☁ a hundred million suns (and stars)
the planets bend between us
chen/lay
pg
a/n: warnings for...idk, dudebro!baekyeol???
Jongdae is actually really proud of his thesis proposal, so when his professor chews him out and gives him a response that basically says, “No, try again,” he’s pissed off because he had spent a lot of time on that proposal and now he’s left with nothing.
He’s annoyed when Krystal appears, a huge smile on her face because it means her thesis is a go and Jongdae knows for a fact that she only thought of her proposal the night before.
“That’s so unfair,” he complains. “When I left this morning, you had only written one line!”
Krystal shrugs. “He barely looked at it,” she admits. “He just sort of kept staring at my face?”
Jongdae is outraged at this injustice, and he just wants to go get high or drunk- or both- and forget this whole stupid day before he has to start all over again on Monday.
ϟ
Except his friends are useless.
He finds Kyungsoo in a computer lab, his eyes bloodshot. “Do you have coffee?” he demands when he sees Jongdae.
Jongdae blinks. “What? No.” He’s about to ask if Kyungsoo has any uppers but then Kyungsoo’s eyes actually fill with tears. “Are you crying? Oh my god, why are you crying? What’s happening?”
“This stupid code won’t work!” Kyungsoo wails, jabbing hard at random keys on the keyboard. “This project is due in a week and I just need to fix this one code but it won’t run the program! And I asked you to bring me coffee and you were just here three minutes ago, how could you forget?”
Jongdae stares at him. “I haven’t seen you all week.”
Kyungsoo blinks. “Then who owes me coffee?”
Minseok appears at the door of the computer lab with a cup of coffee in his hand and Kyungsoo lets out a sound that sounds a little like a sob.
“I love you so much,” Kyungsoo says a little weepily, wrapping his fingers around the cup Minseok hands over.
Jongdae decides Kyungsoo can’t possibly have any uppers because if he did, he would have used them by now, and Minseok has sworn off anything that can “cause any harm to my bodily temple”, so he definitely couldn’t help.
ϟ
Sehun and Jongin are usually good for a fix, except when he calls them, they’re halfway across the country after getting high the night before and randomly buying a ticket for the first train leaving. They still sound high from the amount of giggling he hears.
Jongdae honestly has no idea how Jongin manages to always make the dean’s list when he only attends half his classes and he’s usually not mentally present when he's actually in class. He doesn’t even know what the hell Sehun does in college, he has yet to actually see him with any books.
When Jongin calls him a wuss after Jongdae refuses to join them because he cares about his classes, Jongdae hangs up on them.
ϟ
Chanyeol is baked when he arrives at his dorm, which Jongdae takes as a good sign because this means he can probably help.
“Dude, so I got these brownies from Baekhyun, right, so like, wow, they are amazing. He is the best baking chef person ever. You have to try these brownies, they are so good.”
Jongdae is more than willing to try these brownies because he knows there’s something in them because really, Baekhyun is an awful cook. “Where are they?”
Chanyeol looks at him with glazed eyes. “Where’s what? Hey! When did you get here?”
Jongdae really wants to be as high as Chanyeol right now because he looks like he’s having a great time, even if he’s by himself. “The brownies Baekhyun made you.”
“Hmm? Oh, I finished those.” Chanyeol smiles at him. “Dude, do you have like a milkshake or what? I really want a milkshake.”
Jongdae sighs, and leaves Chanyeol with a glass of water because he’s afraid he might swallow his tongue or something.
ϟ
“I have a paper due at midnight,” Junmyeon says when Jongdae tries to get him to go drinking with him. “I have so much to do, I’m sorry, I can’t.”
Tao flat out refuses because he doesn’t understand why anyone would want to go out to drink when they can stay in and drink. Which would be fine except that Tao is a depressing drunk and it’s easier to ditch him when they’re out in public so he can go ruin someone else’s night.
Baekhyun is actually banned from all the nearby clubs because they had all caught him with his fake I.D. before he actually turned 21 so he and Chanyeol (and Jongin and Sehun when they’re actually around) have their own makeshift bar in their dorm. But Baekhyun’s alcohol tolerance is low (for some reason he is much better at controlling his high) so he’s likely to pass out halfway through his second drink, and that’s not helpful to Jongdae either.
He really needs to make better friends.
ϟ
His inability to pick good friends is how he finds himself agreeing to accompany Kris to a club because he just really doesn’t want to go drinking alone, even if it means going out with the human equivalent of a goldfish.
“So like, don’t cockblock me when I’m talking to a girl,” Kris says as they enter the club.
Jongdae doesn’t bother to remind him that he’s not into girls. He doesn’t know what girl is going to talk to Kris with all that aftershave he has bathed in. Jongdae doesn’t even know why he knows Kris. Apparently he sucks at picking out casual acquaintances too.
ϟ
By his fourth drink, Jongdae is actually starting to enjoy himself. He’s not so annoyed about his thesis anymore and it’s fun watching Kris strike out and get increasingly more upset by the minute.
Some guy tries to hit on Jongdae but he reeked of ridiculously expensive hair gel and he kept trying to flash his gold watch at Jongdae as if that will help his cause. It hurts Jongdae to think that that watch could probably cover a good chunk of his tuition.
“Can you just not be here?” Jongdae blurts out when the guy is telling him some story of some yacht he owns. He’s usually a lot more subtle, but he’s starting in on his fifth drink and Mr. Asshat- or whatever his name was- seemed like a dick, Jongdae’s patience was non-existent at this point. “I really don’t care about your yacht and your flashy watch is giving me a headache.”
The guy stares at him before he calls him an asshole and leaves.
“Sure,” Jongdae mumbles into his drink. “He’s the one overcompensating with a fucking yacht and I’m an asshole.”
“He hits on everyone.”
Jongdae looks up and finds the bartender smiling at him. “What?”
The bartender gestures to where Yacht-Douche had been standing. “He’s a dick. He has a girlfriend, you know. And a boyfriend.” He pauses. “Or a boy he does stuff with, I don’t really know what their relationship is.”
Jongdae wrinkles his nose. “Wow, okay, now I have images of Yacht-Douche doing things. Thanks.”
The bartender laughs. “Sorry. The next drink’s on me, okay? As an apology.”
Jongdae smiles. “Okay. Tell me more inappropriate things so you can keep apologizing with free alcohol.”
ϟ
He’s actually enjoying talking to the bartender, who is really funny and Jongdae can detect a sincere kindness in him which surprises him. The bartender is also still nameless because he keeps trying to sneak a look at his name tag but it’s too small and Jongdae doesn’t know how to read it without shoving his face in the guy’s chest. And he’s not that drunk.
Yet anyway.
He’s squinting at it as subtly as possible- which is not subtle at all, because the bartender is right there- when some guy asks him to dance.
“What?” He has to hold on tight to his stool to stop from falling over. He blinks and- oh, okay, this guy is kind of cute, and he’s not giving off I’m-a-huge-tool vibes. But still. “Oh, I don’t dance. Sorry.”
“Everyone can dance,” the guy says, smiling.
He has a nice smile, Jongdae thinks. And hair. He kind of wants to pet it but he assumes that’s the alcohol talking. “Not everyone can dance well.”
“I’m sure you’re great.” The guy holds out his hand.
Ugh. He’s kind of endearing, which is a little annoying because Jongdae can’t find it in himself to say no. “Umm, okay,” he says. “But I warned you.”
The bartender grabs his arm before he leaves. “Hey, be nice to Luhan, okay? He’s not like Yacht-Douche, he’s nice.”
Pretty, Jongdae thinks, but he just nods and follows Luhan out to the dance floor and tries not to think about how nice Cute Bartender’s hand had felt on his arm.
ϟ
Luhan is cute and a good dancer, something Jongdae is not. He’s also nice because he doesn’t ditch Jongdae after the first song. They get three songs in before Jongdae starts blending into the crowd of people on the dance floor. He gets out when he decides it’s too warm and he’s pretty sure he felt someone grab his ass, which- no thanks.
