Chapter Text
Jeno thought that his first Christmas without Donghyuck would be miserable— after all, Christmas was Donghyuck’s favorite holiday, and they would always go ham with the decorations. But strangely, he didn’t feel the need to mope when December hit; rather, he felt invigorated and maybe, maybe a bit nostalgic. He’d decorate anyway, he decided.
“Why are you doing this to my apartment?”
Renjun had come home in one of his famous bad moods. Jeno should have known to expect it on a Monday. He glanced over from his task of hanging tinsel around the fireplace, shrugging lightly— Renjun was looking particularly dashing that day, dressed in a sharp gray suit that matched his fur almost exactly, paired with a royal purple tie. Cute, though Jeno certainly knew better than to say so. “It’s almost Christmas. Everyone loves Christmas, right?” Renjun didn’t answer, only snorting, and Jeno went on, “You never talk about your love life. Are you seeing anyone? Or are you as hopeless as I am this year?”
“What’s that supposed to mean? I like being single,” Renjun replied with such ease that Jeno actually sort of believed him. “I don’t need a stupid boy in my life to enjoy it.”
“Oh.” Jeno blinked, realizing how long he’d been standing there idly and turning to finish hanging the tinsel. Boys. Renjun likes boys. Okay. “Well— in that case, we’re single together, so we can be each other’s Christmas dates. If you don’t have plans, that is. I’ll cook you something.”
“Mm. I guess.” Renjun had ventured into the kitchen, no longer watching Jeno’s progress, which made him pout. Funny as it was, he liked to have Renjun’s full attention. Something about it just felt… nice, even if that attention was sometimes rife with irritation. He grabbed a sprig of mistletoe next, stepping into the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. It only took a moment’s assessment to realize that he couldn’t reach the top of the door frame, and he slid over the ottoman from in front of Renjun’s recliner to use as a stepping stool. “What is that?” The catboy asked from the kitchen, glancing up from the glass of wine he was pouring. “Mistletoe? You’d better not try to kiss me under it.”
“I won’t if you don’t want me to, but I was thinking you could probably use a kiss more than anyone. You’re so uptight.”
Renjun didn’t say anything, and his face remained devoid of emotion, but the swish of his tail said it all. He only watched in silence for a few seconds, jade eyes cold, before asking, “Do you want some wine?”
“Yes, please! What’s the occasion?”
Renjun shrugged, taking a second glass down from the cupboard. “Gift from a client. I don’t know if it’s any good, but I could really use a drink.” He tilted the bottle upright, then added thoughtfully, “Kisses aren’t the way to my heart. Alcohol is. Though I’m more of a bourbon person than a wine person.”
Noted, Jeno thought, biting his lip as he watched Renjun take a sip of his glass. Whatever it was, he didn’t hate it, and he squeezed past Jeno into the living room as he took another sip.
With the mistletoe hung, Jeno pushed the ottoman back into place and stepped back into the kitchen to retrieve the other glass of wine. When he returned to the living room, he stood in the doorway for a long moment, taking in the results of his hard work: the lights along the ceiling trim, the stockings over the fireplace, the tinsel—
“What happened to my tinsel?” Jeno questioned, raising an eyebrow. It was about a third shorter than it had been, hanging lopsided and ugly.
“What?”
“You hate it that much? You can just tell me to take it down.”
“I don’t mind most of it. The lights and the mistletoe is fine. The tinsel is a little, uh—” Renjun, who had settled himself on the end of the couch, lowered the newspaper from his face for just a moment. His pupils were narrowed to slits, and he was chewing on something. I didn’t see him get a snack from the kitchen, what—
“The tinsel is a little distracting.” The something in Renjun’s mouth glimmered when it caught the light.
“Hey, spit that out! You’re going to get yourself all blocked up!”
Renjun’s ears flattened at once. “Reach in and try to get it, I fucking dare you.”
Okay, okay… no tinsel, Jeno made a note to himself, wincing. Behind his professional facade, Renjun had the side of an obstinate child inside of him, and Jeno felt a strange duty to protect him from himself wherever possible.
//
Cold naengmyeon was more of a summer food, at least to Jeno’s taste, but if cooking it in January would make his roommate happy, he found he was more than okay with that. Renjun had been feeling under the weather since the new year, and had stayed home from the office that day— though staying home sick, in his unfortunate case, meant working on his computer and taking all his usual calls on his cell phone. It really seemed like his job didn’t allow any days for rest.
