[FOR EVERYONE] SIGHTS TO MAKE YOU SHIVER
RECIPIENT: Everyone
TITLE: sights to make you shiver
LENGTH: 7,138
WARNINGS: none
SUMMARY: Lu Han's spent two years saving for a vacation where he could just get away, but he's surprised to find something that feels much like home.
FINAL NOTES: thank you to my recipient for such cute prompts! i hope i did them justice ^^
The first thing Lu Han does when he arrives in Honolulu International Airport is get laid. At least, that’s what he’s expecting to happen.
The gust of air that greets him when he steps off the plane is warm and sticky. Lu Han takes his sunglasses out of his bag, squinting in the sunlight. Honolulu airport is small and busy, the mix and chatter of locals and tourists just enough to ignite a slow, excited burn underneath his skin.
It only takes him a couple of minutes of being shuffled around to realize that maybe he shouldn’t have taken it seriously when Jongdae had assured him that he’d get laid the moment he landed. Lu Han shakes his head, pushing an empty luggage cart, thinking of all the times he’d listened to Jongdae and had only ended up disappointed.
He’s in the middle of collecting his check in from the baggage carousel when someone taps his shoulder. Lu Han turns around to be met with an attractive young woman smiling at him.
This is it, Lu Han thinks to himself, clearing his throat and drawing himself up to his full manly height, This is what Jongdae was talking about.
“Aloha, sir!” The young woman beams at him, and holds out her arms.
IT’S HAPPENING, Lu Han’s brain screams. I’M ABOUT TO-
A hibiscus garland is draped promptly around his neck. The woman claps her hands together. “Welcome to Oahu!” she chirps brightly before leaving Lu Han to his slack-jawed stare.
Lei’d, he thinks furiously. The first thing he’ll do is get lei’d.
He was going to kill Jongdae.
☄
The Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach is not the largest Hilton resort in the Hawaiian islands (that honor goes to the Hilton Waikaloa on the Big Island), but it’s one of the most popular. Simply put, the island of Oahu is known for attracting all sorts of the young and wild-crazed college teenagers on spring break, newly weds on honeymoons, and wannabe wander-lusters without the bank to travel somewhere farther away.
Lu Han counts himself in the third group. Ideally, he’d be sipping on pineapple juice somewhere in the Caribbean, but Lu Han is only twenty six and isn't making nearly as much as he wanted-he doesn’t have the money or the time to be flying trans-Atlantic for a five day vacation by himself.
That’s okay though, he thinks as he checks into his room in one of the hotel’s Village towers. Lu Han would have preferred a room in either the Rainbow or Ali’i towers, but they were out of his range. Instead, he peers at his King-sized bed, at the giant glass window (resort view-nothing spectacular, but he’ll take what he can get), at the crystalline bathroom, and grins-all of this, for free.
After unpacking, Lu Han flops down on the bouncy mattress with his laptop, signing into his Flyertalk account. Using his webcam, he takes a photo with his hotel room and uploads it onto the sub-forum titled [PINNED] My First Rewards Trip - Swap photos and experiences here!
luhanlu:
Hey everyone, I’m on my first expense-free rewards trip in Oahu, Hawaii for 5 days, 4 nights! Booked my flight with British Airways Avios… 12,500 miles each way from LAX ^^ Staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach for 50k miles a night. Came across a really awesome 40k mile bonus offer through American Express last year to start my Hilton miles, and earned the rest through the usual methods, hehe. Super excited to share my experience with all of you! Time to relax ^___^
Satisfied, Lu Han slinks off into the bathroom to freshen up before dinner, humming to himself. Really, he had Jongdae to thank for this entire trip. Two years ago, his best friend had hounded him into signing up for a mile-earning credit card, arguing that it’d be worth the investment much later.
“We’re young, so we might as well travel now,” Lu Han remembers Jongdae insisting. “You’d be surprised how many miles you can earn with the stuff you already buy.”
Three hundred thousand miles later here he was, balls deep into what the folks on Flyertalk liked to call ‘the game of manufacturing’. Though most regular people would probably consider what they did as money laundering, Lu Han muses with a snort.
Manufacturing, or circulating money through various mediums to earn miles, was tricky. Many major banks, including Lu Han’s own (Chase), chose to turn a blind eye to whatever you were doing as long as you weren’t racking up thousands of dollars in debt, but some were not so kind. Luckily, Lu Han had Jongdae, who’d been doing this kind of thing for years. Where most of their mutual friends were constantly puzzling over how Jongdae and Joonmyun could keep affording all their luxury hotels in Sweden and first class flights to Thailand, Lu Han could only shake his head and wonder the extent that Jongdae had manufactured to earn those miles.
Starting off was easy enough-usually through opening a credit card with a nice bonus of forty to fifty thousand miles, provided you could meet the minimum spend in the first ninety days. (Lu Han had begged Minseok to funnel some of his company expenses through his card to meet his spend requirement. In the end his boss had relented, though to this day Minseok still doesn’t really get it.)
Building past the starting bonus was the difficult part. Learning what was considered excessive (an extremely flexible term in this game, Lu Han learned) and what would be acceptable took a lot of time and close-calls at his favorite stores. For most of this, Lu Han relied heavily on Flyertalk, the travel community forum Jongdae had introduced to him around the same time he’d signed Lu Han up for his first miles-earning card.
Flyertalk was perhaps the most information-rich forum of all the websites that Lu Han frequented in terms of updates and speed, but far from the friendliest. People who played the miles game used it mainly for swapping tips-valuable information such as how to get around store policies, which shops let you purchase over the maximum amount in credit cards-anything to maximize the miles. Miles-manufacturing wasn’t illegal, but the entire community ran itself like a black market of secrets, scared that overuse would bring too much attention to a useful trick or policy loophole and render it useless.
Five minutes later, wandering out with his toothbrush sticking out of his mouth, Lu Han checks his notifications. One reply to your post in My First Rewards Trip - Swap photos and experiences here! Click to view.
Frowning, Lu Han clicks on the little window.
layovers10:
wow, what a great itinerary for ur first rewards trip~~ ୧(﹒︠ᴗ﹒︡)୨ congrats on a successful booking! u will love waikiki beach~ i'm there right now as well ^^
It takes a full thirty seconds for Lu Han to realize that he’d been staring at his computer screen slackjawed-toothpaste foam dribbling rather attractively out of his mouth and down his chin-before accidentally swallowing and typing back a flustered thanks.
Flyertalk user layovers10 was somewhat like a mythical creature in the community-unrelentingly welcoming and nice to all other posters, and unafraid to share whatever information he knew when everyone else was busy hoarding secrets like overprotective honeybees. And after following him on Twitter, Lu Han also realized that Lay (FT’s affectionate nickname for him) was an extremely good at this game. Too often Lu Han would check his feed to see another photo from Lay about being in Abu Dhabi or France or some other crazy high-luxury vacation spot.
But now…. Lu Han half-stumbles to the sink to finish brushing and rinsing his mouth. Now he's in Oahu. Why would he be here instead of some other tropical get-away when he clearly had the points to blow?
Lay hasn’t responded even after Lu Han comes back from the bathroom, wiping his mouth. His curiosity is at an all-time high, but his hunger is enough to put it out of his mind for the time being.
☄
The next morning, Lu Han tries not to look visibly impressed when he steps out onto the pool deck and fails miserably. The resort pool is beautiful, and packed with plenty of young people and their families. Part of him itches to be in the water, but the other half of him (namely, his pasty stomach) is more eager to sprawl himself over a pool chair and attempt to tan away his sad office complexion.
