[Fic] Halloween Prompts - EXO version
Title: Halloween Prompts - EXO version
Rating: PG-13 for language
Prompt: Baekhyun/Chanyeol (also Suho/Kyungsoo) - Satin Halloween. (Set loosely in the world of Black Satin. You don't need to have read that to understand this.)
Prompt: exo fic where they decide it's a good idea to do hallowe'en fancy dress and it's all about them failing in costume.
Prompt: Chen/Zhou Mi - meeting at a local haunted house. one of them a worker and the other a lost visitor.
***
Prompt: Baekhyun/Chanyeol (also Suho/Kyungsoo) - Satin Halloween. (Set loosely in the world of Black Satin. You don't need to have read that to understand this.)
***
In a place of business where the majority of the employees - male - dressed up in women’s clothing daily, Halloween was an opportunity to put a spin on that. Most of them dressed in what the average person would consider traditionally male clothing by day, so every workday was a day of dressing up. Wigs, makeup, stuffed bras, dresses, skirts and sparkly shoes were all a part of their wardrobe when they went out to spend time with clients. Men, and the occasional women, who just wanted someone to talk to. It just happened that the employees were men in wigs.. They definitely weren’t the usual type of club.
But it made Halloween a challenge.
“I want to do something different this year,” Baekhyun said. “We all did historical things last year, right? I don’t want to be a milkmaid.”
“What about fairy tales?” Joonmyun suggested.
“Or like a maid costume?”
Kyungsoo’s head popped up at the end of the bar. “It’s Halloween costume night, not sexual fantasy costume night.”
“A maid outfit doesn’t have to be a sexual fantasy,” Baekhyun pouted.
“You’d look good in fishnets,” Chanyeol commented from the booth he was in doing paperwork, and Kyungsoo spread out his hands as though to say that proved his point.
“Fine, then I’ll be Red Riding Hood. I already have my big bad wolf.”
And then it was Chanyeol snorting in laughter.
“Princess,” Lu Han claimed.
“That’s different than every other night how?” Baekhyun asked, and got thwacked on the head with a clipboard.
“The tiara.”
“Someone we know will be Prince Charming?” Baekhyun asked, and Lu Han just smirked at him.
“I’m a vampire,” Kyungsoo said, making Joonmyun yelp in protest. Both of them manned the bar in shifts but neither of them dressed up like the rest of the employees. “I said it first?”
“What am I supposed to be then?”
“Both be vampires,” Chanyeol suggested, moseying up to lean on the bar. “You’re biting each other in dark corners all the time anyway.”
Kyungsoo turned a shade of red not usually seen on human skin, and Joonmyun just coughed delicately and went back to his inventory sheet.
***
Chanyeol was breathing into Baekhyun’s ear, not a subtle thing, as he got his lip gloss set and wig smoothed.
“You look good in that,” Chanyeol said, lifting the red hood until it sat on Baekhyun’s head.
It was good he did, because just imagining Chanyeol in it made him chuckle a bit. Since Chanyeol was helping with security that night, they’d gotten him a wolf snout and fuzzy ears, and he was going to be wearing a nice suit. That was just going to make it all the more distracting.
“Could we get a maid costume sometime?” Chanyeol wondered, tweaking the ties at Baekhyun’s shoulders.
“You’re going to dress up in it for me?”
“I will if you will.”
Baekhyun eyed him, imagining Chanyeol in a fluffy little skirt and maybe a ribbon around his throat.
“That’s a deal.”
***
***
Prompt: exo fic where they decide it's a good idea to do hallowe'en fancy dress and it's all about them failing in costume.
***
Everyone had their own ideas as to what constituted the perfect costume. Not only that, there was lobbying as to who got the rights to what, or who should be a sidekick.
Kris had been drafted, more than actually choosing, to dress up as a king. Joonmyun hadn’t even gotten to hear what Kris had actually wanted because the petition had gone around and Kris had complied.
It was a nice crown, though.
At least, once he’d gotten away from scolding Sehun for dripping fake blood on the carpet, he’d been able to appreciate it. He’d just barely gotten away from having Sehun fake-bite him.
“Hyung! But that’s why you’re a-!”
“Shh!” Joonmyun shushed him. “No one knows yet.”
Chanyeol was Zorro, and he wasn’t sure why he’d let that one slip past him because Chanyeol with four limbs to the wind was hectic, and Chanyeol with a fake sword encouraging Robin “Yixing” Hood with his Nerf “bow and arrow” to launch arrows at him to he could swipe them out of the air with his sword skills was dangerous. It was invitation for an eye to be taken out. Or for Kris’s crown to be knocked off.
“Put them both in jail,” Joonmyun said, patting Kris’s shoulder as he went by and pinning Chanyeol with a stare. The innocent puppy face only worked sometimes.
Then there was Sherlock Lu, arguing with Dr. Minseok over the deerstalker, and Jongdae in his Waldo glasses, and Kyungsoo in bunny ears ordering Jongin’s wolf mask off the counter where the food was.
Baekhyun and Tao were holed up in the bathroom and all that could be heard were the occasional snorts of laughter. He’d almost given up on them ever coming out so he could get ready too, when they emerged. Baekhyun’s face was a strange shade of green and gray and red, definitely a zombie. And then Tao padded out behind him with little fluffy black ears, the tip of his nose painted black, and whiskers on his cheeks. Joonmyun grinned at the coos and jeers, and Sehun challenging Baekhyun to a duel, as he went to finally get ready himself. They had too much food, too much to drink, but there were twelve of them after all.
