsession that had sent tendrils through his life. Some of those he could let go. He put his hand over Tablo’s, the one Tablo had reached toward him.
Maybe they had met too early. Maybe they had never been meant to say goodbye at all. Somehow, the universe had righted itself. Because they were together. They had an opportunity to make their own happiness. And it made him smile.
***
Zhou Mi, it seemed, was cute about asking him out on a date. Waiting until after work, and calling Kyuhyun when he was mid-game. And it was probably his affection that had Kyuhyun answering the phone without hesitation.
“Are you busy tomorrow?” Zhou Mi asked.
“Besides work? I don’t think so.”
Kyuhyun’s mouth curved as Zhou Mi laughed. “I know we could go out, but I was hoping staying in sounded okay to you. I can pull out my cooking skills again. What little I have. And this time we’ll know it’s just you and me.”
The last time Zhou Mi had cooked, it had been under the expectation that there would be three of them. An accidental date, that had been. This one, on purpose. He could sense the sentiment behind that from miles away.
“And after that, movie night? When do we go to the beach again?”
“Movie night in a theater,” Zhou Mi suggested. “We can look up what we want to see tomorrow.”
“Sounds good,” he said, eyes still on his laptop screen. And then his brain kicked in. “Should I bring something? Am I going with you after work?”
“Yourself, and yes, we can leave together. It’ll mean you won’t have to eat too late. I don’t want to deny you your food.”
“Why are you teasing me and asking me out on a date at the same time?” Kyuhyun complained.
Zhou Mi laughed, the sound bright. “Because it’s fun. Have a good rest of the night.”
“Yeah, thanks, you too. See you tomorrow. Date you tomorrow.”
He felt a little proud of himself as Zhou Mi more or less signed off with a kissing sound.
And then he lost himself in his game.
***
There was something sexy about a man in the kitchen, Kyuhyun thought. Something beyond the fact that he knew he’d be getting fed soon. Zhou Mi hadn’t changed out of his work shirt, merely rolling it up above his elbows as he chopped and stirred. Nice forearms, and then there were the hips in the trim slacks. Any offers Kyuhyun had made to help were rebuffed, Zhou Mi assuring him he had everything under control. Rice was cooking, vegetables were being stirred, and it looked like he was in good hands. Very nice looking hands, too, as he watched Zhou Mi lick a smear off of his thumb.
Zhou Mi caught Kyuhyun eyeing him, from Kyuhyun’s perch on the stool across the kitchen counter.
“What are you looking at?” Zhou Mi teased.
“Just making sure you know what you’re doing,” Kyuhyun blustered. “I’m hungry.”
“You’ll be fed.”
That seemed like a promise, as Zhou Mi swaggered around the counter, making Kyuhyun’s eyebrows rise with every step that brought Zhou Mi close.
“So you like watching me cook?” Zhou Mi asked, his hands on the outside of Kyuhyun’s thighs as he got his body insinuated between them.
“Mm,” Kyuhyun hedged, bringing his arms up to gather Zhou Mi in, and pull him a little more to Kyuhyun’s level. Pretty neck, too, with the open collar.
“If I had known my cooking was a turn-on, I’d have started to do that years ago.”
Kyuhyun chuckled up at him. “Shut up.”
“Does that mean you were thinking of kissing me last time?”
“No really, shut up. The least you could do is give me a little taste.”
Zhou Mi’s eyebrows rose, smile flashing as he sidled closer. His hands were warm and solid on Kyuhyun’s hips, and Kyuhyun let his arms slide a little closer around Zhou Mi’s neck. He could smell the beginnings of their meal on Zhou Mi’s breath, taste it, as Zhou Mi’s mouth met and parted with his. A warm merging of lips, clinging, as he felt Zhou Mi smile.
“How’s that?” Zhou Mi asked softly, face still close.
“Not bad. I’ll probably enjoy the real thing,” Kyuhyun told him, unable to stop the smirk. But even with the tease, it was nice just having Zhou Mi close. Feeling his hair, a bit silky against his forearm, and reaching for just one more kiss-
And being denied as Zhou Mi jumped, and all but ripped himself away.
“The food!”
It left Kyuhyun licking his lips and feeling abandoned, as Zhou Mi rescued their dinner.
They had wine, Kyuhyun’s contribution to the meal. Zhou Mi sipping it experimentally and making interested faces. He wasn’t sure if he was going to have to call Zhou Mi a peasant or not, until Zhou Mi declared it good. And it did go well with the food. Not anything groundbreaking, but it was spicy to his taste, a nice mix of meat and vegetables with rice. Filling, and made just for him. If he’d wanted fancy vegetable cuts, and magic decorations, he’d have dated Ryeowook. And that had him chuckling, and Zhou Mi’s eyebrows raising.
“First time we ate together, just us,” Kyuhyun said.
“Oh, when we met your friend,” Zhou Mi said, nodding. “I had such a good time that night. Sharing the food with you.”
“You picked good food,” Kyuhyun allowed. “Everything there is good, though.”
“It is. I haven’t found the right event yet, but I’m definitely going to plan something there one of these days. Not that you want to hear me talk about work,” Zhou Mi said, laughing. “Are you finished, or do you want more?”
Kyuhyun had all but licked the plate clean with two servings. Any more and he’d have to roll home, as well as look like a gigantic pig in front of Zhou Mi.
“No, I’m done, thank you,” he said, grabbing his own plate to carry it out.
“I made too much,” Zhou Mi said, shreds of doubt in his voice. “Oh! If you did like it, I can put some in a container. You can take it home. Have it for lunch. Or freeze it. I’ll never eat all this.”
They blinked at each other for a moment, and Zhou Mi grinned sheepishly as he began piling the food into a plastic container
“I promise I’m not trying to become your mom.”
Kyuhyun chuckled, leaning against the counter. “No, having it for lunch sounds nice. Better than anything I take.”
“Tell me how much,” Zhou Mi urged, and portioned out Kyuhyun some. Sealing it in a reusable plastic container and stowing it in the fridge until Kyuhyun was ready to go.
“The date that keeps on giving,” Kyuhyun teased.
Zhou Mi swirled soap around in the hot water, sliding dishes into it.
“I really enjoy having people over. The last time you were here, was…”
Zhou Mi’s words trailed away, and Kyuhyun followed his train of thought. The last night he’d been there was the night he had thought Zhou Mi was going to sleep with someone. Zhou Mi’s one night stand.
But Zhou Mi turning to him had his breath catching. Not sure what the serious eyes meant.
“I was lying to myself that night, when who I wanted was you,” Zhou Mi said, eyes focused on the dish in his hand, instead of on Kyuhyun.
Looking for something more, not just sex. He waited until Zhou Mi dried his hands, turning to Kyuhyun with what looked like apology in his eyes. That Zhou Mi had not gone because he was thinking of Kyuhyun, and that he knew that, made him smile.
“What I should’ve told you that night. Don’t go,” Kyuhyun said, guiding Zhou Mi’s face closer. “Because I want-“
Zhou Mi’s moan was tremulous against his mouth. Want Zhou Mi, to date Zhou Mi, to keep Zhou Mi safe, to not form another image of Zhou Mi against another man. All of those. Wanting.
Zhou Mi was smiling, laughing silently against his face, and he squeezed Kyuhyun tight.
“Ah, Kyuhyun. I’ll do these dishes later. Do you want to watch TV with me for a while?”
“Sure.”
