[Fic] Cocktail - kaisoo
Title: Cocktail
Pairing: Kai/Kyungsoo
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU
Summary: Kyungsoo blinked up at him. Tall, ink-blank hair in the light and white, white teeth. And at least a mile of bare, toned arms.
A/N: Adding this link, because this is the businessman!Kyungsoo that started it all.
***
Bars weren’t Kyungsoo’s scene. Going to bars after getting out of a very stressful workweek while still in his suit and tie sounded like hell. Having to detour from the office to a crowded, hot room full of people, was not his idea of a good time.
But he was a good friend. And that was why he pushed through the crowd. He tried to stay near the edges of the dance floor, thinking they’d be sparser, but he had to detour around couples making out and grinding.
A girl approached him first, grabbing his arm and careening dangerously close to his face.
“Sorry. Friend,” he hollered, pulling away.
He was pretty sure she’d kissed his face, which made him want to go wash, but he kept soldiering on. More apologies, more near-misses.
He hollered in a different way when someone slapped his ass, but he didn’t even turn to see who it was, just edging between bodies and watching his target come into focus.
A mop of reddish-blond hair swaying at the bar, even if he was sitting down. Chanyeol, who’d texted him to come get him please sadface.
Kyungsoo rubbed his forehead, and smoothed down his tie, and marched up to the bar.
“Chanyeol!”
“Oh! D.O.!”
Old nickname, because of his surname. He sighed. Chanyeol only called him that when he was well and tipsy. He seemed surprised to see him, as though he hadn’t asked him to come.
The bartender drifted over. “Did you- Oh, you’re Chanyeol’s friend. You made it.”
Kyungsoo blinked up at him. Tall, ink-blank hair in the light and white, white teeth.
And at least a mile of bare, toned arms.
Kyungsoo’s eyes snapped up again. “Yes. Sorry. Has he been trouble?”
“He was good-natured when I cut him off. Kyungsoo, right? I’m Kai.”
“Nice to meet you,” Kyungsoo said automatically, head dipping.
“You look like you had quite a trip through the dance floor.”
He blinked, and Kai pointed at his own jaw. “A little lipstick.”
Oh. That girl. He scrubbed at his skin with the back of his hand.
“He asked me to text you with his phone. Something about his thumbs not working right.”
Kyungsoo chuckled, and brought his hand down on Chanyeol’s shoulder hard.
“Where’s Baekhyun?”
The sulky set of Chanyeol’s mouth told him all he needed to know there. Fighting, or busy, he didn’t know, but it clearly wasn’t too serious since Chanyeol wasn’t moping.
“Stay and have a drink,” Kai offered. “He’s not going anywhere. Just sitting and singing for the last half hour.”
So basically he owed Kai a massive tip and Chanyeol was going to pay him back. He stared at Chanyeol’s pants and wondered how wise it was to try and extract money from him right then. Chanyeol might be a happy drunk, but stupid he wasn’t.
“No, I think we should get going,” Kyungsoo said. “I’m not exactly dressed to be here, and I don’t want him passing out or throwing up on me.”
“Yeah, you’re a little…overdressed,” Kai said, leaning over the bar and taking a look down Kyungsoo’s body, before moving away to help another customer.
He had no idea why that made him flush, but it did, and he took a deep breath and pulled out his wallet. The wallet he’d safeguarded all across the dance floor. Who knew where pickpockets were.
“Did he settle up with you for his drinks?” Kyungsoo asked, when Kai came back.
“Yeah, we’re square.”
Good. One thing he didn’t have to pay for. He had no idea how much Chanyeol’d had to drink, so he really kind of had to guess. Peeling off bills, and calculating in his head how much it usually took to get Chanyeol in that state. He peeled off two more, for the half hour of babysitting and texting, and then on a whim, another for Kai having the common sense to cut Chanyeol off before he became truly ill.
Kai seemed to almost mean to protest, but Kyungsoo shook his head, shoving the money into Kai’s hands.
“Thanks for everything,” he said.
Kai shrugged, pocketing it. “That’s my job. You going to be okay hauling him out on your own?”
Kyungsoo’s eyes swept from Chanyeol’s boots to the top of his head, and had the sudden mental image of Chanyeol tripping and falling right over on him. In addition to the concussion, he’d have six feet of flailing limbs trapping him. His wince was only half imagination, because that’d happened at least once before. Minus the concussion, but Chanyeol wasn’t more in control of his limbs when he’d had a bit too much to drink. Actually, Chanyeol’s main two modes of drunkenness were either scarily zen, or inhumanly cheerful. He also made the saddest drunk ever, but luckily Kyungsoo had only seen that once, during a brief breakup.
But his hesitation showed, as Chanyeol lifted his head like a dumb puppy and grinned between them.
“I’ll help you get him out,” Kai said.
Kyungsoo wasn’t going to argue, watching and making a plan of attack as Kai wiped his hands and signaled he was leaving for a moment to his fellow bartender.
“I like this place,” Chanyeol burbled. “Baekhyun does, too. He was busybusy, family bee.”
Any second Chanyeol was going to do something cutesy and Kyungsoo’s frustration was going to melt. He’d figure out why Chanyeol decided to go alone some other time. He sighed, and sent a helpless smile at Kai.
“Okay, let’s stand up, Chanyeol. One, two, three.”
“Whoo!”
With Kai on one side, and Kyungsoo on the other, Chanyeol was steady.
“No dance moves while we’re walking,” Kyungsoo cautioned him.
“I’m not that drunk,” Chanyeol protested. “I don’t want to break something.”
“This way,” Kai said, and took them out a shorter, calmer way. A way Kyungsoo would’ve paid money to know about, given how he’d made the trip the first time.
It was more than just a breath of fresh air, getting onto the street. All his tension kind of melting, even if he did have Chanyeol waddling with them.
“I’ll get you a taxi,” Kai said, and made sure Chanyeol was steady against Kyungsoo.
“You are my best friend,” Chanyeol said, wrapping both arms around Kyungsoo’s body, and speaking very seriously.
Kyungsoo answered him in kind. “You are not the slightest bit cute.”
Chanyeol all but purred, rubbing his forehead against the side of Kyungsoo’s head. But Kyungsoo nudged him, as Kai flagged down a taxi.
“Okay, we’re going,” he said, and Kai opened the door so they could pour Chanyeol into the back seat.
“Thank you!” Chanyeol said, waving at Kai before Kyungsoo asked the driver to wait a moment, and closed the door.
“Really, thank you,” Kyungsoo said, and blinked, wondering why Kai was smirking at him.
“Looks like someone got you on the way in,” Kai said, biting his lower lip for a moment. “There’s a glitter handprint on your…”
Kyungsoo’s hand went to the back of his pants, and the laugh stumbled out.
“I’ll never let him hear the end of this.”
“We don’t get many people looking like you,” Kai said, and Kyungsoo tried not to hear it as a tease. “You’re always welcome back.”
“Probably not but…thanks. Thanks.”
Kai waved his fingers, and Kyungsoo only watched him walk away for a moment before getting into the front seat of the taxi.
He kept himself from looking to see if Kai had looked back. But he wondered.
***
“No, he did not,” Kyungsoo denied. He was fifteen feet away from the bar, more secure that time and more safely through the throngs. The call from Chanyeol’s phone - Kai speaking - had been short and to the point. Chanyeol wanted him to come.
But that didn’t explain why he was staring at Chanyeol sitting, rather sober-looking, with Baekhyun between his knees and leaning into him.
If Baekhyun was there, he had no idea why Chanyeol had wanted him to come. At least he hadn’t still been at work. He’d made it home, changed, and had even gotten to relax a little bit before the phone call.
“Hey,” he heard almost in his ear, and and jerked, staring and prepared to protect himself from someone wanting to hit on him or molest him. And saw Kai laughing at him. “Calm down, it’s just me.”
“I’m calm,” Kyungsoo protested. “What- I thought you were calling because Chanyeol needed my help again.”
Kai shrugged, putting himself perpendicular to Kyungsoo and blocking people from separating them. “He asked me to call you.”
Kyungsoo’s eyes narrowed. Maybe Kai had done it out of the goodness of his heart. Chanyeol could be persuasive when he wanted to be. “Paid you?” Kyungsoo ventured.
Kai’s little smirk confirmed it.
“Great. Well, I know not to believe you anymore,” Kyungsoo grumbled. “I’m really not a bar-“
“They wanted to get dinner, actually,” Kai said, interrupting his rant. “And I just ended my shift, so…”
Oh. Not just a sneak call to get Kyungsoo down and get him drunk and dancing. That’d happened a couple of times, which was how he knew it wasn’t for him. But it was a sneak call for a sneak setup. Baekhyun and Chanyeol, him and Kai. There was no graceful way for him to refuse a meal, especially when they’d been spotted and dragged out to conversation of what food everyone wanted.
“He was asking about you,” Chanyeol said, lips distressingly close and breath uncomfortably hot against Kyungsoo’s ear. “That’s why we set this up.”
“I don’t need you to set me up on dates,” Kyungsoo said, hissing the last word very quietly so Kai, walking with Baekhyun ahead of them, couldn’t hear.