Joonmyun knew exactly who he wanted to surprise, so he waited. Sneaking out on bare feet until he came up behind Chanyeol’s back. Chanyeol, who also served as a shield from the others. A quick poke to Chanyeol’s lower back had him turning.
“Boo!” he shouted, flapping at Chanyeol with the sheet and making him flinch in surprise. He knew he wouldn’t scare him, but surprising him he’d accomplished.
He could almost see Chanyeol’s brain working, figuring out who wasn’t there. And the way his face lit up when he recognized Joonmyun’s laugh, and the clapping and the way he dragged Joonmyun in.
“You’re a ghost!”
“I bit him to death!” Sehun announced, his vampire fangs nearly falling out of his mouth.
“I am-“
And then the world went white as someone stepped on the sheet and dragged away his eye holes.
“Guys! Guys! Can’t see!”
“Is that why ghosts go bump in the night?” Jongdae cracked.
“You don’t get a gift, then,” Joonmyun threatened, as he struggled to get the sheet up far enough so he could see.
Though everyone including him was laughing by the time he got his head out so he could see.
“What gifts?” asked a few little mercenaries.
He waited a couple of moments, and then pulled out the plastic pumpkin full of candy that he’d been carrying.
Of course, it wasn’t in his hand any longer than a moment after that.
“You’re the best, hyung!”
“So’s Kris cause it’s from him, too. Don’t get sick.”
Kris just snorted and high-fived him. They’d see how the sick part went.
But he ended up with the sheet around his shoulders, and plastered against Yixing’s side on one of the couches. Minseok had his head resting on his knee, mostly because Tao was over Minseok’s lap using paper pieces as a basketball game with Jongin.
Half of Baekhyun’s zombie makeup was smeared down Chanyeol’s arm, and Lu Han had ended up in Kris’s crown.
Not the first or last holiday where they’d all be together.
***
***
Prompt: Chen/Zhou Mi - meeting at a local haunted house. one of them a worker and the other a lost visitor.
***
Jongdae watched the man walking back and forth up the sidewalk, probably about three times. He was dressed nice, nicer than the average college student around, though that didn’t mean much. He couldn’t get a good enough look at his face to tell how young he was, and the long legs and broad shoulders weren’t telling him anything either. Could be anywhere from 18 to 40, and Jongdae wouldn’t know. Strong profile and swimmer’s build and nicely cut hair were pinging on all of Jongdae’s do-want centers. He mustered up the courage as the man walked by again to actually say something.
“Can I help you?”
“Oh. Me?” The man stopped walking, turning and coming back into the light. Not 40, then, not even close. Young enough to have Jongdae’s stomach squirming.
“Yeah, sorry,” Jongdae said. “I just saw you walking around...”
“I’m meeting a friend, actually. He’s supposed to be here soon. I think I’m early? He hasn’t called.”
“Oh, okay. I didn’t know if you were here for the haunted house or not.”
The man looked around him to where Jongdae was pointing at the board signs they hadn’t put out yet since there was still setup.
“Oh. How fun! My name’s Zhou Mi.”
“I’m Jongdae,” he said, his voice almost faltering on the last syllable as the man smiled.
“You’re a student here?”
“Yeah,” he said, tips of his ears burning hot. “Um. Business. Or music. I don’t know. My parents want different things.”
Zhou Mi laughed. “They always do. I’m still finding my right path, too.”
He was definitely older than him, Jongdae thought with a sigh. Not that much but he had leaps and bounds more sophistication than the guys he sat in class with. But all he could do was grin wryly, because clearly getting a guy like Zhou Mi in one of classes, one he could totally while away a class on just glancing at, was way beyond his current luck.
“You have a cute smile!” Zhou Mi exclaimed, which in the almost-silence would’ve had Jongdae jumping if he hadn’t froze utterly from the content of the statement. “Sorry. My friends tell me not to just say-“
“No, it’s okay,” Jongdae protested.
“But you do,” Zhou Mi said.
And then Jongdae was left floundering in embarrassment and pleased thoughts, and he half wanted to say “you too” but all he ended up saying was, “Thanks. Uh.”
There was a hint of an accent there, and Jongdae was almost 99% certain that Zhou Mi spoke Mandarin. Which was awesome, because Jongdae’s currently life plan included immersing himself in Mandarin, and he’d only come back from a vacation trip to China a month ago with new motivation to learn. In a perfect world he’d have said something in Mandarin, and Zhou MI would have exclaimed over how good he spoke, how lovely his accent was. Which probably meant he’d have fucked something up, and said totally the wrong thing, and even the thought of looking so unskilled in front of this sophisticated guy kept him from even trying to form a sentence.
The awkward silence had stretched to almost half a minute with Zhou Mi smiling to himself and Jongdae chasing his mental tail, before the brain wave hit.
“You said you were meeting your friend, so you won’t be here when the haunted house opens. Um. In half an hour. Did you want to walk through it? It won’t be all working, and there won’t be people popping out, but you could…see it.”
It sounded worse and worse the more he talked, like he was making excuses for how horrible it was, and not actually giving Zhou Mi any reason to accept. It was really awesome! Just not nearly as awesome as it could be, so he didn’t know why Zhou Mi would want to waste his time.
“It’s not very long?” he offered finally, as though a short duration of incomplete things would be even more draw.
“Oh really? I don’t want to take up your time.”
“No, you wouldn’t be. I’m just waiting out here because there’s nothing for me to do until we open.”
If he sounded any more desperate, his next move would be grabbing Zhou Mi’s arm and dragging him in without his permission. He guessed that’d emphasize the horror aspect of it. For him.