He finds an abandoned chair next to a guy reading a paperback novel.
"Is this taken?" Lu Han asks the stranger, pointing.
The guy gives him a sweet smile and shakes his head. Lu Han grins back and promptly flops down on his stomach. The warm sunshine beating down on his back combined with the soft murmurs of the pool makes his eyelids grow heavy, and before he knows it, Lu Han's drifting off to sleep.
Too soon, it seems, he's being poked awake by a light jabbing in his side. Lu Han opens his eyes blearily to squint at his chair neighbor.
The guy peers at him over a pair of dark sunglasses. He's still reading his novel, Lu Han notes sleepily. "Sorry to wake you," the guy says apologetically. "But I think you're starting to burn."
Lu Han tries to prop himself up on his elbows and winces at the tight pull of his skin. "Damn," he mutters. "Think you're right."
The guy looks at him thoughtfully before reaching into his bag. "Would you like some aloe? It'll help soothe the burn."
"Lu Han," Lu Han tells him, smiling gratefully and taking the proffered bottled. "Thank you…..?" He trails off into an inquisitive silence.
The stranger smiles back. "Yixing."
Lu Han feels a flush spread down his neck that has nothing to do with his sunburn or the warmth of the sun. "Yixing," he tests out, popping open the cap and rubbing the gel onto the backs of his shoulders. "Can I buy you some lunch, Yixing?"
Yixing's smile grows bigger, a dimple sprouting in his right cheek. "That would be nice."
☄
They end up eating in one of the hotel cafes, Lu Han pushing a salad around with his fork and Yixing contentedly munching a hamburger.
"So Lu Han," Yixing starts pleasantly. "Are you here by yourself?"
Lu Han nods, swallowing a great mouthful of lettuce. "I would have liked to come with someone, but it's hard when we're all working. Hawaii's not super cheap, either."
Yixing raises an eyebrow. "But you managed it?"
"I'm not rich or anything," Lu Han says hastily. "I had to go through about five frequent filer credit cards just to get enough miles to get me here."
Yixing nods slowly, sipping his water. "Sounds complicated."
"Most people think it is," Lu Han agrees with a fervent head nod. "Either it's too complicated to be worth the time and effort, or that it sounds too much like money laundering."
"And is it?" There's a twinkle in Yixing's eyes that Lu Han finds he doesn't entirely dislike. Maybe it makes him grin back a little.
"Probably," he admits with a laugh. Lu Han hands the waiter his Visa when he comes with the check. "Triple points on restaurants this month," he adds.
Yixing chuckles at that, a low, comforting sound, and Lu Han likes the way it wraps itself around the silence, warm, soothing.
"What about you?" he tries, chasing a cherry tomato around. "Are you here alone?"
"I've almost always traveled alone," Yixing shrugs. "I used to like the solitude."
"Used to?" Lu Han puts down his glass slowly. "What about now?"
Yixing gives him a smile. "Now I'm a little lonely," he admits.
Lu Han reaches over their table and grasps Yixing's wrist loosely. It's weird to think that he's only met him an hour ago, but something about Yixing makes him seem familiar, somehow. "You can hang out with me, if you want. I'm only here for four more days, but it's something."
"Thank you," Yixing says softly. There's a note of something that Lu Han can't quite discern, but when he beams back at him, that something is gone. "I'd like that a lot."
☄
They go out for saimin noodles later that evening.
"My treat," Yixing says cheerfully, as they bounce along the lava-smooth roads in his rental car.
Lu Ha is too busy staring out of the window to make a comment on the car rental. Certainly Yixing couldn't have planned on staying for only a short while if he'd rented a car, right?
Either way it's nice, he decides, rolling down the window and letting the warm, breezy air blow into his face.
Yixing pulls up in front of a small shop with a dancing crab on the sign, and greets the owner with a warm hug.
Lu Han watches him, amused, as the woman ushers them in with a sense of propriety that puzzled him.
"Have you been here before?" he asks Yixing, breaking open his chopsticks.
Yixing hums. "You could say I've gotten well acquainted with their menu."
Lu Han laughs, punching him lightly in the arm. "Talk about luxury," he teases. "You've probably been here way more than I have."
Yixing's lips curl into a little smirk. "Don't insult the man buying you dinner."
Lu Han relents with a huff before digging into his saimin. It's good-not quite like ramen, not quite like ramyun either. Definitely it's own category.
It's nice, he supposes, sitting there with Yixing. The wooden countertop feels rustic and solid under his hands, the slight warmth of Yixing's side melting into his skin. Yixing smiles and makes small talk with the owner, who definitely seems to know him from way before. Lu Han watches him the entire time.
When they're done eating, Lu Han offers to pay for dessert.
This time, when Yixing smiles at him, it's the kind of smile that makes his heart freeze up. The kind of smile that doesn't just stop at this lips, but curls up into the eyes, sparkling. "I kind of just want of beer," Yixing says with a small laugh, and Lu Han likes the sparkle in his laughter too.
They end up driving back to the Hilton blasting the radio on near maximum, and it's easy. Perhaps that's what makes Lu Han feels like he's on fire, like his skin is burning up, away.
"This was fun," Lu Han tells him when they're walking back to their rooms, grasping his shoulder. There are muscles under his skin, he notes, feels them even through the fabric of his t-shirt. "Thank you."
Yixing walks with him to the door of Lu Han's tower before bidding him goodnight.
"Where are you staying?" Lu Han calls after him.
"Oh, I-Rainbow tower," Yixing calls back, flushing slightly.
"Damn," he remarks, raising his eyebrows. "Okay, well, good night!"
He's about to head in when-"Lu Han!"
Lu Han turns around. "What's up?"
Yixing's giving him another strange look. "Do you have plans tomorrow?"
"No-why?"
Yixing hums a little. "Want to go to Keana Farms?"
Lu Han shrugs. "Sure. See you tomorrow morning?"
"Yeah." Yixing looks pleased. Lu Han feels even more so.
Later that night, lying between the cool of the cotton down, Lu Han scrolls through his Twitter feed. There's tweets from his friends (yet another photo of Joonmyun asleep-very original Kim Jongdae content), a few more from the celebrities he follows, and then he sees it.
@layovers10:
waikiki beach~ ^__^v beautiful view!
Lu Han blinks at his screen a couple of times, remembering faintly the message he'd gotten the day before. He turns his phone off, deciding not to dwell on it, and rolls over to sleep.
☄
Lu Han thinks he's going to be sick.
"You said we were going to a farm," he hisses in Yixing's ear, all the while trying to keep his balance behind him.
Up ahead, the tour guide calls out a cautionary warning for a particularly large gap they have to jump.
Yixing smiles serenely, taking careful steps behind the others in their group. "The Keana Farms ziplines are famous, Lu Han. I thought you would have heard of them."
"I don't associate myself with anything that requires me being more than five feet off the ground," Lu Han snaps back, and Yixing laughs that same sparkling laugh again. In spite of it all, it's calming.
"You're doing fine," Yixing says sweetly. "Besides, we're almost there."
They were in a group with about ten other strangers, all of them a ridiculous circus balancing act as they were strapped into their harnesses and ushered along various bridges threaded through the canopy of the Hawaiian jungle. At the end of the hike waited a little wooden outpost where the guides would strap them into even more devilish harnesses before sending them careening off into the yawning treetops below. Lu Han thinks he's definitely going to be sick.
"There's really no other way back from here?" he calls forlornly to the tour guide nearest them, a smiling young woman named Alexia.
