+ Calling The Shots [2PM]
Title: Calling The Shots
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Wooyoung/Nichkhun, super subtle Chansung/Junho
Word Count: ~3200
Notes: I'm blaming this one on biases. I was quite happy letting everyone else carry the Khunyoung torch, but then she clicked her heels thrice, and this happened. (She was also my beta, so I hold her accountable for that, too. And by 'hold accountable' I mean 'thank'.)
Summary: Something happens in Wooyoung's stomach. Something tightens and something else loosens and then everything's bouncing around and it's like when he had a crush on Eun Chan in high school except it can't be because this is Nichkhun, who is still practically on top of him and beaming and breathing on him and Wooyoung's throat is dry..
+
Wooyoung knows about fanfiction. He knows because the people he loves take a perverse pleasure in telling him about it, but what he can’t tell them is that he is already very well informed in this field, and spends his admittedly limited spare time browsing fansites to keep up with the latest and most popular stories.
Actually, it's kind of flattering, in a way, that people care enough to make up stories about them, inserting them in high schools, in zombie apocalypses, in… strip clubs. It's almost a measure of how successful 2PM is, of how much people like him as an individual, and that isn’t something to be taken lightly. He'd probably be more offended if people weren't writing about him.
It also doesn't escape Wooyoung's attention that fans love putting their own spin on things-including giving the band members romantic inclinations towards each other. That part makes him a little more uncomfortable, but it seems to just be how it works. They also have a few certain favourite pairings, and he and Nichkhun are definitely one of them. They both know about it, of course they do, and play it up whenever they can, but Nichkhun rarely reads up on himself, in any format, so Wooyoung makes it his duty to fill him in.
"Another one, Wooyoungie?" Nichkhun asks when he sees Wooyoung on the computer. His towel is draped around his neck in preparation for a shower and he looks really exhausted, but he still stops to rest his arms on Wooyoung's shoulders and squint at the screen.
Wooyoung shrugs him off-it's too hot, and Nichkhun's fingers are like pokers, branding his skin with sweat. "I'm a needy maid with a crippling crush on my chaebol employer, Sir Nichkhun of Buckville."
Nichkhun snorts. "I love our fans, but come on. I am so obviously the girl in this relationship."
Wooyoung looks up in time to see Nichkhun twirl his hair around his finger and shoves at him in disgust. Nichkhun stumbles out of the room, laughter trailing down the hallway.
Wooyoung goes back to his fanfiction.
+
It's not that Nichkhun looks all that attractive when he's just out of the shower-in fact, he looks disturbingly like a drowned puppy, his hair plastered to his head in clumps, eyebrows extra-thick and bushy because they haven't been tamed yet, chest red and blotchy-it's just that Wooyoung accidentally clicks on an adult-rated story. He's reading avidly, completely innocent, engrossed in the plot, when suddenly, unexpectedly (at least until he goes back to reread the rating), he and Nichkhun are having some very creative shower sex. So it's therefore a bit of a shock when a still-wet Nichkhun emerges in real life, and it's a little too close to life imitating art for Wooyoung to handle.
Nichkhun walks into the room with only a towel wrapped around his waist and Wooyoung immediately finds his gaze sliding towards to where it's tucked in, because that's how it all started in the story, and now his ears are hot and he ducks his head, hurriedly closes the internet page, and slips around Nichkhun without a word to lock himself in the bathroom.
Where Nichkhun has just been. Where it smells like his soap, and it's still steamy and he hasn't picked up his dirty clothes and oh god. Could Wooyoung have picked a worse place to hide? Although…
He strips quickly and takes a long, cold shower.
+
Thankfully, things aren't awkward for long. With their schedules so packed, everything not immediately applicable to their current scenario gets forgotten, and the fanfiction is left behind, along with Chansung's many discarded banana skins.
Nichkhun continues to touch him and Wooyoung continues to let him, amusing himself with the fans' reactions every time they so much as look at each other in public. It isn't until he comes home to find Nichkhun and Taecyeon sprawled on the couch at opposite ends, Nichkhun lying comfortably between Taecyeon's spread feet, Taecyeon's head buried in a cushion, that anything memorable happens.
Nichkhun's using Taecyeon's laptop, but he looks up to smile at Wooyoung as he enters the darkened room. "Hey," he says softly. "Good recording?"