Jeno was slicing the beef brisket and letting the stock cool in the refrigerator when Renjun emerged from his bedroom that afternoon. It was probably the first time Jeno had seen him wearing a t-shirt and athletic pants in the middle of the day, and his hair was uncharacteristically messy, but his voice was still clipped and professional as he spoke into the phone: “I was going to ask you about that, but it must have slipped my mind. I apologize, sir.”
“No excuses, Huang. When you make mistakes, it’s not just you who looks bad. The reputation of the whole firm is reflected in its employees. There’s no reason for losing such important paperwork.”
Renjun went directly for the electric kettle and the teacups while his boss chewed him out on speakerphone, not making eye contact with Jeno; he had a favorite green tea that he drank in the mornings, but today, he was going for an peppermint-lemongrass blend to combat his sore throat. His tail was thrashing behind him, betraying his stress, and while the kettle heated up, he yanked a paper towel off of the roll and began to slowly, methodically shred it into a pile of thin strips on the countertop.
“It’s not lost— I don’t think. It’s somewhere in my office, but I’m out sick today, sir. I’ll come in early tomorrow and see if I can locate it—”
“Do you have fur stuck in your ears?” The gruff voice on the other end barked back, making Renjun wince, and Jeno found himself gritting his teeth. He’d set the meat and knife aside to listen, unconsciously flexing his hands into fists. “We already took a big risk in hiring you, I hope you know. Nobody wants to hire a cat to manage their stock portfolios. Now, I don’t want to hear anything more from you until you either find it or redo it!”
“Yes. Yes, I understand, sir. I’ll have it on your desk tomorrow morning,” he answered quietly, sounding unusually resigned. His tail had stopped whipping and waving, and had wrapped tight around his waist, as if in a self-administered hug. Jeno pursed his lips, uncertain for a moment— but then, making sure Renjun could see him and had time to prepare himself, he reached out slowly and ran his fingertips along the base of his ear, just where he knew he liked it.
Renjun’s wide eyes closed just slightly, and he exhaled a single shaky breath— and then, of course involuntarily, he began to purr. The raspy vibrations made Jeno smile. He sort of liked that it was an involuntary response. It was a reliable gauge of how Renjun was feeling, after all.
“What is that? The call is going fuzzy. Something on your end, Huang?”
“My— my service isn’t that good in my apartment. Sorry,” Renjun lied faintly, face unreadable. “I’m having a hard time hearing you, too. Can we talk in the morning?”
“Fine. Get some rest. Don’t come in here tomorrow if you’re coughing up hairballs or something.”
A second later, the line clicked dead, and Renjun sighed again— this time, his shoulders were faintly quivering, with tears or adrenaline, Jeno couldn’t quite tell. Three ear scritches, he reminded himself, timidly pulling his hand back before Renjun could threaten to bite him—
Renjun reached for his arm before Jeno could blink— his reflexes were scary-fast— and he tugged Jeno a step closer, spinning around to hide himself against Jeno’s body, with his face pressed against his shoulder. Not quite a hug, but also not not a hug, either, and something in that realization made it suddenly a little hard for Jeno to breathe.
Allergies? Oh, god, I don’t remember my last allergy attack. I don’t even know where my epi-pen is. But as he stood frozen for a couple more seconds, he realized that his face wasn’t swelling up, and his throat wasn’t tightening… No, not allergies. I just want to cry.
“Your boss sounds like a ray of sunshine,” he forced out, voice dry with sarcasm.
“I just— ugh. I don’t even understand why we have physical, paper documents anymore. Fucking stupid,” Renjun mumbled into the cloth of Jeno’s shirt. His hands had come to rest on Jeno’s waist, fingers curling stubbornly into the fabric, and… well… this was kind of a hug, Jeno realized with a blush. Tentatively, he wrapped his arms around Renjun, and as the smaller man’s tail unfurled from around himself, Jeno gave it an absent-minded stroke.
At once, Renjun whipped his tail away from Jeno’s touch. “What are you doing?!”
“Wha? I—”
“Pervert.”