“I have time, then,” Zhou Mi said, and stepped up beside him.
He watched, a bit awed, as Zhou Mi shook back his fringe and looked at him expectantly. Good looking. Nice voice. Spoke Mandarin. And tall.
He tried not let that bleed into his voice as he said, “Okay, let’s go.”
He locked the front door after them, dragging the signs inside with him just in case. He figured they wouldn’t be gone more than five minutes, but he wasn’t going to get yelled at if the signs were stolen before the haunted house even started.
The music was going, courtesy of CD players, so at least he knew that worked. They’d been beating on the smoke machine earlier, and trying to get all the lighting to work and flash as they wanted. But he let Zhou Mi go first, letting him look at the scenes they’d created. Spooky graveyard, scene of a murder. Creepy pictures on the wall that shimmered and moved. One had cut-outs for eyes to follow guests, but there wasn’t anyone manning it yet.
“It’s creepy enough with no eyes,” Zhou Mi said, when Jongdae apologized. “Like you’re wondering when they’ll come back.”
“True,” Jongdae said, brightening. “Here, there’s someone behind the curtain, and they’ll make a ghost leap out at guests with a loud noise. Ah!!”
He actually made Zhou Mi jump a little, goosing his side. It was both embarrassing and pleasing, the way that Zhou Mi laughed and pushed his shoulder. He felt like some kind of high school student trying to impress the hot older kid. There were thunks and conversation behind the curtains as people got set up and talked into their walkie-talkies. He had his own, turned off while they were inside. Nothing would enhance it more than a squawking message going through.
Zhou Mi squeaked as his head got assaulted by a blast of air, and it was Jongdae’s turn to laugh.
“That caught me right in the ear!” Zhou Mi gasped out, still ducked and contorted.
“That’s because you’re so tall.”
Zhou Mi clucked his tongue, and kept going. It really didn’t take that long, not when there were no additional people to ferry, no one jumping out to keep them from proceeding. Half the fun was other people’s fright, and Jongdae didn’t have much fright to scare up. Ha.
“You could come back when we’re open,” Jongdae suggested. “Bring a date. It'll be...better."
Definitely better for Zhou Mi. Though Jongdae had just basically let him in on most of the secrets.
"I broke up with my boyfriend a while back," Zhou Mi said. And it was so nonchalant as to sound normal. Impeccably cool and assured in a way Jongdae could only hope for in the future.
"Boyfriend."
Zhou Mi turned his smile on Jongdae again. "Yeah. You have one?"
"Not for a while," Jongdae said. He almost couldn't believe he'd said it, admitted it. But under Zhou Mi's gaze he felt no shame or regret. Maybe because Zhou Mi was a stranger and there was no judgment there. He would’ve agonized over every word had he just said something like that to a friend, wondering if they were going to laugh at him, or ridicule him.
“I know how that is,” Zhou Mi sighed. “Oh, the end already?”
The exit loomed, preceded by strands of hanging plastic to grab at people before they left. Ghost hands. No one could leave alive. It made him chuckle.
“Yeah. That’s it! We’ve spent a couple weeks putting everything together. Maybe we’ll make enough money to get us all dinner.”
Though they were actually hoping to take a trip. Purportedly an educational trip, but they all knew they wanted it to be more of an education vacation.
“I didn’t ask how much it was before we came in.”
“Free for you. There wasn’t even any smoke.”
He didn’t really want to open the door. It wasn’t like he’d caught some butterfly in a net, he thought as Zhou Mi reached to touch the hanging plastic. But gorgeous guys didn’t just wander by hourly. He wanted to make a joke, come off witty and make Zhou Mi laugh. Of course that was hard to do with his tongue all tangled, and his fingers making knots in the bottom of his scarf. It was a hundred times more awkward right then, than when he’d been trying valiantly to talk to Zhou Mi on the sidewalk.
“I didn’t think about asking people for tips,” he mused. “Extra scares guaranteed?”
“I think I can afford that,” Zhou Mi laughed. "Maybe I know how to repay you then."
And with a look behind them, Zhou Mi leaned in, closer than Jongdae had realized.
And Zhou Mi kissed him.
There were no epic swelling violins or charging rainbows or fireworks. But there was him, who realized a split second before Zhou Mi’s lips met his what was happening, and his eyes slammed closed. One one thousand - Zhou Mi’s lips were so soft - two one thousand - Zhou Mi was kissing him - three one thousand - Zhou Mi was pulling away.
And Jongdae let out the breath he’d been holding. It produced a conundrum. He could joke that that was exactly the kind of tip he’d been wanting. He could pretend like he got kissed every day of his life by cute, teasing guys.
Or he could grab Zhou Mi’s arm and pull him into a room behind the curtain where no one would see, and try that kiss again.
His name was living dangerously, and Zhou Mi’s hand still lingered, so he opted for choice number three.
“That was a good start,” he said, sounding breathless as he close the door behind himself. The light was harsh after the haunted house gloom. And then Zhou Mi pointed out something about his face that Jongdae hadn’t even realized. He was smiling.
"Your smile really is gorgeous."
No, Jongdae thought numbly. Yours is-- but then he was being kissed again. And that time, he didn’t just stand there and get kissed on. He leaned into Zhou Mi’s, joined in the wet slide of lips. And that was when he realized, behind Zhou Mi’s chilled ears, that his hair was thick and soft under Jongdae’s fingers. It would be. Of course it would be. And Zhou Mi didn’t balk at his fumbling kisses, his tries to do what he thought he should - until his nerves and trying hard just faded into doing what felt best because Zhou Mi was kissing him. Just him. He was the one who caught Zhou Mi’s bottom lip between his teeth, and hiccuped a laugh as Zhou Mi caught him closer by his waist.