“Wow.” The bartender is laughing when Jongdae stumbles back to his seat. “You weren’t lying, you really do suck at dancing.”
“Wow, rude. I said I didn’t dance well, I didn't say I sucked.” Jongdae makes a face. “You just cut your tip in half.”
The bartender just laughs. “Here,” he says, setting a glass of water in front of him. “You look hot.” He flushes a little. “I mean, warm.”
Jongdae is too out of it to clue in so he just takes the glass gratefully.
“It’s Yixing by the way.”
Jongdae blinks and looks up. “Sorry?”
“My name.” The bartender smiles and it makes Jongdae feel kind of fuzzy and he’s not sure if it’s that smile or all the alcohol that is working its way through his system. “You’ve been trying to read my name tag all night.”
Jongdae looks at him mournfully. “You’re a jerk. You noticed me struggling and you’re just telling me now?”
Yixing shrugs. “I was waiting for you to ask.”
ϟ
Jongdae starts going to the bar a lot, usually with Sehun and Jongin in tow instead of Kris, who messages him after the first night to tell him they should try again but Jongdae should be his wingman next time. Jongdae just blocks his number.
He sort of has Yixing’s schedule figured out, which is a little sad and a lot creepy but Yixing doesn’t seem to mind. Jongdae really hopes he’s interested because if he isn’t, his liver is taking a serious hit for nothing.
“You know most people come here to either get drunk or to hook up or because they want some company,” Yixing says, during a particularly slow night. Sehun and Jongin are somewhere on the dance floor and so is Minseok, how has been in Luhan’s sights since he first walked in. “You don’t seem to fit any of them. Aside from the first night, all you do is nurse two drinks and you hardly ever dance.”
Maybe Jongdae isn’t as subtle as he thought he was. “Company?”
Yixing smirks. “You don’t seem to be lacking in the friends department.”
“New company then,” Jongdae says, smiling. Thank you, gross-tasting beer. Sweet blessed liquid courage.
ϟ
“Can’t you just bang the cute bartender already so we can go to some other club?” Sehun complains. “You don’t even need us. You say you want us for company but you just spend all night making eyes at him as soon as we get there.”
“You don’t seem to care,” Jongdae says. “You spend your whole night grinding up against strangers who are all probably hoping to eventually get into your pants.”
“No,” Jongin says, sliding a hand into the back pocket of Sehun’s jeans and drawing him closer to him. “They can touch but they can’t have.”
Jongdae sneers at them. “You guys are gross.”
Sehun is looking past him. “Cute bartender is here,” he says sighing. “I guess we’ll leave. Come on, Jongin, let’s go see if you can get me off in public without anyone noticing.”
“You say that like it’s a challenge,” Jongin says, as he lets Sehun lead them away.
“Hey!” Yixing looks excited to see him. “I have a proposition for you.”
Yes, Jongdae thinks. Yes. He wouldn’t even ask where. He’d get on the counter top of the bar if that’s where Yixing wanted him.
“So my boss said I can get more shifts if I start learning how to make more drinks,” Yixing says, “and I was wondering if you wanted to be my guinea pig. It’ll be more interesting than those two beers you usually get. And it’ll be free.”
Jongdae frowns. This is not what he’d been expecting. “Okay,” he says, because free alcohol is free alcohol.
ϟ
They only get through three drinks the first night because it’s busy. “And I don’t want to get you drunk,” Yixing says. Which is a pity but then Jongdae is pretty willing to do a lot of things sober so maybe it’s best that his inhibitions aren’t lowered.
Sehun has forgotten his complaints about going to the same club now that Yixing lets them be taste-testers every once in awhile.
“That’s so unfair,” Baekhyun whines when he finds out. “I’m banned from drinking even though I’m actually legal and this fetus gets free drinks?”
“I’m legal too,” Sehun says, from where he’s fixing his hair in the mirror. “You shouldn’t have used such tacky fake I.D.s before.”
“But I’m legal now,” Baekhyun says.
Chanyeol’s hands still from where he’s braiding Baekhyun’s hair. “But you’re banned from most places because you used a fake I.D. Impersonating someone else.”
“It’s not like you can even hold your alcohol, princess,” Jongin says. “Just stay in and get high with Chanyeol like you always do. I can’t wait until the day you guys get so high that one of you sucks off the other.”
Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “We are already past that.”
Jongdae blinks and bats Sehun’s hand away from his face. “You and Chanyeol? Since when?”
Baekhyun shrugs. “I don’t know.”
“So…are you guys dating?” Jongdae asks. He scowls when when Sehun tries getting at his face again. “Sehun, what are you doing?”
“Trying to cover up this pimple,” Sehun says. “If cute bartender loses interest, we stop getting free drinks and he is really good at what he does.”
“Yes,” Chanyeol says, before Baekhyun can say anything. “We are dating and deeply in love.”
Jongin studies him. “Are you high right now?”
ϟ
“Oh, I like this.” Jongdae is aware that he’s slurring and Yixing attempts to pull the glass away from him but he yanks the glass away. “Don’t. Mine.”
“It’s kind of a girly drink,” Yixing points out.
“It’s a delicious manly drink,” Jongdae says loudly, pouting. “Why are you giving me girly drinks? Even though this is a manly one. The drink of kings.”
“I doubt a Creamsicle is the drink of kings,” Yixing says laughing. “I’m just going through my list.”
Jongdae leans in, and he’s happy when Yixing doesn’t pull away, just deepens his smile. “Gimme the list. I’m going to choose a manly drink,” he says, pushing the Creamsicle at him. “Begone with this devilish temptation.”
Yixing looks like he couldn’t be any more amused. “I think I’m going to have to cut you off.”
“No, I must have my manly drink to get my pride back,” Jongdae says woefully.
Yixing laughs but he slides a book over. “One more and you’re done,” he says.
Jongdae nods as he opens the book and squints. The letters are all swimming and he can’t really figure out what a manly drink would be. It takes awhile and Yixing steps away to attend to other customers.
“Bartender!” Jongdae calls out loudly, waving the book in the air. “I would like a Horny Bull please.”
ϟ
Jongdae has the mother of all headaches when he wakes up. He remembers most of last night, except for how he got home because Sehun and Jongin had disappeared when he had gone looking for them. He only realizes he’s laying on top of something when it moves.
Or someone.
Jongdae lets a manly scream, that isn’t really manly. “Yixing?” He blinks down as Yixing blinks up at him sleepily. Meanwhile Jongdae is trying to figure out what the hell is going on. “What are you doing here? Why are you in my bed? Did we have sex? Oh my god, who topped? Because I haven’t had sex in awhile and- did we use a condom? Please tell me we-”
“Yeah, okay, wow, you are loud in the morning.” Yixing claps a hand over his mouth. “We didn’t sleep together. I found you asleep at the bus stop after my shift so I helped you home after you mumbled out an address. Then I had to wrestle you on to the bed and you pulled me down and rolled over me. You are kind of heavy. And still on top of me so could you…” He gestures and Jongdae gets the message and rolls off him.
“Sorry,” Jongdae mumbles when Yixing sits up and stretches. “Thanks for helping me home. And I'm sorry for holding you hostage.”
Yixing shrugs. “It’s cool.” He stretches one more time. “I’m going to go get breakfast because I’m starving. You just…stay here, I’ll get you coffee. And an aspirin.”
Jongdae stares at him. “Why?”
“Why?”
“Yeah, why? You can leave, you know.”
Yixing raises an eyebrow. “Are you kicking me out?”
“No, I just-”
“Great, then I’ll get breakfast and be back in a few minutes.” Yixing smiles a little. “Don’t worry, I’ll get out of your hair after I make sure you eat something. It will help the hangover process.”
ϟ
There’s a knock on his dorm door fifteen minutes after Yixing leaves and Jongdae complains to himself as he drags himself over to open it.