Wooyoung nods, taking off his hat and throwing it through the doorway of his room before flopping onto the blankets on the floor, flailing his arms and legs around to get comfortable.
They're silent for a moment, Taecyeon's soft snoring their only soundtrack, and Wooyoung closes his eyes, enjoying the peace. It's incredible how relaxing the quiet can be, after a whole day of screaming fans and buzzing film sets and loud music.
"Are you hungry?" Nichkhun asks eventually, and he is, but he really cannot be bothered eating right now, and so shakes his head, putting all of his effort into rolling onto his side to face the couch.
Nichkhun is watching him, his face tinged an almost eerie blue from the laptop. He grins again and extends a foot to nudge Wooyoung's hip.
Wooyoung groans and pulls a face. "Stop. Too tired."
But the nudging steadily gets more aggressive, so he reaches out to grab Nichkhun's ankle and pulls. Nichkhun barely has time to dump the laptop aside before he lands on the floor, hard, Taecyeon's foot caught in his shirt. Taecyeon grumbles his annoyance and kicks free, turning over to face the back of the couch, and Nichkhun settles himself more comfortably next to Wooyoung.
"I read some more stories," he says, grinning wider, and it takes Wooyoung a while to figure out what he's talking about. He groans when it clicks.
"Aish, why?"
"I was bored." He shrugs and tucks his arm underneath his head, bringing him even closer. "Plus, I was doing Taec a favour. He fell asleep and then he was kicking everywhere and his computer almost fell a first time."
"And the only way to save it was to browse fansites?" Wooyoung's words are starting to slur, and he can feel his eyelids getting heavier, but the air conditioning is too strong and his feet are cold, and he knows he won't fall asleep unless he does something about it. He folds his knees up between them, pulling the blanket up to cover him. His shins rest heavily against Nichkhun's thighs, but he doesn't move away so Wooyoung keeps them there, closing his eyes again.
"It was an accident!" Nichkhun protests, but he doesn't sound too convincing. "I was on Twitter, and then one of my international fans linked somewhere, so I followed it, and then I was on this English fansite and… okay, then I went straight to the fanfiction, but it was a gradual thing."
Wooyoung grunts in response, but he can feel himself slipping deeper and deeper and unless Nichkhun does something drastic to wake him up, he's gonna be gone within the next thirty seconds.
"Some of it was actually written pretty well," Nichkhun continues. "There's some good writers out there."
Twenty-five seconds.
"They're pretty good at putting what they've seen in real life into their stories."
Twenty.
"Like facts about our dorm, our eating habits, our relationships…"
Fifteen.
"The best one I read had you and me," it's at ten, and there's a pause and some rustling, and then Nichkhun's breath is hot on his skin, his whispered voice deep and full of promise, "and we were sleeping here together, just like this."
Wooyoung's eyes fly open. He looks at Nichkhun. Nichkhun looks back, sparkling gaze animated, with no uncertainty, no apprehension at all.
Something happens in Wooyoung's stomach. Something tightens and something else loosens and then everything's bouncing around and it's like when he had a crush on Eun Chan in high school except it can't be because this is Nichkhun, who is still practically on top of him and beaming and breathing on him and Wooyoung's throat is dry.
"Why don't you guys just make out already?" an tired voice asks, completely destroying the moment, and Wooyoung looks up to see Taecyeon squinting down at them. Wooyoung yanks himself backwards and scrambles up, tripping over the bedding before hurrying into his room and clambering into Junho's bed. Junho groans but scoots over anyway, letting Wooyoung burrow in further and clutch at the sheets.
He is never sleeping on the floor again.
+
"Wooyoung-ah," Nichkhun says the next day, pulling him aside as they get out of the van. He wraps his fingers in Wooyoung's t-shirt and drags him away, sheltering them from the sun in the shadow of the van. Wooyoung watches the others go longingly. Chansung turns around to check on them and opens his mouth to say something, but Taecyeon notices and smacks his ass, distracting him long enough for the four of them to enter the SBS building.
Wooyoung hates Taecyeon right now.
"Wooyoung-ah," Nichkhun says again, and Wooyoung forces himself to look at him. His eyes are pleading and his mouth is pouting and oh, god, why does Nichkhun have to be so good at looking pathetic? "You can stop avoiding me, I was only joking last night. I'm sorry if I went too far."