“Just dinner! Friends!” Chanyeol said, flashing a winning smile. A winning smile to anyone else, when they weren’t being set up. He knew better. Maybe he was a little trusting and and fun to tease, but he was not by any means slow.
It just meant he had to be careful, because if he’d figured it out, then Kai probably had too. And he had either been party to it, or a innocent victim. And that Kyungsoo didn’t know which meant he was just going to have to bear it.
But his guard was down, as they approached the restaurant.
He stumbled, yelping, careening toward the only solid thing nearby - Kai. Kai staggered with the blow, but held, arms coming up around Kyungsoo even as he tried for balance. His mouth hit hard on Kai’s shoulder, and he inhaled in shock. Not just the night air, but Kai, heady, sharp and spicy. It cut through his senses, making his mouth wet, and melting down his back, even as he made a horrified sound and tried to right himself.
That was how it would feel, he thought, if Kai had led him out to dance. A body against his, being pressed together.
What he got was the very distinct memory of Kai’s hands steadying his waist, and Kai’s low laughter and voice asking if he was okay. His face was on fire as he turned, shooting Chanyeol a glare, even though Chanyeol met his eyes, confused about what he’d done.
“You pushed me.”
“I did? Oh! Oh. Sorry! No, really!”
Kyungsoo straightened his shirt, and tried to will the heat and color out of his face.
“Sorry,” he muttered in Kai’s direction.
“Don’t worry. Best thing that’s happened all night.”
Kyungsoo’s head shot up, trying to see what Kai meant by that, but Kai had already turned to follow Baekhyun into the restaurant.
“I really am sorry,” Chanyeol told Kyungsoo.
“It’s fine,” Kyungsoo said, and wished he could teleport to his room with a mug of tea and a book. Instead he was going to eat with two of his closest friends, and a guy who served alcohol for a living. Not that that was bad, except in the way that it kept interrupting his time alone. Okay, that was more Chanyeol’s fault than it was Kai’s fault, but he needed time to recharge from the work week, or he was just going to go in Monday morning and start chewing off limbs of middle management.
They got a table, at least, so he wasn’t sequestered into one side of a booth with Kai, since he knew Chanyeol and Baekhyun would be on each other like magnets. Partners in crime, they were sometimes referred to. That’d been how he’d known Baekhyun was for him, Chanyeol had said once, eyeing Baekhyun fondly. Anyone who could take Chanyeol, or one-up him, had to be kept. It meant Chanyeol kept a lot of people, but only one he’d ever looked at like he looked at Baekhyun.
Still, Kyungsoo did his best not to look at Kai too often, or at the wrist that was right in front of him and wrapped in some studded cuff. But without blaring music and no one at all inebriated or trying to smack Kyungsoo’s butt, it was pleasant. He told Kai a little bit about his job, mostly running numbers in a financial department and operating under strict deadlines and people who liked to make his life hard by losing receipts. There wasn’t much for Kai to tell that Kyungsoo didn’t already know. He worked at the bar most nights, liked dance as a hobby, sports. Nothing earth shattering as Kyungsoo nodded in not entirely feigned interest. He was fading, was the uncomfortable truth. He wasn’t sure why being an adult meant that he got tired at ridiculous hours. Though, he’d been up almost 17 hours by that point so he supposed he had a right to be feeling sleepy.
He wasn’t going to fall asleep in his tea in a restaurant.
“Right Kyungsoo?”
“Hm?” he asked, startling and looking up at Chanyeol who was sitting across from him.
“Did you hear anything I was saying?”
Kyungsoo swallowed hard, feeling the tips of his ears heat. “Sorry, I was drifting.”
“It’s past your bedtime, isn’t it?” Baekhyun asked.
“When you put it like that, it sounds like I’m five,” Kyungsoo complained. “But yeah, usually I’d be trying to fall asleep now.”
And there was nothing like being made to feel like he needed to be tucked in in front of a cute guy he’d already embarrassed himself in front of.
“If you guys want to keep talking, I’ll just go ahead and get a taxi.”
“No, we can all go,” Chanyeol said. “It was fun.”
“It was,” Kai agreed.
They all put in their share of money for the meal, and made their way outside.
“I’ll get the subway,” Kai said when they hit the street. “Thanks again.”
Kai met Kyungsoo’s eyes briefly before waving at them and walking off. He waved back, and by that time, Baekhyun had flagged a taxi. Kyungsoo’s head bobbed on Chanyeol’s shoulder all the way to his apartment building, and they wouldn’t let him pay for part of the fare. But as he showered, and fell face down in bed, he was thinking about the dinner, about how Kai had smelled, about his laugh during dinner. And then he slept hard.
***
Chanyeol was the world champion of wheedling. He didn’t know that there were guidelines or tests to measure it, but Kyungsoo knew without anything like that that Chanyeol would take all awards without breaking a sweat. Someone with that booming deep voice shouldn’t have been able to do that. But that was the thing. He got lulled in by Chanyeol coaxing him, and then had to jerk himself out of danger. Sometimes Chanyeol was subtle. The rest of the time, he was as subtle as a sharp stick.
"You should go back to the bar, Kyungsoo."
Kyungsoo was on his way up to his apartment, and all he wanted was dinner, a shower, and maybe to cuddle with his TV a little.
"I'm tired. I don't-"
"Kai wants to see you."
Kyungsoo stopped in the middle of the hallway. “He said that?"
"No, but I know he does."
“That doesn’t count,” Kyungsoo pointed out, and finally made it to his door.
“I’ll have him call you-“ And Chanyeol seemed to have a brainwave. “No. If you don’t go sometime, next time I see him I’ll give him your number.”
“Chanyeol. You don’t get to hold my phone number hostage for a dinner.”
“I hate to see people disappointed!”
So Chanyeol was worried that Kai would be disappointed? He didn’t see Chanyeol asking if Kyungsoo was interested. “Seems like you’re close with him.”
“I have a lot of friends, you know. A lot of male friends. Baekhyun doesn’t even side-eye all of them. You’re my friend too, you know? Unless you’re wanting in my pants. Maybe Baekhyun would let-“
A “No!” was heard very loudly in the background, and Chanyeol laughed loud enough that Kyungsoo had to pull the phone away from his ear.
“Look, even Baekhyun thinks it’s a good idea, and he usually kind of reins in the weird ones, right? So?”
And then all the ideas that Kyungsoo thought were equally as unwise and watched Baekhyun not only not stop them, but encourage them. He sighed.
***
Maybe Kyungsoo would have gone even without that call from Chanyeol. Maybe. He had a frightening amount of energy, and it was all nervous. He’d gotten changed when he got home from work with the likelihood of two unencumbered days stretching out in front of him. He hadn’t seen another friendly human being in almost week. He called Chanyeol, and Baekhyun, and got no answer. He tried other friends, who were bus. They invited him to join them but nothing felt right. He didn’t want to get drunk and bitch about work and want to go home and curl up in a ball.
He wanted a someone. Surely that wasn’t too much to ask. And the only guy he’d really felt an interest in was probably working.
Kai wants to see you.
Maybe he did. Maybe it was worth it. Maybe he’d get a drink and say he was just saying hello, and leave. He could do whatever he wanted. He felt reckless and empowered, and he rode that wave until he got all the way to the bar, where his courage and determination petered out the second recognition crossed Kai’s face.
“Hey,” Kai said, waving him up to an empty barstool. “What brings you here?”
He hadn’t wanted to be alone. He wanted to see a face that wanted to see him, and his friends were busy. He’d hoped that Kai would maybe flirt with him a little. Or go out with him. Or make him forget what a horrible week he was having at work - again.
“Chanyeol…” And no, that was the wrong approach. “I just needed to get out a while.”
“Did you want a drink?” Kai asked.
Kyungsoo met Kai’s eyes, startlingly direct. It almost made him miss that Kai’s mouth was slightly parted, and visions of kisses had him shaking his head.
“Uh. I don’t…” Going to a bar to see the bartender and not having a drink was tantamount to dressing in sequins and shouting that Kyungsoo was just there to see him. “Sure.”
“It’s still early. I know someone who makes a pretty good drink.” The sly tone let him know that Kai was congratulating himself. “What’ll you have?”
“You pick,” Kyungsoo said, and figured that was fairly safe. Kai wasn’t going to try and poison him if Chanyeol’s antics were true. As long as it wasn’t dripping with hard liquor, he could probably even still manage to walk out of the bar.
He watched Kai make his drink, and caught a whiff of coconut as it was pushed toward him.
“Here you go. On the house. I’m off work pretty soon, but take your time.”
Kai’s arms were bare again, and he watched as Kai picked up bottles and mixed drinks and leaned over to hand people glasses. There was a bit of a sheen, along one of his biceps, and Kyungsoo only momentarily imagined running his tongue along it. But he drank his drink, laced with rum and he wasn’t sure what else. It wormed through him, burned almost, and he hummed and sipped.
As Kai worked back his way, Kyungsoo’s teeth cut through the soft red flesh of the cherry Kai had included, and it tasted a bit like the drink. He considered going in for a second bite when movement had him glancing up. Kai, staring at the cherry dangling from his fingers. And then at his lips.
“What are you doing?” Kai asked.
“Finishing my drink. Why? What are you doing?”