"The only way back is down," she laughs, and Lu Han can feel his lunch going sour in his stomach.
Yixing's hand finds his shoulder and squeezes. There are callouses on his fingers, and Lu Han's heart does a weird flip flop in his ribcage. "You'll be great, don't worry. They let us go in twos, so I'll basically be right next to you!"
"I want to go last," Lu Han mutters, and Yixing laughs again.
Before they know it, their tour group reaches the outpost, and soon the guides start sectioning the people off in pairs.
"We're together," Yixing tells one of the guides, his hand touching lightly at the small of his back. Lu Han's heart does another flip flop, and he has to refrain from beating himself up in disgust.
The tour guide quirks a smile at them before attending to the rest of the group.
"Yixing," he mumbles. "How far up are we?"
"I don't know," Yixing admits. "I can ask-"
"Don't," Lu Han wheezes, covering his eyes dramatically. "Actually, I don't want to know."
He doesn't see the endeared smile on Yixing's face, but he feels it anyway in the patronizing pats on his shoulder.
"Zhang, Lu!" calls one of the tour guides. "You boys are up."
Lu Han opens his eyes in time to see Yixing calmly allowing the guides to secure him into more straps before the remaining staff begin to do the same to him. He lets out a strangled noise. "Oh my god, this is really happening."
One of the guides gives him a hellish grin. "Don't worry. It'll be over before you know it."
"I'm not sure if that's supposed to be reassuring," Lu Han mumbles sourly.
Yixing's finished being clipped into his restraints. "I'll be cheering for you, Lu Han!" he says brightly, pumping his fist.
"You're the worst," Lu Han moans, peering over the edge of the outpost and regretting immediately. "I'm never going to forgive you."
"Looks like we'll find out in five seconds," Yixing says, grinning, and just then Lu Han feels the tension in his harness tighten.
"Oh fuck-"
The next thing he remembers is a firm shove at his back, and then his stomach flies up into his mouth.
☄
"Never again," Lu Han groans, stumbling out of the bathroom, wiping his mouth.
"You did really well," Yixing beams at him. "Wasn't so bad, was it?"
Lu Han can only manage a hollow laugh. To be honest, he doesn't recall anything other than screaming his lungs out and Yixing's delighted yells ten feet away from him. Maybe in the few times he'd opened his eyes, Lu Han remembers glimpses of treetops and farmland, but not much else. "I'm not letting you decide the itinerary anymore."
Yixing only cocks his head to the side. "But then you'd never do anything."
"Correction, I'd never do anything where I don't have a chance of dying," Lu Han says darkly, storming to Yixing's car and yanking the door open. A tight pain shoots up his back. "Ow, shit-"
Yixing makes a concerned noise before hurrying over. "Is it your sunburn again?" he asks, frowning.
Lu Han gingerly feels under his shirt and winces. "Yeah."
"Here." Without further ado, Yixing's rummaging around in the bag that Lu Han hadn't seen him carry and pulls out the bottle of aloe gel from the previous day.
"Do you always carry around emergency sunburn supplies?" Lu Han tries to joke, slipping his arms out of his shirt. It falls flat.
"Let me help you," Yixing says gently, tugging the bottle from his hands. Lu Han's shoulders tense for a moment, but then Yixing's fingers are spreading the gel onto his chapped skin, and he lets out a hiss.
Yixing hums. "Okay?
Lu Han nods and closes his eyes, letting the gentle, circular motions of his fingers lull him into a near sleep. It takes him a minute to realize that thought Yixing's fingers have stopped, they haven't moved either. He opens his eyes and turns around.
"Yixing-" There are words on his tongue, words that didn't make sense.
Yixing stares back at him, eyes bright and expectant. His fingers squeeze slightly.
His cell phone rings, breaking the silence, and Lu Han struggles for a moment to answer without tearing his eyes away. “Jongdae,” he says faintly into the speaker.
“Hyung!! How’s Maui?? Have you gotten laid yet?”
“I'm in Oahu dumbass-and no, I will kill you when I get back, mark my words-"
Yixing watches Lu Han on the phone with a barely concealed interest-his face taking on of those curious expressions that Lu Han's come to associate him with.
"Who was that?" he asks him the moment Lu Han hangs up.
"My best friend," Lu Han explains with a dry smile. "He's an idiot."
"You could have taken the call, you know," Yixing offers. "I wouldn't have minded."
Lu Han lets out a bark of laughter. "It's okay-I can only listen to Jongdae rattle on about his boyfriend for so long."
He's not anticipating the way the comment registers on Yixing's face, his eyes widening slightly and his mouth silently forming the word 'boyfriend', but it hits him all the same.
"Your best friend's boyfriend, huh?"
"Yeah." All too suddenly the atmosphere feels too tense, uncertain. Lu Han's shirt is still draped around his neck, and it's hard to miss the way Yixing's eyeing his upper body, the faint outlines of the abs that Lu Han perfected when he was still in college and playing club soccer.
"Shall we go back to the hotel?" he tries tentatively, pulling his shirt on the rest of the way.
Yixing turns on the ignition. He's humming again, something non-distinct. "Sure."
They don't speak on the drive home, but somehow the silence isn't uncomfortable. While Yixing's paying attention to the road, Lu Han refreshes his twitter feed.
Nothing from Lay today.
☄
Later that evening, his phone lights up with a text message.
wanna go night swimming? ^^
It's a test, he's sure of it. Lu Han lies on his bed, trying not to think of the way Yixing's eyes had raked down his torso, or of the feel of Yixing's shoulder under Lu Han's palm-solid, reassuring, familiar even.
Frowning, Lu Han rolls over in his sheets, wondering if he could merely pretend he didn't see his message. No such luck, he finds out ten minutes later, when there's a gentle knocking on his door.
Yixing's standing outside his hotel room in swimming trunks and a tank top so sheer and tight that it should be illegal. After a few seconds of stunned silence, Yixing lops him an easy smile and wedges himself into the room.
"I knew you'd be holed up in your room."
Scowling, Lu Han follows the other man to where he's flopped on his bed. "How did you find out my room number?"
"It wasn't hard." Yixing's bouncing up and down on the mattress. It's childlike almost, but at the same time endearing. "I asked the front desk to connect me to the reward rooms in the Village towers, from there I figured out which one was yours."
"Sneaky." Lu Han sits in the desk chair. "Are you here to drag me to the pool?"
Yixing smiles indulgently. "It has a really great poolside bar, if that makes any difference."
Actually, it makes all the difference. Half an hour later, Lu Han finds himself wading through the hotel pool's shallow end towards one of the submerged seats that lined the pool bar. He's still wearing a t-shirt-Hawaii or not, the evening is still much cooler than the middle of the day-and Lu Han can't tell if Yixing's disappointed or not.
Yixing buys the first round of drinks, clinking his glass to Lu Han's with a practiced air. "What should we toast to?"
Lu Han shrugs and tries a sip. Whatever it is, it's tasty. "How about to your fenagling ways."
That makes Yixing grin, and Lu Han feels the weird swooping sensation in his stomach again.
It's easy, sitting there in the pool water with Yixing, drinking fruity cocktails and making small talk. Lu Han wonders if this is enough to call them friends-they've only known each other for two days now. Hardly friends, but Yixing seems like so much more than an acquaitance.
"Yoohoo," Yixing waves in front of his face. "Earth to Lu Han?"
Lu Han chokes back a snort. They're on the fifth round of drinks-or was it the sixth? He's lost count. "Roger."