“O-Oh— I didn’t know!” Jeno was practically dizzy with the sudden rush of blood to his face, and he quickly turned back to is previous task, but found that his hands were now shaking too much to reliably hold a knife. “I’m really sorry. I really didn’t know, I kind of just—”
He was cut off by a soft chuckle, blended with Renjun’s purr into a sound like Jeno had never heard before. “I’m just messing with you. Dumbass,” Renjun whispered, filling his mug with steaming water. He looked back at Jeno, gave one soft, slow blink, and let his silky gray tail brush against the nape of his roommate’s neck on his way back to his bedroom.
//
Usually, it was in bed that Jeno had his most disturbing thoughts, the ones that kept him up all night. Things like you’ll never amount to anything and this client is going to fall through and you’ll be late again on rent this month and you should call your mom more, she’s not getting any younger.
This time, though, was different. It was close to midnight, and Jeno should have been asleep already, but his mind was wandering in a thousand different directions as he aimlessly scrolled Instagram— and then he happened upon a post from a few hours before, Donghyuck and his new beau, with matching promise rings on their fingers. They looked ecstatically happy in the first picture, and their lips were locked in the second, and they were both so enviably beautiful. And for the first time, authentically, Jeno felt nothing but happy for them.
He’d let go, he realized. When did that happen?
Then, all at once, his bedroom light flickered out, he heard a troubling thump through the wall, and he was left with nothing but the illumination of his phone screen. No WiFi. Oh— the storm. The weather forecast had predicted they’d be hit with snow and sleet, and the precipitation had just begun when Renjun had gotten home that evening. How bad has it gotten outside? I hope Renjun doesn’t have to drive in to the office if the roads are bad.
Speaking of which… the noise he’d heard before had to be from Renjun’s room. At least that meant he was home, and not outside zooming. He turned on his phone flashlight so he could find his slippers as he sat up, getting slowly out of bed. The rest of the apartment was similarly dark, and Renjun’s door was closed tightly as usual— he hesitated with his hand halfway to the knob, biting his lip.
This would be his first time going in Renjun’s room. Ever. He couldn’t fuck it up, unless he wanted to play his chances of not having his eyes clawed out.
“Renjunnie? Are you okay?”
“Mew.”
Jeno cast his flashlight on Rejun’s bed; it was unmade, empty. Otherwise, the room was spotless and empty, without so much as a stray sock on the floor, the decorations elegant and sparse. So very him. Still, the bed looked so cozy, especially with the sound of the wind howling outside like it was threatening to blow the whole building down.
“Mew.” Oh, right, he was there for a reason. Jeno followed the sound of the little squeak to Renjun’s walk-in closet, its door closed.
He gave the door a little tap with his fingers. “Junnie? It’s me. Are you okay?”
A moment of silence, nothing but the wind. And then, quietly, Renjun responded, “I was reading and the light went out. It— it took me by surprise. That’s all.”
“And you ran into the closet?” And ran into the wall, he assumed. The thought made Jeno chuckle without meaning to.
“I— I hate storms. Wind freaks me out. Don’t step on my tail when I’m down, all right?”
“I’m not, I’m not! I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” Jeno assured him quietly, opening the closet door just a crack. His clothes took up all the hangers, a bunch of perfectly pressed suits hanging one after the other, while the bottom of the closet was home to a big stack of blankets— and that was where Renjun had curled himself up, wearing a pair of oversized pajamas and slippers on his feet, tail still twitching as though his fight-or-flight response hadn’t quite settled. “I don’t know how long the power will be out, but it’s late anyway. Why don’t we sleep? Come here.”
He offered Renjun his hand. Renjun blinked twice, ears swiveling back uncertainly… and then, almost timidly, he reached out and took it.
And, well— Jeno couldn’t help the instinct that followed, to pick up Renjun’s tremulous little body in his arms, much to the smaller’s surprise. “Hey— what the fuck!”
“Your knees are shaking! I’m helping you out!” Jeno defended his choice, ignoring the sting of Renjun’s nails digging into his shoulders. “Besides… I know you don’t want to be cute, but you’re cute. Just let me carry you as far as your bed!”
“You’re a dick! I’m going to bite your face off!” And Renjun did have his face alarmingly close to Jeno’s— his forehead resting against his cheek, his exhale tickling his neck. “What are you waiting for, then? Carry me.” He readjusted in Jeno’s arms with a little huff. “To your bed.”