Kai’s mouth twisted into a pout. “Hating my life choices.”
“And neglecting your customers,” Kyungsoo pointed out, and bit the rest of the cherry off the stem. “There. Want to get something to eat?”
“Fifteen minutes,” Kai said.
And it sounded a bit like a warning.
***
Kyungsoo had the grace to blush about thirty seconds later. That had almost been a come-on, and he couldn’t believe he’d done it. But he’d almost managed to erase that from his memory by the time that Kai was free. There were no detours to the dance floor, Kai collecting his things, and guiding Kyungsoo out into the night.
“How much alcohol did you put in that drink?” Kyungsoo asked.
Kai hesitated a moment. “Not much.”
“Didn’t want me drunk?”
“Or…I wanted to get you drunk when I could enjoy it.”
Those words made a shiver go down Kyungsoo’s back. They were halfway to he didn’t even know where, and he was with Kai and his wry chuckles, and he had no idea what he was doing. He stopped dead on the sidewalk, so abrupt that Kai immediately took notice and stopped too.
“I’m sorry, I really shouldn’t have come tonight. I should-“
“What? Why?” Kai asked, stepping up to him.
“I know Chanyeol’s been pushing you. Me. Everything, since the start. I don’t want you to be obligated just because-”
“I told Chanyeol I wanted him to call you down again when he thanked me,” Kai corrected him. “You were all buttoned up, so proper. And you looked like you had a headache brewing, marching through the crowd like a general.”
“It was a bad day. Bad week,” Kyungsoo corrected.
“You’re a good friend. So now you know I wanted to see you. So why did you come tonight? You knew when I was getting off work?”
“Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo said, as though that explained everything.
“He told you to come?”
“No. He just gave me times. Bar hopping isn’t really my thing.”
“That’s okay. I get enough of it working there.” And Kai paused. “I was just hoping you wanted to buy me dinner.”
Kyungsoo had to laugh at the honesty, but his cheeks were hot at the same time.
“Everyone seemed to have something going tonight. I just…didn’t want to sit at home alone.
Kai’s face softened, and Kyungsoo had the thought that he should want to turn away again before he said something ridiculous. He was tired, and he was a bit tipsy, and he wasn’t even sure if he could hold a conversation through dinner.
“This has been a shitty week, too?” Kai asked.
“Yeah,” Kyungsoo sighed.
“Come with me,” Kai said, and took his arm.
He was fine being led. He didn’t even trip over his feet as he had to rush a bit to keep up with Kai’s strides. They walked a couple of blocks, turned and walked a couple more and Kyungsoo was feeling it, puffing a little bit.
“Let’s see a movie instead,” Kai suggested, point up at the building they’d stopped in front of. At least he’d asked before hauling Kyungsoo inside. A movie sounded great. He could stare at Kai’s knees and maybe laugh with him, and watch him eat popcorn, and his brain wouldn’t want to melt down. It was perfect.
“Great!” Kyungsoo said, and the word came out far more chipper than he’d actually meant it to. So he laughed an awkward laugh, and for some reason Kai was laughing with him. Not at him.
They chose the movie starting soonest, and bought their tickets and loaded up with snacks and found their theater. Kyungsoo hadn’t seen it yet, some kind of drama, but it looked interesting enough. It could’ve been about beekeeping, and he might not have cared. He just took care not to weave as he walked. He wasn’t drunk, didn’t feel drunk, but he had never felt so relieved as when they’d taken their seats. Kai had on some kind of jacket, and Kyungsoo regretted the lack of Kai’s arms in his peripheral vision.
He inhaled the scent of popcorn, and took a drag on his Coke, and felt his life sort of right itself. It was going to be dark. He didn’t have to be embarrassed. He wasn’t totally boring or weird, and Kai wouldn’t think so after he went home.
“This was a good idea,” he murmured.
The grin that Kai flashed him had his stomach squirming. Least opportune moment for his crush to decimate him.
At least he hadn’t told Kai he was cute out loud.
He’d mowed through his snacks, getting halfway done even before the movie started. He finished up fifteen minutes in, arranging himself to watch and not eat.
Ten minutes after that, his eyelids were drooping. He was just going to rest them. Again, he stared at Kai’s shoulder and wished it were bare. But even so, the closer he got, he could still smell that same scent he’d smelled the night they’d had dinner. It was comforting, and exciting, and it made him smile. Just one moment with his eyes closed.
He jolted when Kai poked his arm, and then peeled his face off of Kai’s shoulder.
“Wha?’
“The movie’s over,” Kai said.
No, it couldn’t be. He’d closed his eyes for only a moment, he swore. But the lights had gone up and people were leaving.
“Oh,” he said intelligently. And then scrambled to pick up his trash so they could go and not sit there ridiculously. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Kai said, and followed him out.
Kyungsoo wondered what to say the whole elevator ride down. Sorry for crashing his work, and then giving up dinner plans only to fall asleep on him literally in the theater.
“I’m really sorry for falling asleep in there,” Kyungsoo said, deciding the simplest was best once they hit the street.
“Really, it’s okay. I figure you sleep when you need it. The movie wasn’t that great anyway so you didn’t miss much.”
Oh, great. So he’d made Kai sit through a bad movie and slept on him. Even better.
They caught a taxi together, and Kyungsoo rested his head back against the headrest.
“I live really close,” Kai told him. “If you want to…? Unless you need to get home.”
“Okay,” Kyungsoo agreed. And he didn’t open his eyes until he felt a touch on his cheek. “What?”
Kai’s thumb was tracing his skin, and Kyungsoo forgot to breathe for a moment.
“You have an imprint of my jacket on your cheek,” Kai said. “It’s cute.”
It didn’t feel cute. It felt deliriously hot to his face and neck, and he wondered just how tipsy he still was. He couldn’t be, after eating and napping. Embarrassment and pleasure fought bitterly inside him, and he wasn’t sure that pleasure won. But Kai paid the driver, leading Kyungsoo up a couple of flights of stairs. He’d get to see where Kai lived.
And he was so tired he would have curled up in the hallway and slept if Kai had paused too long. He never did well when he was tired. He got a little whiny, and he got terribly agreeable. He had the sudden thought that maybe Kai had asked him up to have sex with him. And he dismissed that, because out of all the really hot people that passed through the bar, none of them would fall asleep and hopefully not drool on Kai’s jacket. He was in a special class there. But he couldn’t really imagine why Kai had brought him otherwise, as he stumbled out of his shoes, and got steadied by Kai’s hand
“There’s the bathroom,” Kai pointed out. “If you need it?”
Kyungsoo stared at the open bathroom door for a generous two seconds before realizing Kai was offering the use of it. Which sounded like a good idea. He even splashed some cold water on his face in hopes it’d bring some kind of order to his thoughts.
He wandered out, feeling meek, and eyeballing the stacks of things scattered around. Not a fastidious housekeeper, Kai. But his bathroom hadn’t smelled, and had been fairly clean. He wondered for the fifteenth time what he was doing there. He would have made a good of conversational partner as a statue.
“Hey,” Kai said, sounding a bit breathless and coming up beside him. “I have an extra mattress for the floor, and blankets. It’s comfortable. You look wiped.”
All Kyungsoo wanted to hear from a man who looked like he should be rolling sexily around with some hottie.
Kai was offering him a place to sleep. That he realized about ten seconds later. He could catch a taxi and go home. Or he could do what his body was crying out to do, and curl up under the tempting pile of blankets that Kai was trying to show him. Two mattresses shoved together in a small room.
“Okay,” he said. “That’s okay.”
Everything was okay. Life was okay. Kai was okay. Bed was okay.
“You didn’t need to go home, right?” Kai asked.
“No,” Kyungsoo said.
His head swam slightly as he closed his eyes, and he helped Kai to take off his jacket, and his shirt. He’d been mostly horizontal when Kai yanked off his jeans.
“Is it okay?” he heard Kai ask, as Kyungsoo pressed his face into the pillow.
“It’s okay,” Kyungsoo sighed.
He just drifted away.
***
When Kyungsoo woke, It was light. He squinted at the ceiling and wondered exactly how long he’d slept. He fondled the blanket over him and knew it wasn’t his own. He was in Kai’s apartment. He’d gone home with Kai.
Kai hadn’t even tried to sleep with him. He wasn’t sure if he should feel relieved or regretful.
He tried recalling any embarrassing things he’d said, and it just made him remember feeling exhausted and being tucked in. He’d been like a little lamb following Kai home. Or maybe it was a lost puppy. Great, pump a little alcohol into him, combine that with exhaustion, and he basically had no self-preservation at all.
“You’re awake,” Kai said, and Kyungsoo’s arm shot up to make sure his hair wasn’t standing on end.
“I am,” he said, clearing his throat. He risked glancing at Kai who was in some soft-looking tank top and looked too good for whatever hour of the day it actually was. “Thanks for putting me up. Sorry I kind of passed out on you.”
“Don’t worry. You apologized last night, but you didn’t have to.”
“I bet you didn’t expect me to be one of the guys trying to go home with you.”
That had been meant to be a joke. It mostly horrified him in the way it came out.
“Only the ones who fall asleep on me,” Kai said. “Hang on one second.”