Yixing makes a soft cooing noise. The bridge of his nose is flushed pink, and Lu Han's alarmed to find it adorable. "What were you thinking about?"
He sets his glass down before answering, now empty. "Why are you so okay with hanging out with me? We just met two days ago."
"Do you not want to hang out with me anymore?" Yixing asks him. It might be his imagination, but Lu Han thinks Yixing's words slur together slightly. "I'm just taking you up on your offer. I thought you wanted to."
Lu Han shrugs. "I guess I just never expected you to agree so readily. Its almost like we're close friends now, but we hardly know each other. Is that not weird to you?"
Yixing is quiet for a while before answering. "I'm not like you, Lu Han. I like traveling by myself. I've been basically all over the world, but I've never taken anyone with me. I used to think that it was better that way-nothing to hold me back from what I wanted to do."
"What is it that you wanted to do?" Lu Han asks quietly.
Yixing holds his gaze. "I don't know anymore. I think I just got lonely." His hand comes to rest on Lu Han's knee. Cool, like the water they were sitting in.
Lu Han clears his throat. His entire body is way too warm. "Yixing-"
The hand moves away. "I think I'm drunk," Yixing says plaintively.
"You sound like it," Lu Han tells him. "Maybe I should take you back to your room."
Yixing gives him a sleepy smile, sliding gracelessly off his pool step into the deeper water. His tank soaks through, and Lu Han has to try very hard to not stare at the outline of his nipples, brown and puckered, through the fabric of his shirt.
Lu Han hastily signs his room number on the bill before splashing after him through the pool.
"Oh," Yixing says, swaying slightly now that they're out of the water. "Oh. It's cold."
"You're an idiot," Lu Han scoffs, draping an arm around his shoulders. "Rainbow tower, right?"
"Right." Yixing mumbles, leaning gratefully into him. "Room seven thirty-one."
Lu Han keeps his arm around his shoulders the entire elevator ride, Yixing breathing slow and even into his neck.
"Thank you," comes the muffled comment.
"You're such an idiot," Lu Han says again fondly. "Come on, give me your room key."
The moment he unlocks the room, Yixing ducks out from under his arm to stagger to his bed and face plant into the comforter.
"I feel like throwing up," he says conversationally.
Lu Han winces. "Hold on, can you keep it in?" He ducks into the bathroom. Yixing's room is considerably nicer than his-it's a single suite, for one, and the bathroom is huge. Lu Han grabs the trash can and rushes back out to plop it near Yixing's bedside. "Try to aim for the trash if you yak."
"Mhmm."
Shaking his head, Lu Han plops into the desk chair, overcome by a weird sense of déjà vu from earlier that morning. It takes him a moment to realize that Yixing is mumbling something into his bedsheets.
"What's that?"
Yixing shifts on his tummy. "I said…. can you stay here tonight?"
Lu Han blinks at him. "Here?"
"If it's not too much trouble…."
It's not too much trouble. Lu Han slides himself into the space Yixing's left him, unsure of how much space to leave between them. The darkness in the room hides the way his face burns, the way that-even as he's sleeping-Lu Han watches him, wondering.
Eventually the darkness finds its way under his eyelids, and Lu Han slips off into sleep.
☄
He wakes up to Yixing warm and snuggled into his side. Lu Han blinks blearily up at the ceiling that's not his, trying to piece together how he went from overworked accountant in Pasadena, California to cuddling with a stranger in Oahu, Hawaii. Yixing gives a particularly loud snort and Lu Han's lips twitch up in a smile.
After wrenching himself free from Yixing's grip, Lu Han spots a laptop on sleep mode on his desk. Thinking wistfully of his phone up in his hotel room, he tentatively wakes the computer up. Yixing wouldn't mind, right? He just wanted to check his email and Twitter…..
To Lu Han's surprise, the laptop screen powers up to a familiar blue forum. What on earth was Yixing doing on Flyertalk? Frowning, Lu Han scrolls down the page until-
"Oh my god."
He's staring at a picture of…. himself. Lu Han's looking at his own post that he'd made days ago, the selca with his room, and the dumb text underneath. It didn't make any sense-why would Yixing be searching for his Flyertalk posts?
"Lu Han?"
Lu Han turns around to see Yixing sitting up in his bed, rubbing at his eyes, and that's when it clicks.
"It's you," he whispers. Lu Han rushes to the balcony outside only to be greeted with the exact same view from Lay's twitter. "You're layovers10, Yixing, oh my god."
There's a tired laugh behind him, and Lu Han sinks back into the chair weakly. "Did you know? Did you know it was me?"
"Of course," Yixing says quietly. He's staring down at his knees, but smiling. "I promise it's a lot less creepy than it looks-I saw your post and thought it was funny that someone on FT was in the same resort as me, but I never expected to actually run into you." Yixing lets out another one of those musical laughs. "But after meeting you at the pool, I knew it was you from your picture. You have a very memorable face."
Lu Han feels his cheeks grow hot. "This entire time then, you've been using miles too. Hell, look at the room you booked here."
Yixing grins shyly. "Guilty as charged."
"After all that crap you gave me about it being bothersome!" Lu Han stands up in a huff and goes to the bed. "Scoot over," he says crossly. "I can't believe you."
"I'm sorry," Yixing apologizes, moving over so Lu Han can sit next to him. "It was kind of funny at first. You know you have your bonuses mixed up, right? It's the American Express that has triple points on restaurants, not the Visa."
"Fuck," Lu Han says with feeling, but the loss goes entirely over his head. What matters to him now is Yixing's fingers making tiny circles across his knee. "I knew I was missing something."
Yixing sighs and lies back on the bed, and Lu Han joins him. He's not surprised when their fingers lace together. It feels natural, somehow-just like the rest of this crazy, ridiculous trip.
"So have you really been to France and Egypt and all those places?" he asks after a little while.
"Yes." Yixing shifts so that he can press his face into Lu Han's shoulder, and a giddy little shiver runs down his spine. "But I never stay for long."
Lu Han's in the middle of running his finger's down his back. "Why?"
He can feel Yixing's smile against his skin. "I told you, I get lonely."
"Oh." Lu Han closes his eyes and exhales deeply. "This sucks."
"Why?"
"Because." He hates how he's starting to sound like a petulant teenager, but Lu Han can't keep the whine out of his voice. "I finally meet a guy I like and it's on fucking vacation. You probably live on the other side of the country for all that I know."
"Lu Han," Yixing says slowly, raising his head to peer up at him with clear, bright eyes. "You know that I live in San Francisco, right?"
"Oh my god, shut up." Lu Han pushes him away and rolls over with a dejected moan. "Just actually shut up. I don't want you building up my hopes and dreams."
Yixing's arms wind around his waist and, in spite of himself, Lu Han leans back into his chest.
"I hate you," he whines.
"Good thing I have so many miles saved up then," Yixing chirps, pulling him close.
Lu Han snorts. "No more solo trips anymore?"
"Nope." Yixing tugs Lu Han back onto his side to look at him. "I'm going to kiss you now."
"Sorry," Lu Han tries to deadpan, but he can't help the smile on his face, broad and pleased. "But all the reward seats on this flight are booked."
Yixing grins back. "Guess I'll have to try a different airline, then."
☄
@luhanlu: Last day! Boat trip around the island with @layovers10~~~
↳ @jdjdbabybaby: @luhanlu OMG HYUNG i knew u'd get laid ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
↳ @jdjdbabybaby: @luhanlu wait why the fuck are u guys wearing jackets in HAWAII
↳ @layovers10: @jdjdbabybaby @luhanlu kekeke
TITLE: sights to make you shiver
LENGTH: 7,138
WARNINGS: none
SUMMARY: Lu Han's spent two years saving for a vacation where he could just get away, but he's surprised to find something that feels much like home.