He did want, very much. Though as Zhou Mi took his hand and led him, his sense of anxiety ramped a little. They avoided the chairs and the TV in the living room, instead heading into Zhou Mi’s bedroom. The bed was neat, dresser. A TV on top of it, Kyuhyun saw with something almost nearing relief. He hadn’t been certain if “TV” had been a euphemism for “sex.” And that sounded good on a theoretical level, but attraction or no, it would’ve been sudden.
“Can’t get close enough on those chairs,” Zhou Mi explained. “We can just-“
The top blanket was turned down a bit, so they could slide their legs under and keep their feet warm. Pillows propped up for them to lean against. And if close was what Zhou Mi had been wanting, they had that. Zhou Mi warm against his side as they got comfortable. They settled on a variety show, and Zhou Mi, without pretense, got his arm around Kyuhyun’s shoulders.
“This is nice,” Zhou Mi said, nuzzling at his ear.
“Mm,” he agreed, as his calf rubbed against Zhou Mi’s. But it was hard not to notice that Zhou Mi’s attention wasn’t on the TV. Studying Kyuhyun’s profile. “Need something?”
A kiss, it seemed. He turned, just slightly, to meet Zhou Mi’s mouth. Smiling as Zhou Mi massaged his shoulder, bracing a hand on Kyuhyun’s stomach. And they merged, like that, as the TV became little more than a backdrop of noise. It was the sound of their kisses, of hands against cloth, skin. The feel of Zhou Mi’s hair through his fingers, the tiny, needy sounds as he urged Kyuhyun closer.
Not a button, not a zipper undone. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t feel. Zhou Mi’s spine, and hip. Rocking forward with a little gasp as Zhou Mi groped his butt. He grinned at the fluffy mess Zhou Mi’s hair had become, and angled in again. He could feel how eager Zhou Mi was, in the trembling of his fingers, and let his own steady him.
And his eyes were blind at the ceiling because of Zhou Mi’s lips against his throat. Strangled laughs because of accidental tickling. Rubbing the wet of excitement from his palms, onto Zhou Mi’s shirt, and internally shouting at the way their legs tangled. Breathing for a long moment, getting his bearings, and just considering the invitation Zhou Mi’s posture was.
It was hard to say which he adored more, the little snarl on Zhou Mi’s exhale as Kyuhyun manhandled him closer, or the way Zhou Mi controlled the kiss that followed.
Careful, not to push too far. Arousing enough, as it was. The way Zhou Mi looked, and sounded, tasted, felt. The natural ebb, from making out, to cuddling. Well, Zhou Mi cuddled. Kyuhyun was content to be cuddled upon with Zhou Mi as his pillow. Half asleep with his face against Zhou Mi’s neck, fingers stroking his hair.
His eyes opened, staring accusatorially at Zhou Mi’s skin, as though that was what was making Kyuhyun’s cell phone alarm go off in the living room.
Zhou Mi laughed, squishing him a bit. “Is that your reminder to leave?”
“To sleep,” Kyuhyun said, surprised to find his voice a bit gravelly.
“I guess I should’ve let you go earlier.”
The look he shot Zhou Mi was wry, as he got out from under the blanket and onto his feet. “I was really trying to get away.”
He was grinning because of Zhou Mi tugging his shirt back straight, and the fact that Zhou Mi still didn’t know the state of his hair.
“Go look in the mirror,” he suggested, and shut off his screaming phone.
Zhou Mi’s helpless laughter from the bathroom preceded Zhou Mi coming back out with decidedly neater hair.
“Now you know why I didn’t become a hairdresser,” Kyuhyun said, smirking.
“Me too,” Zhou Mi said. And Kyuhyun found out why, as Zhou Mi meticulously smoothed down Kyuhyun’s hair as well. “Now you can go out into the world. Oh, the food for tomorrow!”
Zhou Mi brought it to him, carefully wrapped so it could go in his bag. It was hard, with Zhou Mi’s face that close, not to just reel him right back in. Or to imagine running his tongue along Zhou Mi’s jaw and seeing what kind of a response that garnered. Kyuhyun shrugged his bag onto his shoulder, getting into his shoes. And he smiled as he looped a couple of fingers through a gap between buttons in Zhou Mi’s shirt.
“Thanks for dinner. For the date, and-“ The making out. He let his eyebrows say that last part though, kissing Zhou Mi reluctantly goodbye.
He’d get to bed a little later than he’d planned, but that wasn’t out of the ordinary. He came away from Zhou Mi’s apartment with a new appreciation for Zhou Mi’s cooking, for Zhou Mi’s feelings toward him, and for Zhou Mi’s body. Kisses and touches that would fuel his fantasies very well. Until they could do it again.
***
Instead of a date, two nights later, Zhou Mi called him and his voice was unsteady. Another nightmare. And all Kyuhyun had been able to do was listen, and be reassuring, before they hung up with promises that Zhou Mi would call if he needed anything else. Glad that Zhou Mi had called, and that he had hugged Kyuhyun coming in the door of the office the next day.
Kyuhyun occasionally congratulated himself on the fact that he was so open-minded, so accepting. His boyfriend had visions of murders, and Kyuhyun didn’t blink. Much. Maybe it kept him up sometimes, wondering. Not so much about Zhou Mi’s sanity, but his wellbeing. In getting involved with Zhou Mi, he was also tying himself to what Zhou Mi was seeing. He wondered how many nighttime calls there would be, how many visions before the murders were solved. He hoped, more for Zhou Mi’s sake, that the visions would stop once the killer was found. They couldn’t just go on indefinitely, skipping from murder to murder. The women were not the only people killed in Seoul since Zhou Mi’s first. Kyuhyun had done his homework on that. But Zhou Mi’s visions, his nightmares, followed a very specific pattern. Same type of murder, always as it happened. Residual nightmares. And then Zhou Mi dreaming of Eunhyuk’s traumatic past. It was hard to know how to be supportive at times, even with his own family. It made him glad that Zhou Mi knew how to ask for support. And Zhou Mi being all touchy-feely and grateful about it had made him get a little squirmy inside. In a nice way.
But he had absolutely relived those kisses in the kitchen when he made himself dinner. Zhou Mi hadn’t been teasing. Absolutely. But he couldn’t exactly call Zhou Mi up for a booty call after two dates. He didn’t think so, anyway. So he’d gamed instead of obsessing about Zhou Mi’s clothes that day. Black and white shirt, in some crazy pattern that made him want to go cross-eyed. But the soft fabric had somehow suited Zhou Mi, clinging to his torso and arms, and going with his dark jeans.
That day he’d gotten a kiss when he took in the mail, offering it and being received. Hands on Zhou Mi’s sides.
The problem with kissing mid-shift was that going out to his desk had felt a little uncomfortable for way too many reasons. And Eunhyuk had stayed late that night for a meeting with Zhou Mi, so Kyuhyun hadn’t gotten a kiss goodbye. Just a few texts to let him know that Zhou Mi was okay, and that they’d see each other the next day. It made him wonder when they were meeting up again.
The day after, a check of Zhou Mi’s schedule told Kyuhyun that he had meetings away from the office most of the afternoon. So the most he saw of Zhou Mi was when Zhou Mi came in from lunch and picked up his phone with a wink, and when Zhou Mi exited his office to leave.
“I’m going to go meet Siwon at his office with Sooyoung and find out how Siwon is doing. Then I’ll take Sooyoung out for coffee and find out how her date went. And then, I’m meeting Miss Kwon, the day I got sick Miss Kwon? Yes,” Zhou Mi said, wiggling a little in place as he placed folders on first Eunhyuk’s desk, and then Kyuhyun’s. “Reports, and new dating statistics. Have fun with those.”