“Wh-What?!”
“It’s cold tonight. And you’re warm,” Renjun answered impatiently, giving him another squeeze and making him wince. “And your bed is bigger, and has more pillows, and smells like you.”
Jeno had started to walk, and nearly stumbled in his surprise, but managed to right himself with nothing but a nervous little chuckle. “Do— do I smell good?”
“Doesn’t that seem like an obvious answer? No, I want to sleep in your bed because you smell like shit. What do you think?”
“You know, you don’t need to be so mean to me.” Actually, that complaint wasn’t really much of a complaint. Jeno didn’t mind when Renjun was grumpy. At least he was straightforward. And anyway, the way he burrowed under the blankets in the very moment that Jeno set him down, that told him everything he needed to know. He wasn’t really as grumpy as he let on. “Hey— scoot over, will you? If you want me to sleep in here with you, you need to give me room to sleep.”
“I like to stretch out,” Renjun defended softly from the dead center of the mattress, where he’d starfished himself to take up 80% of the space. “Curl up and make yourself real small next to me. Like a space heater—” He cut himself out with a squawk as Jeno tried to squeeze in beside him and accidentally squashed Renjun’s tail under him. “Okay, okay! Wait— fuck—”
It took a little maneuvering. Jeno was no longer used to sleeping with another body beside him, and if he had to guess, Renjun had never gotten used to that feeling to begin with. But once Jeno wedged himself into bed, Renjun’s form seemed to mold to his side, and he thoughtlessly threw both his tail and his leg over Jeno’s body for warmth.
“I can’t really move, Junnie.”
“That’s okay.” Renjun hummed softly, pressing his face into Jeno’s neck. It did fit pretty well in there. “Fuck. I might start purring.”
Jeno snorted. “That’s okay,” he whispered, even giving Renjun soft scalp scritches to kickstart the process. Renjun always seemed embarrassed or annoyed by his own reflex, but to Jeno, there weren’t many sounds more comforting.
His last coherent thought before falling asleep was a sense of gratitude to the universe, for letting him get over Donghyuck right in the nick of time.
//
Jeno was no longer sure what made something a date, and he didn’t want to assume.
Renjun hadn’t seemed nervous when he’d invited Jeno for coffee, and he hadn’t hesitated to pay for their drinks and pick out a large danish to share. He picked out a table for two, by the window, and he didn’t blink when Jeno pulled out his chair for him by instinct. Is this a date? Would it be stupid to ask? He’d probably look at me like I have three heads and say something like— “What else would it be, stupid?” Or, “Why the hell do you think I’d date someone like you?”
“Do you like your job, Jeno? Are you happy?”
The question was unprecedented. Renjun didn’t care about Jeno’s job, as far as he knew, and he certainly didn’t care about Jeno’s feelings. Jeno was a cooking-slave, and occasionally a heated blanket to keep him warm in the night— but maybe, somehow, he’d become more.
“Happy enough, I suppose. I’ve always loved architecture… but I wish I made some more money,” Jeno confessed, sipping at his cappuccino. He liked bracing himself against the bitterness, and it was a sucker-punch of a reminder that he needed to stay awake and finish the final touches on a blueprint that night, too.
Renjun nodded slowly. He hadn’t touched his half of the danish at all; instead, he was tearing apart one of their napkins, little by little, into a small pile of confetti on the table. Jeno had thought Renjun’s destructive little habits, shredding paper and chewing on non-edible objects, were cute and quirky, until he realized that they were a stress response— just like with any other cat.
“I got offered a new job,” he confessed at last, meeting Jeno’s eyes. “It’s an investment firm that rivals my own. They want me to head their branch office in Gwangju. It would come with a pay increase… but of course, I’d have to move.”
“Oh…” Oh. Jeno felt the smile dissolve off of his face, and he hoped it wasn’t too obvious. Renjun’s happiness was what was important, of course. But at the same time, he’s been a damn good roommate, all things considered. “So you’re thinking of moving?” Jeno questioned softly, trying to sound neither eager nor distraught. “I think you should go for it! Your boss is a prick, dude. Don’t even feel bad.”
“Oh, I don’t feel bad about screwing my boss. My boss can lie down and rot, for all I care.” Renjun sighed, dropping the last sprinkles of the torn napkin and carefully gathering them into a tiny pile. “I was actually bringing it up because of you. Because… if you’re freelance, you can work from anywhere, right?”