“Yo.” Baekhyun shoves past Jongdae holding something in his hands. “I made some brownies and since Chanyeol doesn’t like to share, I made you your own batch.”
Jongdae stares at him. “Are you high right now? It’s like 8 a.m.”
Baekhyun shrugs, grinning. “Never too early,” he says. “It’s like…it feels like happy.”
Jongdae shakes his head but he laughs. “Look, thanks and everything but I don’t need your prescription for happiness today.”
“No one needs it. It’s just nice. Plus it’s the weekend, who wouldn’t want to feel good?”
Jongdae shoves the pan of brownies back in Baekhyun’s arms. “Please take your contraband brownies and get out. Give these to Chanyeol too.”
Yixing chooses that moment to return. He's holding a bag of food that smells really good and coffee, which smells even better.
“Ahh,” Baekhyun says knowingly. “You’ve found a way to get your own happiness.” He nods as if in approval. “You’re getting the D, I get it.”
Yixing smiles as he navigates around Baekhyun to get into the apartment. Jongdae wants to die. “Get out,” he says.
“Here,” Baekhyun says, thrusts the brownies at Yixing. “It’ll make the sex better.” He turns back to Jongdae when he’s behind Yixing and makes an obscene gesture before he winks and walks away.
“Don’t eat those,” Jongdae says, taking the brownies from Yixing and making a mental note to give them to Kyungsoo because he could probably use a break from his new assignment and “feel some happiness”.
“They look good.”
“They’re not, trust me, he sucks at baking.” Jongdae puts them in the fridge and hopes Yixing forgets about it because he doesn’t want to explain to Yixing how he relieves his stress. Not that he’s having a proud moment right now. “So what did you get for breakfast?” He grabs one of the coffees and inhales deeply.
ϟ
Yixing is cute but he’s dumb. Not literally stupid, but he’s slow at picking up hints. Ever since his headache had gone down to a dull throb, Jongdae has been trying to not-so-subtly flirt with Yixing in the hopes that he can get him into his bed again soon, and maybe they can use it for things other than sleeping.
“So what happened yesterday again?” he asks.
Yixing blinks. “I told you. I brought you home and you rolled over me and I had to fall asleep while trying not to suffocate.”
Jongdae nudges one of the round mini-danishes towards him. “Show me.”
Yixing raises an eyebrow. “With pastries?”
Jongdae shrugs and pokes at the danish until it fits into the curve of the croissant. “So were we like that?” He is so ashamed that he is resorting to putting pastries in compromising positions to get his point across, but Yixing is frustratingly clueless.
Yixing’s lips quirk a bit. “No,” he says and he sounds like he’s trying not to laugh. “More like this.” He grabs the croissant and unceremoniously drops it on top of the danish.
Jongdae makes a face and yanks his danish free before he takes a vicious bite out of it. They eat in silence for a few minutes because Jongdae is sulking and Yixing looks like he’s concentrating on enjoying his croissant.
Maybe he has it all wrong and Yixing’s not interested in him. Maybe he’s just some weird bartender who gets overly invested in his customers.
He tries again anyway. He considers just trailing his fingers down Yixing’s arm. He assumes this will make Yixing look at him and he can just give him a look. But that’s kind of creepy and pathetic. “What do you study?” he finally asks.
“Study?”
“Yeah, yesterday you told me that you do the bartender thing to put yourself through school.”
“Oh.” Yixing’s eyes light up and Jongdae’s breath catches a little. “Astrophysics.”
Jongdae stares at him. “Like stars and planets and stuff?”
“Sure,” Yixing says. “And other nerdy stuff like quantum mechanics and particle physics.” He laughs and scratches his head awkwardly. “That’s kind of lame, right?”
“Doesn’t matter, as long as you enjoy it. And I think it’s cool.”
Yixing tilts his head and he studies Jongdae’s face. “Yeah?”
Finally, Jongdae thinks they’re getting somewhere. “Yeah. So you know about the constellations and dark matter and those kinds of things?”
Yixing looks excited as he moves in closer so their knees are touching. “Yeah. You know about dark matter?”
“Probably not as much as you,” Jongdae says, smiling. “Do you have a telescope?” He cringes when he hears it because it sounds like such a horrible innuendo, and he doesn't mean it to be one. He really does want to know if Yixing has a telescope.
Luckily like with all the other hints, Yixing remains oblivious.
“I do. Do you like stargazing? Because it’s fun.”
Do not, Jongdae tells himself, ask him if you can go over and play with his telescope. “I don’t know a lot about stars or constellations so it would be lost on me.”
Yixing shifts a bit. “I could show you sometime.”
Jongdae hadn’t actually meant anything when he said that because stars really were just bright dots in the sky to him, but he has his in. “Yeah, okay, that would be cool.” He hopes the glee isn’t showing on his face.
Yixing edges his chair closer until his arm brushes against Jongdae’s. “Finally,” he says. “I was beginning to think you weren’t interested.”
Jongdae rolls his eyes. “Whatever. You knew exactly what I was doing with that croissant and danish” he says, because it's true.
Yixing laughs. “Come on, that was so lame! That can’t be the story of how you asked me out- positioning pastries suggestively.” He pulls his phone out of his pocket and holds it out to him. “It’s okay though, I’ll still call you.”
ϟ
Jongdae gives up trying to wrestle Chanyeol’ head off his shoulder. He realizes, rather belatedly, that he should have given Chanyeol the brownies and kicked him out because he can’t actually get any work done with Chanyeol hanging over him.
“So you didn’t have any of these brownies? Isn’t Baekhyun amazing at this?”
“I did have a piece,” Jongdae says patiently. “Just enough to get a buzz, not to get bombed out of my mind. Do you even have any brain cells left?”
“Why do you have to be so hurtful?” Chanyeol complains. “That hurts me a lot. Like right here.” He thumps the part of his chest where his heart is, and then grabs Jongdae’s hand and places it there. “Right in the heart, man, like, I could totally die of a broken heart.”
Jongdae rolls his eyes and snatches his hand away. “If you insist on staying, can’t you just go watch T.V. or something?”
“Oh my god, so yesterday there was this Honey Boo Boo marathon on like Lifetime or TLC or something. It was so great. She’s so hilarious, man. And like, okay, I know the mom gets all this smack talk but she totally loves her kids.”
“Wow. Okay, you need to get out.” Jongdae shoves Chanyeol off him. “Don’t you have a midterm to study for?”
“Yeah. Psychology, but it’s like multiple choice. Do you have any chips? I’m starving.”
“You just polished off a pan of brownies by yourself,” Jongdae says, but he points him to one of the cabinets because if anything it will give him some brief momentary respite from Chanyeol.
“Yeah, but they don’t have any substance.” Chanyeol hops on to the table when he has the chips, even though there’s a chair right there. “So tell me about this bartender. Baekhyun says he was hot.”
Jongdae tries to make a face but he smiles a bit.
“Oh my god, you totally hit it, right?” Chanyeol squeezes the bag in his excitement and the bag pops open, a few chips flying out. “You’re like glowing and shit!”
Jongdae flings one of his pens at him. “We didn’t do anything. We just had breakfast.”
“Are you guys going to go out?”
“Hopefully,” Jongdae mutters.
Chanyeol lets out a squeak of excitement. He’s the most embarrassing person Jongdae knows. “So cute!” He leans over and Jongdae assumes he’s going to attempt to pat his face so he jerks away and Chanyeol lands face first on the floor.
ϟ
Jongdae doesn’t admit it to anyone (except Kyungsoo, because he’s the only normal friend he has) but he’s really excited about his date with Yixing. He hasn’t gotten anywhere on coming up with a new thesis proposal because he keeps thinking of other things- mostly things that involve Yixing.
“Do you need something to calm you down?” Baekhyun asks, his chin resting on the back of the couch as he watches Jongdae model different outfits. “I’m sure I could hook you up.”