But his face didn’t go hot until sounds from the hallway had them pausing. Shit. If people found them. No. Finding wasn’t bad. Being seen would be.
What he really wanted to do was stand there for another decade and luxuriate in Zhou Mi’s breath that was warm against his ear and neck.
“I should take you out the back,” he said. “Someone might need something in here.”
“Okay,” Zhou Mi said.
They shared a smile and Jongdae had that tightness in his neck as he realized Zhou Mi’s lips were wet because of him. Fuck yes.
They slipped out, undeterred by whoever had been there moments before, and some of the tension in Jongdae’s back started to relax.
“Ooh, my phone,” Zhou Mi said, digging for it in the bag at his hip. Zhou Mi unlocked it, answered the call, and there it was, the Mandarin Jongdae had been expecting. It made his face heat again, unexpectedly, the quick roll of words - some of which he understood. But what he really understood was that Zhou Mi was going. No more flirting chat in the back of a cheap college haunted house.
“Sorry, he finally got here,” Zhou Mi said, apologizing even as he dropped his phone back into his bag. “I really need to go. I- Thanks for showing me through! And good luck tonight.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Jongdae said. Thanks for the kisses? That sounded too weird.
But his breath caught in his throat as Zhou Mi leaned in again, pressing a quick, friendly kiss to his frozen mouth.
“Bye!”
“Bye,” Jongdae said, the word almost inaudible as Zhou Mi walked away. Maybe he lifted his hand ineffectually to wave even though Zhou Mi wasn’t looking and disappeared mostly before he even got his hand up.
Sure, totally strange, crazily hot guy. Just stop by and to take his third-guy-ever kissing virginity and run off without so much as a phone number. He’d barely gotten a name, and didn’t know how to write it. If Zhou Mi was just visiting, maybe he was going back to China. In which case, Jongdae had just had a random making-out encounter with a guy he’d never see again.
Which in terms of life experiences probably should’ve had him dancing on the sidewalk.
But in reality, it had him spending the rest of the night selling tickets and scanning faces. Zhou Mi knew they’d be open, so maybe after he met his friend, he’d swing by. He spent time between customers practicing what he’d say. Suave things like, it was so great meeting you, why don’t we get something to eat? Get to know each other better. And Zhou Mi would say that was exactly what he’d been hoping for, and they’d eat, and talk, and drink, and Jongdae would be utterly charming and pull out his Mandarin and make Zhou Mi ooh and ahh. And that’d lead to a second date, or maybe even Zhou Mi asking him back to wherever he was staying.
That part was really wishful thinking. Making out with a guy and then getting to have sex with him on the same day was way beyond expectations. Not that the thought wasn’t nice. Stranger things. Clearly he hadn’t even expected the making out.
But as he closed his cash box, and checked the time on his phone, he knew his luck had run out. They were closed, and there was no one on the street.
It was pure tenacity that had him leaning against a low wall by where Zhou Mi had been walking and just waiting there for almost half an hour after they’d finished shutting down and locking up. He played games on his phone to not look too suspicious or like he was loitering, but the only people who passed by was a couple on their way back from a date.
“Time go to home, Cinderella,” he mumbled as he powered off his phone - stroke of midnight - and went home.
***
Halfway into classes, and Jongdae was finally relaxing. He was getting the hang of his teachers, staked out a place to sit, and was figuring out just how little reading he’d have to do day to day and still get everything done. Five minutes before class was scheduled to start, he had his notebook out and was moving a pen between two of his fingers as he pondered pulling out a candy bar and inhaling it before class started.
The classroom door opened, and it was their professor. He could tell by the clatter of his shoes and the fact that he was speaking in rapid Mandarin. No candy then.
Or a different kind of candy, he though, as he caught sight of the butt in gray slacks that had followed their professor in. Okay, more than just a butt. He caught sight of the man’s ear, and his heart actually glued itself to his ribcage. He hoped none of his classmates noticed he was gaping, but then he only half noticed it himself.
“This is our new teaching assistant for the rest of the semester. He’s a native speaker, so he’ll be helping me grade and do testing. Treat him well.”
“Hi, my name is Zhou Mi,” Zhou Mi said, greeting them. He said other things after that but the blood was pounding in Jongdae’s ears.
He was wearing glasses. Rectangular ones that sat on his nose and framed his eyes.
And Jongdae’s immediate thought was not hope that maybe they could make out again, or that Jongdae could impress him. No, his great hope was, please let him remember me.
Even if it might be embarrassing. Just as long as Zhou Mi didn’t out him in front of the class or be condescending. Any of that would make Zhou Mi an asshole, but not being remembered would just be too much-
Roll was being called, and Zhou Mi skimmed the class, and held his breath. Zhou Mi’s eyes went past him, and then darted back. Jongdae smiled, hoping maybe that would maybe trigger something.
And then Zhou Mi’s mouth bowed, recognition sparking, and then class began.
He got a smile from Zhou Mi when he spoke Mandarin out loud the first time five minutes later, and he only just kept himself from creating a mini earthquake with his desk. He’d just decided that Halloween was awesome.
***
A month or so later after what could be considered the most awesome early Christmas present ever:
“Zhou Mi jie.”
Zhou Mi groaned into his neck. “Do you want negative points on your final test?”