“Yipee,” Eunhyuk with fake blase. “When we shave our heads from the joy, we’ll leave the hair on your desk, okay?”
Kyuhyun had to try to swallow the chuckle, as Zhou Mi stuck his tongue out at Eunhyuk.
“And I’ll text you later, okay?” Zhou Mi said to Kyuhyun, hopefully not having heard Kyuhyun’s slight expulsion of amusement.
“Sure,” he said, clearing his throat. And Zhou Mi’s grin was closed off behind the door.
Siwon. Zhou Mi was going to see Siwon.
“Siwon is the one he thinks is hot, isn’t he?” Kyuhyun mused out loud before his brain could catch up.
Eunhyuk almost whooped with laughter. “Yes. That man is ridiculously good looking. But don’t worry, Zhou Mi knows to look and not touch. Siwon wouldn’t be interested in this lifetime, plus Sooyoung is a good chaperone.”
Faintly teasing, faintly reassuring, Kyuhyun thought grumpily. Not like Zhou Mi didn’t have eyes. He saw men every day. The only slight difference was that Zhou Mi didn’t declare those men hot. A random factoid he’d clearly carried with him, especially after having seen Siwon in person. If Zhou Mi thought Siwon was hot, then Kyuhyun was unsure of the word that’d be used to describe himself. Kyuhyun tried to imagine Zhou Mi describing him as his “hot boyfriend.” And nearly spit his drink.
But he was waiting for Zhou Mi’s text.
***
“Want to grab dinner?” Zhou Mi texted Kyuhyun, finally free, and surprisingly starving, after having a surprise attack of nightmare-induced nausea after his last meeting. He had only to wait about a minute, staring at his phone as he deciphered Kyuhyun’s message.
“Sure. Is he still hot?”
Zhou Mi nearly laughed aloud in the middle of the subway station. Simultaneously he wanted to grab Kyuhyun and squeeze him, and sort of dance. It was the cutest form of jealousy. The kind that told him that Kyuhyun cared and worried for them. Just a little bit of insecurity. Zhou Mi had seen the darker sides of those emotions, and some of them aimed at himself. He knew how to appreciate it, and he knew not to take it for granted.
Before he could formulate an answer, another text arrived. “Not that he could compete with me, obviously.”
Zhou Mi bit his lip and stepped out of the flow of traffic to clutch his phone and laugh as silently as he could. Kyuhyun was spot on. Not everything revolved around hotness. And Kyuhyun wasn’t seeing himself through Zhou Mi’s eyes.
“He is a beautiful man,” Zhou Mi wrote back, agreeing. “But you’re right. He can’t compete with you! ^^”
They agreed on a station to meet at and Zhou Mi grinned as Kyuhyun fell into step with him.
“Hot and beautiful?” Kyuhyun asked him. Kind of prodding at him. Like he wanted Zhou Mi to throw out some adjectives his way instead of at a guy he wasn’t dating.
“I know you are,” Zhou Mi said, grinning as Kyuhyun sputtered as he tugged Kyuhyun onto the street.
***
Click here to see art for chapter 13~ :D
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Author: Coley Merrin
Pairings: Zhou Mi/Kyuhyun, Tablo/Eunhyuk
Other: various
Rating: R
Genre: AU, crime, romance
Warnings: violence, death (not of main characters), sexual situations
Summary: Zhou Mi’s focus is Heartstrings, a dating company where love is more than just a guarantee - it's in Zhou Mi’s blood. A matchmaking gift he’s used with gladness, until a series of murders has it shaping his nightmares.
Eunhyuk, his business partner, can’t let go of his tumultuous past. But finding a man he’s been looking for over half his life has repercussions not only for him, but for Zhou Mi and their future.
Chapter One * Chapter Two * Chapter Three * Chapter Four * Chapter Five * Chapter Six * Chapter Seven * Chapter Eight * Chapter Nine * Chapter Ten * Chapter Eleven * Chapter Twelve * Chapter Thirteen * Chapter Fourteen
***
Kyuhyun had a few thoughts that perhaps offering to plan their first date had been a mistake. At the time, it had seemed natural. Zhou Mi had asked him out, he responded in the way that seemed most normal. A “date with Zhou Mi” didn’t have some terrible happening hinging on its outcome. Zhou Mi wasn’t some kind of deity stepping down who could smite Kyuhyun if the date went awry. Zhou Mi was just a guy. Beyond his boss, most assuredly, he was just a guy. So when Kyuhyun squashed all thoughts of reluctance, he went with that. In asking what Zhou Mi liked to do, he got all sorts of wild answers. Amusement parks, zoos, restaurants, shopping malls, beaches. He didn’t think going shopping for their first date was going to be as exciting as he would hope.
It hadn’t been too long until Eunhyuk had ended up talking to Kyuhyun. I twas kind of hard to avoid, working in such close proximity. Though to get “The Talk” with Zhou Mi’s best friend, even before the first had, had his insides jumping.
“You know I haven’t really been a big fan of the people Zhou Mi has dated in the past,” Eunhyuk said, while Zhou Mi was firmly involved with other things. “But I didn’t know they were jerks to start with.”
All those things Kyuhyun had heard before. If Eunhyuk really went all-out in objecting to them dating, Kyuhyun had virtually no chance. There was no way, as someone who’d known Zhou Mi for less than six months, that he’d win out in the end against someone who’d known Zhou Mi half his life. Though Zhou Mi was loyal, not stupid. He thought he could say the same for both of them.
“Zhou Mi thinks a lot of other people. Obviously, or he couldn’t do this. But I just want you to know I don’t have any objection to him dating you. He’s a big boy.”
“No objection yet,” Kyuhyun said.
Eunhyuk grinned. “Yet, right.”
“I hope you don’t ever have any,” Kyuhyun said, shrugging.
Though after he’d said it, he realized that it sounded vaguely like he meant to keep Zhou Mi around long term. Really long term. But maybe Eunhyuk would take it the way he’d meant it, in that he hoped there would be no objections from Eunhyuk for the duration he and Zhou Mi dated. However long that might be.
Eunhyuk’s mouth opened and closed, a little sheepish. “I guess I should stop before I start interrogating you like a father of a teenage girl. What are your intentions, and why do you want to go out with him, and- Well, some of those are obvious.”
There was one thought at least that had occurred to him, as they had gotten closer, evolved toward dating from being just friends. And it wasn’t that he owed it to Eunhyuk, so much as it was a truth he did not feel awkward revealing to someone who was both a boss, and friend to them both.
“He’s a really nice guy. And you don’t find nice guys out there available that often.”
“That’s the truth. I worry a lot more about him than I should, but I was worried for a while that you weren’t as interested as he was.”
Subtle. Not a question, but a question all the same. He thought of Zhou Mi dancing around the edge of his kitchen, and had to squeeze his thigh to hold back the stupid smile.
“Not something to worry about,” he said.
“We’ll set up a double date sometime,” Eunhyuk promised.
Not a threat, he told himself. They’d spent a lot of time together, the four of them. But if Eunhyuk was subtly holding power over him, it worked. Still, he wasn’t worried.
Still, the rest of the conversation had been good. Eunhyuk letting him know that he could come to him for any kind of work problem, and have it be separate from the relationship. He wasn’t particularly worried. If things really got hairy, he could ask Tablo for reassignment, but the gesture had been appreciated. Eunhyuk had called him his partner in looking out for Zhou Mi once. Kyuhyun just had a new reason to do so. Like the date he was waiting for Zhou Mi to arrive at.