FINAL NOTES: thank you to my recipient for such cute prompts! i hope i did them justice ^^
The first thing Lu Han does when he arrives in Honolulu International Airport is get laid. At least, that’s what he’s expecting to happen.
The gust of air that greets him when he steps off the plane is warm and sticky. Lu Han takes his sunglasses out of his bag, squinting in the sunlight. Honolulu airport is small and busy, the mix and chatter of locals and tourists just enough to ignite a slow, excited burn underneath his skin.
It only takes him a couple of minutes of being shuffled around to realize that maybe he shouldn’t have taken it seriously when Jongdae had assured him that he’d get laid the moment he landed. Lu Han shakes his head, pushing an empty luggage cart, thinking of all the times he’d listened to Jongdae and had only ended up disappointed.
He’s in the middle of collecting his check in from the baggage carousel when someone taps his shoulder. Lu Han turns around to be met with an attractive young woman smiling at him.
This is it, Lu Han thinks to himself, clearing his throat and drawing himself up to his full manly height, This is what Jongdae was talking about.
“Aloha, sir!” The young woman beams at him, and holds out her arms.
IT’S HAPPENING, Lu Han’s brain screams. I’M ABOUT TO-
A hibiscus garland is draped promptly around his neck. The woman claps her hands together. “Welcome to Oahu!” she chirps brightly before leaving Lu Han to his slack-jawed stare.
Lei’d, he thinks furiously. The first thing he’ll do is get lei’d.
He was going to kill Jongdae.
☄
The Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach is not the largest Hilton resort in the Hawaiian islands (that honor goes to the Hilton Waikaloa on the Big Island), but it’s one of the most popular. Simply put, the island of Oahu is known for attracting all sorts of the young and wild-crazed college teenagers on spring break, newly weds on honeymoons, and wannabe wander-lusters without the bank to travel somewhere farther away.
Lu Han counts himself in the third group. Ideally, he’d be sipping on pineapple juice somewhere in the Caribbean, but Lu Han is only twenty six and isn't making nearly as much as he wanted-he doesn’t have the money or the time to be flying trans-Atlantic for a five day vacation by himself.
That’s okay though, he thinks as he checks into his room in one of the hotel’s Village towers. Lu Han would have preferred a room in either the Rainbow or Ali’i towers, but they were out of his range. Instead, he peers at his King-sized bed, at the giant glass window (resort view-nothing spectacular, but he’ll take what he can get), at the crystalline bathroom, and grins-all of this, for free.
After unpacking, Lu Han flops down on the bouncy mattress with his laptop, signing into his Flyertalk account. Using his webcam, he takes a photo with his hotel room and uploads it onto the sub-forum titled [PINNED] My First Rewards Trip - Swap photos and experiences here!
luhanlu:
Hey everyone, I’m on my first expense-free rewards trip in Oahu, Hawaii for 5 days, 4 nights! Booked my flight with British Airways Avios… 12,500 miles each way from LAX ^^ Staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach for 50k miles a night. Came across a really awesome 40k mile bonus offer through American Express last year to start my Hilton miles, and earned the rest through the usual methods, hehe. Super excited to share my experience with all of you! Time to relax ^___^
Satisfied, Lu Han slinks off into the bathroom to freshen up before dinner, humming to himself. Really, he had Jongdae to thank for this entire trip. Two years ago, his best friend had hounded him into signing up for a mile-earning credit card, arguing that it’d be worth the investment much later.
“We’re young, so we might as well travel now,” Lu Han remembers Jongdae insisting. “You’d be surprised how many miles you can earn with the stuff you already buy.”
Three hundred thousand miles later here he was, balls deep into what the folks on Flyertalk liked to call ‘the game of manufacturing’. Though most regular people would probably consider what they did as money laundering, Lu Han muses with a snort.
Manufacturing, or circulating money through various mediums to earn miles, was tricky. Many major banks, including Lu Han’s own (Chase), chose to turn a blind eye to whatever you were doing as long as you weren’t racking up thousands of dollars in debt, but some were not so kind. Luckily, Lu Han had Jongdae, who’d been doing this kind of thing for years. Where most of their mutual friends were constantly puzzling over how Jongdae and Joonmyun could keep affording all their luxury hotels in Sweden and first class flights to Thailand, Lu Han could only shake his head and wonder the extent that Jongdae had manufactured to earn those miles.
Starting off was easy enough-usually through opening a credit card with a nice bonus of forty to fifty thousand miles, provided you could meet the minimum spend in the first ninety days. (Lu Han had begged Minseok to funnel some of his company expenses through his card to meet his spend requirement. In the end his boss had relented, though to this day Minseok still doesn’t really get it.)
Building past the starting bonus was the difficult part. Learning what was considered excessive (an extremely flexible term in this game, Lu Han learned) and what would be acceptable took a lot of time and close-calls at his favorite stores. For most of this, Lu Han relied heavily on Flyertalk, the travel community forum Jongdae had introduced to him around the same time he’d signed Lu Han up for his first miles-earning card.
Flyertalk was perhaps the most information-rich forum of all the websites that Lu Han frequented in terms of updates and speed, but far from the friendliest. People who played the miles game used it mainly for swapping tips-valuable information such as how to get around store policies, which shops let you purchase over the maximum amount in credit cards-anything to maximize the miles. Miles-manufacturing wasn’t illegal, but the entire community ran itself like a black market of secrets, scared that overuse would bring too much attention to a useful trick or policy loophole and render it useless.
Five minutes later, wandering out with his toothbrush sticking out of his mouth, Lu Han checks his notifications. One reply to your post in My First Rewards Trip - Swap photos and experiences here! Click to view.
Frowning, Lu Han clicks on the little window.
layovers10:
wow, what a great itinerary for ur first rewards trip~~ ୧(﹒︠ᴗ﹒︡)୨ congrats on a successful booking! u will love waikiki beach~ i'm there right now as well ^^
It takes a full thirty seconds for Lu Han to realize that he’d been staring at his computer screen slackjawed-toothpaste foam dribbling rather attractively out of his mouth and down his chin-before accidentally swallowing and typing back a flustered thanks.
Flyertalk user layovers10 was somewhat like a mythical creature in the community-unrelentingly welcoming and nice to all other posters, and unafraid to share whatever information he knew when everyone else was busy hoarding secrets like overprotective honeybees. And after following him on Twitter, Lu Han also realized that Lay (FT’s affectionate nickname for him) was an extremely good at this game. Too often Lu Han would check his feed to see another photo from Lay about being in Abu Dhabi or France or some other crazy high-luxury vacation spot.
But now…. Lu Han half-stumbles to the sink to finish brushing and rinsing his mouth. Now he's in Oahu. Why would he be here instead of some other tropical get-away when he clearly had the points to blow?
Lay hasn’t responded even after Lu Han comes back from the bathroom, wiping his mouth. His curiosity is at an all-time high, but his hunger is enough to put it out of his mind for the time being.
☄
The next morning, Lu Han tries not to look visibly impressed when he steps out onto the pool deck and fails miserably. The resort pool is beautiful, and packed with plenty of young people and their families. Part of him itches to be in the water, but the other half of him (namely, his pasty stomach) is more eager to sprawl himself over a pool chair and attempt to tan away his sad office complexion.
