⛓️

Hongjoong knew he shouldn't have listened to Seonghwa, knew the taller was intoxicated and was probably uttering the first words that entered his mind because he was acting on plain impulse and nothing else. He knew all this, but here he was, placing a languid Seonghwa comfortably on the rooftop of some random, large house before sitting down next to him.

Seonghwa's body was still damp from the now dispersed rainfall, his black locks falling in loose curls around his forehead. His high cheekbones were darkened with baby pink; the exact same colour as his plump lips which were now slightly parted, inhaling low gulps of air.

"...Are you okay?" Hongjoong asked, clearing his throat when his voice came out all wobbly. Seriously, what the hell just happened?

Seonghwa ran his fingers through his hair, only for the strands to fall back on his face again. His round, almost obsidian eyes bored into Hongjoong's, making eye contact between them a lot more difficult. "I'm just tired."

Hongjoong shouldn't have been here with Seonghwa right now. Sure, he had no documented missions this weekend, but that didn't mean he didn't need some rest. He sighed, hating the fact that his plan to cut whatever relationship he and Seonghwa had loose had totally backfired on him. But it wasn't his fault; something about Seonghwa made him not want to leave.

Throughout the years he'd spent being alive and doing what he did, he'd never seen the big deal about upholding relations with people other than his brother. But now all of a sudden, Seonghwa made him want to change that. It messed with Hongjoong's head.

"I should take you home since you're tired," Hongjoong suggested, peering down at Seonghwa's resting form.

The taller had his eyes closed, looking quite snug in his position despite his wet clothes and the flattened, hard surface of the roof. "No. I want to stay here a bit."

"Don't you have a party to go back to?" Hongjoong tried again. If he was being honest, he did want to stay here a while with Seonghwa, but with everything that happened in Flora that Tuesday, his conscience had been plaguing him to let the taller go. He couldn't rope Seonghwa along any longer, especially when Seonghwa wasn't like him.

He'd had his fun, Hongjoong thought, so now they needed to go back to being strangers. So why did the mere thought of it feel so arduous?

As if he'd read Hongjoong's mind, Seonghwa's lips lifted a little. Those dark eyes of his opened again, as bottomless as a starless sky. "I don't like parties."

"Then why'd you go?"

"Maybe..." Seonghwa softly sighed, "maybe because I'd thought you'd follow me there. It's dumb, but look, you're here now aren't you?"

Hongjoong snickered; he couldn't help it. "Idiot."

Seonghwa didn't reply, only digging through his jeans for something. Then, to the shorter's surprise, he pulled out a crumpled, soggy leaf.

"Why do you have a leaf in your pocket?" Hongjoong spoke up, bewildered.

Seonghwa bit his lip, his brows furrowing at the sight of the demolished leaf. He looked disappointed. "This leaf fell on me at lunch on Wednesday. It was bright gold -- the brightest fucking gold I've ever seen on a leaf, I swear. I wanted to show you, but look what happened."

Hongjoong shook his head, chortles leaving him. "What else did you actually fucking expect it to look like after leaving it in your pocket under the rain?"

Seonghwa's frown deepened. He looked so utterly and genuinely disturbed by the leaf's demise that Hongjoong's only response to it was to laugh even louder.

"You look like you just went through multiple divorces all at once," Hongjoong chuckled. His joke must've not been funny because Seonghwa wasn't laughing. He wasn't laughing at all.

"Stop being a bitch," Seonghwa muttered, his face still reminiscent of a kicked puppy's.

To be honest, Hongjoong should've expected this just from how much it happened alone. Seonghwa's looks were the embodiment of a flower boy; the nice guy next door who asked the father for permission to date his daughter. But his blunt words and impulsive actions were the complete opposite of that.

That side of Seonghwa didn't bother Hongjoong much, it proved to be his charming point.

"I'm not a bitch," Hongjoong replied, laughing when the taller boy glared at him. How could he not when Seonghwa's glare was basically as potent as cotton candy?

"Then tell me more about you," Seonghwa prompted. He had his arm behind his head, staring at the sky through his curled, long lashes. "But before all that, tell me what happened to me back at Flora."

Hongjoong pushed out a petulant breath, but he found himself lying down as well, picking at his navy blue nails. "Yunho and I saw the whip catch on fire and came rushing in. And then..." he paused, thoughts about Seonghwa on that tower screaming at nothing and shivering flashing across his mind. Hongjoong quickly got rid of them.

