ISS 2011: FOR CANTTAKEABREATH
To: canttakeabreath
From: Your Secret Santa
Title: Out of This World
Pairing/Focus: Woohyun/Sunggyu
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 2,233
Summary: AU; Sunggyu may have done his research, but there's still a lot for him to learn. Luckily, Woohyun is here to help.
It is 11:47 p.m. on a Friday, and Woohyun knows that it is not his night. Here he is, in the middle of the park after stalking around the bar for two and a half hours, and all he has to show for it is a mark in the shape of a hand on his face that's turning an angrier shade of red every minute.
(This is a lie; there's also this guy--Sunggyu--who's bright and charming and totally Woohyun's type, but.)
Woohyun draws in a deep breath of mid-winter air and holds it until his chest aches (which doesn't take long; it already does, a little). He focuses on the steam that twists up as he breathes, "So let me get this straight."
Woohyun has been through his fair share of bizarre flings that even put the time Sungyeol decided to make banana-vinegar smoothies to shame. There was a girl three years ago who constantly brought their conversations back to the topic of death, and then a guy who developed a rather unnerving stare the longer that he talked to Woohyun.
So the sad thing is that while he has never been with someone who was absolutely convinced they were an alien, he can't say this has been his worst hook-up ever.
He kind of feels like he's going to cry.
Instead, he steels himself and says, "You're saying that you're not from this planet."
"That's correct," Sunggyu confirms. He smiles, sincere, and leans against the back of their bench.
Of course, Woohyun thinks. Sunggyu is the first genuinely decent person who Woohyun has met in weeks and the only one willing to talk to him tonight, and the guy is mentally unstable.
Woohyun isn't sure which emotion he's experiencing right now--it's some painful mixture of dejection and embarrassment--but he feels like he really just needs to go home and drink enough so this becomes another night that he never remembers.
"I see." He pushes himself to stand and does his best not to face Sunggyu; it was his smile that got Woohyun to follow him out here, and Woohyun has no doubt that it has just as much power to make him stay. "Well, I think I'd best be going."
"Wait! Woohyun."
Sunggyu reaches out and places a hand on Woohyun's arm. There's nothing demanding about it--Woohyun could walk away if he wanted to--but he thinks that's the reason why he doesn't brush Sunggyu off. (And also possibly because Woohyun is a little too tipsy, and Sunggyu is a little too attractive for Woohyun to actually bring himself to protest.)
Sunggyu asks, so gently, "Do you not believe me?"
Woohyun turns and meets Sunggyu's eyes, shining bright even under the flickering street lamps.
"Let me prove it to you," Sunggyu says.
After everything that has happened so far tonight, Woohyun figures that he really doesn't have much else to lose. He shrugs, half-hearted. "Yeah. Okay. Go ahead."
Sunggyu grins, chirps wait until you see and tightens his hold on Woohyun's arm.
And then there's light.
Once Woohyun finally manages to calm down (that is: stops hyperventilating), he takes a seat on the overstuffed couch and stares up through the windowed ceiling of Sunggyu's spaceship, out into the endless star ocean.
Woohyun asks, "So why did you want to talk to me so much?"
"You seem very knowledgeable about Earth," Sunggyu answers.
Woohyun thinks about their conversations earlier that night, back to when Sunggyu first wandered into the bar, appearing utterly lost as he stood in the entrance and swept his gaze back and forth over the tables.
"I told you the opening hours for the library," says Woohyun.
"That was very helpful, thank you."
They spend the next couple of hours sipping at what Sunggyu refers to as "hot chocolate" (but tastes like water with a melted candy bar, chunks included) and asking questions about each other's homes. There's something oddly comfortable about it, extraterrestrial problem aside, and it's a feeling that Woohyun realizes he has missed for a long time.
When Woohyun finally decides to take his leave and Sunggyu asks can we meet again, Woohyun doesn't hesitate to say, "Definitely."
(As soon as he's back in his apartment, Woohyun comes out to his parents. It probably should have been awkward talking over speakerphone at three in the morning to tell them I know that you were sleeping but right now I just really need to let you know that I'm gay, but it turns out that it's actually not that big of a deal considering he recently teleported from a spaceship.
If anything good has stemmed from meeting Sunggyu, it's that a lot of Woohyun's life has suddenly been put into perspective.)
Sungjong and Sungyeol are about half-way to Woohyun's car when Sunggyu turns in the passenger's seat and asks, "I was wondering... can I drive?"
Woohyun swears his eyebrows shoot right off his forehead. "What?"