“No,” Jongdae says. “I want to be in the right frame of mind.”
Baekhyun shrugs. “Why are we doing this? Just wear something clean and non-douchey and you’ll be fine.”
“What counts as non-douchey?” Jongdae panics as he looks down at his outfit. “Is this douchey?”
“It’s a white T-shirt and jeans, just relax. I just mean don’t like pop your collar or wear anything with rhinestones or gems.”
Jongdae stares at him. “You and Chanyeol watch the shittiest T.V. shows. I don’t even own anything with rhinestones.”
“Okay, so you’ll be fine.” When Jongdae looks at him in dismay, he smiles and it’s actually encouraging. “Look, he already likes you, he probably won’t care what you’re wearing.”
Jongdae thanks Baekhyun before he kicks him because there is no further use for him.
ϟ
Jongdae is afraid his dumb smile might actually split his face in half or something as he rushes to open the door. “Hi,” he says, beaming at Yixing.
Yixing laughs. “Hi,” he says, smiling. “You look nice.”
“You too.” Jongdae’s smile falters a little. “Are you okay? You look kind of tired.” He hurriedly adds, “But still nice.”
“I’m okay,” Yixing says. “I just got off a double shift, but I’ll be okay once we’re outside.”
Jongdae hesitates. “Do you want to take a raincheck?” he asks. “I don’t mind.”
“No, I’m fine, really,” Yixing insists.
Except he really doesn’t look fine. “Why don’t we stay in?” Jongdae says. “We can watch a movie and order take out.”
Yixing’s face falls. “I was going to show you the stars.”
Jongdae shrugs. “They’re not going anywhere, right? You can show me some other time.” He pulls Yixing inside. “Come on, you look like you’re a second from passing out.”
ϟ
They order a pizza but Yixing falls asleep fifteen minutes into the movie and normally, Jongdae would be appalled at anyone falling asleep during The Godfather, but he lets it go. He shifts a little on the couch so that Yixing’s head can rest on his shoulder comfortably.
When the pizza arrives, Jongdae pokes him awake to try to get him to eat but he gives up after Yixing refuses to go past five bites.
“Sorry,” Yixing mumbles against his shoulder. “Is this the worst date ever?”
“Not really.”
Yixing laughs tiredly. “Liar.”
Jongdae smiles at him. “Okay, activity-wise, yeah, kind of,” he admits. “But in terms of company, this is pretty good.”
Yixing does that thing where he tilts his head to look at him before he smiles. “I’m sorry I’m lame,” he says.
Jongdae waves his hand dismissively. “Stop apologizing. It’s really okay.”
Yixing reaches for his hand and squeezes it lightly. “Turn the movie off.”
Jongdae scoffs. “Excuse you. Michael is about to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey, I am not turning it off now.”
“I’m going to show you the stars.”
“Yixing, come on, just relax, okay? We can go see stars some other time.”
“No, I can show you from here.” Yixing gets off the couch and moves to sit on the floor, pulling out his phone. “Come sit next to me.”
Jongdae pauses the movie and joins Yixing on the floor. “How are we going to see the stars from here?”
“Technology,” Yixing says, swiping through his phone. “Turn the T.V. off, okay? I promise we’ll go back to watching after this.” When Jongdae obeys, the only light in the room comes from Yixing’s phone, which he points up towards the ceiling.
“What are you doing?”
“Here, lay back.” Yixing gets on his back, and Jongdae follows him down. “It’s this app that lets you see the stars from anywhere. It’s not the same but it’s still kind of cool.” He shifts so both of them can see the screen.
Jongdae sees tiny bright dots, as Yixing slowly moves the phone around like he’s looking for something. Suddenly lines start connecting a few of the dots and the shapes of a bear appears.
“Whoa,” Jongdae breathes out. “That is cool.”
Yixing smiles in the dark. “Right? That’s Ursa Major, the big bear. Ursa Minor, the little bear is her son. Do you know the story?”
Jongdae shakes his head.
“Okay. So Zeus is a dick, who cheats on his wife, Hera, all the time. One day he’s fooling around with this nymph, Callisto, when Hera comes looking for him to kick his ass. He panics and turns Callisto into a bear, and his ass is dragged back to Mount Olympus before he can change her back. So Callisto is this huge brown bear when her son, Arcas, goes out hunting. He doesn’t know it’s his mom until he shoots her and she turns back into a human with an arrow through her heart.”
Yixing is still shifting the phone until another outline slowly appears next to the big bear. “So Arcas freaks out and Zeus is all stressed that Hera’s going to hear his whining, so he comes down to try to get him to chill out. He turns Callisto back into a bear and places her in the Northern Sky as a constellation. Then he changes Arcas into a little bear and when Arcas is being put into the sky, he turns to look to his mother.” He reaches his free hand to point to the screen. “That’s why the Little Dipper is curved toward the Big Dipper, because it’s Arcas looking out for his mom.”
He turns to Jongdae and smiles. “Kind of cool, right?”
“Really cool.”
Yixing’s smile brightens. “When’s your birthday?”
“September 21st.”
“Okay. Virgo. It’s going to be a little hard to find.”
They come across Leo and Pisces and Aries, but it’s not until they shift from their position and Yixing is holding the phone over both their heads at an awkward angle that they find Virgo.
“Virgo.” Yixing looks pleased.
Jongdae makes a face. “It’s a woman.”
Yixing laughs. “The Creamsicle thing is starting to make a lot of sense now.” He laughs harder when Jongdae looks displeased at this. “Know the story?”
“No. Tell me.”
“You know about Prometheus?”
Jongdae cocks his head because this sounds familiar. He had taken the mythology course in his first year because it sounded interesting. “The dude who gave humans fire, right?”
“Dude?” Yixing sounds appalled. “He was a titan.”
Jongdae shrugs sheepishly. “Sorry. Titan.”
“You’re right about the fire though. So anyway Zeus got really pissed off that this secret of the gods was given to humans so he punished Prometheus and sent down Pandora.”
“Zeus is a dick.”
“He was a total dick,” Yixing agrees. “You know the Pandora story, right?”
“Girl who opened the box and let out the plague, death, anger, resentment. All that good stuff.”
“Right. So when all those things escaped the box, the gods and goddesses deserted earth and went to live in heaven. One of the last ones to leave was Astraea, goddess of purity and innocence. After leaving the earth, she was placed among the stars because she also represents hope. Which was also in Pandora’s box. A reminder that the golden age will come again on earth.”
“Lame.”
Yixing laughs at him. “What? It’s a nice story.”
“So what? I’m supposed to represent purity and innocence?” Jongdae scoffs.
“She’s also known as the goddess of justice sometimes,” Yixing says. “She sits there next to Libra, the scales which represent justice and fairness. That’s kind of neat.”
“Kind of.” Jongdae shifts closer. “That was really cool.”
Yixing’s eyes look like they get softer. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Jongdae leans in and brushes his lips lightly against Yixing’s.
Yixing raises an eyebrow. “Really? I showed you the stars from your dorm room and that’s all I get?”
Jongdae laughs. “Yeah, okay, that was pretty lame.” He smiles a little as he moves closer. He frowns when Yixing lets out a small giggle. “You're ruining the moment!”
“I can’t help it! You’re taking too long to-”
Jongdae cuts him off by pressing their lips together, which shuts him up. He has just managed to work Yixing’s mouth open when something hard falls on their faces and they both pull away, cringing.
“Oops.” Yixing sheepishly holds up his phone. “I didn’t realize I still had it above our heads.”
Jongdae laughs. “You are the lamest boy I have ever liked.”
Yixing shrugs and tosses his phone to the side. He grins as he pulls Jongdae on top of him. “I thought you wanted to watch your precious movie,” he says when Jongdae is just a breath away.
“Wow. Just seriously, shut up, okay? I really need your mouth for other things.”