Jongdae grinned. “Just practicing.”
***
Rating: PG-13 for language
Prompt: Baekhyun/Chanyeol (also Suho/Kyungsoo) - Satin Halloween. (Set loosely in the world of Black Satin. You don't need to have read that to understand this.)
Prompt: exo fic where they decide it's a good idea to do hallowe'en fancy dress and it's all about them failing in costume.
Prompt: Chen/Zhou Mi - meeting at a local haunted house. one of them a worker and the other a lost visitor.
***
Prompt: Baekhyun/Chanyeol (also Suho/Kyungsoo) - Satin Halloween. (Set loosely in the world of Black Satin. You don't need to have read that to understand this.)
***
In a place of business where the majority of the employees - male - dressed up in women’s clothing daily, Halloween was an opportunity to put a spin on that. Most of them dressed in what the average person would consider traditionally male clothing by day, so every workday was a day of dressing up. Wigs, makeup, stuffed bras, dresses, skirts and sparkly shoes were all a part of their wardrobe when they went out to spend time with clients. Men, and the occasional women, who just wanted someone to talk to. It just happened that the employees were men in wigs.. They definitely weren’t the usual type of club.
But it made Halloween a challenge.
“I want to do something different this year,” Baekhyun said. “We all did historical things last year, right? I don’t want to be a milkmaid.”
“What about fairy tales?” Joonmyun suggested.
“Or like a maid costume?”
Kyungsoo’s head popped up at the end of the bar. “It’s Halloween costume night, not sexual fantasy costume night.”
“A maid outfit doesn’t have to be a sexual fantasy,” Baekhyun pouted.
“You’d look good in fishnets,” Chanyeol commented from the booth he was in doing paperwork, and Kyungsoo spread out his hands as though to say that proved his point.
“Fine, then I’ll be Red Riding Hood. I already have my big bad wolf.”
And then it was Chanyeol snorting in laughter.
“Princess,” Lu Han claimed.
“That’s different than every other night how?” Baekhyun asked, and got thwacked on the head with a clipboard.
“The tiara.”
“Someone we know will be Prince Charming?” Baekhyun asked, and Lu Han just smirked at him.
“I’m a vampire,” Kyungsoo said, making Joonmyun yelp in protest. Both of them manned the bar in shifts but neither of them dressed up like the rest of the employees. “I said it first?”
“What am I supposed to be then?”
“Both be vampires,” Chanyeol suggested, moseying up to lean on the bar. “You’re biting each other in dark corners all the time anyway.”
Kyungsoo turned a shade of red not usually seen on human skin, and Joonmyun just coughed delicately and went back to his inventory sheet.
***
Chanyeol was breathing into Baekhyun’s ear, not a subtle thing, as he got his lip gloss set and wig smoothed.
“You look good in that,” Chanyeol said, lifting the red hood until it sat on Baekhyun’s head.
It was good he did, because just imagining Chanyeol in it made him chuckle a bit. Since Chanyeol was helping with security that night, they’d gotten him a wolf snout and fuzzy ears, and he was going to be wearing a nice suit. That was just going to make it all the more distracting.
“Could we get a maid costume sometime?” Chanyeol wondered, tweaking the ties at Baekhyun’s shoulders.
“You’re going to dress up in it for me?”
“I will if you will.”
Baekhyun eyed him, imagining Chanyeol in a fluffy little skirt and maybe a ribbon around his throat.
“That’s a deal.”
***
***
Prompt: exo fic where they decide it's a good idea to do hallowe'en fancy dress and it's all about them failing in costume.
***
Everyone had their own ideas as to what constituted the perfect costume. Not only that, there was lobbying as to who got the rights to what, or who should be a sidekick.
Kris had been drafted, more than actually choosing, to dress up as a king. Joonmyun hadn’t even gotten to hear what Kris had actually wanted because the petition had gone around and Kris had complied.
It was a nice crown, though.
At least, once he’d gotten away from scolding Sehun for dripping fake blood on the carpet, he’d been able to appreciate it. He’d just barely gotten away from having Sehun fake-bite him.
“Hyung! But that’s why you’re a-!”
“Shh!” Joonmyun shushed him. “No one knows yet.”
Chanyeol was Zorro, and he wasn’t sure why he’d let that one slip past him because Chanyeol with four limbs to the wind was hectic, and Chanyeol with a fake sword encouraging Robin “Yixing” Hood with his Nerf “bow and arrow” to launch arrows at him to he could swipe them out of the air with his sword skills was dangerous. It was invitation for an eye to be taken out. Or for Kris’s crown to be knocked off.
“Put them both in jail,” Joonmyun said, patting Kris’s shoulder as he went by and pinning Chanyeol with a stare. The innocent puppy face only worked sometimes.
Then there was Sherlock Lu, arguing with Dr. Minseok over the deerstalker, and Jongdae in his Waldo glasses, and Kyungsoo in bunny ears ordering Jongin’s wolf mask off the counter where the food was.
Baekhyun and Tao were holed up in the bathroom and all that could be heard were the occasional snorts of laughter. He’d almost given up on them ever coming out so he could get ready too, when they emerged. Baekhyun’s face was a strange shade of green and gray and red, definitely a zombie. And then Tao padded out behind him with little fluffy black ears, the tip of his nose painted black, and whiskers on his cheeks. Joonmyun grinned at the coos and jeers, and Sehun challenging Baekhyun to a duel, as he went to finally get ready himself. They had too much food, too much to drink, but there were twelve of them after all.