"Your car is fascinating. It's very..." There's a lapse when Sunggyu appears deep in thought, eyes narrowed and fingers tapping at the armrest, and Woohyun is expecting him to blurt out a word like sleek or modern or expensive-looking but certainly not--"Antique."
Sunggyu must notice Woohyun's expression slip into something more crestfallen, because he quickly adds, "In a nice way. I've found all kinds of information on your cars, but I haven't been in one before I met you, so it's very impressive. It would be amazing experience to actually drive it myself."
Woohyun's gut reaction is to say absolutely not, but today must be a very empathetic day because he tries to think from Sunggyu's point of view; driving a car really would be an amazing opportunity, and it's not as though Sunggyu knows anyone else who would give him a chance behind the wheel.
So Woohyun takes a moment to assure himself that the ice-skating rink is only a few minutes away, and Sunggyu has proven over the weeks that he's done his research about Earth and knows about all kinds of transportation, and he has manned his own spaceship after all...
Woohyun takes a deep breath, holds it until he absolutely needs to breathe, then sighs, "I'll give you directions as we're going."
Sunggyu's face lights up like a child's on Christmas morning, and Woohyun can't help the way his lips twitch up in response.
Around the time water covers the windshield and distorts the entire world into a wavy blob, Woohyun starts to get nervous. "The control for the windshield wipers is on the left side."
Sunggyu says, "I know," and then clicks the wipers on after a moment of blind fumbling. (At least, Woohyun thinks, he's keeping his eyes on the road.)
"You don't have to step on the gas pedal so hard. Also," Woohyun adds. He swallows and runs his fingers along the handle above his head. "That was a stop sign."
Sunggyu asks, "Was it?" as he looks over his shoulder.
"No big deal. I think they're merely a suggestion," Sungyeol says. "Like this one on the corner."
The instant that the car screeches to an abrupt halt, Woohyun swears to God that he will never again laugh about the seatbelt safety commercials or their irritating jingle.
"I think you should have your brakes checked out. They stick," Sunggyu states.
When they arrive at the ice skating rink, Sungjong doesn't say anything--he just flings his door open as soon as Sunggyu switches the car to park and does an odd combination of a totter and a march behind Sungyeol into the building. Woohyun would follow them, but he's having some difficulty with his own door handle; the world is shaking too much for him to get a proper hold.
Sunggyu grins and looks down at his watch. "That was a lot of fun. It was really just like what they show in your action movies. I even got us here early!"
"Yes, well," says Woohyun, a little too embarrassed to admit that it sounded more like a whimper. "I didn't realize my car could accelerate so fast."
As Woohyun finally opens his door, he's pulled backward into Sunggyu's arms; it's an awkward and uncomfortable angle and the center console is digging into his back, but for a moment Sunggyu feels like the only solid thing in the world.
Sunggyu says, "Thank you for letting me drive."
Woohyun says, "No problem," and extends a hand that is certainly not shaking. "Keys, please."
Sunggyu leans close to Woohyun and whispers, "You battle each other for fun?"
Woohyun looks down at the skates in his hands, particularly at the blade and how it's sharp and silver and gleams under the lights.
"No, no," Woohyun whispers back hastily. Sunggyu furrows his brows, so Woohyun continues, "You wear them like shoes. The blade helps us keep our balance while we slide across ice."
"I see," says Sunggyu. He frowns.
Woohyun sighs and pats him on the shoulder. "Just stay next to me."
Despite some of Sunggyu's mishaps in the time that Woohyun has known him, Sunggyu has proven himself to be quite intelligent. He can fly a spacecraft single-handedly. He has developed watches that project interactive holograms. But for the life of him, he cannot seem to figure out how to push himself forward with his rear foot while in ice skates.
Woohyun says, "Keep holding my arm, and we'll try again," even though he doesn't think that he really needs to; Sunggyu's grip on his arm is so tight that Woohyun has to flex his fingers every now and then to make sure they're still getting adequate blood flow.
All things considered, Woohyun thinks that the day goes well. Eventually, Sunggyu manages to stay upright on his own. They escape the rink without injuries (to themselves and others), and Woohyun only has to shoo Sungyeol away once after Sunggyu asks but how do you stop and Sungyeol answers that's what the walls are for.
"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Woohyun asks and then fans his fingers around his mug of hot chocolate to soak up more warmth.
"Not at all," says Sunggyu. He blows the steam off of his own hot chocolate, takes a long sip, and practically coos into his mug. "I hope we can do this again sometime."
Everything about them right now is pleasant and relaxing and familiar; there's this level of contentment that's unfamiliar to Woohyun, yet he can't help but feel like he could get used to this very easily. It's almost romantic.