----
[x] so not the chen/lay fic i was working on. ;~;
chen/lay
pg
a/n: warnings for...idk, dudebro!baekyeol???
Jongdae is actually really proud of his thesis proposal, so when his professor chews him out and gives him a response that basically says, “No, try again,” he’s pissed off because he had spent a lot of time on that proposal and now he’s left with nothing.
He’s annoyed when Krystal appears, a huge smile on her face because it means her thesis is a go and Jongdae knows for a fact that she only thought of her proposal the night before.
“That’s so unfair,” he complains. “When I left this morning, you had only written one line!”
Krystal shrugs. “He barely looked at it,” she admits. “He just sort of kept staring at my face?”
Jongdae is outraged at this injustice, and he just wants to go get high or drunk- or both- and forget this whole stupid day before he has to start all over again on Monday.
ϟ
Except his friends are useless.
He finds Kyungsoo in a computer lab, his eyes bloodshot. “Do you have coffee?” he demands when he sees Jongdae.
Jongdae blinks. “What? No.” He’s about to ask if Kyungsoo has any uppers but then Kyungsoo’s eyes actually fill with tears. “Are you crying? Oh my god, why are you crying? What’s happening?”
“This stupid code won’t work!” Kyungsoo wails, jabbing hard at random keys on the keyboard. “This project is due in a week and I just need to fix this one code but it won’t run the program! And I asked you to bring me coffee and you were just here three minutes ago, how could you forget?”
Jongdae stares at him. “I haven’t seen you all week.”
Kyungsoo blinks. “Then who owes me coffee?”
Minseok appears at the door of the computer lab with a cup of coffee in his hand and Kyungsoo lets out a sound that sounds a little like a sob.
“I love you so much,” Kyungsoo says a little weepily, wrapping his fingers around the cup Minseok hands over.
Jongdae decides Kyungsoo can’t possibly have any uppers because if he did, he would have used them by now, and Minseok has sworn off anything that can “cause any harm to my bodily temple”, so he definitely couldn’t help.
ϟ
Sehun and Jongin are usually good for a fix, except when he calls them, they’re halfway across the country after getting high the night before and randomly buying a ticket for the first train leaving. They still sound high from the amount of giggling he hears.
Jongdae honestly has no idea how Jongin manages to always make the dean’s list when he only attends half his classes and he’s usually not mentally present when he's actually in class. He doesn’t even know what the hell Sehun does in college, he has yet to actually see him with any books.
When Jongin calls him a wuss after Jongdae refuses to join them because he cares about his classes, Jongdae hangs up on them.
ϟ
Chanyeol is baked when he arrives at his dorm, which Jongdae takes as a good sign because this means he can probably help.
“Dude, so I got these brownies from Baekhyun, right, so like, wow, they are amazing. He is the best baking chef person ever. You have to try these brownies, they are so good.”
Jongdae is more than willing to try these brownies because he knows there’s something in them because really, Baekhyun is an awful cook. “Where are they?”
Chanyeol looks at him with glazed eyes. “Where’s what? Hey! When did you get here?”
Jongdae really wants to be as high as Chanyeol right now because he looks like he’s having a great time, even if he’s by himself. “The brownies Baekhyun made you.”
“Hmm? Oh, I finished those.” Chanyeol smiles at him. “Dude, do you have like a milkshake or what? I really want a milkshake.”
Jongdae sighs, and leaves Chanyeol with a glass of water because he’s afraid he might swallow his tongue or something.
ϟ
“I have a paper due at midnight,” Junmyeon says when Jongdae tries to get him to go drinking with him. “I have so much to do, I’m sorry, I can’t.”
Tao flat out refuses because he doesn’t understand why anyone would want to go out to drink when they can stay in and drink. Which would be fine except that Tao is a depressing drunk and it’s easier to ditch him when they’re out in public so he can go ruin someone else’s night.
Baekhyun is actually banned from all the nearby clubs because they had all caught him with his fake I.D. before he actually turned 21 so he and Chanyeol (and Jongin and Sehun when they’re actually around) have their own makeshift bar in their dorm. But Baekhyun’s alcohol tolerance is low (for some reason he is much better at controlling his high) so he’s likely to pass out halfway through his second drink, and that’s not helpful to Jongdae either.
He really needs to make better friends.
ϟ
His inability to pick good friends is how he finds himself agreeing to accompany Kris to a club because he just really doesn’t want to go drinking alone, even if it means going out with the human equivalent of a goldfish.
“So like, don’t cockblock me when I’m talking to a girl,” Kris says as they enter the club.
Jongdae doesn’t bother to remind him that he’s not into girls. He doesn’t know what girl is going to talk to Kris with all that aftershave he has bathed in. Jongdae doesn’t even know why he knows Kris. Apparently he sucks at picking out casual acquaintances too.
ϟ
By his fourth drink, Jongdae is actually starting to enjoy himself. He’s not so annoyed about his thesis anymore and it’s fun watching Kris strike out and get increasingly more upset by the minute.
Some guy tries to hit on Jongdae but he reeked of ridiculously expensive hair gel and he kept trying to flash his gold watch at Jongdae as if that will help his cause. It hurts Jongdae to think that that watch could probably cover a good chunk of his tuition.
“Can you just not be here?” Jongdae blurts out when the guy is telling him some story of some yacht he owns. He’s usually a lot more subtle, but he’s starting in on his fifth drink and Mr. Asshat- or whatever his name was- seemed like a dick, Jongdae’s patience was non-existent at this point. “I really don’t care about your yacht and your flashy watch is giving me a headache.”
The guy stares at him before he calls him an asshole and leaves.
“Sure,” Jongdae mumbles into his drink. “He’s the one overcompensating with a fucking yacht and I’m an asshole.”
“He hits on everyone.”
Jongdae looks up and finds the bartender smiling at him. “What?”
The bartender gestures to where Yacht-Douche had been standing. “He’s a dick. He has a girlfriend, you know. And a boyfriend.” He pauses. “Or a boy he does stuff with, I don’t really know what their relationship is.”
Jongdae wrinkles his nose. “Wow, okay, now I have images of Yacht-Douche doing things. Thanks.”
The bartender laughs. “Sorry. The next drink’s on me, okay? As an apology.”
Jongdae smiles. “Okay. Tell me more inappropriate things so you can keep apologizing with free alcohol.”
ϟ
He’s actually enjoying talking to the bartender, who is really funny and Jongdae can detect a sincere kindness in him which surprises him. The bartender is also still nameless because he keeps trying to sneak a look at his name tag but it’s too small and Jongdae doesn’t know how to read it without shoving his face in the guy’s chest. And he’s not that drunk.
Yet anyway.
He’s squinting at it as subtly as possible- which is not subtle at all, because the bartender is right there- when some guy asks him to dance.
“What?” He has to hold on tight to his stool to stop from falling over. He blinks and- oh, okay, this guy is kind of cute, and he’s not giving off I’m-a-huge-tool vibes. But still. “Oh, I don’t dance. Sorry.”
“Everyone can dance,” the guy says, smiling.
He has a nice smile, Jongdae thinks. And hair. He kind of wants to pet it but he assumes that’s the alcohol talking. “Not everyone can dance well.”
“I’m sure you’re great.” The guy holds out his hand.
Ugh. He’s kind of endearing, which is a little annoying because Jongdae can’t find it in himself to say no. “Umm, okay,” he says. “But I warned you.”
The bartender grabs his arm before he leaves. “Hey, be nice to Luhan, okay? He’s not like Yacht-Douche, he’s nice.”
Pretty, Jongdae thinks, but he just nods and follows Luhan out to the dance floor and tries not to think about how nice Cute Bartender’s hand had felt on his arm.
ϟ
Luhan is cute and a good dancer, something Jongdae is not. He’s also nice because he doesn’t ditch Jongdae after the first song. They get three songs in before Jongdae starts blending into the crowd of people on the dance floor. He gets out when he decides it’s too warm and he’s pretty sure he felt someone grab his ass, which- no thanks.