Joonmyun knew exactly who he wanted to surprise, so he waited. Sneaking out on bare feet until he came up behind Chanyeol’s back. Chanyeol, who also served as a shield from the others. A quick poke to Chanyeol’s lower back had him turning.
“Boo!” he shouted, flapping at Chanyeol with the sheet and making him flinch in surprise. He knew he wouldn’t scare him, but surprising him he’d accomplished.
He could almost see Chanyeol’s brain working, figuring out who wasn’t there. And the way his face lit up when he recognized Joonmyun’s laugh, and the clapping and the way he dragged Joonmyun in.
“You’re a ghost!”
“I bit him to death!” Sehun announced, his vampire fangs nearly falling out of his mouth.
“I am-“
And then the world went white as someone stepped on the sheet and dragged away his eye holes.
“Guys! Guys! Can’t see!”
“Is that why ghosts go bump in the night?” Jongdae cracked.
“You don’t get a gift, then,” Joonmyun threatened, as he struggled to get the sheet up far enough so he could see.
Though everyone including him was laughing by the time he got his head out so he could see.
“What gifts?” asked a few little mercenaries.
He waited a couple of moments, and then pulled out the plastic pumpkin full of candy that he’d been carrying.
Of course, it wasn’t in his hand any longer than a moment after that.
“You’re the best, hyung!”
“So’s Kris cause it’s from him, too. Don’t get sick.”
Kris just snorted and high-fived him. They’d see how the sick part went.
But he ended up with the sheet around his shoulders, and plastered against Yixing’s side on one of the couches. Minseok had his head resting on his knee, mostly because Tao was over Minseok’s lap using paper pieces as a basketball game with Jongin.
Half of Baekhyun’s zombie makeup was smeared down Chanyeol’s arm, and Lu Han had ended up in Kris’s crown.
Not the first or last holiday where they’d all be together.
***
***
Prompt: Chen/Zhou Mi - meeting at a local haunted house. one of them a worker and the other a lost visitor.
***
Jongdae watched the man walking back and forth up the sidewalk, probably about three times. He was dressed nice, nicer than the average college student around, though that didn’t mean much. He couldn’t get a good enough look at his face to tell how young he was, and the long legs and broad shoulders weren’t telling him anything either. Could be anywhere from 18 to 40, and Jongdae wouldn’t know. Strong profile and swimmer’s build and nicely cut hair were pinging on all of Jongdae’s do-want centers. He mustered up the courage as the man walked by again to actually say something.
“Can I help you?”
“Oh. Me?” The man stopped walking, turning and coming back into the light. Not 40, then, not even close. Young enough to have Jongdae’s stomach squirming.
“Yeah, sorry,” Jongdae said. “I just saw you walking around...”
“I’m meeting a friend, actually. He’s supposed to be here soon. I think I’m early? He hasn’t called.”
“Oh, okay. I didn’t know if you were here for the haunted house or not.”
The man looked around him to where Jongdae was pointing at the board signs they hadn’t put out yet since there was still setup.
“Oh. How fun! My name’s Zhou Mi.”
“I’m Jongdae,” he said, his voice almost faltering on the last syllable as the man smiled.
“You’re a student here?”
“Yeah,” he said, tips of his ears burning hot. “Um. Business. Or music. I don’t know. My parents want different things.”
Zhou Mi laughed. “They always do. I’m still finding my right path, too.”
He was definitely older than him, Jongdae thought with a sigh. Not that much but he had leaps and bounds more sophistication than the guys he sat in class with. But all he could do was grin wryly, because clearly getting a guy like Zhou Mi in one of classes, one he could totally while away a class on just glancing at, was way beyond his current luck.
“You have a cute smile!” Zhou Mi exclaimed, which in the almost-silence would’ve had Jongdae jumping if he hadn’t froze utterly from the content of the statement. “Sorry. My friends tell me not to just say-“
“No, it’s okay,” Jongdae protested.
“But you do,” Zhou Mi said.
And then Jongdae was left floundering in embarrassment and pleased thoughts, and he half wanted to say “you too” but all he ended up saying was, “Thanks. Uh.”
There was a hint of an accent there, and Jongdae was almost 99% certain that Zhou Mi spoke Mandarin. Which was awesome, because Jongdae’s currently life plan included immersing himself in Mandarin, and he’d only come back from a vacation trip to China a month ago with new motivation to learn. In a perfect world he’d have said something in Mandarin, and Zhou MI would have exclaimed over how good he spoke, how lovely his accent was. Which probably meant he’d have fucked something up, and said totally the wrong thing, and even the thought of looking so unskilled in front of this sophisticated guy kept him from even trying to form a sentence.
The awkward silence had stretched to almost half a minute with Zhou Mi smiling to himself and Jongdae chasing his mental tail, before the brain wave hit.
“You said you were meeting your friend, so you won’t be here when the haunted house opens. Um. In half an hour. Did you want to walk through it? It won’t be all working, and there won’t be people popping out, but you could…see it.”
It sounded worse and worse the more he talked, like he was making excuses for how horrible it was, and not actually giving Zhou Mi any reason to accept. It was really awesome! Just not nearly as awesome as it could be, so he didn’t know why Zhou Mi would want to waste his time.
“It’s not very long?” he offered finally, as though a short duration of incomplete things would be even more draw.
“Oh really? I don’t want to take up your time.”
“No, you wouldn’t be. I’m just waiting out here because there’s nothing for me to do until we open.”
If he sounded any more desperate, his next move would be grabbing Zhou Mi’s arm and dragging him in without his permission. He guessed that’d emphasize the horror aspect of it. For him.