They had discussed sports a while, which was his excuse, with tickets in hand as he waited for Zhou Mi at the subway stop.
It wasn’t a soccer game, which would’ve been his first preference. No games near enough in time. He wasn’t willing to wait that long. And he wanted a fun date. Not some stodgy restaurant. Because they’d done that, and he wanted to be able to laugh and feel comfortable, and he really wanted Zhou Mi to like what he’d set up.
As Zhou Mi’s head appeared, as he rode up the escalator, Kyuhyun’s spine stiffened. He could only see what Zhou Mi was wearing as he stepped off the escalator. Pants of a dark blue, with a thickly striped flapping sweater and shirt that opened to hint at his collar bones. Bold clothes that a lesser man would’ve drowned in. That was the man coming to meet Kyuhyun. From the bottom of his dark shoes, to his sleekly burnished hair.
And then Zhou Mi spotted him, smile dashing immediately across his face. All the tension and low level anxiety in Kyuhyun’s body seemed to go into hibernation at that expression. Zhou Mi. It was Zhou Mi, not some paragon. But he was smiling back.
“Nice to see you,” Zhou Mi said, stepping up to him. “Sorry, I’m a few minutes late. You look nice.”
Jeans and a carefully selected t-shirt. Casual, he’d texted Zhou Mi. Just casual. And right then, he was trying to get words out of his mouth, not because he was nervous, but because he had Zhou Mi right in front of him, and Kyuhyun was trying not to thrust his fist into the air and shout “YES!” As he might have done into Ryeowook’s ear at one point.
Also the sweater Zhou Mi was wearing looked a bit snuggly, even if it was thin, and he wondered if it was beneath himself to imagine a nice tight hug inside of it.
“You look great, too,” he said. “We should go before we get run over.”
More people were beginning to stream up out of the subway, and he knew it wasn’t any mystery what they were about to do as the stadium appeared in front of them once on the street.
“Baseball!” Zhou Mi said, looking around at everything.
“You said you’d been here before?”
Zhou Mi laughed. “A few times, but it’s been a while. Don’t worry, I know how to do the cheers.”
Mental sigh of relief. Not that Zhou Mi knew the cheers, but that he seemed excited. Excited to walking next to Kyuhyun, brushing arms with him. Pointing out noisemakers, and making thoughtful noises as they decided what food they wanted to buy to take into the stadium with them.
It was a different side of Zhou Mi, watching him when the crowd hushed as their team’s player was up to bat. Zhou Mi and his serious eyes, watching the wide up, and the pitch.
A player got caught in the rundown, and Kyuhyun was nearly strangled as Zhou Mi grabbed him around the neck and bounced. Their player made it into second after a bobbled ball and Zhou Mi was laughing almost against his face. Around them everyone was cheering, the thudding sound of the thunder sticks, the cheerleaders, flash of the reader board, and music.
For a few moments he didn’t hear them at all, meeting Zhou Mi’s eyes. Close up beaming. Zhou Mi’s arm slid from around him, letting him breathe, but what came after was better. Fingers sliding between his and squeezing.
Not a sweet kind of squeeze, like they were five, and holding hands for the first time. Hand he’d admired joined with his. Absolutely. His brain skipped the last half of the date and went straight to the kissing he hoped was going to be a feature at the end. Maybe he had a mint in his bag. Probably.
But he jerked himself back to reality and realized it didn’t matter if they just kept holding onto each other. And Zhou Mi seemed to concur.
Zhou Mi hummed and murmured almost directly in his ear, “They look really good in their uniforms.”
Kyuhyun shoved a piece of candy into his mouth and chuckled. They definitely did look good. And he thought Zhou Mi would probably look good in one of those uniforms, too. Something nice to strip off, he thought, as he stared down Zhou Mi’s legs. Maybe one day.
“What’s your favorite part about baseball? Besides the uniforms.”
“The excitement when someone is up to bat. Waiting for the pitches, and hits, and calls. Watching it with someone else, though, is the most fun,” Zhou Mi said.
That was it exactly. It was hard not to be into the game, with the crowd singing and cheering around them. He enjoyed sports as a rule, the competition and the excitement. But there was lots of other excitement tied up in him that had nothing to do with the game.
Their team lost, and it didn’t really even matter as he got onto the subway car with Zhou Mi right behind him. They grabbed ahold of hanging rings, standing close. It wasn’t terribly early, but it wasn’t late either. Early enough that he wondered if he should bring up doing something else. A snack, dropping by either apartment.
They were a couple of stops away from his, when he made his choice. “Did you want to come up to my apartment for a little bit?”
Zhou Mi shifted his bag, considering. “I have an early morning tomorrow, but I can walk you up.”
There was that smile, that had Kyuhyun’s stomach clutching. Walking him up. A good night kiss. Official end to official date number one.
Not that he was wishing it over, as he followed Zhou Mi up to street level, and then to the entrance of his apartment building. His lower back was tight by the time he got his key into the lock of his door, craftily naming what shopping was nearby for Zhou Mi’s future reference. Not very subtle at all, that. All the tension settled instead between his shoulders, as Zhou Mi pulled the door closed behind himself.
The nice thing was, and it had mostly been that way at the beach, and other times, too, that he didn’t feel like he was on an outing with his boss. The flirting, the conversation. Zhou Mi had seemed to keep the conversation away from work almost entirely, maybe so they weren’t reminded. He felt like Zhou Mi’s date. His friend.
A friend who quite desperately wanted a kiss.
“I really can’t stay,” Zhou Mi said, not making to take off his shoes. “But I wanted to say goodnight where it was a little more comfortable.”
Exactly that. And he stepped close, stayed closer. Meeting Zhou Mi’s eyes and knowing neither of them was going to settle for a hug.
“Thank you for setting this up tonight,” Zhou Mi said. “I had a really good time. I can plan next time, if you’re up for another date?”
“I am,” Kyuhyun told him.
“Good.”
The word was so soft, but Kyuhyun nearly felt it. Watching Zhou Mi’s eyelashes dip, letting his eyes sweep past Zhou Mi’s nose to the softened lips. He wasn’t caught in indecision as much as he was in admiration, anticipation. And the only one making him wait was himself.
Rocking forward onto the balls of his feet, and remembering to inhale, kissing Zhou Mi. A bit too hard for half a second, gentling at their mouths fit. Zhou Mi’s hand at his waist, nudging into Kyuhyun’s face. Exploring, soft. But not too soft, as Zhou Mi’s lips curved against his as the result of a nearly accidental nip. Between the thoughts of soft, sweet, more, and hoping he wasn’t mucking it up, he felt the chill down the back of his neck and arms. Kissing Zhou Mi.
Kissing until their lips naturally parted, and his eyes opened like a man who’d been asleep and forced to wake up. Only to see that Zhou Mi’s eyes were still closed, breathing lightly. He searched Zhou Mi’s face, so still and serious. Like he was concentrating on a really important problem, and raising Kyuhyun’s blood pressure while he did it.
“That bad, was it?” he prodded gently.
Zhou Mi’s eyes sprang wide, almost comically so.
“No!” he burst out, before he realized that Kyuhyun was teasing. Laughing and wrapping his arms around Kyuhyun’s neck. A hug that sent almost as many chills through him as the kiss had, breathing in and taking in Zhou Mi’s scent. The soft sweater that he’d admired beneath his hands as he stroked Zhou Mi’s back.