Seonghwa was looking at him, his face pulled into a mild frown. "...And then what?"

Hongjoong broke their eye contact and shut his eyes instead. "...I took you home."

"Was there anything else on the roof with me at that time?" Seonghwa's tone was heavy and laced with some desperation.

Hongjoong covered his face with his arm, keeping his voice levelled despite the fact his nerves were at an all-time high. "We killed the Mon -- don't worry."

It was a lie that, thankfully, Seonghwa seemed to believe. Silence commenced between both boys, but Hongjoong could still feel Seonghwa's questioning gaze on him.

"Stop lookin' at me and say what you wanna say," Hongjoong let out.

"I -- I wasn't -- "

Hongjoong flipped to the side to stare more openly at the taller, catching him in the act. "What? You like my face that much?"

Seonghwa's Adam's apple bobbed. He tried to push Hongjoong away, but that proved futile since the shorter was stronger than him. It was a fact they both knew.

But, Seonghwa didn't look irritated anymore. He merely smiled, that action of his taking Hongjoong aback. It wasn't one of his closed-mouthed ones either, but rather big and cheery, revealing straight, pearly teeth.

Hongjoong, for lack of a better word, was stunned. He just laid there, wondering what he'd done to make Seonghwa look at him in that way.

The older boy was captivatingly handsome; it was something that'd always lurked at the deepest corner of his mind, but was now as obvious as ever.

Hongjoong found a lot of people attractive, it was normal since good-looking people existed everywhere. But Seonghwa had something different about him. He wasn't just handsome, he was pretty. Enthralling, even.

Hongjoong ached to inch closer and run his thumb over Seonghwa's cheek, to see if his skin was truly as smooth and as soft as it looked. Stop being weird.

"Why are you smiling like that?" He decided on asking instead.

"Because maybe..." Seonghwa's voice was slower now, bordering on hushed, "because maybe if I act nicer to you, then you'll tell me who you actually are..."

"You're sleepy," Hongjoong stated, and Seonghwa rolled his eyes.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm drained and tired as fuck. I even have work tomorrow as well," he replied, voice lowered and huskier with fatigue as he sifted through his drying dark hair.

Annoyance boiled inside Hongjoong, but it immediately sizzled off once he spotted the look of utter defeat on Seonghwa's face.

"I wish I could just sleep forever, and not open my eyes for as long as I want to," Seonghwa rambled, staring into space. "Waking up, going to school, heading back home, work -- everything's just too fucking hard these days. Being alive is too hard."

A lump grew in Hongjoong's throat, because he could relate. Used to. Seonghwa's mumbled words were concerning, mostly because he knew the older must've thought of them a lot for him to say them in such a casual setting.

Thoughts like those weren't good for the mind, Hongjoong knew, and even if Seonghwa quarreled with him quite often, he didn't want the other going through all that. Not tonight.

So he leapt to his feet, carrying Seonghwa with him bridal-style.

As expected, Seonghwa began flailing about, hitting wherever he could to get Hongjoong to let him go.

Hongjoong suddenly yelped and fell on one knee, trying his hardest not to laugh when Seonghwa quickly stopped, looking at him with wide eyes.

"W-What?" The taller asked.

"You punched my dick, asshole."

Seonghwa's entire face flamed up. "No, I did not!"

Hongjoong shrugged. "Yeah, you didn't."

"Then why'd you lie?" Seonghwa accused, staying deathly still while Hongjoong got back up. It was hilarious.

"To get you to shut up." Thankfully, Seonghwa was mostly dry now, but that meant Hongjoong's sensitive nose picked up on the taller's scent quicker. It was cologne, but it was sweet, like musky vanilla. It suited Seonghwa.

"Let me go," Seonghwa said, but his words lacked its previous persistence. He's already gotten used to this, Hongjoong realized.

"I'll answer question one if you let me carry you," Hongjoong proposed. Look, he had no idea why he was even being like this, but he loved teasing Seonghwa. He loved the feeling of him in his arms, of his warm body that complemented his cold-blooded self. "Promise I won't drop you."