He finds an abandoned chair next to a guy reading a paperback novel.
"Is this taken?" Lu Han asks the stranger, pointing.
The guy gives him a sweet smile and shakes his head. Lu Han grins back and promptly flops down on his stomach. The warm sunshine beating down on his back combined with the soft murmurs of the pool makes his eyelids grow heavy, and before he knows it, Lu Han's drifting off to sleep.
Too soon, it seems, he's being poked awake by a light jabbing in his side. Lu Han opens his eyes blearily to squint at his chair neighbor.
The guy peers at him over a pair of dark sunglasses. He's still reading his novel, Lu Han notes sleepily. "Sorry to wake you," the guy says apologetically. "But I think you're starting to burn."
Lu Han tries to prop himself up on his elbows and winces at the tight pull of his skin. "Damn," he mutters. "Think you're right."
The guy looks at him thoughtfully before reaching into his bag. "Would you like some aloe? It'll help soothe the burn."
"Lu Han," Lu Han tells him, smiling gratefully and taking the proffered bottled. "Thank you…..?" He trails off into an inquisitive silence.
The stranger smiles back. "Yixing."
Lu Han feels a flush spread down his neck that has nothing to do with his sunburn or the warmth of the sun. "Yixing," he tests out, popping open the cap and rubbing the gel onto the backs of his shoulders. "Can I buy you some lunch, Yixing?"
Yixing's smile grows bigger, a dimple sprouting in his right cheek. "That would be nice."
☄
They end up eating in one of the hotel cafes, Lu Han pushing a salad around with his fork and Yixing contentedly munching a hamburger.
"So Lu Han," Yixing starts pleasantly. "Are you here by yourself?"
Lu Han nods, swallowing a great mouthful of lettuce. "I would have liked to come with someone, but it's hard when we're all working. Hawaii's not super cheap, either."
Yixing raises an eyebrow. "But you managed it?"
"I'm not rich or anything," Lu Han says hastily. "I had to go through about five frequent filer credit cards just to get enough miles to get me here."
Yixing nods slowly, sipping his water. "Sounds complicated."
"Most people think it is," Lu Han agrees with a fervent head nod. "Either it's too complicated to be worth the time and effort, or that it sounds too much like money laundering."
"And is it?" There's a twinkle in Yixing's eyes that Lu Han finds he doesn't entirely dislike. Maybe it makes him grin back a little.
"Probably," he admits with a laugh. Lu Han hands the waiter his Visa when he comes with the check. "Triple points on restaurants this month," he adds.
Yixing chuckles at that, a low, comforting sound, and Lu Han likes the way it wraps itself around the silence, warm, soothing.
"What about you?" he tries, chasing a cherry tomato around. "Are you here alone?"
"I've almost always traveled alone," Yixing shrugs. "I used to like the solitude."
"Used to?" Lu Han puts down his glass slowly. "What about now?"
Yixing gives him a smile. "Now I'm a little lonely," he admits.
Lu Han reaches over their table and grasps Yixing's wrist loosely. It's weird to think that he's only met him an hour ago, but something about Yixing makes him seem familiar, somehow. "You can hang out with me, if you want. I'm only here for four more days, but it's something."
"Thank you," Yixing says softly. There's a note of something that Lu Han can't quite discern, but when he beams back at him, that something is gone. "I'd like that a lot."
☄
They go out for saimin noodles later that evening.
"My treat," Yixing says cheerfully, as they bounce along the lava-smooth roads in his rental car.
Lu Ha is too busy staring out of the window to make a comment on the car rental. Certainly Yixing couldn't have planned on staying for only a short while if he'd rented a car, right?
Either way it's nice, he decides, rolling down the window and letting the warm, breezy air blow into his face.
Yixing pulls up in front of a small shop with a dancing crab on the sign, and greets the owner with a warm hug.
Lu Han watches him, amused, as the woman ushers them in with a sense of propriety that puzzled him.
"Have you been here before?" he asks Yixing, breaking open his chopsticks.
Yixing hums. "You could say I've gotten well acquainted with their menu."
Lu Han laughs, punching him lightly in the arm. "Talk about luxury," he teases. "You've probably been here way more than I have."
Yixing's lips curl into a little smirk. "Don't insult the man buying you dinner."
Lu Han relents with a huff before digging into his saimin. It's good-not quite like ramen, not quite like ramyun either. Definitely it's own category.
It's nice, he supposes, sitting there with Yixing. The wooden countertop feels rustic and solid under his hands, the slight warmth of Yixing's side melting into his skin. Yixing smiles and makes small talk with the owner, who definitely seems to know him from way before. Lu Han watches him the entire time.
When they're done eating, Lu Han offers to pay for dessert.
This time, when Yixing smiles at him, it's the kind of smile that makes his heart freeze up. The kind of smile that doesn't just stop at this lips, but curls up into the eyes, sparkling. "I kind of just want of beer," Yixing says with a small laugh, and Lu Han likes the sparkle in his laughter too.
They end up driving back to the Hilton blasting the radio on near maximum, and it's easy. Perhaps that's what makes Lu Han feels like he's on fire, like his skin is burning up, away.
"This was fun," Lu Han tells him when they're walking back to their rooms, grasping his shoulder. There are muscles under his skin, he notes, feels them even through the fabric of his t-shirt. "Thank you."
Yixing walks with him to the door of Lu Han's tower before bidding him goodnight.
"Where are you staying?" Lu Han calls after him.
"Oh, I-Rainbow tower," Yixing calls back, flushing slightly.
"Damn," he remarks, raising his eyebrows. "Okay, well, good night!"
He's about to head in when-"Lu Han!"
Lu Han turns around. "What's up?"
Yixing's giving him another strange look. "Do you have plans tomorrow?"
"No-why?"
Yixing hums a little. "Want to go to Keana Farms?"
Lu Han shrugs. "Sure. See you tomorrow morning?"
"Yeah." Yixing looks pleased. Lu Han feels even more so.
Later that night, lying between the cool of the cotton down, Lu Han scrolls through his Twitter feed. There's tweets from his friends (yet another photo of Joonmyun asleep-very original Kim Jongdae content), a few more from the celebrities he follows, and then he sees it.
@layovers10:
waikiki beach~ ^__^v beautiful view!
Lu Han blinks at his screen a couple of times, remembering faintly the message he'd gotten the day before. He turns his phone off, deciding not to dwell on it, and rolls over to sleep.
☄
Lu Han thinks he's going to be sick.
"You said we were going to a farm," he hisses in Yixing's ear, all the while trying to keep his balance behind him.
Up ahead, the tour guide calls out a cautionary warning for a particularly large gap they have to jump.
Yixing smiles serenely, taking careful steps behind the others in their group. "The Keana Farms ziplines are famous, Lu Han. I thought you would have heard of them."
"I don't associate myself with anything that requires me being more than five feet off the ground," Lu Han snaps back, and Yixing laughs that same sparkling laugh again. In spite of it all, it's calming.
"You're doing fine," Yixing says sweetly. "Besides, we're almost there."
They were in a group with about ten other strangers, all of them a ridiculous circus balancing act as they were strapped into their harnesses and ushered along various bridges threaded through the canopy of the Hawaiian jungle. At the end of the hike waited a little wooden outpost where the guides would strap them into even more devilish harnesses before sending them careening off into the yawning treetops below. Lu Han thinks he's definitely going to be sick.
"There's really no other way back from here?" he calls forlornly to the tour guide nearest them, a smiling young woman named Alexia.