Maybe Kyungsoo could get eaten by the walls while was at it. But Kai was only gone long enough for Kyungsoo to properly roll over and sit up, and then Kai was offering him something across the empty mattress.
“Tea,” Kai said, the word cautious as though Kyungsoo were looking at him as though he were handing him liquid explosives mixed with cyanide or something.
He could look concerned, all his friends had told him. It was just his face, though, not actually what he was feeling. Though, he was concerned, because he could feel his naked thighs rubbing together and Kai was not that great a distance away with only a blanket between them.
“Thanks, that sounds really good,” he said, scooting closer with a death grip on blanket.
He took it carefully by the handle, his fingers brushing Kai’s. It was hot, but not too hot, and it gave him time to think as he stared at his clothes. Five feet away, and Kai still in the room. He could waddle there in the blanket, he supposed.
“You sleep okay?”
“I did,” Kyungsoo said. Like the dead. The alcohol, the movie, the mattress. Something about that combination had knocked him out cold. He didn’t remember moving, even, and usually in an unfamiliar place and sleeping next to someone he was hyper careful.
The sound of his ringtone blaring from his jacket had him jerking, and Kai was quick. All Kyungsoo saw were legs beneath Kai’s shorts, and then his jacket was being shoved at him. He fumbled to get his phone out, panicking as he set down the tea.
“Hello?” he said, fumbling it to his ear. It was his mom. His mom. His mom he’d made plans to meet which meant she was standing at his apartment door, and he was not there because he was in the bedroom of a strange man. He almost cursed into the phone. “Mom. I’m sorry! I went out and didn’t even think about it. Why don’t I meet you at the restaurant? I’ll get the first train, so I shouldn’t be long. Okay?”
He did scramble out of bed then, uncaring that he was half naked. He shoved his legs into his pants, sitting on the edge of the chair to tug on his socks, and then start buttoning his shirt up. At least Kai had thought to help undress him or he’d have had to have borrowed a shirt or go totally wrinkled. Which, since he was meeting his mom would be a bad thing.
“Use anything in the bathroom,” Kai instructed, all but ushering Kyungsoo into it when Kyungsoo looked up at him with questions on the tip of his tongue. He washed his face, combing his hair down, and looked at the mouthwash and rejected it. The tea would have to do. Between phone call and exiting the bathroom to grab his jacket and phone, it’d been five minutes, and he was on his way to the door to get his shoes.
“Thank you for last night,” he babbled out as he got one shoe on. “I’m really sorry I fell asleep on you. Uhh. Thanks for letting me stay over? Sorry I have to go like this-“
He had the door open when a paper was shoved in his face.
“Here,” Kai said. “Have a nice lunch.”
Kyungsoo blinked at him. “Thanks. Bye.”
Kyungsoo was on the train by the time he opened the paper. It was Kai’s cell phone number. And in smudged, rather loose handwriting beneath it: “We don’t have to meet at the bar.”
He flushed red, right there on the train, and keyed in Kai’s cell phone number. At the surface, he made his way toward the restaurant where he was meeting his mom. He waited for a light, and before he could stop himself, picturing Kai’s face that morning, he texted, “When do you get off work tomorrow?”
“Same time. Don’t you work the next day?”
He did but he didn’t really care. He’d lose his nerve if he waited days. He’d be tied up the rest of the day with his family, but there was no reason he couldn’t be free part of the weekend. He typed in the closest subway stop to him. “I work, but meet me and I won’t have far to go home.”
He was almost to the restaurant when Kai texted back. “Is it an apology or a date?”
Kyungsoo actually stopped, having to scramble out of the way of pedestrians as his heart took off. He wanted to qualify it. It was an apology and a thank you. And it could be a date. But he sent back, “A date.”
And waited breathlessly. If that was what Kai wanted, after ferrying his half conscious body around all night. If all he’d wanted was to sleep with Kyungsoo, he could’ve. Though perhaps he liked his partners to be awake when the deed was done. If all Kai wanted was to sleep with someone, like Kyungsoo had thought, he could choose from anyone at the bar.
“:) Meet you there.”
Kyungsoo’s knees wobbled a little as he walked, and he had to actually swallow his smile as he walked into the restaurant.
Mothers. They had a way of picking up on things.
***
Kyungsoo called Baekhyun the next day because it seemed like the logical thing to do when he was having a crisis.
“Chanyeol kept trying to push Kai at me. Does he just want to sleep with me?”
“Chanye- Oh wait, Kai? No? I mean, when he was talking to us he said you were cute. And he smiled at you when you weren’t looking during dinner.”
A predatory smile, or a wanting-to-know-him smile. He could imagine both on Kai’s face.
“Why do you want to know?” Baekhyun asked.
He didn’t really want to jinx it, but there was no real way of getting out of telling. Plus, it was partly Baekhyun’s fault that it was happening at all.
“We’re having dinner tonight,” he said.
“A date! Chanyeol’s-“
“Not going to know about it,” Kyungsoo interrupted. “He’ll call me. You know he will. And he’ll have advice.”
Baekhyun made a non-committal sound at that. “But it’s- You know I… Keeping things from him!”
“Just ’til tomorrow. If it’s not too late, I’ll text.”
If he was thinking of them at all. With luck, he’d still feel human enough to do so.
***
Kai looked nice, a jacket over nice jeans and a shirt Kyungsoo couldn’t see. He chewed on his bottom lip as he beelined for Kai, being spotted halfway there as Kai came up out of the subway.
“You made it.”
“Yeah,” Kai said.
“Work was okay?”
Kai shrugged one shoulder. “Served a lot of liquor, but it’s nice to be in fresh air again.”
Kyungsoo nodded, trying to keep his expression earnest as he was working up the courage to say what he needed to, before they got to anything else. Sure, Kai had agreed to the date, but he could still think that Kyungsoo was still some kind of strange person who tried to take guys out and ran away and passed out on them.
“I just wanted to thank you for, well, everything last night,” Kyungsoo said.
“So it’s a thank you dinner?”
“No,” Kyungsoo said, shaking his head and smoothing a wrinkle in the front of Kai’s jacket before looking up at him. “It’s a date.”
***
Kyungsoo bought dinner, which he thought was fitting since he was older. That was just one of the things he learned that night. And he saw a different side of Kai, one that wasn’t Flirty Bartender, or the guy playing it cool. He got shy smiles and awkward laughs and interest sparking in Kai’s eyes as they talked about movies. Movies they’d both seen, not ones Kyungsoo had slept through. What Kyungsoo had taken as a lack of interest, he realized was a shy kind of awkwardness. It melted little by little, revealing someone nice beyond the nice arms and stubborn chin.
It didn’t stomp on his ill-advised hope as much as it did inflate it, decorated with nerves and hope that Kai didn’t see him as boring. He worked in a bar, and Kyungsoo was usually a patron in the corner making calf eyes to go home. He didn’t got out on dates with strangers after a few meetings. He sat in his office, and he laughed at the antics of his friends, and amused everyone with vocal impersonations and he took care of people. He wasn’t hot, or cool, or particularly desirable. He had his charms, he knew that. He didn’t have the self esteem of a cockroach. But finding guys that looked at him and maybe wonder if he was a bit more than he thought - that didn’t happen every day.
Baekhyun had said Kai thought he was cute. Every time he got a bit stressed, he reminded himself of that. He’d been crabby and not at his best, and Kai had thought he was cute. That had a smile on his face as they walked back toward the subway stop together.
“Thanks for dinner,” Kai said, stopping him.
His eyebrows rose as Kai stopped him, boxed him back toward the building beside him.
He knew the moves. The way Kai curled his fingers over Kyungsoo’s shoulder, his shoulders slumping, leaning in. It gave him several seconds to compose himself, blowing out a breath and dragging one in and tilting up his chin so that Kai’s lips could press to his. He didn’t have to wonder if Kai wanted it, if he was meeting a kiss only to be polite. A sweet press of lips, as he shivered from Kai’s thumb along his neck.
“Thanks,” Kai repeated.
“Was that a thank you kiss or a first date kiss?” Kyungsoo asked, his stomach trembling as he teased.
“Second date kiss,” Kai said, his voice lower than it had any right being, dark and rough. It pinned Kyungsoo against the wall, more so than Kai’s presence did.
Second date. First date, the movie. And the sleeping over. Second date, dinner, and kissing.
“Too bad I wasn’t awake enough for us to do that last night.”
Kai grinned at him, something that went just a bit roguish, which was all the encouragement he needed to press up against Kai’s mouth again.
“I’ll text you tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Kai mumbled against his lips. And that preceded two or three, or maybe five more kisses. He wasn’t really counting, given that Kai’s thumb was tracing his ear and it was sending all kinds of tingles down his neck. All they were doing was pressing lingering kisses to each other’s mouths, and maybe he was stroking Kai’s lower back, and it was so completely different to where they’d been the day before, or to how he’d been feeling the day before.
“I should probably sleep,” Kyungsoo murmured, after he’d pressed half a dozen kisses to Kai’s jaw before realizing that was probably a bad decision. But it was there, and Kai was breathing against him, so he’d had a hard time stopping.
But as Kai blinked and met his eyes, Kyungsoo kissed him again.