"...Okay." Seonghwa's hands ran over Hongjoong's shoulders, intertwining behind his neck to steady himself. He had no reason to do so since Hongjoong wasn't planning on letting him go anytime soon, but his touches still left him dazed and confused.

"I'm a Variant," Hongjoong revealed, feeling Seonghwa's eyes on him. The knots in his stomach remained as tight as ever, though, because now that the older knew just what he was, he could finally find an excuse to stay away. "...At least, that's the name given to people like me. Yunho's one, San is one, and there are others like us as well."

Seonghwa kept listening, kept being interested. "So every Variant has powers?"

Hongjoong's grip on Seonghwa tightened as he jumped off the roof and several others, before agilely landing on another. Seonghwa's gaze never left him. "Yes. Some have more than others. But most of us use them to kill off those dangerous Mons since we're the ones who can see them."

"...So why can I see them?" Seonghwa asked.

Actually, Hongjoong hadn't thought about that. He'd had his doubts at times, but Seonghwa was human. He was almost sure of it.

"Humans with higher sensitivity than normal have been reported seeing them," Hongjoong explained, and it was true, even if it was basically rare. He just hadn't seen any of them before except for Seonghwa.

At the final house on the lane, Hongjoong kicked off the edge of ths roof and flew into the sky, Seonghwa still in his arms.

"You can take a look if you want, y'know?" Hongjoong teased, grinning brightly at the sight of Seonghwa's glare. "Don't be scared."

Seonghwa ended up doing as he'd suggested, his dark eyes displaying a mirrored image of the many stars he gawked at, and Hongjoong really enjoyed seeing his amazement.

"At first," Seonghwa's baritone voice entered Hongjoong's ears after a minute or so of idly flying, "I'd thought you were a vampire or something..."

If he hadn't been carrying Seonghwa right now, he was sure would've doubled over laughing. "How?"

Seonghwa looked embarrassed. "Your teeth. Canines, to be exact."

"There's no way in hell I'd suck blood from others," Hongjoong grimaced. "Blood is so gross."

"Then what are you?"

"A variant."

"No," Seonghwa paused, the blaring city lights making him appear downright angelic. "I mean -- you're a hybrid, right?"

"...Mhm." Hongjoong nodded.

"So what kind of hybrid are you?"

To tell the truth, Hongjoong didn't want Seonghwa knowing about his other half. He really didn't.

So he completely glossed over the question. "Your house is nearby now."

Seonghwa's face fell. "I don't want to go home. Not tonight."

Hongjoong rose an eyebrow. "Seonghwa..."

The aforementioned male looked him in the eye, and suddenly Hongjoong had an inkling as to what he meant.

⛓️

If someone had told Seonghwa he'd be waking up in Hongjoong's room in the nearest future, he would've laughed or thought that the person was crazy.

But here he was now, opening his eyes on the shorter's springy, cozy bed. A blood red bedspread covered his body up to his chest, filling him with warmth and protecting him from the bitter autumn winds.

As soon as he realized just where he was, Seonghwa sat up and leant against the bedpost, his head feeling strangely light and weightless.

Hongjoong's room was even smaller than his, but was totally packed with colourful art posters, vinyl records, accessories, a small cupboard at the side that contained books and other reading materials. At the right hand corner stood a wardrobe that was slightly ajar, revealing clothing that'd been arranged according to colour.

There was just so much going on that Seonghwa didn't know where to look first. He felt like by being in Hongjoong's room, he was taking a peek into his mind, and it felt a bit...private.

You're the one who convinced him to bring you here, his mind scolded, and it was right. He just didn't want to go home last night, but the more seconds he spent in Hongjoong's room, the more he thought he'd made the wrong decision.

Seonghwa's heart dropped when he realized he had no idea where his phone was. He could only imagine all the texts and calls Mingi and San had probably already sent him.

Even his clothes felt different too. He was wearing an oversized yellow shirt and black shorts.

Immediately, Seonghwa left Hongjoong's room, wincing a bit at the morning light coming from the livingroom.

The floor tiles felt cold under the soles of his feet, and then he heard some humming coming from the kitchen.

Seonghwa continued to walk, stopping once he got to the kitchen area. He chose to stay as quiet as possible in order to see who it was.

Hongjoong stood in front of the counter, seeming quite busy with something Seonghwa's eyes couldn't catch. He wore a black beanie, as well as this large, space-themed shirt that reached down to his thighs which captured Seonghwa's attention a lot more than it should have.