“I have time, then,” Zhou Mi said, and stepped up beside him.
He watched, a bit awed, as Zhou Mi shook back his fringe and looked at him expectantly. Good looking. Nice voice. Spoke Mandarin. And tall.
He tried not let that bleed into his voice as he said, “Okay, let’s go.”
He locked the front door after them, dragging the signs inside with him just in case. He figured they wouldn’t be gone more than five minutes, but he wasn’t going to get yelled at if the signs were stolen before the haunted house even started.
The music was going, courtesy of CD players, so at least he knew that worked. They’d been beating on the smoke machine earlier, and trying to get all the lighting to work and flash as they wanted. But he let Zhou Mi go first, letting him look at the scenes they’d created. Spooky graveyard, scene of a murder. Creepy pictures on the wall that shimmered and moved. One had cut-outs for eyes to follow guests, but there wasn’t anyone manning it yet.
“It’s creepy enough with no eyes,” Zhou Mi said, when Jongdae apologized. “Like you’re wondering when they’ll come back.”
“True,” Jongdae said, brightening. “Here, there’s someone behind the curtain, and they’ll make a ghost leap out at guests with a loud noise. Ah!!”
He actually made Zhou Mi jump a little, goosing his side. It was both embarrassing and pleasing, the way that Zhou Mi laughed and pushed his shoulder. He felt like some kind of high school student trying to impress the hot older kid. There were thunks and conversation behind the curtains as people got set up and talked into their walkie-talkies. He had his own, turned off while they were inside. Nothing would enhance it more than a squawking message going through.
Zhou Mi squeaked as his head got assaulted by a blast of air, and it was Jongdae’s turn to laugh.
“That caught me right in the ear!” Zhou Mi gasped out, still ducked and contorted.
“That’s because you’re so tall.”
Zhou Mi clucked his tongue, and kept going. It really didn’t take that long, not when there were no additional people to ferry, no one jumping out to keep them from proceeding. Half the fun was other people’s fright, and Jongdae didn’t have much fright to scare up. Ha.
“You could come back when we’re open,” Jongdae suggested. “Bring a date. It'll be...better."
Definitely better for Zhou Mi. Though Jongdae had just basically let him in on most of the secrets.
"I broke up with my boyfriend a while back," Zhou Mi said. And it was so nonchalant as to sound normal. Impeccably cool and assured in a way Jongdae could only hope for in the future.
"Boyfriend."
Zhou Mi turned his smile on Jongdae again. "Yeah. You have one?"
"Not for a while," Jongdae said. He almost couldn't believe he'd said it, admitted it. But under Zhou Mi's gaze he felt no shame or regret. Maybe because Zhou Mi was a stranger and there was no judgment there. He would’ve agonized over every word had he just said something like that to a friend, wondering if they were going to laugh at him, or ridicule him.
“I know how that is,” Zhou Mi sighed. “Oh, the end already?”
The exit loomed, preceded by strands of hanging plastic to grab at people before they left. Ghost hands. No one could leave alive. It made him chuckle.
“Yeah. That’s it! We’ve spent a couple weeks putting everything together. Maybe we’ll make enough money to get us all dinner.”
Though they were actually hoping to take a trip. Purportedly an educational trip, but they all knew they wanted it to be more of an education vacation.
“I didn’t ask how much it was before we came in.”
“Free for you. There wasn’t even any smoke.”
He didn’t really want to open the door. It wasn’t like he’d caught some butterfly in a net, he thought as Zhou Mi reached to touch the hanging plastic. But gorgeous guys didn’t just wander by hourly. He wanted to make a joke, come off witty and make Zhou Mi laugh. Of course that was hard to do with his tongue all tangled, and his fingers making knots in the bottom of his scarf. It was a hundred times more awkward right then, than when he’d been trying valiantly to talk to Zhou Mi on the sidewalk.
“I didn’t think about asking people for tips,” he mused. “Extra scares guaranteed?”
“I think I can afford that,” Zhou Mi laughed. "Maybe I know how to repay you then."
And with a look behind them, Zhou Mi leaned in, closer than Jongdae had realized.
And Zhou Mi kissed him.
There were no epic swelling violins or charging rainbows or fireworks. But there was him, who realized a split second before Zhou Mi’s lips met his what was happening, and his eyes slammed closed. One one thousand - Zhou Mi’s lips were so soft - two one thousand - Zhou Mi was kissing him - three one thousand - Zhou Mi was pulling away.
And Jongdae let out the breath he’d been holding. It produced a conundrum. He could joke that that was exactly the kind of tip he’d been wanting. He could pretend like he got kissed every day of his life by cute, teasing guys.
Or he could grab Zhou Mi’s arm and pull him into a room behind the curtain where no one would see, and try that kiss again.
His name was living dangerously, and Zhou Mi’s hand still lingered, so he opted for choice number three.
“That was a good start,” he said, sounding breathless as he close the door behind himself. The light was harsh after the haunted house gloom. And then Zhou Mi pointed out something about his face that Jongdae hadn’t even realized. He was smiling.
"Your smile really is gorgeous."
No, Jongdae thought numbly. Yours is-- but then he was being kissed again. And that time, he didn’t just stand there and get kissed on. He leaned into Zhou Mi’s, joined in the wet slide of lips. And that was when he realized, behind Zhou Mi’s chilled ears, that his hair was thick and soft under Jongdae’s fingers. It would be. Of course it would be. And Zhou Mi didn’t balk at his fumbling kisses, his tries to do what he thought he should - until his nerves and trying hard just faded into doing what felt best because Zhou Mi was kissing him. Just him. He was the one who caught Zhou Mi’s bottom lip between his teeth, and hiccuped a laugh as Zhou Mi caught him closer by his waist.