At least until he's hit in the back of his head by an "accidentally" well-aimed snowball from Sungyeol, and a chunk finds its way down the back of his shirt.
Woohyun thinks that it's maybe a little weird being curled up with Sunggyu on the couch, fingers tangled, with Woohyun's head against Sunggyu's chest when there's a scene on the television of an alien with razor-sharp teeth disemboweling a scientist in the background.
Regardless, Woohyun says, "We should do this more often," because he has never prided himself on his timing and Sunggyu looks unperturbed anyway.
"You mean... watch documentaries?" Sunggyu asks.
Woohyun twists so he can see Sunggyu's face. "This is only a movie. It's fictional."
"Oh," says Sunggyu. "It's just that it looks a lot like the films they would use for the military."
Woohyun glances back at the television in time to see the alien learn how to fire a machine gun and swallows hard. "I see," he says, and then reaches up to brush at Sunggyu's hair. "Actually, I meant doing things like this."
Sunggyu hums, long and low; Woohyun can feel it all the way down to his toes.
"That reminds me." Sunggyu reaches into one of his pockets and produces a small pad of paper, which he presses into Woohyun's hand. "I wrote this when we went to the skating rink, while you were changing after you spilled your hot chocolate all over yourself. I've been trying to figure out how I feel when we're together. I researched different ways how people express their emotions, and I learned about poetry."
As Woohyun unfolds the paper, he quirks an eyebrow and reads:
You are very nice
I like to be around you
Your car is great, too
"It's called a haiku," Sunggyu says. His chest swells. "I wrote it myself."
Okay, so Woohyun might choke a bit as he fights backs a laugh, but he thinks that he does a pretty decent job covering it up with a coughing fit. He tells himself at least it doesn't include "roses are red" and says, "Thank you." Then, with more sincerity: "I like being around you, too."
He has to shift a bit as Sunggyu pushes himself upright, until he's so close. "In that case, I think this is what comes next in your movies."
"You have to stop using movies as a reference for everything," Woohyun says, but even as he does so, he's tilting his head for a better angle.
Sunggyu flashes his teeth. "They've been helpful so far."
Whatever remark Woohyun was considering making dies before he even starts to speak, because suddenly Sunggyu is there and Woohyun can taste the lingering flavor of candy canes on his lips.
And it's. Well. Woohyun kind of wants to punch himself for thinking this, but it's out of this world.
From: Your Secret Santa
Title: Out of This World
Pairing/Focus: Woohyun/Sunggyu
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 2,233
Summary: AU; Sunggyu may have done his research, but there's still a lot for him to learn. Luckily, Woohyun is here to help.
It is 11:47 p.m. on a Friday, and Woohyun knows that it is not his night. Here he is, in the middle of the park after stalking around the bar for two and a half hours, and all he has to show for it is a mark in the shape of a hand on his face that's turning an angrier shade of red every minute.
(This is a lie; there's also this guy--Sunggyu--who's bright and charming and totally Woohyun's type, but.)
Woohyun draws in a deep breath of mid-winter air and holds it until his chest aches (which doesn't take long; it already does, a little). He focuses on the steam that twists up as he breathes, "So let me get this straight."
Woohyun has been through his fair share of bizarre flings that even put the time Sungyeol decided to make banana-vinegar smoothies to shame. There was a girl three years ago who constantly brought their conversations back to the topic of death, and then a guy who developed a rather unnerving stare the longer that he talked to Woohyun.
So the sad thing is that while he has never been with someone who was absolutely convinced they were an alien, he can't say this has been his worst hook-up ever.
He kind of feels like he's going to cry.
Instead, he steels himself and says, "You're saying that you're not from this planet."
"That's correct," Sunggyu confirms. He smiles, sincere, and leans against the back of their bench.
Of course, Woohyun thinks. Sunggyu is the first genuinely decent person who Woohyun has met in weeks and the only one willing to talk to him tonight, and the guy is mentally unstable.
Woohyun isn't sure which emotion he's experiencing right now--it's some painful mixture of dejection and embarrassment--but he feels like he really just needs to go home and drink enough so this becomes another night that he never remembers.
"I see." He pushes himself to stand and does his best not to face Sunggyu; it was his smile that got Woohyun to follow him out here, and Woohyun has no doubt that it has just as much power to make him stay. "Well, I think I'd best be going."
"Wait! Woohyun."
Sunggyu reaches out and places a hand on Woohyun's arm. There's nothing demanding about it--Woohyun could walk away if he wanted to--but he thinks that's the reason why he doesn't brush Sunggyu off. (And also possibly because Woohyun is a little too tipsy, and Sunggyu is a little too attractive for Woohyun to actually bring himself to protest.)