***
Pairing: Kai/Kyungsoo
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU
Summary: Kyungsoo blinked up at him. Tall, ink-blank hair in the light and white, white teeth. And at least a mile of bare, toned arms.
A/N: Adding this link, because this is the businessman!Kyungsoo that started it all.
***
Bars weren’t Kyungsoo’s scene. Going to bars after getting out of a very stressful workweek while still in his suit and tie sounded like hell. Having to detour from the office to a crowded, hot room full of people, was not his idea of a good time.
But he was a good friend. And that was why he pushed through the crowd. He tried to stay near the edges of the dance floor, thinking they’d be sparser, but he had to detour around couples making out and grinding.
A girl approached him first, grabbing his arm and careening dangerously close to his face.
“Sorry. Friend,” he hollered, pulling away.
He was pretty sure she’d kissed his face, which made him want to go wash, but he kept soldiering on. More apologies, more near-misses.
He hollered in a different way when someone slapped his ass, but he didn’t even turn to see who it was, just edging between bodies and watching his target come into focus.
A mop of reddish-blond hair swaying at the bar, even if he was sitting down. Chanyeol, who’d texted him to come get him please sadface.
Kyungsoo rubbed his forehead, and smoothed down his tie, and marched up to the bar.
“Chanyeol!”
“Oh! D.O.!”
Old nickname, because of his surname. He sighed. Chanyeol only called him that when he was well and tipsy. He seemed surprised to see him, as though he hadn’t asked him to come.
The bartender drifted over. “Did you- Oh, you’re Chanyeol’s friend. You made it.”
Kyungsoo blinked up at him. Tall, ink-blank hair in the light and white, white teeth.
And at least a mile of bare, toned arms.
Kyungsoo’s eyes snapped up again. “Yes. Sorry. Has he been trouble?”
“He was good-natured when I cut him off. Kyungsoo, right? I’m Kai.”
“Nice to meet you,” Kyungsoo said automatically, head dipping.
“You look like you had quite a trip through the dance floor.”
He blinked, and Kai pointed at his own jaw. “A little lipstick.”
Oh. That girl. He scrubbed at his skin with the back of his hand.
“He asked me to text you with his phone. Something about his thumbs not working right.”
Kyungsoo chuckled, and brought his hand down on Chanyeol’s shoulder hard.
“Where’s Baekhyun?”
The sulky set of Chanyeol’s mouth told him all he needed to know there. Fighting, or busy, he didn’t know, but it clearly wasn’t too serious since Chanyeol wasn’t moping.
“Stay and have a drink,” Kai offered. “He’s not going anywhere. Just sitting and singing for the last half hour.”
So basically he owed Kai a massive tip and Chanyeol was going to pay him back. He stared at Chanyeol’s pants and wondered how wise it was to try and extract money from him right then. Chanyeol might be a happy drunk, but stupid he wasn’t.
“No, I think we should get going,” Kyungsoo said. “I’m not exactly dressed to be here, and I don’t want him passing out or throwing up on me.”
“Yeah, you’re a little…overdressed,” Kai said, leaning over the bar and taking a look down Kyungsoo’s body, before moving away to help another customer.
He had no idea why that made him flush, but it did, and he took a deep breath and pulled out his wallet. The wallet he’d safeguarded all across the dance floor. Who knew where pickpockets were.
“Did he settle up with you for his drinks?” Kyungsoo asked, when Kai came back.
“Yeah, we’re square.”
Good. One thing he didn’t have to pay for. He had no idea how much Chanyeol’d had to drink, so he really kind of had to guess. Peeling off bills, and calculating in his head how much it usually took to get Chanyeol in that state. He peeled off two more, for the half hour of babysitting and texting, and then on a whim, another for Kai having the common sense to cut Chanyeol off before he became truly ill.
Kai seemed to almost mean to protest, but Kyungsoo shook his head, shoving the money into Kai’s hands.
“Thanks for everything,” he said.
Kai shrugged, pocketing it. “That’s my job. You going to be okay hauling him out on your own?”
Kyungsoo’s eyes swept from Chanyeol’s boots to the top of his head, and had the sudden mental image of Chanyeol tripping and falling right over on him. In addition to the concussion, he’d have six feet of flailing limbs trapping him. His wince was only half imagination, because that’d happened at least once before. Minus the concussion, but Chanyeol wasn’t more in control of his limbs when he’d had a bit too much to drink. Actually, Chanyeol’s main two modes of drunkenness were either scarily zen, or inhumanly cheerful. He also made the saddest drunk ever, but luckily Kyungsoo had only seen that once, during a brief breakup.
But his hesitation showed, as Chanyeol lifted his head like a dumb puppy and grinned between them.
“I’ll help you get him out,” Kai said.
Kyungsoo wasn’t going to argue, watching and making a plan of attack as Kai wiped his hands and signaled he was leaving for a moment to his fellow bartender.
“I like this place,” Chanyeol burbled. “Baekhyun does, too. He was busybusy, family bee.”
Any second Chanyeol was going to do something cutesy and Kyungsoo’s frustration was going to melt. He’d figure out why Chanyeol decided to go alone some other time. He sighed, and sent a helpless smile at Kai.
“Okay, let’s stand up, Chanyeol. One, two, three.”
“Whoo!”
With Kai on one side, and Kyungsoo on the other, Chanyeol was steady.
“No dance moves while we’re walking,” Kyungsoo cautioned him.
“I’m not that drunk,” Chanyeol protested. “I don’t want to break something.”
“This way,” Kai said, and took them out a shorter, calmer way. A way Kyungsoo would’ve paid money to know about, given how he’d made the trip the first time.
It was more than just a breath of fresh air, getting onto the street. All his tension kind of melting, even if he did have Chanyeol waddling with them.
“I’ll get you a taxi,” Kai said, and made sure Chanyeol was steady against Kyungsoo.
“You are my best friend,” Chanyeol said, wrapping both arms around Kyungsoo’s body, and speaking very seriously.
Kyungsoo answered him in kind. “You are not the slightest bit cute.”
Chanyeol all but purred, rubbing his forehead against the side of Kyungsoo’s head. But Kyungsoo nudged him, as Kai flagged down a taxi.
“Okay, we’re going,” he said, and Kai opened the door so they could pour Chanyeol into the back seat.
“Thank you!” Chanyeol said, waving at Kai before Kyungsoo asked the driver to wait a moment, and closed the door.
“Really, thank you,” Kyungsoo said, and blinked, wondering why Kai was smirking at him.
“Looks like someone got you on the way in,” Kai said, biting his lower lip for a moment. “There’s a glitter handprint on your…”
Kyungsoo’s hand went to the back of his pants, and the laugh stumbled out.
“I’ll never let him hear the end of this.”
“We don’t get many people looking like you,” Kai said, and Kyungsoo tried not to hear it as a tease. “You’re always welcome back.”
“Probably not but…thanks. Thanks.”
Kai waved his fingers, and Kyungsoo only watched him walk away for a moment before getting into the front seat of the taxi.
He kept himself from looking to see if Kai had looked back. But he wondered.
***
“No, he did not,” Kyungsoo denied. He was fifteen feet away from the bar, more secure that time and more safely through the throngs. The call from Chanyeol’s phone - Kai speaking - had been short and to the point. Chanyeol wanted him to come.
But that didn’t explain why he was staring at Chanyeol sitting, rather sober-looking, with Baekhyun between his knees and leaning into him.
If Baekhyun was there, he had no idea why Chanyeol had wanted him to come. At least he hadn’t still been at work. He’d made it home, changed, and had even gotten to relax a little bit before the phone call.
“Hey,” he heard almost in his ear, and and jerked, staring and prepared to protect himself from someone wanting to hit on him or molest him. And saw Kai laughing at him. “Calm down, it’s just me.”
“I’m calm,” Kyungsoo protested. “What- I thought you were calling because Chanyeol needed my help again.”
Kai shrugged, putting himself perpendicular to Kyungsoo and blocking people from separating them. “He asked me to call you.”
Kyungsoo’s eyes narrowed. Maybe Kai had done it out of the goodness of his heart. Chanyeol could be persuasive when he wanted to be. “Paid you?” Kyungsoo ventured.
Kai’s little smirk confirmed it.
“Great. Well, I know not to believe you anymore,” Kyungsoo grumbled. “I’m really not a bar-“
“They wanted to get dinner, actually,” Kai said, interrupting his rant. “And I just ended my shift, so…”
Oh. Not just a sneak call to get Kyungsoo down and get him drunk and dancing. That’d happened a couple of times, which was how he knew it wasn’t for him. But it was a sneak call for a sneak setup. Baekhyun and Chanyeol, him and Kai. There was no graceful way for him to refuse a meal, especially when they’d been spotted and dragged out to conversation of what food everyone wanted.
“He was asking about you,” Chanyeol said, lips distressingly close and breath uncomfortably hot against Kyungsoo’s ear. “That’s why we set this up.”
“I don’t need you to set me up on dates,” Kyungsoo said, hissing the last word very quietly so Kai, walking with Baekhyun ahead of them, couldn’t hear.