"The only way back is down," she laughs, and Lu Han can feel his lunch going sour in his stomach.
Yixing's hand finds his shoulder and squeezes. There are callouses on his fingers, and Lu Han's heart does a weird flip flop in his ribcage. "You'll be great, don't worry. They let us go in twos, so I'll basically be right next to you!"
"I want to go last," Lu Han mutters, and Yixing laughs again.
Before they know it, their tour group reaches the outpost, and soon the guides start sectioning the people off in pairs.
"We're together," Yixing tells one of the guides, his hand touching lightly at the small of his back. Lu Han's heart does another flip flop, and he has to refrain from beating himself up in disgust.
The tour guide quirks a smile at them before attending to the rest of the group.
"Yixing," he mumbles. "How far up are we?"
"I don't know," Yixing admits. "I can ask-"
"Don't," Lu Han wheezes, covering his eyes dramatically. "Actually, I don't want to know."
He doesn't see the endeared smile on Yixing's face, but he feels it anyway in the patronizing pats on his shoulder.
"Zhang, Lu!" calls one of the tour guides. "You boys are up."
Lu Han opens his eyes in time to see Yixing calmly allowing the guides to secure him into more straps before the remaining staff begin to do the same to him. He lets out a strangled noise. "Oh my god, this is really happening."
One of the guides gives him a hellish grin. "Don't worry. It'll be over before you know it."
"I'm not sure if that's supposed to be reassuring," Lu Han mumbles sourly.
Yixing's finished being clipped into his restraints. "I'll be cheering for you, Lu Han!" he says brightly, pumping his fist.
"You're the worst," Lu Han moans, peering over the edge of the outpost and regretting immediately. "I'm never going to forgive you."
"Looks like we'll find out in five seconds," Yixing says, grinning, and just then Lu Han feels the tension in his harness tighten.
"Oh fuck-"
The next thing he remembers is a firm shove at his back, and then his stomach flies up into his mouth.
☄
"Never again," Lu Han groans, stumbling out of the bathroom, wiping his mouth.
"You did really well," Yixing beams at him. "Wasn't so bad, was it?"
Lu Han can only manage a hollow laugh. To be honest, he doesn't recall anything other than screaming his lungs out and Yixing's delighted yells ten feet away from him. Maybe in the few times he'd opened his eyes, Lu Han remembers glimpses of treetops and farmland, but not much else. "I'm not letting you decide the itinerary anymore."
Yixing only cocks his head to the side. "But then you'd never do anything."
"Correction, I'd never do anything where I don't have a chance of dying," Lu Han says darkly, storming to Yixing's car and yanking the door open. A tight pain shoots up his back. "Ow, shit-"
Yixing makes a concerned noise before hurrying over. "Is it your sunburn again?" he asks, frowning.
Lu Han gingerly feels under his shirt and winces. "Yeah."
"Here." Without further ado, Yixing's rummaging around in the bag that Lu Han hadn't seen him carry and pulls out the bottle of aloe gel from the previous day.
"Do you always carry around emergency sunburn supplies?" Lu Han tries to joke, slipping his arms out of his shirt. It falls flat.
"Let me help you," Yixing says gently, tugging the bottle from his hands. Lu Han's shoulders tense for a moment, but then Yixing's fingers are spreading the gel onto his chapped skin, and he lets out a hiss.
Yixing hums. "Okay?
Lu Han nods and closes his eyes, letting the gentle, circular motions of his fingers lull him into a near sleep. It takes him a minute to realize that thought Yixing's fingers have stopped, they haven't moved either. He opens his eyes and turns around.
"Yixing-" There are words on his tongue, words that didn't make sense.
Yixing stares back at him, eyes bright and expectant. His fingers squeeze slightly.
His cell phone rings, breaking the silence, and Lu Han struggles for a moment to answer without tearing his eyes away. “Jongdae,” he says faintly into the speaker.
“Hyung!! How’s Maui?? Have you gotten laid yet?”
“I'm in Oahu dumbass-and no, I will kill you when I get back, mark my words-"
Yixing watches Lu Han on the phone with a barely concealed interest-his face taking on of those curious expressions that Lu Han's come to associate him with.
"Who was that?" he asks him the moment Lu Han hangs up.
"My best friend," Lu Han explains with a dry smile. "He's an idiot."
"You could have taken the call, you know," Yixing offers. "I wouldn't have minded."
Lu Han lets out a bark of laughter. "It's okay-I can only listen to Jongdae rattle on about his boyfriend for so long."
He's not anticipating the way the comment registers on Yixing's face, his eyes widening slightly and his mouth silently forming the word 'boyfriend', but it hits him all the same.
"Your best friend's boyfriend, huh?"
"Yeah." All too suddenly the atmosphere feels too tense, uncertain. Lu Han's shirt is still draped around his neck, and it's hard to miss the way Yixing's eyeing his upper body, the faint outlines of the abs that Lu Han perfected when he was still in college and playing club soccer.
"Shall we go back to the hotel?" he tries tentatively, pulling his shirt on the rest of the way.
Yixing turns on the ignition. He's humming again, something non-distinct. "Sure."
They don't speak on the drive home, but somehow the silence isn't uncomfortable. While Yixing's paying attention to the road, Lu Han refreshes his twitter feed.
Nothing from Lay today.
☄
Later that evening, his phone lights up with a text message.
wanna go night swimming? ^^
It's a test, he's sure of it. Lu Han lies on his bed, trying not to think of the way Yixing's eyes had raked down his torso, or of the feel of Yixing's shoulder under Lu Han's palm-solid, reassuring, familiar even.
Frowning, Lu Han rolls over in his sheets, wondering if he could merely pretend he didn't see his message. No such luck, he finds out ten minutes later, when there's a gentle knocking on his door.
Yixing's standing outside his hotel room in swimming trunks and a tank top so sheer and tight that it should be illegal. After a few seconds of stunned silence, Yixing lops him an easy smile and wedges himself into the room.
"I knew you'd be holed up in your room."
Scowling, Lu Han follows the other man to where he's flopped on his bed. "How did you find out my room number?"
"It wasn't hard." Yixing's bouncing up and down on the mattress. It's childlike almost, but at the same time endearing. "I asked the front desk to connect me to the reward rooms in the Village towers, from there I figured out which one was yours."
"Sneaky." Lu Han sits in the desk chair. "Are you here to drag me to the pool?"
Yixing smiles indulgently. "It has a really great poolside bar, if that makes any difference."
Actually, it makes all the difference. Half an hour later, Lu Han finds himself wading through the hotel pool's shallow end towards one of the submerged seats that lined the pool bar. He's still wearing a t-shirt-Hawaii or not, the evening is still much cooler than the middle of the day-and Lu Han can't tell if Yixing's disappointed or not.
Yixing buys the first round of drinks, clinking his glass to Lu Han's with a practiced air. "What should we toast to?"
Lu Han shrugs and tries a sip. Whatever it is, it's tasty. "How about to your fenagling ways."
That makes Yixing grin, and Lu Han feels the weird swooping sensation in his stomach again.
It's easy, sitting there in the pool water with Yixing, drinking fruity cocktails and making small talk. Lu Han wonders if this is enough to call them friends-they've only known each other for two days now. Hardly friends, but Yixing seems like so much more than an acquaitance.
"Yoohoo," Yixing waves in front of his face. "Earth to Lu Han?"
Lu Han chokes back a snort. They're on the fifth round of drinks-or was it the sixth? He's lost count. "Roger."