Zhou Mi rubbed his head against Kyuhyun’s. “If I tell you how long I’ve wanted this, will it scare you?”
“First time you saw me?” Kyuhyun joked.
“That might’ve scared me,” Zhou Mi shot back. “But no, just… Kyuhyun.”
He knew the feeling. And maybe one day he’d get out of Zhou Mi exactly when that was. His own answer was pretty complicated. The situation was complicated.
“Yeah, me too,” he said, letting Zhou Mi pull back. “It’s been a while.”
Speaking of time had regret showing in Zhou Mi’s momentary frown.
“I should get going. I really do need to get up early. I guess I’ll see you when I pick up my cell phone tomorrow,” Zhou Mi said, smirking at him in the cutest way possible. “Do you think you could put in a word for me with the boss about that?”
“I think that might get me in a lot of trouble,” Kyuhyun said, knowing Eunhyuk wasn’t going to relent and let Zhou Mi keep his cell phone while he ate. “Unless we started eating lunch together.”
“We could probably try next week,” Zhou Mi said, eyes lighting. “See how it goes.”
“Which are you going to look forward to seeing more when you get back tomorrow? Your phone or me?”
Zhou Mi actually paused, drawing his eyebrows together as though the choice was a hard one. There was no other option for Kyuhyun but to jab him. And Zhou Mi laughed, pulling Kyuhyun closer and pressing their cheeks together. Warm and solid.
“Depends on if Eunhyuk averts his eyes so I can kiss you hello,” Zhou Mi murmured against his ear.
“Even if he doesn’t, I have to come in and bring your mail.”
Those things were the things that would make it hard, if dating Zhou Mi went south. Those were the things he’d deal with, then. Who knew what would happen. But he did know, the thought of repeating the earlier kisses when he saw Zhou Mi next, appealed. If it was any indication, he thought they had a lot more to show each other.
And the kiss Zhou Mi pressed to his mouth then was both tease and promise, both thumbs rubbing circles on Kyuhyun’s skin. Sensitive on his neck, and feeding his inhale as Zhou Mi’s tongue teased his lip.
He didn’t press it, wanting another kiss, wanting to taste. Taking back the hands he’d gripped Zhou Mi’s sweater with, and watching as Zhou Mi bit his lip, checking his bag.
“Thanks again,” Zhou Mi said. “Have a good night, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, have a good night, too,” Kyuhyun said, and the door closed with him on one side, and Zhou Mi far on the other. He sagged against it, reliving the kiss, and feeling a bit like a teenager again. He hadn’t been on a first date that inspired that many feelings in years, all kinds of joy, and hope that Zhou Mi really had a good time, and wondering what the next date would be.
He mentally patted himself on the back, and gamed until his phone yelled at him to stop.
Their silly faces at the baseball game was the background of his phone. And Zhou Mi still looked ridiculously gorgeous. He’d snagged a 10, and he hadn’t even been looking.
And he bet Zhou Mi probably had a saying for that.
***
Eunhyuk knew better than to visit his father without making plans, as well as giving him foresight into what the visit was about. Eunhyuk had never brought home a man to meet his dad. A few girls, yeah, but since he’d let his father know that he was also dating men, they’d skipped around that fact. His dad asked fewer and fewer questions about who Eunhyuk was dating. He was pretty sure his dad was interested, but not interested enough to possibly hear about a man. Though he considered himself lucky. Some of his friends couldn’t even do that.
“Hey, Dad. Are you free tonight? Yeah. I want to bring someone for you to meet,” Eunhyuk said. “We won’t stay long, but I just wanted to let you know. It’s a man I’ve started dating.”
“You don’t need to bring him by,” Eunhyuk heard his father say, and knew why. Maybe his father knew, but that didn’t mean he wanted to see evidence of it.
“I really need to bring him to see you. Part of it is something I want to tell you in person. Please, Dad.”
“It’s not as though you are getting married or having a child,” his father said a little crossly. “But fine. I’m going out after.”
“That’s okay. We really won’t stay long. Thanks.”
Eunhyuk hung up feeling drained, and he’d known he would be. Two seconds on he phone, preceding what he hoped would be a fifteen minute visit, tops. And he wondered if he’d gotten himself into more trouble than it was worth. Proving a point to his father was only worth it, if his father got the point. And he really wasn’t even sure that was possible.
***
The day and time had already been arranged, so Tablo was waiting for him at the subway stop. Falling into step with him, and calming him a bit with a hand to his lower back.
“You can calm down. He’s not going to cook us for dinner,” Tablo told him.
“I look that worried?”
“You’re sawing on your lower lip, which you used to do a lot. That and I know this has to be nerve-wracking for you.”
“You know me better than I know me,” Eunhyuk said with a breathy chuckle.
“Helps that I care,” Tablo said. But they distracted each other with cell phone games on the way. There wasn’t much to talk about to prepare. Tablo knew everything he needed to, about his dad, about his past. As much as he could think to tell. All he wanted in the process of telling his dad who Tablo was, was hopefully going away with some peace of mind.
“It’s this stop,” Eunhyuk said, and Tablo smiled at him.
It didn’t stop the anxiety as they were let into his father’s apartment, invited to sit and offered tea, which Eunhyuk refused for both of them. Tablo was virtually ignored, which he wasn’t surprised about.
“I brought Tablo to meet you today, for a couple of reasons, Dad.”
“It’s your business who you date,” his dad said.
“I know. I appreciate that. But the real reason we’re here is different. You remember Daniel, the boy from the orphanage that I wanted to see so badly?”
“Hyukjae, not this again. You haven’t brought him up in years.”
Because he got berated if he did, Eunhyuk thought, gritting his teeth.
“No, I’m telling you I found him. Daniel. He’s the one who kept me safe, kept me happy when I was at the orphanage. Tablo is Daniel. That’s his name. I finally found him.”
Even though no one had helped him, no one but he had been looking. And Tablo himself was the only one as truly happy at them finding each other, besides perhaps Zhou Mi. But there were a lot of emotions playing out on his dad’s face. Surprise, disbelief. All written out in his eyebrows, and the way that his father set down his cup.
“What are you saying? You are dating…Daniel?”
“He goes by Tablo now, Dad.”
“Something else you have in common,” his dad muttered. The fact that he went by Eunhyuk had never been something that his dad accepted.
“I told you I’d find him one day,” Eunhyuk said, and felt empowered just looking over and seeing Tablo’s face. The set of his chin, just a little defensive. He’d known it would be a little awkward. Just as long as it didn’t get out of hand. “I know you wanted me to be safe, and happy. So it took a while. But I found him.”
His dad’s eyes focused on Tablo, but Eunhyuk wasn’t sure Tablo was the one his dad was speaking to.
“He wasn’t letting himself grieve. His whole focus was on Daniel, Daniel, Daniel. He wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t sleep. Running away. I gave myself an ulcer trying to help him.”
It had been a long time since they’d actually talked about it. And most of those times, they hadn’t talked much at all. If he’d brought up Daniel, his dad shut down, like he was talking about some imaginary friend that was detrimental to Eunhyuk’s mental health. Even when he’d gotten to be a teenager. In fact, his father had seemed content to forget that Eunhyuk had ever been at the orphanage at all, missing the fact that it was a huge and turbulent time for him. He figured that was why he’d fixated so much on it. Because he’d never gotten a chance to work through it, or let it go.