“Wh… What?”
Renjun looked up at him finally, giving him one slow blink. “You can come with me, if you want. I like your cooking. And you’re not too loud at night. And… going by myself sounds miserable.”
Renjun’s expression didn’t change much, but he didn’t make any pointed jokes or exasperated sighs, either. It was the same serious, focused look that he wore when he was on the phone with his boss, except now it was directed at the little pile of paper shreds. He’s serious. Oh, wow, he’s serious.
“Renjun, I—”
Jeno wasn’t even sure what he was going to say, but he didn’t have to think for long before a flash of lightning outside the window diverted both of their attentions completely. “Wha—” Renjun almost whined in his surprise, his tail puffing up from base to tip, and he muttered to himself, “We weren’t supposed to get this storm until midnight!”
Ah. That’s right. He doesn’t like storms. The anxiety in Renjun’s sharp eyes was no longer anything to do with their conversation, and the white-knuckle grip he had on the edge fo the table said it all. “We can wait here until it lets up,” he suggested calmly, giving his roommate a little nudge under the table with his foot. But then the rain began on the window glass beside them, going from 0 to 100 in a matter of seconds, and Jeno had a feeling that it wasn’t about to let up in a hurry.
“I’m supposed to call one of my clients at 6 PM, and I need to reference documents from my briefcase at home. We can’t wait for too long,” Renjun pointed out miserably, watching the weather unfold on the other side of the window. “It’s not the thunder and lightning so much, it’s the rain. I hate getting my fur wet. It absorbs water quickly, and it stays cold and wet for ages. Plus, wet fur stinks.”
“Ah. Yeah.” Not that Jeno could really say firsthand, but, well, wet dogs were stinky, so he couldn’t think of any reason why a wet cat would be different. “But— hey, if that’s all you’re worried about, at least that’s an easy fix. I’ll make sure your tail doesn’t get wet, don’t worry about it.” Jeno popped the last bite of danish in his mouth, wiping his lips afterwards with his napkin and adding, “Are you going to eat that? If you’re not, give me half of your half. I’m feeling munchy.”
Renjun’s lips twitched into something like a smile, and obediently, he tore the second half of the danish into two quarters. “You’re annoying,” he chastised, his normally-cool eyes twinkling, pupils big and round and dark. They fell quiet afterwards, but not an uncomfortable silence— one full of sneaked peeks and secret smiles and a few skipped heartbeats.
Finally, when the clock approached 4 and the rain had yet to falter (and Jeno realized he was running out of time to defrost something for dinner, on top of Renjun’s urgency to get his briefcase), they stood up to take care of their trash and gather their things. Renjun’s ears were flat as he looked warily out the window, his tail was twitching and lashing, and when he glanced at Jeno, he nearly demanded, “You said I wouldn’t get wet. I’m waiting for you to pull an umbrella out of your ass or something.”
“Will you relax? I not only said, I also promised. And I don’t break promises.” Jeno gave him a cheeky smile, shrugging off his leather jacket. It was perfectly fitted on him, which made it almost comically oversized on Renjun, and when he draped it around the smaller man, there was plenty of room to tuck his tail inside. Jeno took off his hat next, as an afterthought, and jammed it securely over Renjun’s ears.
“Ow. Don’t flatten them. If you turn one of my ears inside out and then laugh at me over it, I’ll never forgive you.”
“Better inside out than wet,” Jeno retorted simply, and Renjun didn’t seem to have an objection ready. “All right, let’s hurry. Now I’m going to get all wet, so don’t say I never did anything for you.”
“Hey— don’t go too fast! I’m bad at running!” Renjun whined at his back; breathless and out-of-shape as he was, Jeno couldn’t keep from laughing, and he reached back for Renjun’s hand, knowing just where he’d find it.
It was less than a block to their apartment. They entered the lobby rosy-cheeked and cold, and Jeno didn’t mind having to shake the water out of his hair when he saw that Renjun had made it almost completely dry. He pulled off the hat and shook out his flattened ears, and seconds after he handed Jeno’s jacket back, he wrapped his tail timidly around Jeno’s shoulders.
“Hey— you’re going to get wet! What was the point of giving you my jacket?”