But his face didn’t go hot until sounds from the hallway had them pausing. Shit. If people found them. No. Finding wasn’t bad. Being seen would be.
What he really wanted to do was stand there for another decade and luxuriate in Zhou Mi’s breath that was warm against his ear and neck.
“I should take you out the back,” he said. “Someone might need something in here.”
“Okay,” Zhou Mi said.
They shared a smile and Jongdae had that tightness in his neck as he realized Zhou Mi’s lips were wet because of him. Fuck yes.
They slipped out, undeterred by whoever had been there moments before, and some of the tension in Jongdae’s back started to relax.
“Ooh, my phone,” Zhou Mi said, digging for it in the bag at his hip. Zhou Mi unlocked it, answered the call, and there it was, the Mandarin Jongdae had been expecting. It made his face heat again, unexpectedly, the quick roll of words - some of which he understood. But what he really understood was that Zhou Mi was going. No more flirting chat in the back of a cheap college haunted house.
“Sorry, he finally got here,” Zhou Mi said, apologizing even as he dropped his phone back into his bag. “I really need to go. I- Thanks for showing me through! And good luck tonight.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Jongdae said. Thanks for the kisses? That sounded too weird.
But his breath caught in his throat as Zhou Mi leaned in again, pressing a quick, friendly kiss to his frozen mouth.
“Bye!”
“Bye,” Jongdae said, the word almost inaudible as Zhou Mi walked away. Maybe he lifted his hand ineffectually to wave even though Zhou Mi wasn’t looking and disappeared mostly before he even got his hand up.
Sure, totally strange, crazily hot guy. Just stop by and to take his third-guy-ever kissing virginity and run off without so much as a phone number. He’d barely gotten a name, and didn’t know how to write it. If Zhou Mi was just visiting, maybe he was going back to China. In which case, Jongdae had just had a random making-out encounter with a guy he’d never see again.
Which in terms of life experiences probably should’ve had him dancing on the sidewalk.
But in reality, it had him spending the rest of the night selling tickets and scanning faces. Zhou Mi knew they’d be open, so maybe after he met his friend, he’d swing by. He spent time between customers practicing what he’d say. Suave things like, it was so great meeting you, why don’t we get something to eat? Get to know each other better. And Zhou Mi would say that was exactly what he’d been hoping for, and they’d eat, and talk, and drink, and Jongdae would be utterly charming and pull out his Mandarin and make Zhou Mi ooh and ahh. And that’d lead to a second date, or maybe even Zhou Mi asking him back to wherever he was staying.
That part was really wishful thinking. Making out with a guy and then getting to have sex with him on the same day was way beyond expectations. Not that the thought wasn’t nice. Stranger things. Clearly he hadn’t even expected the making out.
But as he closed his cash box, and checked the time on his phone, he knew his luck had run out. They were closed, and there was no one on the street.
It was pure tenacity that had him leaning against a low wall by where Zhou Mi had been walking and just waiting there for almost half an hour after they’d finished shutting down and locking up. He played games on his phone to not look too suspicious or like he was loitering, but the only people who passed by was a couple on their way back from a date.
“Time go to home, Cinderella,” he mumbled as he powered off his phone - stroke of midnight - and went home.
***
Halfway into classes, and Jongdae was finally relaxing. He was getting the hang of his teachers, staked out a place to sit, and was figuring out just how little reading he’d have to do day to day and still get everything done. Five minutes before class was scheduled to start, he had his notebook out and was moving a pen between two of his fingers as he pondered pulling out a candy bar and inhaling it before class started.
The classroom door opened, and it was their professor. He could tell by the clatter of his shoes and the fact that he was speaking in rapid Mandarin. No candy then.
Or a different kind of candy, he though, as he caught sight of the butt in gray slacks that had followed their professor in. Okay, more than just a butt. He caught sight of the man’s ear, and his heart actually glued itself to his ribcage. He hoped none of his classmates noticed he was gaping, but then he only half noticed it himself.
“This is our new teaching assistant for the rest of the semester. He’s a native speaker, so he’ll be helping me grade and do testing. Treat him well.”
“Hi, my name is Zhou Mi,” Zhou Mi said, greeting them. He said other things after that but the blood was pounding in Jongdae’s ears.
He was wearing glasses. Rectangular ones that sat on his nose and framed his eyes.
And Jongdae’s immediate thought was not hope that maybe they could make out again, or that Jongdae could impress him. No, his great hope was, please let him remember me.
Even if it might be embarrassing. Just as long as Zhou Mi didn’t out him in front of the class or be condescending. Any of that would make Zhou Mi an asshole, but not being remembered would just be too much-
Roll was being called, and Zhou Mi skimmed the class, and held his breath. Zhou Mi’s eyes went past him, and then darted back. Jongdae smiled, hoping maybe that would maybe trigger something.
And then Zhou Mi’s mouth bowed, recognition sparking, and then class began.
He got a smile from Zhou Mi when he spoke Mandarin out loud the first time five minutes later, and he only just kept himself from creating a mini earthquake with his desk. He’d just decided that Halloween was awesome.
***
A month or so later after what could be considered the most awesome early Christmas present ever:
“Zhou Mi jie.”
Zhou Mi groaned into his neck. “Do you want negative points on your final test?”
Jongdae grinned. “Just practicing.”
***