Yixing makes a soft cooing noise. The bridge of his nose is flushed pink, and Lu Han's alarmed to find it adorable. "What were you thinking about?"
He sets his glass down before answering, now empty. "Why are you so okay with hanging out with me? We just met two days ago."
"Do you not want to hang out with me anymore?" Yixing asks him. It might be his imagination, but Lu Han thinks Yixing's words slur together slightly. "I'm just taking you up on your offer. I thought you wanted to."
Lu Han shrugs. "I guess I just never expected you to agree so readily. Its almost like we're close friends now, but we hardly know each other. Is that not weird to you?"
Yixing is quiet for a while before answering. "I'm not like you, Lu Han. I like traveling by myself. I've been basically all over the world, but I've never taken anyone with me. I used to think that it was better that way-nothing to hold me back from what I wanted to do."
"What is it that you wanted to do?" Lu Han asks quietly.
Yixing holds his gaze. "I don't know anymore. I think I just got lonely." His hand comes to rest on Lu Han's knee. Cool, like the water they were sitting in.
Lu Han clears his throat. His entire body is way too warm. "Yixing-"
The hand moves away. "I think I'm drunk," Yixing says plaintively.
"You sound like it," Lu Han tells him. "Maybe I should take you back to your room."
Yixing gives him a sleepy smile, sliding gracelessly off his pool step into the deeper water. His tank soaks through, and Lu Han has to try very hard to not stare at the outline of his nipples, brown and puckered, through the fabric of his shirt.
Lu Han hastily signs his room number on the bill before splashing after him through the pool.
"Oh," Yixing says, swaying slightly now that they're out of the water. "Oh. It's cold."
"You're an idiot," Lu Han scoffs, draping an arm around his shoulders. "Rainbow tower, right?"
"Right." Yixing mumbles, leaning gratefully into him. "Room seven thirty-one."
Lu Han keeps his arm around his shoulders the entire elevator ride, Yixing breathing slow and even into his neck.
"Thank you," comes the muffled comment.
"You're such an idiot," Lu Han says again fondly. "Come on, give me your room key."
The moment he unlocks the room, Yixing ducks out from under his arm to stagger to his bed and face plant into the comforter.
"I feel like throwing up," he says conversationally.
Lu Han winces. "Hold on, can you keep it in?" He ducks into the bathroom. Yixing's room is considerably nicer than his-it's a single suite, for one, and the bathroom is huge. Lu Han grabs the trash can and rushes back out to plop it near Yixing's bedside. "Try to aim for the trash if you yak."
"Mhmm."
Shaking his head, Lu Han plops into the desk chair, overcome by a weird sense of déjà vu from earlier that morning. It takes him a moment to realize that Yixing is mumbling something into his bedsheets.
"What's that?"
Yixing shifts on his tummy. "I said…. can you stay here tonight?"
Lu Han blinks at him. "Here?"
"If it's not too much trouble…."
It's not too much trouble. Lu Han slides himself into the space Yixing's left him, unsure of how much space to leave between them. The darkness in the room hides the way his face burns, the way that-even as he's sleeping-Lu Han watches him, wondering.
Eventually the darkness finds its way under his eyelids, and Lu Han slips off into sleep.
☄
He wakes up to Yixing warm and snuggled into his side. Lu Han blinks blearily up at the ceiling that's not his, trying to piece together how he went from overworked accountant in Pasadena, California to cuddling with a stranger in Oahu, Hawaii. Yixing gives a particularly loud snort and Lu Han's lips twitch up in a smile.
After wrenching himself free from Yixing's grip, Lu Han spots a laptop on sleep mode on his desk. Thinking wistfully of his phone up in his hotel room, he tentatively wakes the computer up. Yixing wouldn't mind, right? He just wanted to check his email and Twitter…..
To Lu Han's surprise, the laptop screen powers up to a familiar blue forum. What on earth was Yixing doing on Flyertalk? Frowning, Lu Han scrolls down the page until-
"Oh my god."
He's staring at a picture of…. himself. Lu Han's looking at his own post that he'd made days ago, the selca with his room, and the dumb text underneath. It didn't make any sense-why would Yixing be searching for his Flyertalk posts?
"Lu Han?"
Lu Han turns around to see Yixing sitting up in his bed, rubbing at his eyes, and that's when it clicks.
"It's you," he whispers. Lu Han rushes to the balcony outside only to be greeted with the exact same view from Lay's twitter. "You're layovers10, Yixing, oh my god."
There's a tired laugh behind him, and Lu Han sinks back into the chair weakly. "Did you know? Did you know it was me?"
"Of course," Yixing says quietly. He's staring down at his knees, but smiling. "I promise it's a lot less creepy than it looks-I saw your post and thought it was funny that someone on FT was in the same resort as me, but I never expected to actually run into you." Yixing lets out another one of those musical laughs. "But after meeting you at the pool, I knew it was you from your picture. You have a very memorable face."
Lu Han feels his cheeks grow hot. "This entire time then, you've been using miles too. Hell, look at the room you booked here."
Yixing grins shyly. "Guilty as charged."
"After all that crap you gave me about it being bothersome!" Lu Han stands up in a huff and goes to the bed. "Scoot over," he says crossly. "I can't believe you."
"I'm sorry," Yixing apologizes, moving over so Lu Han can sit next to him. "It was kind of funny at first. You know you have your bonuses mixed up, right? It's the American Express that has triple points on restaurants, not the Visa."
"Fuck," Lu Han says with feeling, but the loss goes entirely over his head. What matters to him now is Yixing's fingers making tiny circles across his knee. "I knew I was missing something."
Yixing sighs and lies back on the bed, and Lu Han joins him. He's not surprised when their fingers lace together. It feels natural, somehow-just like the rest of this crazy, ridiculous trip.
"So have you really been to France and Egypt and all those places?" he asks after a little while.
"Yes." Yixing shifts so that he can press his face into Lu Han's shoulder, and a giddy little shiver runs down his spine. "But I never stay for long."
Lu Han's in the middle of running his finger's down his back. "Why?"
He can feel Yixing's smile against his skin. "I told you, I get lonely."
"Oh." Lu Han closes his eyes and exhales deeply. "This sucks."
"Why?"
"Because." He hates how he's starting to sound like a petulant teenager, but Lu Han can't keep the whine out of his voice. "I finally meet a guy I like and it's on fucking vacation. You probably live on the other side of the country for all that I know."
"Lu Han," Yixing says slowly, raising his head to peer up at him with clear, bright eyes. "You know that I live in San Francisco, right?"
"Oh my god, shut up." Lu Han pushes him away and rolls over with a dejected moan. "Just actually shut up. I don't want you building up my hopes and dreams."
Yixing's arms wind around his waist and, in spite of himself, Lu Han leans back into his chest.
"I hate you," he whines.
"Good thing I have so many miles saved up then," Yixing chirps, pulling him close.
Lu Han snorts. "No more solo trips anymore?"
"Nope." Yixing tugs Lu Han back onto his side to look at him. "I'm going to kiss you now."
"Sorry," Lu Han tries to deadpan, but he can't help the smile on his face, broad and pleased. "But all the reward seats on this flight are booked."
Yixing grins back. "Guess I'll have to try a different airline, then."
☄
@luhanlu: Last day! Boat trip around the island with @layovers10~~~
↳ @jdjdbabybaby: @luhanlu OMG HYUNG i knew u'd get laid ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
↳ @jdjdbabybaby: @luhanlu wait why the fuck are u guys wearing jackets in HAWAII
↳ @layovers10: @jdjdbabybaby @luhanlu kekeke