“Wow.” The bartender is laughing when Jongdae stumbles back to his seat. “You weren’t lying, you really do suck at dancing.”
“Wow, rude. I said I didn’t dance well, I didn't say I sucked.” Jongdae makes a face. “You just cut your tip in half.”
The bartender just laughs. “Here,” he says, setting a glass of water in front of him. “You look hot.” He flushes a little. “I mean, warm.”
Jongdae is too out of it to clue in so he just takes the glass gratefully.
“It’s Yixing by the way.”
Jongdae blinks and looks up. “Sorry?”
“My name.” The bartender smiles and it makes Jongdae feel kind of fuzzy and he’s not sure if it’s that smile or all the alcohol that is working its way through his system. “You’ve been trying to read my name tag all night.”
Jongdae looks at him mournfully. “You’re a jerk. You noticed me struggling and you’re just telling me now?”
Yixing shrugs. “I was waiting for you to ask.”
ϟ
Jongdae starts going to the bar a lot, usually with Sehun and Jongin in tow instead of Kris, who messages him after the first night to tell him they should try again but Jongdae should be his wingman next time. Jongdae just blocks his number.
He sort of has Yixing’s schedule figured out, which is a little sad and a lot creepy but Yixing doesn’t seem to mind. Jongdae really hopes he’s interested because if he isn’t, his liver is taking a serious hit for nothing.
“You know most people come here to either get drunk or to hook up or because they want some company,” Yixing says, during a particularly slow night. Sehun and Jongin are somewhere on the dance floor and so is Minseok, how has been in Luhan’s sights since he first walked in. “You don’t seem to fit any of them. Aside from the first night, all you do is nurse two drinks and you hardly ever dance.”
Maybe Jongdae isn’t as subtle as he thought he was. “Company?”
Yixing smirks. “You don’t seem to be lacking in the friends department.”
“New company then,” Jongdae says, smiling. Thank you, gross-tasting beer. Sweet blessed liquid courage.
ϟ
“Can’t you just bang the cute bartender already so we can go to some other club?” Sehun complains. “You don’t even need us. You say you want us for company but you just spend all night making eyes at him as soon as we get there.”
“You don’t seem to care,” Jongdae says. “You spend your whole night grinding up against strangers who are all probably hoping to eventually get into your pants.”
“No,” Jongin says, sliding a hand into the back pocket of Sehun’s jeans and drawing him closer to him. “They can touch but they can’t have.”
Jongdae sneers at them. “You guys are gross.”
Sehun is looking past him. “Cute bartender is here,” he says sighing. “I guess we’ll leave. Come on, Jongin, let’s go see if you can get me off in public without anyone noticing.”
“You say that like it’s a challenge,” Jongin says, as he lets Sehun lead them away.
“Hey!” Yixing looks excited to see him. “I have a proposition for you.”
Yes, Jongdae thinks. Yes. He wouldn’t even ask where. He’d get on the counter top of the bar if that’s where Yixing wanted him.
“So my boss said I can get more shifts if I start learning how to make more drinks,” Yixing says, “and I was wondering if you wanted to be my guinea pig. It’ll be more interesting than those two beers you usually get. And it’ll be free.”
Jongdae frowns. This is not what he’d been expecting. “Okay,” he says, because free alcohol is free alcohol.
ϟ
They only get through three drinks the first night because it’s busy. “And I don’t want to get you drunk,” Yixing says. Which is a pity but then Jongdae is pretty willing to do a lot of things sober so maybe it’s best that his inhibitions aren’t lowered.
Sehun has forgotten his complaints about going to the same club now that Yixing lets them be taste-testers every once in awhile.
“That’s so unfair,” Baekhyun whines when he finds out. “I’m banned from drinking even though I’m actually legal and this fetus gets free drinks?”
“I’m legal too,” Sehun says, from where he’s fixing his hair in the mirror. “You shouldn’t have used such tacky fake I.D.s before.”
“But I’m legal now,” Baekhyun says.
Chanyeol’s hands still from where he’s braiding Baekhyun’s hair. “But you’re banned from most places because you used a fake I.D. Impersonating someone else.”
“It’s not like you can even hold your alcohol, princess,” Jongin says. “Just stay in and get high with Chanyeol like you always do. I can’t wait until the day you guys get so high that one of you sucks off the other.”
Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “We are already past that.”
Jongdae blinks and bats Sehun’s hand away from his face. “You and Chanyeol? Since when?”
Baekhyun shrugs. “I don’t know.”
“So…are you guys dating?” Jongdae asks. He scowls when when Sehun tries getting at his face again. “Sehun, what are you doing?”
“Trying to cover up this pimple,” Sehun says. “If cute bartender loses interest, we stop getting free drinks and he is really good at what he does.”
“Yes,” Chanyeol says, before Baekhyun can say anything. “We are dating and deeply in love.”
Jongin studies him. “Are you high right now?”
ϟ
“Oh, I like this.” Jongdae is aware that he’s slurring and Yixing attempts to pull the glass away from him but he yanks the glass away. “Don’t. Mine.”
“It’s kind of a girly drink,” Yixing points out.
“It’s a delicious manly drink,” Jongdae says loudly, pouting. “Why are you giving me girly drinks? Even though this is a manly one. The drink of kings.”
“I doubt a Creamsicle is the drink of kings,” Yixing says laughing. “I’m just going through my list.”
Jongdae leans in, and he’s happy when Yixing doesn’t pull away, just deepens his smile. “Gimme the list. I’m going to choose a manly drink,” he says, pushing the Creamsicle at him. “Begone with this devilish temptation.”
Yixing looks like he couldn’t be any more amused. “I think I’m going to have to cut you off.”
“No, I must have my manly drink to get my pride back,” Jongdae says woefully.
Yixing laughs but he slides a book over. “One more and you’re done,” he says.
Jongdae nods as he opens the book and squints. The letters are all swimming and he can’t really figure out what a manly drink would be. It takes awhile and Yixing steps away to attend to other customers.
“Bartender!” Jongdae calls out loudly, waving the book in the air. “I would like a Horny Bull please.”
ϟ
Jongdae has the mother of all headaches when he wakes up. He remembers most of last night, except for how he got home because Sehun and Jongin had disappeared when he had gone looking for them. He only realizes he’s laying on top of something when it moves.
Or someone.
Jongdae lets a manly scream, that isn’t really manly. “Yixing?” He blinks down as Yixing blinks up at him sleepily. Meanwhile Jongdae is trying to figure out what the hell is going on. “What are you doing here? Why are you in my bed? Did we have sex? Oh my god, who topped? Because I haven’t had sex in awhile and- did we use a condom? Please tell me we-”
“Yeah, okay, wow, you are loud in the morning.” Yixing claps a hand over his mouth. “We didn’t sleep together. I found you asleep at the bus stop after my shift so I helped you home after you mumbled out an address. Then I had to wrestle you on to the bed and you pulled me down and rolled over me. You are kind of heavy. And still on top of me so could you…” He gestures and Jongdae gets the message and rolls off him.
“Sorry,” Jongdae mumbles when Yixing sits up and stretches. “Thanks for helping me home. And I'm sorry for holding you hostage.”
Yixing shrugs. “It’s cool.” He stretches one more time. “I’m going to go get breakfast because I’m starving. You just…stay here, I’ll get you coffee. And an aspirin.”
Jongdae stares at him. “Why?”
“Why?”
“Yeah, why? You can leave, you know.”
Yixing raises an eyebrow. “Are you kicking me out?”
“No, I just-”
“Great, then I’ll get breakfast and be back in a few minutes.” Yixing smiles a little. “Don’t worry, I’ll get out of your hair after I make sure you eat something. It will help the hangover process.”
ϟ
There’s a knock on his dorm door fifteen minutes after Yixing leaves and Jongdae complains to himself as he drags himself over to open it.