Sunggyu asks, so gently, "Do you not believe me?"
Woohyun turns and meets Sunggyu's eyes, shining bright even under the flickering street lamps.
"Let me prove it to you," Sunggyu says.
After everything that has happened so far tonight, Woohyun figures that he really doesn't have much else to lose. He shrugs, half-hearted. "Yeah. Okay. Go ahead."
Sunggyu grins, chirps wait until you see and tightens his hold on Woohyun's arm.
And then there's light.
Once Woohyun finally manages to calm down (that is: stops hyperventilating), he takes a seat on the overstuffed couch and stares up through the windowed ceiling of Sunggyu's spaceship, out into the endless star ocean.
Woohyun asks, "So why did you want to talk to me so much?"
"You seem very knowledgeable about Earth," Sunggyu answers.
Woohyun thinks about their conversations earlier that night, back to when Sunggyu first wandered into the bar, appearing utterly lost as he stood in the entrance and swept his gaze back and forth over the tables.
"I told you the opening hours for the library," says Woohyun.
"That was very helpful, thank you."
They spend the next couple of hours sipping at what Sunggyu refers to as "hot chocolate" (but tastes like water with a melted candy bar, chunks included) and asking questions about each other's homes. There's something oddly comfortable about it, extraterrestrial problem aside, and it's a feeling that Woohyun realizes he has missed for a long time.
When Woohyun finally decides to take his leave and Sunggyu asks can we meet again, Woohyun doesn't hesitate to say, "Definitely."
(As soon as he's back in his apartment, Woohyun comes out to his parents. It probably should have been awkward talking over speakerphone at three in the morning to tell them I know that you were sleeping but right now I just really need to let you know that I'm gay, but it turns out that it's actually not that big of a deal considering he recently teleported from a spaceship.
If anything good has stemmed from meeting Sunggyu, it's that a lot of Woohyun's life has suddenly been put into perspective.)
Sungjong and Sungyeol are about half-way to Woohyun's car when Sunggyu turns in the passenger's seat and asks, "I was wondering... can I drive?"
Woohyun swears his eyebrows shoot right off his forehead. "What?"
"Your car is fascinating. It's very..." There's a lapse when Sunggyu appears deep in thought, eyes narrowed and fingers tapping at the armrest, and Woohyun is expecting him to blurt out a word like sleek or modern or expensive-looking but certainly not--"Antique."
Sunggyu must notice Woohyun's expression slip into something more crestfallen, because he quickly adds, "In a nice way. I've found all kinds of information on your cars, but I haven't been in one before I met you, so it's very impressive. It would be amazing experience to actually drive it myself."
Woohyun's gut reaction is to say absolutely not, but today must be a very empathetic day because he tries to think from Sunggyu's point of view; driving a car really would be an amazing opportunity, and it's not as though Sunggyu knows anyone else who would give him a chance behind the wheel.
So Woohyun takes a moment to assure himself that the ice-skating rink is only a few minutes away, and Sunggyu has proven over the weeks that he's done his research about Earth and knows about all kinds of transportation, and he has manned his own spaceship after all...
Woohyun takes a deep breath, holds it until he absolutely needs to breathe, then sighs, "I'll give you directions as we're going."
Sunggyu's face lights up like a child's on Christmas morning, and Woohyun can't help the way his lips twitch up in response.
Around the time water covers the windshield and distorts the entire world into a wavy blob, Woohyun starts to get nervous. "The control for the windshield wipers is on the left side."
Sunggyu says, "I know," and then clicks the wipers on after a moment of blind fumbling. (At least, Woohyun thinks, he's keeping his eyes on the road.)
"You don't have to step on the gas pedal so hard. Also," Woohyun adds. He swallows and runs his fingers along the handle above his head. "That was a stop sign."
Sunggyu asks, "Was it?" as he looks over his shoulder.
"No big deal. I think they're merely a suggestion," Sungyeol says. "Like this one on the corner."
The instant that the car screeches to an abrupt halt, Woohyun swears to God that he will never again laugh about the seatbelt safety commercials or their irritating jingle.
"I think you should have your brakes checked out. They stick," Sunggyu states.
When they arrive at the ice skating rink, Sungjong doesn't say anything--he just flings his door open as soon as Sunggyu switches the car to park and does an odd combination of a totter and a march behind Sungyeol into the building. Woohyun would follow them, but he's having some difficulty with his own door handle; the world is shaking too much for him to get a proper hold.
Sunggyu grins and looks down at his watch. "That was a lot of fun. It was really just like what they show in your action movies. I even got us here early!"