“Just dinner! Friends!” Chanyeol said, flashing a winning smile. A winning smile to anyone else, when they weren’t being set up. He knew better. Maybe he was a little trusting and and fun to tease, but he was not by any means slow.
It just meant he had to be careful, because if he’d figured it out, then Kai probably had too. And he had either been party to it, or a innocent victim. And that Kyungsoo didn’t know which meant he was just going to have to bear it.
But his guard was down, as they approached the restaurant.
He stumbled, yelping, careening toward the only solid thing nearby - Kai. Kai staggered with the blow, but held, arms coming up around Kyungsoo even as he tried for balance. His mouth hit hard on Kai’s shoulder, and he inhaled in shock. Not just the night air, but Kai, heady, sharp and spicy. It cut through his senses, making his mouth wet, and melting down his back, even as he made a horrified sound and tried to right himself.
That was how it would feel, he thought, if Kai had led him out to dance. A body against his, being pressed together.
What he got was the very distinct memory of Kai’s hands steadying his waist, and Kai’s low laughter and voice asking if he was okay. His face was on fire as he turned, shooting Chanyeol a glare, even though Chanyeol met his eyes, confused about what he’d done.
“You pushed me.”
“I did? Oh! Oh. Sorry! No, really!”
Kyungsoo straightened his shirt, and tried to will the heat and color out of his face.
“Sorry,” he muttered in Kai’s direction.
“Don’t worry. Best thing that’s happened all night.”
Kyungsoo’s head shot up, trying to see what Kai meant by that, but Kai had already turned to follow Baekhyun into the restaurant.
“I really am sorry,” Chanyeol told Kyungsoo.
“It’s fine,” Kyungsoo said, and wished he could teleport to his room with a mug of tea and a book. Instead he was going to eat with two of his closest friends, and a guy who served alcohol for a living. Not that that was bad, except in the way that it kept interrupting his time alone. Okay, that was more Chanyeol’s fault than it was Kai’s fault, but he needed time to recharge from the work week, or he was just going to go in Monday morning and start chewing off limbs of middle management.
They got a table, at least, so he wasn’t sequestered into one side of a booth with Kai, since he knew Chanyeol and Baekhyun would be on each other like magnets. Partners in crime, they were sometimes referred to. That’d been how he’d known Baekhyun was for him, Chanyeol had said once, eyeing Baekhyun fondly. Anyone who could take Chanyeol, or one-up him, had to be kept. It meant Chanyeol kept a lot of people, but only one he’d ever looked at like he looked at Baekhyun.
Still, Kyungsoo did his best not to look at Kai too often, or at the wrist that was right in front of him and wrapped in some studded cuff. But without blaring music and no one at all inebriated or trying to smack Kyungsoo’s butt, it was pleasant. He told Kai a little bit about his job, mostly running numbers in a financial department and operating under strict deadlines and people who liked to make his life hard by losing receipts. There wasn’t much for Kai to tell that Kyungsoo didn’t already know. He worked at the bar most nights, liked dance as a hobby, sports. Nothing earth shattering as Kyungsoo nodded in not entirely feigned interest. He was fading, was the uncomfortable truth. He wasn’t sure why being an adult meant that he got tired at ridiculous hours. Though, he’d been up almost 17 hours by that point so he supposed he had a right to be feeling sleepy.
He wasn’t going to fall asleep in his tea in a restaurant.
“Right Kyungsoo?”
“Hm?” he asked, startling and looking up at Chanyeol who was sitting across from him.
“Did you hear anything I was saying?”
Kyungsoo swallowed hard, feeling the tips of his ears heat. “Sorry, I was drifting.”
“It’s past your bedtime, isn’t it?” Baekhyun asked.
“When you put it like that, it sounds like I’m five,” Kyungsoo complained. “But yeah, usually I’d be trying to fall asleep now.”
And there was nothing like being made to feel like he needed to be tucked in in front of a cute guy he’d already embarrassed himself in front of.
“If you guys want to keep talking, I’ll just go ahead and get a taxi.”
“No, we can all go,” Chanyeol said. “It was fun.”
“It was,” Kai agreed.
They all put in their share of money for the meal, and made their way outside.
“I’ll get the subway,” Kai said when they hit the street. “Thanks again.”
Kai met Kyungsoo’s eyes briefly before waving at them and walking off. He waved back, and by that time, Baekhyun had flagged a taxi. Kyungsoo’s head bobbed on Chanyeol’s shoulder all the way to his apartment building, and they wouldn’t let him pay for part of the fare. But as he showered, and fell face down in bed, he was thinking about the dinner, about how Kai had smelled, about his laugh during dinner. And then he slept hard.
***
Chanyeol was the world champion of wheedling. He didn’t know that there were guidelines or tests to measure it, but Kyungsoo knew without anything like that that Chanyeol would take all awards without breaking a sweat. Someone with that booming deep voice shouldn’t have been able to do that. But that was the thing. He got lulled in by Chanyeol coaxing him, and then had to jerk himself out of danger. Sometimes Chanyeol was subtle. The rest of the time, he was as subtle as a sharp stick.
"You should go back to the bar, Kyungsoo."
Kyungsoo was on his way up to his apartment, and all he wanted was dinner, a shower, and maybe to cuddle with his TV a little.
"I'm tired. I don't-"
"Kai wants to see you."
Kyungsoo stopped in the middle of the hallway. “He said that?"
"No, but I know he does."
“That doesn’t count,” Kyungsoo pointed out, and finally made it to his door.
“I’ll have him call you-“ And Chanyeol seemed to have a brainwave. “No. If you don’t go sometime, next time I see him I’ll give him your number.”
“Chanyeol. You don’t get to hold my phone number hostage for a dinner.”
“I hate to see people disappointed!”
So Chanyeol was worried that Kai would be disappointed? He didn’t see Chanyeol asking if Kyungsoo was interested. “Seems like you’re close with him.”
“I have a lot of friends, you know. A lot of male friends. Baekhyun doesn’t even side-eye all of them. You’re my friend too, you know? Unless you’re wanting in my pants. Maybe Baekhyun would let-“
A “No!” was heard very loudly in the background, and Chanyeol laughed loud enough that Kyungsoo had to pull the phone away from his ear.
“Look, even Baekhyun thinks it’s a good idea, and he usually kind of reins in the weird ones, right? So?”
And then all the ideas that Kyungsoo thought were equally as unwise and watched Baekhyun not only not stop them, but encourage them. He sighed.
***
Maybe Kyungsoo would have gone even without that call from Chanyeol. Maybe. He had a frightening amount of energy, and it was all nervous. He’d gotten changed when he got home from work with the likelihood of two unencumbered days stretching out in front of him. He hadn’t seen another friendly human being in almost week. He called Chanyeol, and Baekhyun, and got no answer. He tried other friends, who were bus. They invited him to join them but nothing felt right. He didn’t want to get drunk and bitch about work and want to go home and curl up in a ball.
He wanted a someone. Surely that wasn’t too much to ask. And the only guy he’d really felt an interest in was probably working.
Kai wants to see you.
Maybe he did. Maybe it was worth it. Maybe he’d get a drink and say he was just saying hello, and leave. He could do whatever he wanted. He felt reckless and empowered, and he rode that wave until he got all the way to the bar, where his courage and determination petered out the second recognition crossed Kai’s face.
“Hey,” Kai said, waving him up to an empty barstool. “What brings you here?”
He hadn’t wanted to be alone. He wanted to see a face that wanted to see him, and his friends were busy. He’d hoped that Kai would maybe flirt with him a little. Or go out with him. Or make him forget what a horrible week he was having at work - again.
“Chanyeol…” And no, that was the wrong approach. “I just needed to get out a while.”
“Did you want a drink?” Kai asked.
Kyungsoo met Kai’s eyes, startlingly direct. It almost made him miss that Kai’s mouth was slightly parted, and visions of kisses had him shaking his head.
“Uh. I don’t…” Going to a bar to see the bartender and not having a drink was tantamount to dressing in sequins and shouting that Kyungsoo was just there to see him. “Sure.”
“It’s still early. I know someone who makes a pretty good drink.” The sly tone let him know that Kai was congratulating himself. “What’ll you have?”
“You pick,” Kyungsoo said, and figured that was fairly safe. Kai wasn’t going to try and poison him if Chanyeol’s antics were true. As long as it wasn’t dripping with hard liquor, he could probably even still manage to walk out of the bar.
He watched Kai make his drink, and caught a whiff of coconut as it was pushed toward him.
“Here you go. On the house. I’m off work pretty soon, but take your time.”
Kai’s arms were bare again, and he watched as Kai picked up bottles and mixed drinks and leaned over to hand people glasses. There was a bit of a sheen, along one of his biceps, and Kyungsoo only momentarily imagined running his tongue along it. But he drank his drink, laced with rum and he wasn’t sure what else. It wormed through him, burned almost, and he hummed and sipped.
As Kai worked back his way, Kyungsoo’s teeth cut through the soft red flesh of the cherry Kai had included, and it tasted a bit like the drink. He considered going in for a second bite when movement had him glancing up. Kai, staring at the cherry dangling from his fingers. And then at his lips.
“What are you doing?” Kai asked.
“Finishing my drink. Why? What are you doing?”