“Yo.” Baekhyun shoves past Jongdae holding something in his hands. “I made some brownies and since Chanyeol doesn’t like to share, I made you your own batch.”
Jongdae stares at him. “Are you high right now? It’s like 8 a.m.”
Baekhyun shrugs, grinning. “Never too early,” he says. “It’s like…it feels like happy.”
Jongdae shakes his head but he laughs. “Look, thanks and everything but I don’t need your prescription for happiness today.”
“No one needs it. It’s just nice. Plus it’s the weekend, who wouldn’t want to feel good?”
Jongdae shoves the pan of brownies back in Baekhyun’s arms. “Please take your contraband brownies and get out. Give these to Chanyeol too.”
Yixing chooses that moment to return. He's holding a bag of food that smells really good and coffee, which smells even better.
“Ahh,” Baekhyun says knowingly. “You’ve found a way to get your own happiness.” He nods as if in approval. “You’re getting the D, I get it.”
Yixing smiles as he navigates around Baekhyun to get into the apartment. Jongdae wants to die. “Get out,” he says.
“Here,” Baekhyun says, thrusts the brownies at Yixing. “It’ll make the sex better.” He turns back to Jongdae when he’s behind Yixing and makes an obscene gesture before he winks and walks away.
“Don’t eat those,” Jongdae says, taking the brownies from Yixing and making a mental note to give them to Kyungsoo because he could probably use a break from his new assignment and “feel some happiness”.
“They look good.”
“They’re not, trust me, he sucks at baking.” Jongdae puts them in the fridge and hopes Yixing forgets about it because he doesn’t want to explain to Yixing how he relieves his stress. Not that he’s having a proud moment right now. “So what did you get for breakfast?” He grabs one of the coffees and inhales deeply.
ϟ
Yixing is cute but he’s dumb. Not literally stupid, but he’s slow at picking up hints. Ever since his headache had gone down to a dull throb, Jongdae has been trying to not-so-subtly flirt with Yixing in the hopes that he can get him into his bed again soon, and maybe they can use it for things other than sleeping.
“So what happened yesterday again?” he asks.
Yixing blinks. “I told you. I brought you home and you rolled over me and I had to fall asleep while trying not to suffocate.”
Jongdae nudges one of the round mini-danishes towards him. “Show me.”
Yixing raises an eyebrow. “With pastries?”
Jongdae shrugs and pokes at the danish until it fits into the curve of the croissant. “So were we like that?” He is so ashamed that he is resorting to putting pastries in compromising positions to get his point across, but Yixing is frustratingly clueless.
Yixing’s lips quirk a bit. “No,” he says and he sounds like he’s trying not to laugh. “More like this.” He grabs the croissant and unceremoniously drops it on top of the danish.
Jongdae makes a face and yanks his danish free before he takes a vicious bite out of it. They eat in silence for a few minutes because Jongdae is sulking and Yixing looks like he’s concentrating on enjoying his croissant.
Maybe he has it all wrong and Yixing’s not interested in him. Maybe he’s just some weird bartender who gets overly invested in his customers.
He tries again anyway. He considers just trailing his fingers down Yixing’s arm. He assumes this will make Yixing look at him and he can just give him a look. But that’s kind of creepy and pathetic. “What do you study?” he finally asks.
“Study?”
“Yeah, yesterday you told me that you do the bartender thing to put yourself through school.”
“Oh.” Yixing’s eyes light up and Jongdae’s breath catches a little. “Astrophysics.”
Jongdae stares at him. “Like stars and planets and stuff?”
“Sure,” Yixing says. “And other nerdy stuff like quantum mechanics and particle physics.” He laughs and scratches his head awkwardly. “That’s kind of lame, right?”
“Doesn’t matter, as long as you enjoy it. And I think it’s cool.”
Yixing tilts his head and he studies Jongdae’s face. “Yeah?”
Finally, Jongdae thinks they’re getting somewhere. “Yeah. So you know about the constellations and dark matter and those kinds of things?”
Yixing looks excited as he moves in closer so their knees are touching. “Yeah. You know about dark matter?”
“Probably not as much as you,” Jongdae says, smiling. “Do you have a telescope?” He cringes when he hears it because it sounds like such a horrible innuendo, and he doesn't mean it to be one. He really does want to know if Yixing has a telescope.
Luckily like with all the other hints, Yixing remains oblivious.
“I do. Do you like stargazing? Because it’s fun.”
Do not, Jongdae tells himself, ask him if you can go over and play with his telescope. “I don’t know a lot about stars or constellations so it would be lost on me.”
Yixing shifts a bit. “I could show you sometime.”
Jongdae hadn’t actually meant anything when he said that because stars really were just bright dots in the sky to him, but he has his in. “Yeah, okay, that would be cool.” He hopes the glee isn’t showing on his face.
Yixing edges his chair closer until his arm brushes against Jongdae’s. “Finally,” he says. “I was beginning to think you weren’t interested.”
Jongdae rolls his eyes. “Whatever. You knew exactly what I was doing with that croissant and danish” he says, because it's true.
Yixing laughs. “Come on, that was so lame! That can’t be the story of how you asked me out- positioning pastries suggestively.” He pulls his phone out of his pocket and holds it out to him. “It’s okay though, I’ll still call you.”
ϟ
Jongdae gives up trying to wrestle Chanyeol’ head off his shoulder. He realizes, rather belatedly, that he should have given Chanyeol the brownies and kicked him out because he can’t actually get any work done with Chanyeol hanging over him.
“So you didn’t have any of these brownies? Isn’t Baekhyun amazing at this?”
“I did have a piece,” Jongdae says patiently. “Just enough to get a buzz, not to get bombed out of my mind. Do you even have any brain cells left?”
“Why do you have to be so hurtful?” Chanyeol complains. “That hurts me a lot. Like right here.” He thumps the part of his chest where his heart is, and then grabs Jongdae’s hand and places it there. “Right in the heart, man, like, I could totally die of a broken heart.”
Jongdae rolls his eyes and snatches his hand away. “If you insist on staying, can’t you just go watch T.V. or something?”
“Oh my god, so yesterday there was this Honey Boo Boo marathon on like Lifetime or TLC or something. It was so great. She’s so hilarious, man. And like, okay, I know the mom gets all this smack talk but she totally loves her kids.”
“Wow. Okay, you need to get out.” Jongdae shoves Chanyeol off him. “Don’t you have a midterm to study for?”
“Yeah. Psychology, but it’s like multiple choice. Do you have any chips? I’m starving.”
“You just polished off a pan of brownies by yourself,” Jongdae says, but he points him to one of the cabinets because if anything it will give him some brief momentary respite from Chanyeol.
“Yeah, but they don’t have any substance.” Chanyeol hops on to the table when he has the chips, even though there’s a chair right there. “So tell me about this bartender. Baekhyun says he was hot.”
Jongdae tries to make a face but he smiles a bit.
“Oh my god, you totally hit it, right?” Chanyeol squeezes the bag in his excitement and the bag pops open, a few chips flying out. “You’re like glowing and shit!”
Jongdae flings one of his pens at him. “We didn’t do anything. We just had breakfast.”
“Are you guys going to go out?”
“Hopefully,” Jongdae mutters.
Chanyeol lets out a squeak of excitement. He’s the most embarrassing person Jongdae knows. “So cute!” He leans over and Jongdae assumes he’s going to attempt to pat his face so he jerks away and Chanyeol lands face first on the floor.
ϟ
Jongdae doesn’t admit it to anyone (except Kyungsoo, because he’s the only normal friend he has) but he’s really excited about his date with Yixing. He hasn’t gotten anywhere on coming up with a new thesis proposal because he keeps thinking of other things- mostly things that involve Yixing.
“Do you need something to calm you down?” Baekhyun asks, his chin resting on the back of the couch as he watches Jongdae model different outfits. “I’m sure I could hook you up.”