"It's fine," Wooyoung says, and forces a smile. He only half-means it, and they both seem to know it, but Nichkhun obviously decides to let it slide, because he returns a small smile of his own.
"Are you sure? I didn't mean to scare you."
Wooyoung's laughter sputters out of him, sounding a lot more indignant than he had planned. "You couldn't scare me, you couldn't scare anyone. Unless you stopped winking, then I'd get freaked out." He slips an arm around Nichkhun's shoulders, pulling him towards the entrance. "Come on."
Faking is best at a time like this, he thinks. Even if everyone knows that's what it is.
+
Wooyoung decides he loathes fanfiction. In fact, he hates everyone who's ever written any fiction at all-or better yet, anyone who's ever had a creative idea ever. Because he's tried to ignore it, he really has, but he just can't anymore, and now, not only are showers and sleeping on the floor (and, by extension, anything to do with Nichkhun) ruined for him, but he remembers that Chansung and Junho were another popular couple, and now he keeps seeing romantic undercurrents in everything they do. For instance, when they're in their changing room for Inkigayo and Chansung jumps on Junho's lap, wriggling around to get comfortable, grinding against him and looking completely perverted but not caring at all. And then when Chansung falls asleep on Junho's shoulder afterwards in the van, his forehead resting against Junho's neck, and Junho reaches an arm around him to pull him closer. And then again when they're eating unidentified sweets some time later and Chansung leans over to lick sugar off Junho's cheek, and Junho spends the next ten minutes trying to get him back.
And now. Right now, they're in practice, taking a break, and Junho is peeling a banana under Chansung's careful instruction (since he claims to have mastered the art), the object looking ridiculously phallic in his hands. It only gets worse when Chansung moves right up behind Junho, winding his hands around Junho's, and they pull down the last flap of skin together, slow and steady and sensual and-
Wooyoung wants to cry. He turns away instead and swipes his sleeve across his forehead, intent on concentrating on dancing and only dancing for the rest of the hour. He presses play on the stereo and stalks to the centre of the room, beginning the choreography again by himself. Junsu tries to get his attention, standing in his line of sight and waving in front of his face but Wooyoung shuts him out, letting himself get caught up and carried away by the music.
By the end of the song he's feeling much better, and can even handle it when Chansung piggybacks Junho over to him to hand him a bottle of water.
"Yah, Woodongie. Are you okay?" Junho asks. Chansung just watches him with big eyes.
"I'm great," he says, taking a sip and catching Nichkhun's eye over Junho's shoulder. Nichkhun holds his gaze for a few moments before standing up and clapping loudly.
"We should get back to practice," he says, helping a grumbling Taecyeon up off the floor and nearly falling over himself. He passes Wooyoung and pats Chansung on the arm. "Come on, guys."
Junho shoots Wooyoung one last dubious look before sliding off Chansung's back and getting into formation.
Wooyoung gives Nichkhun a thankful smile through the mirror, but Nichkhun avoids his gaze and counts them in.
+
Except practice, of course, means exercising, which means sweating, which means, in the end, showering. Something Wooyoung should have considered before. Something Wooyoung does not think he is ready to handle today.
And so Wooyoung panics as they head towards the showers, and fakes a call from his mother, slapping his phone to his ear and suddenly pulling away from the group.
"Oh, Mother! Hello! How are you are you good I'm great how is everything is it good?"
The guys stop to wait for him, but Wooyoung shakes his head and gestures at his phone and then in the direction of the showers, and Junsu nods and leads them away again. Only Nichkhun hesitates, watching Wooyoung and raising an eyebrow, and Wooyoung turns away, speaking louder into the phone, gritting his teeth and hating how perceptive Nichkhun always is.
When he turns back, Nichkhun is gone.
+
He makes sure he waits long enough so that even Junho, who likes to extend his showers for as long as possible, will have finished before making his way inside. Thankfully, they're all done and mostly changed, in various stages of packing up their belongings. Wooyoung does a quick head count, but they're missing…
"Where's Khun-hyung?" he asks, carefully keeping his tone as disinterested as possible.
"Finishing up," Chansung supplies, voice muffled as he pulls on his singlet. He emerges from the other side of the fabric and grins. "He got a call from his mother, too."
Wooyoung feels his face fall, and spends a few seconds trying to make it look like it hasn't. Of course. Nichkhun isn't stupid, far from it. He's clever and witty and intuitive and is always the first to know when Wooyoung is lying, and the first to confront him about it (which is usually comforting and awesome and great, but only adds up to trouble for Wooyoung when he's in such a… fragile state).