He cleared his throat, but Hongjoong didn't even try to look startled. He just turned and shot Seonghwa a lopsided grin, one which felt a little different.

"Good morning, Seonghwa," he greeted. "You woke up a bit earlier than I thought. It's only 6."

"Hey." Seonghwa didn't know why he waved after that, but he did. Hongjoong was still smiling, and normally it would've got on Seonghwa's nerves. But things didn't feel the same now. "Where's Yunho, and where are your parents?"

Hongjoong had already gone back to what he was working on. "Yunho fell asleep after staying up with you since he was tired, and ah, well, our parents aren't around right now."

"Yunho stayed up with me? What did we do?" Seonghwa gaped.

Hongjoong chuckled, shutting the container in front of him. "You didn't wanna sleep so we all played some card games together, but then you complained about your clothes itching you so Yunho gave you one of his clothes to sleep in."

Despite the shorter's words, Seonghwa still felt himself panic, because what if he'd done something embarrassing last night? Shit like that just loved happening to him all the time.

"You should take a seat at the dining table. I, with some guidance from Yunho, made you something," Hongjoong continued, sparing Seonghwa another glance.

Seonghwa didn't know what to say. "Hongjoong, I -- "

"Sit," Hongjoong's commanded, but his eyes radiated tenderness.

Seonghwa did as he'd asked, spotting his phone on said table and grabbing it as quick as he could. It was still functioning, fully charged. He wondered if Hongjoong had anything to do with it.

Seonghwa entered his phone and went through his messages first, not in the mood to call anyone so early in the morning.

- sanshine
where did you go tonight hwa?
me and mingi looked everywhere for you

- sanshine
i called too, but you werent picking up
i'm guessing you went home??

- sanshine
at least that's what i told mingi
he's a lot harder to convince when drunk

Seonghwa felt guilty.

- hwa
hey san,
actually, i'm not home
i went to hongjoong's house.

- hwa
sorry for not picking up all night
i'm going to work soon btw, so if you're free you can come over to talk

San didn't reply, but Seonghwa had expected that. His friend was a night owl and detested waking up before ten on the weekends.

He went on to Mingi's latest text messages, skipping over the ones from his father.

- mings
seonghwa, where did u go??
please, please answer me

- mings
i've been calling for an hour now and ur not picking up
are u okay
where are you??

- mings
seonghwa please pick up
i need to know that ur okay

- mings
i'm so so worried hwa
even your father isnt at home
i dont want u getting hurt
please reply
please

Seonghwa hated the fact that he'd put his best friend through all this worry. He chewed his lip, trying to think of the best way to answer.

- seongs
hey mingi
i'm so sorry for taking so much time to answer

Mingi's reply was instantaneous.

- mings
seonghwa oh my god
are u ok?
where are you??

Hongjoong slid a bowl of porridge and berries over to Seonghwa, as well as a metal spoon to eat it with.

When Seonghwa looked up in surprise, he was met with the shorter boy grinning at him.

"Thank you," Seonghwa muttered.

"Shh. Just eat," Hongjoong mouthed, gesturing at the cereal.

- seongs
i'm at hongjoong's

Mingi began typing, only to stop then type something up again.

As Seonghwa ate the admittedly tasty porridge, he could only feel his nervousness rise.

- mings
kim hongjoong?

- seongs
yes
but i'm heading to work soon
we can talk then

Yet again, Mingi took a longer time than usual to reply.

- mings
oh

- mings
its fine
i'm just glad ur someplace safe
i'll see you soon!

- mings
tell hongjoong i said hello :)

- seongs
i will

"Mingi?" Hongjoong suddenly asked right next to Seonghwa, their close proximity internally driving the taller nuts.

"Y-Yes." Seonghwa coughed, taking more spoonfuls of the porridge. "He told me to say hi to you."

Hongjoong hummed, nodding. Then he rested his head on his palm, observing the dark haired male. "Is it good?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"Good," Hongjoong clapped, sounding extremely satisfied. "Because I also packed you a lunchbox with all the food I think you'd like."

Shock consumed Seonghwa. "Why -- why are you doing this?"

"You said it yourself, didn't you?" Hongjoong answered, lips forming a mellow smile. "Because I care."

⛓️

a/n: thoughts?