“No,” Jongdae says. “I want to be in the right frame of mind.”
Baekhyun shrugs. “Why are we doing this? Just wear something clean and non-douchey and you’ll be fine.”
“What counts as non-douchey?” Jongdae panics as he looks down at his outfit. “Is this douchey?”
“It’s a white T-shirt and jeans, just relax. I just mean don’t like pop your collar or wear anything with rhinestones or gems.”
Jongdae stares at him. “You and Chanyeol watch the shittiest T.V. shows. I don’t even own anything with rhinestones.”
“Okay, so you’ll be fine.” When Jongdae looks at him in dismay, he smiles and it’s actually encouraging. “Look, he already likes you, he probably won’t care what you’re wearing.”
Jongdae thanks Baekhyun before he kicks him because there is no further use for him.
ϟ
Jongdae is afraid his dumb smile might actually split his face in half or something as he rushes to open the door. “Hi,” he says, beaming at Yixing.
Yixing laughs. “Hi,” he says, smiling. “You look nice.”
“You too.” Jongdae’s smile falters a little. “Are you okay? You look kind of tired.” He hurriedly adds, “But still nice.”
“I’m okay,” Yixing says. “I just got off a double shift, but I’ll be okay once we’re outside.”
Jongdae hesitates. “Do you want to take a raincheck?” he asks. “I don’t mind.”
“No, I’m fine, really,” Yixing insists.
Except he really doesn’t look fine. “Why don’t we stay in?” Jongdae says. “We can watch a movie and order take out.”
Yixing’s face falls. “I was going to show you the stars.”
Jongdae shrugs. “They’re not going anywhere, right? You can show me some other time.” He pulls Yixing inside. “Come on, you look like you’re a second from passing out.”
ϟ
They order a pizza but Yixing falls asleep fifteen minutes into the movie and normally, Jongdae would be appalled at anyone falling asleep during The Godfather, but he lets it go. He shifts a little on the couch so that Yixing’s head can rest on his shoulder comfortably.
When the pizza arrives, Jongdae pokes him awake to try to get him to eat but he gives up after Yixing refuses to go past five bites.
“Sorry,” Yixing mumbles against his shoulder. “Is this the worst date ever?”
“Not really.”
Yixing laughs tiredly. “Liar.”
Jongdae smiles at him. “Okay, activity-wise, yeah, kind of,” he admits. “But in terms of company, this is pretty good.”
Yixing does that thing where he tilts his head to look at him before he smiles. “I’m sorry I’m lame,” he says.
Jongdae waves his hand dismissively. “Stop apologizing. It’s really okay.”
Yixing reaches for his hand and squeezes it lightly. “Turn the movie off.”
Jongdae scoffs. “Excuse you. Michael is about to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey, I am not turning it off now.”
“I’m going to show you the stars.”
“Yixing, come on, just relax, okay? We can go see stars some other time.”
“No, I can show you from here.” Yixing gets off the couch and moves to sit on the floor, pulling out his phone. “Come sit next to me.”
Jongdae pauses the movie and joins Yixing on the floor. “How are we going to see the stars from here?”
“Technology,” Yixing says, swiping through his phone. “Turn the T.V. off, okay? I promise we’ll go back to watching after this.” When Jongdae obeys, the only light in the room comes from Yixing’s phone, which he points up towards the ceiling.
“What are you doing?”
“Here, lay back.” Yixing gets on his back, and Jongdae follows him down. “It’s this app that lets you see the stars from anywhere. It’s not the same but it’s still kind of cool.” He shifts so both of them can see the screen.
Jongdae sees tiny bright dots, as Yixing slowly moves the phone around like he’s looking for something. Suddenly lines start connecting a few of the dots and the shapes of a bear appears.
“Whoa,” Jongdae breathes out. “That is cool.”
Yixing smiles in the dark. “Right? That’s Ursa Major, the big bear. Ursa Minor, the little bear is her son. Do you know the story?”
Jongdae shakes his head.
“Okay. So Zeus is a dick, who cheats on his wife, Hera, all the time. One day he’s fooling around with this nymph, Callisto, when Hera comes looking for him to kick his ass. He panics and turns Callisto into a bear, and his ass is dragged back to Mount Olympus before he can change her back. So Callisto is this huge brown bear when her son, Arcas, goes out hunting. He doesn’t know it’s his mom until he shoots her and she turns back into a human with an arrow through her heart.”
Yixing is still shifting the phone until another outline slowly appears next to the big bear. “So Arcas freaks out and Zeus is all stressed that Hera’s going to hear his whining, so he comes down to try to get him to chill out. He turns Callisto back into a bear and places her in the Northern Sky as a constellation. Then he changes Arcas into a little bear and when Arcas is being put into the sky, he turns to look to his mother.” He reaches his free hand to point to the screen. “That’s why the Little Dipper is curved toward the Big Dipper, because it’s Arcas looking out for his mom.”
He turns to Jongdae and smiles. “Kind of cool, right?”
“Really cool.”
Yixing’s smile brightens. “When’s your birthday?”
“September 21st.”
“Okay. Virgo. It’s going to be a little hard to find.”
They come across Leo and Pisces and Aries, but it’s not until they shift from their position and Yixing is holding the phone over both their heads at an awkward angle that they find Virgo.
“Virgo.” Yixing looks pleased.
Jongdae makes a face. “It’s a woman.”
Yixing laughs. “The Creamsicle thing is starting to make a lot of sense now.” He laughs harder when Jongdae looks displeased at this. “Know the story?”
“No. Tell me.”
“You know about Prometheus?”
Jongdae cocks his head because this sounds familiar. He had taken the mythology course in his first year because it sounded interesting. “The dude who gave humans fire, right?”
“Dude?” Yixing sounds appalled. “He was a titan.”
Jongdae shrugs sheepishly. “Sorry. Titan.”
“You’re right about the fire though. So anyway Zeus got really pissed off that this secret of the gods was given to humans so he punished Prometheus and sent down Pandora.”
“Zeus is a dick.”
“He was a total dick,” Yixing agrees. “You know the Pandora story, right?”
“Girl who opened the box and let out the plague, death, anger, resentment. All that good stuff.”
“Right. So when all those things escaped the box, the gods and goddesses deserted earth and went to live in heaven. One of the last ones to leave was Astraea, goddess of purity and innocence. After leaving the earth, she was placed among the stars because she also represents hope. Which was also in Pandora’s box. A reminder that the golden age will come again on earth.”
“Lame.”
Yixing laughs at him. “What? It’s a nice story.”
“So what? I’m supposed to represent purity and innocence?” Jongdae scoffs.
“She’s also known as the goddess of justice sometimes,” Yixing says. “She sits there next to Libra, the scales which represent justice and fairness. That’s kind of neat.”
“Kind of.” Jongdae shifts closer. “That was really cool.”
Yixing’s eyes look like they get softer. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Jongdae leans in and brushes his lips lightly against Yixing’s.
Yixing raises an eyebrow. “Really? I showed you the stars from your dorm room and that’s all I get?”
Jongdae laughs. “Yeah, okay, that was pretty lame.” He smiles a little as he moves closer. He frowns when Yixing lets out a small giggle. “You're ruining the moment!”
“I can’t help it! You’re taking too long to-”
Jongdae cuts him off by pressing their lips together, which shuts him up. He has just managed to work Yixing’s mouth open when something hard falls on their faces and they both pull away, cringing.
“Oops.” Yixing sheepishly holds up his phone. “I didn’t realize I still had it above our heads.”
Jongdae laughs. “You are the lamest boy I have ever liked.”
Yixing shrugs and tosses his phone to the side. He grins as he pulls Jongdae on top of him. “I thought you wanted to watch your precious movie,” he says when Jongdae is just a breath away.
“Wow. Just seriously, shut up, okay? I really need your mouth for other things.”
----
[x] so not the chen/lay fic i was working on. ;~;