"Yah, I'm thirsty," Junsu complains.
Taecyeon nods, and reaches beside him to pull something out of Nichkhun's bag that looks rather like Nichkhun's wallet. "Me too. To the drinks machine!" He grins, jumps up, and bolts out of the room, Junho following calmly, Chansung and Junsu jostling each other to get out the door first, Junsu going flying when Chansung nudges too hard.
There's a moment of silence in which Wooyoung tries to collect himself, but then-
"Did they leave without us?"
He whirls around to see Nichkhun standing behind him, towel-swathed again, and suddenly all he can see is wet and skin and kinky shower sex, and he immediately freezes up.
"Yeah," he forces out, willing himself to act normally. "Taec stole your wallet."
"Oh." Nichkhun frowns, but since he's also always, always polite, almost to a fault, he says nothing more on the matter and moves over to his stuff on the bench.
Wooyoung resists the very strong urge to back away. He's hyper-aware of every movement Nichkhun makes, and his ears feel like they're about to burn off, and he knows he should be doing something right now, something that consists of more than gaping at Nichkhun with clenched fists, but he has no idea what it is.
Nichkhun fishes around in his bag and pulls out a shirt. "So, how's your mother?"
And then Wooyoung does do something, something really, phenomenally stupid. When Nichkhun turns back towards him, Wooyoung panics once more, except this time that somehow involves leaning in and pressing his mouth to Nichkhun's in one impulsive, entirely unsophisticated move.
It's like the paper-kissing game all over again, familiar and easy but so much better, because there's nothing between them. Nichkhun's lips are warm and soft, and he raises a palm to Wooyoung's cheek to slow his movements down, but he keeps them connected, actually kissing back, not pulling away, not completely repulsed, and it's almost surprising, because even in Wooyoung's imagination, Nichkhun always puts up at least a little bit of a fight.
Wooyoung immediately wonders if Nichkhun's only humouring him, because that's exactly the type of thing Nichkhun would do. He'd kiss back, just like this, before gently pushing him away and apologizing and walking out, always trying to treat Wooyoung the same way afterwards, but never being able to for fear that Wooyoung will misread his intentions.
So Wooyoung is the first to open his eyes and step back, watching Nichkhun's reactions closely. The things in his stomach are doing their acrobatics again, except this time they're multiplied and frenzied and Wooyoung has no choice but to admit that yes, this is Nichkhun he's feeling these things about, Nichkhun, but that's probably precisely why he's feeling them.
Nichkhun blinks his eyes open and licks his lips. "Ah," he says, and pauses. Wooyoung waits, feeling the growing desire to hit him, but that fades immediately when Nichkhun smiles and eventually continues, "That was so much better than the fanfiction."
He steps forward and curls his fingers around Wooyoung's neck, bringing him closer again. Nichkhun is still wet but that doesn't stop him from pressing their bodies together, and his grin widens as he ducks in for more.
"You were actually right," Wooyoung blurts out.
Nichkhun looks surprised, and he leans back just enough so that he can answer. "What about this time?"
"I made the first move," Wooyoung says, a little bit proud of himself. "I really am the guy in this relationship."
"Yeah," Nichkhun breathes, "you da man."
+
"You know," Nichkhun says much later, between wet kisses left along Wooyoung's jaw, "part of what girls are good at doing is making guys think they're the ones calling the shots."
"Yeah?" Wooyoung gasps, sliding his fingers through Nichkhun's hair, and Nichkhun nods.
"I should know. I have two sisters."
"I should know. You tried to set me up with one of them."
Nichkhun pulls back for a moment, studying his face. "That's… I forgot about that."
"Is she… will everything be okay?" Wooyoung asks carefully, suddenly unsure. He never for a moment thought they'd go around broadcasting their private lives to everyone, but Nichkhun's sister liked him, maybe still does, and if Nichkhun has to keep everything a secret from his family, too… Well, Wooyoung can see him not handling it very well.
But Nichkhun just breaks into a wide grin, and Wooyoung knows immediately that everything is going to work out.
"It's fine, I promise." He nuzzles Wooyoung's cheek and adds, "She writes some of the best Khunyoung stories I've ever read."
This time Wooyoung does hit him.
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