“I spent a lot of time there hoping that you’d show up, and take both of us away,” Eunhyuk told his dad, and feeling Tablo lean into his shoulder.
“I didn’t even know what to do with one child on my own. I didn’t know what to do without your mother there.”
Tablo cleared his throat. “Your responsibility was to your son. That’s understandable.”
“I didn’t want you to be alone,” Eunhyuk said softly.
“I was a moody teenager,” Tablo said, shrugging a shoulder. “When I was moved to a new place, I did find friends. We both got in better places. You didn’t belong with me.”
Not like you do now.
“It’s nice that you two can be…friends again,” his father said.
Friends. He waned to roll his eyes but there was acceptance in Tablo’s expression. If that was what his father wanted to think, that was okay. At least his father knew that he’d accomplished what he’d set out to do. Causing them both trauma 20 years ago. But a door that could finally be shut.
***
“As long as he doesn’t tell you that you need to get rid of me,” Tablo said, as they stood together on the subway.
“When he’s that heavily in denial?” Eunhyuk asked. “No. I mean, unless we started making out in front of him.”
“Don’t want to give him a heart attack,” Tablo said, smirking a little. But the expression softened as Tablo leaned into him. “You asked him to take me too.”
“Of course. You were my whole world for those weeks. I heard him talking once. He was…He meant it when he said he didn’t know what to do with me. He told someone he thought of leaving me in the orphanage, because he wasn’t sure he could raise me on his own.”
Tablo cursed almost under his breath, but Eunhyuk still heard it, slipping an arm around Tablo’s waist.
“How old were you when you heard that?” Tablo asked.
“Fifteen? Something like that. When I was really angry I half wished he had left me. But, even if he had, we still would’ve been split up.”
“Yeah, don’t even think that.” Tablo squeezed him. “I assume that comment wasn’t ever meant for your ears. He’d probably feel devastated that you heard. Did he make you feel wanted?”
Going to games with his dad, going to his dad when he felt sick. Talking about his first crush, and getting help with homework. Everything that hadn’t been about the orphanage, or his mom, had been great. But his father had been too damaged to help his son through the loss.
“Yeah,” he said, and realized that he understood his dad a little better than he had. Thanks to Tablo.
***
If only he’d known. Daniel came for him, because they knew he trusted Daniel.
“It’s okay,” Daniel said. “They just want to talk. Maybe your family?”
“I don’t want to.” But Daniel wouldn’t budge. “You’ll stay with me?”
“Sure.”
He wanted to be a big boy. Show Daniel what he could do. Braver than any other boy the age of six.
But that didn’t mean he walked alone. A finger caught on his lip, his other hand solidly in Daniel’s, he walked into the room. Eyes darting from faces. Faces he knew, faces who made sure he was clean and fed every day.
And his father. A face that widened with a smile, man and boy both recognizing each other. That moment was pure joy, the shout that leapt from him.
“Daddy!”
“Hyukjae.”
His hand slid from Daniel’s, from one embrace, to another, lifted up against his father’s strong chest. Laughing. More home than he’d been in weeks.
Turning back over his shoulder to share his jubilation with Daniel. Look, my father. My father can do anything! We’re saved!
But Daniel was being led out, protesting. Jerking against the hands of the women who told him he’d done his duty and it was time to go.
“Daniel!” Hyukjae called out, trying to get down to go to him. Struggled and shoved. “Daniel, come back!”
“Who is the boy?” his father asked.
“Just another child here who looked after Hyukjae. No one to worry about, sir.”
“No. Daniel is my friend,” Hyukjae protested. “He can come home with us, right Daddy?”
All he had was the sad look Daniel had shot over his shoulder. Sad for who, he didn’t know. The feeling of home was gone. That wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Daniel had promised him they’d stay together.
The tears went on forever. First ones that were pleading, begging his father to listen.
Then there were the screams, as he was buckled into the car. He could run back in, hide under Daniel’s bed, and no one would know.
He cried until he had nothing left, until his breath was hitching. Voice raw. He threw up before they even made it home, and had his father’s disgust to deal with.
The failed attempts to run away. Years had past, but the twist in his gut was always the same. He hadn’t gotten to say goodbye.
***
Tablo grunted and rolled over beside him, reacting to his waking movements.
“You okay?” Tablo asked, voice rough with sleep.
“Yes, I am.”
And he was. Some of the fears that had driven him, the sick worry. The obsession that had sent tendrils through his life. Some of those he could let go. He put his hand over Tablo’s, the one Tablo had reached toward him.
Maybe they had met too early. Maybe they had never been meant to say goodbye at all. Somehow, the universe had righted itself. Because they were together. They had an opportunity to make their own happiness. And it made him smile.
***
Zhou Mi, it seemed, was cute about asking him out on a date. Waiting until after work, and calling Kyuhyun when he was mid-game. And it was probably his affection that had Kyuhyun answering the phone without hesitation.
“Are you busy tomorrow?” Zhou Mi asked.
“Besides work? I don’t think so.”
Kyuhyun’s mouth curved as Zhou Mi laughed. “I know we could go out, but I was hoping staying in sounded okay to you. I can pull out my cooking skills again. What little I have. And this time we’ll know it’s just you and me.”
The last time Zhou Mi had cooked, it had been under the expectation that there would be three of them. An accidental date, that had been. This one, on purpose. He could sense the sentiment behind that from miles away.
“And after that, movie night? When do we go to the beach again?”
“Movie night in a theater,” Zhou Mi suggested. “We can look up what we want to see tomorrow.”
“Sounds good,” he said, eyes still on his laptop screen. And then his brain kicked in. “Should I bring something? Am I going with you after work?”
“Yourself, and yes, we can leave together. It’ll mean you won’t have to eat too late. I don’t want to deny you your food.”
“Why are you teasing me and asking me out on a date at the same time?” Kyuhyun complained.
Zhou Mi laughed, the sound bright. “Because it’s fun. Have a good rest of the night.”
“Yeah, thanks, you too. See you tomorrow. Date you tomorrow.”
He felt a little proud of himself as Zhou Mi more or less signed off with a kissing sound.
And then he lost himself in his game.
***
There was something sexy about a man in the kitchen, Kyuhyun thought. Something beyond the fact that he knew he’d be getting fed soon. Zhou Mi hadn’t changed out of his work shirt, merely rolling it up above his elbows as he chopped and stirred. Nice forearms, and then there were the hips in the trim slacks. Any offers Kyuhyun had made to help were rebuffed, Zhou Mi assuring him he had everything under control. Rice was cooking, vegetables were being stirred, and it looked like he was in good hands. Very nice looking hands, too, as he watched Zhou Mi lick a smear off of his thumb.
Zhou Mi caught Kyuhyun eyeing him, from Kyuhyun’s perch on the stool across the kitchen counter.
“What are you looking at?” Zhou Mi teased.
“Just making sure you know what you’re doing,” Kyuhyun blustered. “I’m hungry.”
“You’ll be fed.”
That seemed like a promise, as Zhou Mi swaggered around the counter, making Kyuhyun’s eyebrows rise with every step that brought Zhou Mi close.
“So you like watching me cook?” Zhou Mi asked, his hands on the outside of Kyuhyun’s thighs as he got his body insinuated between them.
“Mm,” Kyuhyun hedged, bringing his arms up to gather Zhou Mi in, and pull him a little more to Kyuhyun’s level. Pretty neck, too, with the open collar.
“If I had known my cooking was a turn-on, I’d have started to do that years ago.”
Kyuhyun chuckled up at him. “Shut up.”