Kai’s mouth twisted into a pout. “Hating my life choices.”
“And neglecting your customers,” Kyungsoo pointed out, and bit the rest of the cherry off the stem. “There. Want to get something to eat?”
“Fifteen minutes,” Kai said.
And it sounded a bit like a warning.
***
Kyungsoo had the grace to blush about thirty seconds later. That had almost been a come-on, and he couldn’t believe he’d done it. But he’d almost managed to erase that from his memory by the time that Kai was free. There were no detours to the dance floor, Kai collecting his things, and guiding Kyungsoo out into the night.
“How much alcohol did you put in that drink?” Kyungsoo asked.
Kai hesitated a moment. “Not much.”
“Didn’t want me drunk?”
“Or…I wanted to get you drunk when I could enjoy it.”
Those words made a shiver go down Kyungsoo’s back. They were halfway to he didn’t even know where, and he was with Kai and his wry chuckles, and he had no idea what he was doing. He stopped dead on the sidewalk, so abrupt that Kai immediately took notice and stopped too.
“I’m sorry, I really shouldn’t have come tonight. I should-“
“What? Why?” Kai asked, stepping up to him.
“I know Chanyeol’s been pushing you. Me. Everything, since the start. I don’t want you to be obligated just because-”
“I told Chanyeol I wanted him to call you down again when he thanked me,” Kai corrected him. “You were all buttoned up, so proper. And you looked like you had a headache brewing, marching through the crowd like a general.”
“It was a bad day. Bad week,” Kyungsoo corrected.
“You’re a good friend. So now you know I wanted to see you. So why did you come tonight? You knew when I was getting off work?”
“Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo said, as though that explained everything.
“He told you to come?”
“No. He just gave me times. Bar hopping isn’t really my thing.”
“That’s okay. I get enough of it working there.” And Kai paused. “I was just hoping you wanted to buy me dinner.”
Kyungsoo had to laugh at the honesty, but his cheeks were hot at the same time.
“Everyone seemed to have something going tonight. I just…didn’t want to sit at home alone.
Kai’s face softened, and Kyungsoo had the thought that he should want to turn away again before he said something ridiculous. He was tired, and he was a bit tipsy, and he wasn’t even sure if he could hold a conversation through dinner.
“This has been a shitty week, too?” Kai asked.
“Yeah,” Kyungsoo sighed.
“Come with me,” Kai said, and took his arm.
He was fine being led. He didn’t even trip over his feet as he had to rush a bit to keep up with Kai’s strides. They walked a couple of blocks, turned and walked a couple more and Kyungsoo was feeling it, puffing a little bit.
“Let’s see a movie instead,” Kai suggested, point up at the building they’d stopped in front of. At least he’d asked before hauling Kyungsoo inside. A movie sounded great. He could stare at Kai’s knees and maybe laugh with him, and watch him eat popcorn, and his brain wouldn’t want to melt down. It was perfect.
“Great!” Kyungsoo said, and the word came out far more chipper than he’d actually meant it to. So he laughed an awkward laugh, and for some reason Kai was laughing with him. Not at him.
They chose the movie starting soonest, and bought their tickets and loaded up with snacks and found their theater. Kyungsoo hadn’t seen it yet, some kind of drama, but it looked interesting enough. It could’ve been about beekeeping, and he might not have cared. He just took care not to weave as he walked. He wasn’t drunk, didn’t feel drunk, but he had never felt so relieved as when they’d taken their seats. Kai had on some kind of jacket, and Kyungsoo regretted the lack of Kai’s arms in his peripheral vision.
He inhaled the scent of popcorn, and took a drag on his Coke, and felt his life sort of right itself. It was going to be dark. He didn’t have to be embarrassed. He wasn’t totally boring or weird, and Kai wouldn’t think so after he went home.
“This was a good idea,” he murmured.
The grin that Kai flashed him had his stomach squirming. Least opportune moment for his crush to decimate him.
At least he hadn’t told Kai he was cute out loud.
He’d mowed through his snacks, getting halfway done even before the movie started. He finished up fifteen minutes in, arranging himself to watch and not eat.
Ten minutes after that, his eyelids were drooping. He was just going to rest them. Again, he stared at Kai’s shoulder and wished it were bare. But even so, the closer he got, he could still smell that same scent he’d smelled the night they’d had dinner. It was comforting, and exciting, and it made him smile. Just one moment with his eyes closed.
He jolted when Kai poked his arm, and then peeled his face off of Kai’s shoulder.
“Wha?’
“The movie’s over,” Kai said.
No, it couldn’t be. He’d closed his eyes for only a moment, he swore. But the lights had gone up and people were leaving.
“Oh,” he said intelligently. And then scrambled to pick up his trash so they could go and not sit there ridiculously. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Kai said, and followed him out.
Kyungsoo wondered what to say the whole elevator ride down. Sorry for crashing his work, and then giving up dinner plans only to fall asleep on him literally in the theater.
“I’m really sorry for falling asleep in there,” Kyungsoo said, deciding the simplest was best once they hit the street.
“Really, it’s okay. I figure you sleep when you need it. The movie wasn’t that great anyway so you didn’t miss much.”
Oh, great. So he’d made Kai sit through a bad movie and slept on him. Even better.
They caught a taxi together, and Kyungsoo rested his head back against the headrest.
“I live really close,” Kai told him. “If you want to…? Unless you need to get home.”
“Okay,” Kyungsoo agreed. And he didn’t open his eyes until he felt a touch on his cheek. “What?”
Kai’s thumb was tracing his skin, and Kyungsoo forgot to breathe for a moment.
“You have an imprint of my jacket on your cheek,” Kai said. “It’s cute.”
It didn’t feel cute. It felt deliriously hot to his face and neck, and he wondered just how tipsy he still was. He couldn’t be, after eating and napping. Embarrassment and pleasure fought bitterly inside him, and he wasn’t sure that pleasure won. But Kai paid the driver, leading Kyungsoo up a couple of flights of stairs. He’d get to see where Kai lived.
And he was so tired he would have curled up in the hallway and slept if Kai had paused too long. He never did well when he was tired. He got a little whiny, and he got terribly agreeable. He had the sudden thought that maybe Kai had asked him up to have sex with him. And he dismissed that, because out of all the really hot people that passed through the bar, none of them would fall asleep and hopefully not drool on Kai’s jacket. He was in a special class there. But he couldn’t really imagine why Kai had brought him otherwise, as he stumbled out of his shoes, and got steadied by Kai’s hand
“There’s the bathroom,” Kai pointed out. “If you need it?”
Kyungsoo stared at the open bathroom door for a generous two seconds before realizing Kai was offering the use of it. Which sounded like a good idea. He even splashed some cold water on his face in hopes it’d bring some kind of order to his thoughts.
He wandered out, feeling meek, and eyeballing the stacks of things scattered around. Not a fastidious housekeeper, Kai. But his bathroom hadn’t smelled, and had been fairly clean. He wondered for the fifteenth time what he was doing there. He would have made a good of conversational partner as a statue.
“Hey,” Kai said, sounding a bit breathless and coming up beside him. “I have an extra mattress for the floor, and blankets. It’s comfortable. You look wiped.”
All Kyungsoo wanted to hear from a man who looked like he should be rolling sexily around with some hottie.
Kai was offering him a place to sleep. That he realized about ten seconds later. He could catch a taxi and go home. Or he could do what his body was crying out to do, and curl up under the tempting pile of blankets that Kai was trying to show him. Two mattresses shoved together in a small room.
“Okay,” he said. “That’s okay.”
Everything was okay. Life was okay. Kai was okay. Bed was okay.
“You didn’t need to go home, right?” Kai asked.
“No,” Kyungsoo said.
His head swam slightly as he closed his eyes, and he helped Kai to take off his jacket, and his shirt. He’d been mostly horizontal when Kai yanked off his jeans.
“Is it okay?” he heard Kai ask, as Kyungsoo pressed his face into the pillow.
“It’s okay,” Kyungsoo sighed.
He just drifted away.
***
When Kyungsoo woke, It was light. He squinted at the ceiling and wondered exactly how long he’d slept. He fondled the blanket over him and knew it wasn’t his own. He was in Kai’s apartment. He’d gone home with Kai.
Kai hadn’t even tried to sleep with him. He wasn’t sure if he should feel relieved or regretful.
He tried recalling any embarrassing things he’d said, and it just made him remember feeling exhausted and being tucked in. He’d been like a little lamb following Kai home. Or maybe it was a lost puppy. Great, pump a little alcohol into him, combine that with exhaustion, and he basically had no self-preservation at all.
“You’re awake,” Kai said, and Kyungsoo’s arm shot up to make sure his hair wasn’t standing on end.
“I am,” he said, clearing his throat. He risked glancing at Kai who was in some soft-looking tank top and looked too good for whatever hour of the day it actually was. “Thanks for putting me up. Sorry I kind of passed out on you.”
“Don’t worry. You apologized last night, but you didn’t have to.”
“I bet you didn’t expect me to be one of the guys trying to go home with you.”
That had been meant to be a joke. It mostly horrified him in the way it came out.
“Only the ones who fall asleep on me,” Kai said. “Hang on one second.”