"Yes, well," says Woohyun, a little too embarrassed to admit that it sounded more like a whimper. "I didn't realize my car could accelerate so fast."
As Woohyun finally opens his door, he's pulled backward into Sunggyu's arms; it's an awkward and uncomfortable angle and the center console is digging into his back, but for a moment Sunggyu feels like the only solid thing in the world.
Sunggyu says, "Thank you for letting me drive."
Woohyun says, "No problem," and extends a hand that is certainly not shaking. "Keys, please."
Sunggyu leans close to Woohyun and whispers, "You battle each other for fun?"
Woohyun looks down at the skates in his hands, particularly at the blade and how it's sharp and silver and gleams under the lights.
"No, no," Woohyun whispers back hastily. Sunggyu furrows his brows, so Woohyun continues, "You wear them like shoes. The blade helps us keep our balance while we slide across ice."
"I see," says Sunggyu. He frowns.
Woohyun sighs and pats him on the shoulder. "Just stay next to me."
Despite some of Sunggyu's mishaps in the time that Woohyun has known him, Sunggyu has proven himself to be quite intelligent. He can fly a spacecraft single-handedly. He has developed watches that project interactive holograms. But for the life of him, he cannot seem to figure out how to push himself forward with his rear foot while in ice skates.
Woohyun says, "Keep holding my arm, and we'll try again," even though he doesn't think that he really needs to; Sunggyu's grip on his arm is so tight that Woohyun has to flex his fingers every now and then to make sure they're still getting adequate blood flow.
All things considered, Woohyun thinks that the day goes well. Eventually, Sunggyu manages to stay upright on his own. They escape the rink without injuries (to themselves and others), and Woohyun only has to shoo Sungyeol away once after Sunggyu asks but how do you stop and Sungyeol answers that's what the walls are for.
"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Woohyun asks and then fans his fingers around his mug of hot chocolate to soak up more warmth.
"Not at all," says Sunggyu. He blows the steam off of his own hot chocolate, takes a long sip, and practically coos into his mug. "I hope we can do this again sometime."
Everything about them right now is pleasant and relaxing and familiar; there's this level of contentment that's unfamiliar to Woohyun, yet he can't help but feel like he could get used to this very easily. It's almost romantic.
At least until he's hit in the back of his head by an "accidentally" well-aimed snowball from Sungyeol, and a chunk finds its way down the back of his shirt.
Woohyun thinks that it's maybe a little weird being curled up with Sunggyu on the couch, fingers tangled, with Woohyun's head against Sunggyu's chest when there's a scene on the television of an alien with razor-sharp teeth disemboweling a scientist in the background.
Regardless, Woohyun says, "We should do this more often," because he has never prided himself on his timing and Sunggyu looks unperturbed anyway.
"You mean... watch documentaries?" Sunggyu asks.
Woohyun twists so he can see Sunggyu's face. "This is only a movie. It's fictional."
"Oh," says Sunggyu. "It's just that it looks a lot like the films they would use for the military."
Woohyun glances back at the television in time to see the alien learn how to fire a machine gun and swallows hard. "I see," he says, and then reaches up to brush at Sunggyu's hair. "Actually, I meant doing things like this."
Sunggyu hums, long and low; Woohyun can feel it all the way down to his toes.
"That reminds me." Sunggyu reaches into one of his pockets and produces a small pad of paper, which he presses into Woohyun's hand. "I wrote this when we went to the skating rink, while you were changing after you spilled your hot chocolate all over yourself. I've been trying to figure out how I feel when we're together. I researched different ways how people express their emotions, and I learned about poetry."
As Woohyun unfolds the paper, he quirks an eyebrow and reads:
You are very nice
I like to be around you
Your car is great, too
"It's called a haiku," Sunggyu says. His chest swells. "I wrote it myself."
Okay, so Woohyun might choke a bit as he fights backs a laugh, but he thinks that he does a pretty decent job covering it up with a coughing fit. He tells himself at least it doesn't include "roses are red" and says, "Thank you." Then, with more sincerity: "I like being around you, too."
He has to shift a bit as Sunggyu pushes himself upright, until he's so close. "In that case, I think this is what comes next in your movies."
"You have to stop using movies as a reference for everything," Woohyun says, but even as he does so, he's tilting his head for a better angle.
Sunggyu flashes his teeth. "They've been helpful so far."
Whatever remark Woohyun was considering making dies before he even starts to speak, because suddenly Sunggyu is there and Woohyun can taste the lingering flavor of candy canes on his lips.
And it's. Well. Woohyun kind of wants to punch himself for thinking this, but it's out of this world.