“Does that mean you were thinking of kissing me last time?”
“No really, shut up. The least you could do is give me a little taste.”
Zhou Mi’s eyebrows rose, smile flashing as he sidled closer. His hands were warm and solid on Kyuhyun’s hips, and Kyuhyun let his arms slide a little closer around Zhou Mi’s neck. He could smell the beginnings of their meal on Zhou Mi’s breath, taste it, as Zhou Mi’s mouth met and parted with his. A warm merging of lips, clinging, as he felt Zhou Mi smile.
“How’s that?” Zhou Mi asked softly, face still close.
“Not bad. I’ll probably enjoy the real thing,” Kyuhyun told him, unable to stop the smirk. But even with the tease, it was nice just having Zhou Mi close. Feeling his hair, a bit silky against his forearm, and reaching for just one more kiss-
And being denied as Zhou Mi jumped, and all but ripped himself away.
“The food!”
It left Kyuhyun licking his lips and feeling abandoned, as Zhou Mi rescued their dinner.
They had wine, Kyuhyun’s contribution to the meal. Zhou Mi sipping it experimentally and making interested faces. He wasn’t sure if he was going to have to call Zhou Mi a peasant or not, until Zhou Mi declared it good. And it did go well with the food. Not anything groundbreaking, but it was spicy to his taste, a nice mix of meat and vegetables with rice. Filling, and made just for him. If he’d wanted fancy vegetable cuts, and magic decorations, he’d have dated Ryeowook. And that had him chuckling, and Zhou Mi’s eyebrows raising.
“First time we ate together, just us,” Kyuhyun said.
“Oh, when we met your friend,” Zhou Mi said, nodding. “I had such a good time that night. Sharing the food with you.”
“You picked good food,” Kyuhyun allowed. “Everything there is good, though.”
“It is. I haven’t found the right event yet, but I’m definitely going to plan something there one of these days. Not that you want to hear me talk about work,” Zhou Mi said, laughing. “Are you finished, or do you want more?”
Kyuhyun had all but licked the plate clean with two servings. Any more and he’d have to roll home, as well as look like a gigantic pig in front of Zhou Mi.
“No, I’m done, thank you,” he said, grabbing his own plate to carry it out.
“I made too much,” Zhou Mi said, shreds of doubt in his voice. “Oh! If you did like it, I can put some in a container. You can take it home. Have it for lunch. Or freeze it. I’ll never eat all this.”
They blinked at each other for a moment, and Zhou Mi grinned sheepishly as he began piling the food into a plastic container
“I promise I’m not trying to become your mom.”
Kyuhyun chuckled, leaning against the counter. “No, having it for lunch sounds nice. Better than anything I take.”
“Tell me how much,” Zhou Mi urged, and portioned out Kyuhyun some. Sealing it in a reusable plastic container and stowing it in the fridge until Kyuhyun was ready to go.
“The date that keeps on giving,” Kyuhyun teased.
Zhou Mi swirled soap around in the hot water, sliding dishes into it.
“I really enjoy having people over. The last time you were here, was…”
Zhou Mi’s words trailed away, and Kyuhyun followed his train of thought. The last night he’d been there was the night he had thought Zhou Mi was going to sleep with someone. Zhou Mi’s one night stand.
But Zhou Mi turning to him had his breath catching. Not sure what the serious eyes meant.
“I was lying to myself that night, when who I wanted was you,” Zhou Mi said, eyes focused on the dish in his hand, instead of on Kyuhyun.
Looking for something more, not just sex. He waited until Zhou Mi dried his hands, turning to Kyuhyun with what looked like apology in his eyes. That Zhou Mi had not gone because he was thinking of Kyuhyun, and that he knew that, made him smile.
“What I should’ve told you that night. Don’t go,” Kyuhyun said, guiding Zhou Mi’s face closer. “Because I want-“
Zhou Mi’s moan was tremulous against his mouth. Want Zhou Mi, to date Zhou Mi, to keep Zhou Mi safe, to not form another image of Zhou Mi against another man. All of those. Wanting.
Zhou Mi was smiling, laughing silently against his face, and he squeezed Kyuhyun tight.
“Ah, Kyuhyun. I’ll do these dishes later. Do you want to watch TV with me for a while?”
“Sure.”
He did want, very much. Though as Zhou Mi took his hand and led him, his sense of anxiety ramped a little. They avoided the chairs and the TV in the living room, instead heading into Zhou Mi’s bedroom. The bed was neat, dresser. A TV on top of it, Kyuhyun saw with something almost nearing relief. He hadn’t been certain if “TV” had been a euphemism for “sex.” And that sounded good on a theoretical level, but attraction or no, it would’ve been sudden.
“Can’t get close enough on those chairs,” Zhou Mi explained. “We can just-“
The top blanket was turned down a bit, so they could slide their legs under and keep their feet warm. Pillows propped up for them to lean against. And if close was what Zhou Mi had been wanting, they had that. Zhou Mi warm against his side as they got comfortable. They settled on a variety show, and Zhou Mi, without pretense, got his arm around Kyuhyun’s shoulders.
“This is nice,” Zhou Mi said, nuzzling at his ear.
“Mm,” he agreed, as his calf rubbed against Zhou Mi’s. But it was hard not to notice that Zhou Mi’s attention wasn’t on the TV. Studying Kyuhyun’s profile. “Need something?”
A kiss, it seemed. He turned, just slightly, to meet Zhou Mi’s mouth. Smiling as Zhou Mi massaged his shoulder, bracing a hand on Kyuhyun’s stomach. And they merged, like that, as the TV became little more than a backdrop of noise. It was the sound of their kisses, of hands against cloth, skin. The feel of Zhou Mi’s hair through his fingers, the tiny, needy sounds as he urged Kyuhyun closer.
Not a button, not a zipper undone. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t feel. Zhou Mi’s spine, and hip. Rocking forward with a little gasp as Zhou Mi groped his butt. He grinned at the fluffy mess Zhou Mi’s hair had become, and angled in again. He could feel how eager Zhou Mi was, in the trembling of his fingers, and let his own steady him.
And his eyes were blind at the ceiling because of Zhou Mi’s lips against his throat. Strangled laughs because of accidental tickling. Rubbing the wet of excitement from his palms, onto Zhou Mi’s shirt, and internally shouting at the way their legs tangled. Breathing for a long moment, getting his bearings, and just considering the invitation Zhou Mi’s posture was.
It was hard to say which he adored more, the little snarl on Zhou Mi’s exhale as Kyuhyun manhandled him closer, or the way Zhou Mi controlled the kiss that followed.
Careful, not to push too far. Arousing enough, as it was. The way Zhou Mi looked, and sounded, tasted, felt. The natural ebb, from making out, to cuddling. Well, Zhou Mi cuddled. Kyuhyun was content to be cuddled upon with Zhou Mi as his pillow. Half asleep with his face against Zhou Mi’s neck, fingers stroking his hair.
His eyes opened, staring accusatorially at Zhou Mi’s skin, as though that was what was making Kyuhyun’s cell phone alarm go off in the living room.
Zhou Mi laughed, squishing him a bit. “Is that your reminder to leave?”
“To sleep,” Kyuhyun said, surprised to find his voice a bit gravelly.
“I guess I should’ve let you go earlier.”
The look he shot Zhou Mi was wry, as he got out from under the blanket and onto his feet. “I was really trying to get away.”
He was grinning because of Zhou Mi tugging his shirt back straight, and the fact that Zhou Mi still didn’t know the state of his hair.