Maybe Kyungsoo could get eaten by the walls while was at it. But Kai was only gone long enough for Kyungsoo to properly roll over and sit up, and then Kai was offering him something across the empty mattress.
“Tea,” Kai said, the word cautious as though Kyungsoo were looking at him as though he were handing him liquid explosives mixed with cyanide or something.
He could look concerned, all his friends had told him. It was just his face, though, not actually what he was feeling. Though, he was concerned, because he could feel his naked thighs rubbing together and Kai was not that great a distance away with only a blanket between them.
“Thanks, that sounds really good,” he said, scooting closer with a death grip on blanket.
He took it carefully by the handle, his fingers brushing Kai’s. It was hot, but not too hot, and it gave him time to think as he stared at his clothes. Five feet away, and Kai still in the room. He could waddle there in the blanket, he supposed.
“You sleep okay?”
“I did,” Kyungsoo said. Like the dead. The alcohol, the movie, the mattress. Something about that combination had knocked him out cold. He didn’t remember moving, even, and usually in an unfamiliar place and sleeping next to someone he was hyper careful.
The sound of his ringtone blaring from his jacket had him jerking, and Kai was quick. All Kyungsoo saw were legs beneath Kai’s shorts, and then his jacket was being shoved at him. He fumbled to get his phone out, panicking as he set down the tea.
“Hello?” he said, fumbling it to his ear. It was his mom. His mom. His mom he’d made plans to meet which meant she was standing at his apartment door, and he was not there because he was in the bedroom of a strange man. He almost cursed into the phone. “Mom. I’m sorry! I went out and didn’t even think about it. Why don’t I meet you at the restaurant? I’ll get the first train, so I shouldn’t be long. Okay?”
He did scramble out of bed then, uncaring that he was half naked. He shoved his legs into his pants, sitting on the edge of the chair to tug on his socks, and then start buttoning his shirt up. At least Kai had thought to help undress him or he’d have had to have borrowed a shirt or go totally wrinkled. Which, since he was meeting his mom would be a bad thing.
“Use anything in the bathroom,” Kai instructed, all but ushering Kyungsoo into it when Kyungsoo looked up at him with questions on the tip of his tongue. He washed his face, combing his hair down, and looked at the mouthwash and rejected it. The tea would have to do. Between phone call and exiting the bathroom to grab his jacket and phone, it’d been five minutes, and he was on his way to the door to get his shoes.
“Thank you for last night,” he babbled out as he got one shoe on. “I’m really sorry I fell asleep on you. Uhh. Thanks for letting me stay over? Sorry I have to go like this-“
He had the door open when a paper was shoved in his face.
“Here,” Kai said. “Have a nice lunch.”
Kyungsoo blinked at him. “Thanks. Bye.”
Kyungsoo was on the train by the time he opened the paper. It was Kai’s cell phone number. And in smudged, rather loose handwriting beneath it: “We don’t have to meet at the bar.”
He flushed red, right there on the train, and keyed in Kai’s cell phone number. At the surface, he made his way toward the restaurant where he was meeting his mom. He waited for a light, and before he could stop himself, picturing Kai’s face that morning, he texted, “When do you get off work tomorrow?”
“Same time. Don’t you work the next day?”
He did but he didn’t really care. He’d lose his nerve if he waited days. He’d be tied up the rest of the day with his family, but there was no reason he couldn’t be free part of the weekend. He typed in the closest subway stop to him. “I work, but meet me and I won’t have far to go home.”
He was almost to the restaurant when Kai texted back. “Is it an apology or a date?”
Kyungsoo actually stopped, having to scramble out of the way of pedestrians as his heart took off. He wanted to qualify it. It was an apology and a thank you. And it could be a date. But he sent back, “A date.”
And waited breathlessly. If that was what Kai wanted, after ferrying his half conscious body around all night. If all he’d wanted was to sleep with Kyungsoo, he could’ve. Though perhaps he liked his partners to be awake when the deed was done. If all Kai wanted was to sleep with someone, like Kyungsoo had thought, he could choose from anyone at the bar.
“:) Meet you there.”
Kyungsoo’s knees wobbled a little as he walked, and he had to actually swallow his smile as he walked into the restaurant.
Mothers. They had a way of picking up on things.
***
Kyungsoo called Baekhyun the next day because it seemed like the logical thing to do when he was having a crisis.
“Chanyeol kept trying to push Kai at me. Does he just want to sleep with me?”
“Chanye- Oh wait, Kai? No? I mean, when he was talking to us he said you were cute. And he smiled at you when you weren’t looking during dinner.”
A predatory smile, or a wanting-to-know-him smile. He could imagine both on Kai’s face.
“Why do you want to know?” Baekhyun asked.
He didn’t really want to jinx it, but there was no real way of getting out of telling. Plus, it was partly Baekhyun’s fault that it was happening at all.
“We’re having dinner tonight,” he said.
“A date! Chanyeol’s-“
“Not going to know about it,” Kyungsoo interrupted. “He’ll call me. You know he will. And he’ll have advice.”
Baekhyun made a non-committal sound at that. “But it’s- You know I… Keeping things from him!”
“Just ’til tomorrow. If it’s not too late, I’ll text.”
If he was thinking of them at all. With luck, he’d still feel human enough to do so.
***
Kai looked nice, a jacket over nice jeans and a shirt Kyungsoo couldn’t see. He chewed on his bottom lip as he beelined for Kai, being spotted halfway there as Kai came up out of the subway.
“You made it.”
“Yeah,” Kai said.
“Work was okay?”
Kai shrugged one shoulder. “Served a lot of liquor, but it’s nice to be in fresh air again.”
Kyungsoo nodded, trying to keep his expression earnest as he was working up the courage to say what he needed to, before they got to anything else. Sure, Kai had agreed to the date, but he could still think that Kyungsoo was still some kind of strange person who tried to take guys out and ran away and passed out on them.
“I just wanted to thank you for, well, everything last night,” Kyungsoo said.
“So it’s a thank you dinner?”
“No,” Kyungsoo said, shaking his head and smoothing a wrinkle in the front of Kai’s jacket before looking up at him. “It’s a date.”
***
Kyungsoo bought dinner, which he thought was fitting since he was older. That was just one of the things he learned that night. And he saw a different side of Kai, one that wasn’t Flirty Bartender, or the guy playing it cool. He got shy smiles and awkward laughs and interest sparking in Kai’s eyes as they talked about movies. Movies they’d both seen, not ones Kyungsoo had slept through. What Kyungsoo had taken as a lack of interest, he realized was a shy kind of awkwardness. It melted little by little, revealing someone nice beyond the nice arms and stubborn chin.
It didn’t stomp on his ill-advised hope as much as it did inflate it, decorated with nerves and hope that Kai didn’t see him as boring. He worked in a bar, and Kyungsoo was usually a patron in the corner making calf eyes to go home. He didn’t got out on dates with strangers after a few meetings. He sat in his office, and he laughed at the antics of his friends, and amused everyone with vocal impersonations and he took care of people. He wasn’t hot, or cool, or particularly desirable. He had his charms, he knew that. He didn’t have the self esteem of a cockroach. But finding guys that looked at him and maybe wonder if he was a bit more than he thought - that didn’t happen every day.
Baekhyun had said Kai thought he was cute. Every time he got a bit stressed, he reminded himself of that. He’d been crabby and not at his best, and Kai had thought he was cute. That had a smile on his face as they walked back toward the subway stop together.
“Thanks for dinner,” Kai said, stopping him.
His eyebrows rose as Kai stopped him, boxed him back toward the building beside him.
He knew the moves. The way Kai curled his fingers over Kyungsoo’s shoulder, his shoulders slumping, leaning in. It gave him several seconds to compose himself, blowing out a breath and dragging one in and tilting up his chin so that Kai’s lips could press to his. He didn’t have to wonder if Kai wanted it, if he was meeting a kiss only to be polite. A sweet press of lips, as he shivered from Kai’s thumb along his neck.
“Thanks,” Kai repeated.
“Was that a thank you kiss or a first date kiss?” Kyungsoo asked, his stomach trembling as he teased.
“Second date kiss,” Kai said, his voice lower than it had any right being, dark and rough. It pinned Kyungsoo against the wall, more so than Kai’s presence did.
Second date. First date, the movie. And the sleeping over. Second date, dinner, and kissing.
“Too bad I wasn’t awake enough for us to do that last night.”
Kai grinned at him, something that went just a bit roguish, which was all the encouragement he needed to press up against Kai’s mouth again.
“I’ll text you tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Kai mumbled against his lips. And that preceded two or three, or maybe five more kisses. He wasn’t really counting, given that Kai’s thumb was tracing his ear and it was sending all kinds of tingles down his neck. All they were doing was pressing lingering kisses to each other’s mouths, and maybe he was stroking Kai’s lower back, and it was so completely different to where they’d been the day before, or to how he’d been feeling the day before.
“I should probably sleep,” Kyungsoo murmured, after he’d pressed half a dozen kisses to Kai’s jaw before realizing that was probably a bad decision. But it was there, and Kai was breathing against him, so he’d had a hard time stopping.
But as Kai blinked and met his eyes, Kyungsoo kissed him again.
***