“Go look in the mirror,” he suggested, and shut off his screaming phone.
Zhou Mi’s helpless laughter from the bathroom preceded Zhou Mi coming back out with decidedly neater hair.
“Now you know why I didn’t become a hairdresser,” Kyuhyun said, smirking.
“Me too,” Zhou Mi said. And Kyuhyun found out why, as Zhou Mi meticulously smoothed down Kyuhyun’s hair as well. “Now you can go out into the world. Oh, the food for tomorrow!”
Zhou Mi brought it to him, carefully wrapped so it could go in his bag. It was hard, with Zhou Mi’s face that close, not to just reel him right back in. Or to imagine running his tongue along Zhou Mi’s jaw and seeing what kind of a response that garnered. Kyuhyun shrugged his bag onto his shoulder, getting into his shoes. And he smiled as he looped a couple of fingers through a gap between buttons in Zhou Mi’s shirt.
“Thanks for dinner. For the date, and-“ The making out. He let his eyebrows say that last part though, kissing Zhou Mi reluctantly goodbye.
He’d get to bed a little later than he’d planned, but that wasn’t out of the ordinary. He came away from Zhou Mi’s apartment with a new appreciation for Zhou Mi’s cooking, for Zhou Mi’s feelings toward him, and for Zhou Mi’s body. Kisses and touches that would fuel his fantasies very well. Until they could do it again.
***
Instead of a date, two nights later, Zhou Mi called him and his voice was unsteady. Another nightmare. And all Kyuhyun had been able to do was listen, and be reassuring, before they hung up with promises that Zhou Mi would call if he needed anything else. Glad that Zhou Mi had called, and that he had hugged Kyuhyun coming in the door of the office the next day.
Kyuhyun occasionally congratulated himself on the fact that he was so open-minded, so accepting. His boyfriend had visions of murders, and Kyuhyun didn’t blink. Much. Maybe it kept him up sometimes, wondering. Not so much about Zhou Mi’s sanity, but his wellbeing. In getting involved with Zhou Mi, he was also tying himself to what Zhou Mi was seeing. He wondered how many nighttime calls there would be, how many visions before the murders were solved. He hoped, more for Zhou Mi’s sake, that the visions would stop once the killer was found. They couldn’t just go on indefinitely, skipping from murder to murder. The women were not the only people killed in Seoul since Zhou Mi’s first. Kyuhyun had done his homework on that. But Zhou Mi’s visions, his nightmares, followed a very specific pattern. Same type of murder, always as it happened. Residual nightmares. And then Zhou Mi dreaming of Eunhyuk’s traumatic past. It was hard to know how to be supportive at times, even with his own family. It made him glad that Zhou Mi knew how to ask for support. And Zhou Mi being all touchy-feely and grateful about it had made him get a little squirmy inside. In a nice way.
But he had absolutely relived those kisses in the kitchen when he made himself dinner. Zhou Mi hadn’t been teasing. Absolutely. But he couldn’t exactly call Zhou Mi up for a booty call after two dates. He didn’t think so, anyway. So he’d gamed instead of obsessing about Zhou Mi’s clothes that day. Black and white shirt, in some crazy pattern that made him want to go cross-eyed. But the soft fabric had somehow suited Zhou Mi, clinging to his torso and arms, and going with his dark jeans.
That day he’d gotten a kiss when he took in the mail, offering it and being received. Hands on Zhou Mi’s sides.
The problem with kissing mid-shift was that going out to his desk had felt a little uncomfortable for way too many reasons. And Eunhyuk had stayed late that night for a meeting with Zhou Mi, so Kyuhyun hadn’t gotten a kiss goodbye. Just a few texts to let him know that Zhou Mi was okay, and that they’d see each other the next day. It made him wonder when they were meeting up again.
The day after, a check of Zhou Mi’s schedule told Kyuhyun that he had meetings away from the office most of the afternoon. So the most he saw of Zhou Mi was when Zhou Mi came in from lunch and picked up his phone with a wink, and when Zhou Mi exited his office to leave.
“I’m going to go meet Siwon at his office with Sooyoung and find out how Siwon is doing. Then I’ll take Sooyoung out for coffee and find out how her date went. And then, I’m meeting Miss Kwon, the day I got sick Miss Kwon? Yes,” Zhou Mi said, wiggling a little in place as he placed folders on first Eunhyuk’s desk, and then Kyuhyun’s. “Reports, and new dating statistics. Have fun with those.”
“Yipee,” Eunhyuk with fake blase. “When we shave our heads from the joy, we’ll leave the hair on your desk, okay?”
Kyuhyun had to try to swallow the chuckle, as Zhou Mi stuck his tongue out at Eunhyuk.
“And I’ll text you later, okay?” Zhou Mi said to Kyuhyun, hopefully not having heard Kyuhyun’s slight expulsion of amusement.
“Sure,” he said, clearing his throat. And Zhou Mi’s grin was closed off behind the door.
Siwon. Zhou Mi was going to see Siwon.
“Siwon is the one he thinks is hot, isn’t he?” Kyuhyun mused out loud before his brain could catch up.
Eunhyuk almost whooped with laughter. “Yes. That man is ridiculously good looking. But don’t worry, Zhou Mi knows to look and not touch. Siwon wouldn’t be interested in this lifetime, plus Sooyoung is a good chaperone.”
Faintly teasing, faintly reassuring, Kyuhyun thought grumpily. Not like Zhou Mi didn’t have eyes. He saw men every day. The only slight difference was that Zhou Mi didn’t declare those men hot. A random factoid he’d clearly carried with him, especially after having seen Siwon in person. If Zhou Mi thought Siwon was hot, then Kyuhyun was unsure of the word that’d be used to describe himself. Kyuhyun tried to imagine Zhou Mi describing him as his “hot boyfriend.” And nearly spit his drink.
But he was waiting for Zhou Mi’s text.
***
“Want to grab dinner?” Zhou Mi texted Kyuhyun, finally free, and surprisingly starving, after having a surprise attack of nightmare-induced nausea after his last meeting. He had only to wait about a minute, staring at his phone as he deciphered Kyuhyun’s message.
“Sure. Is he still hot?”
Zhou Mi nearly laughed aloud in the middle of the subway station. Simultaneously he wanted to grab Kyuhyun and squeeze him, and sort of dance. It was the cutest form of jealousy. The kind that told him that Kyuhyun cared and worried for them. Just a little bit of insecurity. Zhou Mi had seen the darker sides of those emotions, and some of them aimed at himself. He knew how to appreciate it, and he knew not to take it for granted.
Before he could formulate an answer, another text arrived. “Not that he could compete with me, obviously.”
Zhou Mi bit his lip and stepped out of the flow of traffic to clutch his phone and laugh as silently as he could. Kyuhyun was spot on. Not everything revolved around hotness. And Kyuhyun wasn’t seeing himself through Zhou Mi’s eyes.
“He is a beautiful man,” Zhou Mi wrote back, agreeing. “But you’re right. He can’t compete with you! ^^”
They agreed on a station to meet at and Zhou Mi grinned as Kyuhyun fell into step with him.
“Hot and beautiful?” Kyuhyun asked him. Kind of prodding at him. Like he wanted Zhou Mi to throw out some adjectives his way instead of at a guy he wasn’t dating.
“I know you are,” Zhou Mi said, grinning as Kyuhyun sputtered as he tugged Kyuhyun onto the street.
***
Click here to see art for chapter 13~ :D
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