“Shut up,” Renjun retorted simply— not aggressively, but with a matter-of-fact-ness that gave Jeno no choice but to obey. “Listen. I don’t need an answer about Gwangju tonight, but will you think about it? I don’t want to go without you.”
“Back on that again?” Jeno mused, smiling faintly. “Yeah, I’ll think about it. I still don’t understand why you’d want to haul my dumb ass along with you, but I’ll think about it.”
Renjun clicked his tongue, and as they stepped into the elevator together, he grabbed Jeno’s hand with his much smaller one, catching him off-guard.
“I’ll give your dumb ass three guesses.”
Jeno didn’t really need them, though. He had a feeling that he knew why, but speaking it aloud might have actually made him explode.
//
And so… well… predictably, Jeno moved to Gwangju with Renjun. It was a no-brainer, really. He could work from anywhere, and he had nothing tying him to Seoul, no real reason to stay. He didn’t want to find a new roommate, and anyway, he liked the sense of usefulness that Renjun gave him. Who else would move the heavy furniture up the stairs, or sass the realtor and threaten to take him to court for joking about a pet deposit?
(“If anything, you’re my pet,” Renjun pointed out on the way out of the realtor’s office, managing a little smile. Jeno couldn’t argue.)
They ended up with a nice place, with bigger bedrooms and a balcony and a grassy courtyard where Renjun liked to sit outside in the mornings to get his sun. (And to watch the squirrels. Jeno didn’t question why, but he’d seen his roommate sit, transfixed and silent, for several minutes at a time watching little critters scurry around in the bushes. Cute.) Renjun’s work hours were still long, and Jeno’s were still all over the place, but they were both more likely to put up whatever they were doing in the evening and simply exist on the couch together, something that rarely happened in Seoul.
It was nice. Felt familial. And Jeno had wanted a family— that was one of the things he’d dreamed about with Donghyuck.
Renjun was developing a pattern: he’d shower and make himself tea in the evenings, he’d sit down on the couch with an exaggerated sigh and complain about how his office chair was hell on his back, and then he’d start the process of kneading Jeno’s arm or thigh until it was suitable for him. “Makes you more comfortable,” Renjun insisted stubbornly, though Jeno was not convinced that this was true.
Once Jeno was tenderized to his liking, Renjun would make himself comfortable against him, flipping through the channels or watching whatever Jeno had already picked— and most every time, he would start to purr, especially if his eyelids began getting heavy. (If he was especially tired, he would doze with his eyes half-open. Turned out that he had an inner third eyelid like a cat, too. Cute?) Falling asleep completely on Jeno’s shoulder was not uncommon, and on those nights, Jeno would usually just carry Renjun to his bed with him, his own little hot-water-bottle to warm his sheets.
He’s getting heavier these days. I’m glad. Renjun had been extremely petite for as long as Jeno had known him, with a delicate frame and not a bit of extra fat on him, but it seemed that he’d been eating more enthusiastically with his stress lessened. It was most noticeable in his face, the way his cheeks had become rounder and softer; when Jeno lay Renjun carefully on the mattress, he couldn’t quell the compulsion to run his thumb over one, and he couldn’t ignore the way that it made his heart pound.
We really should stop being stubborn and talk about this. Tomorrow, when he gets home, I’ll ask him once and for all what he wants from me, and I won’t let him get away with dodging it. Jeno had made up his mind, scared as he was, because it would be worth it for the possibility of being able to call Renjun his.
But for now, sleep. He stood up to turn off the light, but he’d scarcely taken a step away from the bed before he heard Renjun sigh behind him.
“I thought you were finally going to kiss me.”
“What?” Jeno scoffed, and he hoped that scoffing was enough to distract from the blush that rushed to his cheeks. “I’m pretty sure that if I surprised you with a kiss, you’d bite my lips off. You certainly didn’t want to kiss me six months ago, when I hung mistletoe in your apartment and you threw a mini-tantrum.”
“Well, six months ago was six months ago.” Renjun defended, shrugging faintly. “You can kiss me now. If you want.” He’d sat up slightly, propped up on his arms as he waited for a response, his twitching ears the only sign that he was anxiously awaiting Jeno’s next move.
Which was a kiss, of course. He’d been waiting so long for this invitation that he wouldn’t have considered turning it down for a moment. He sat on the mattress and drew Renjun in by the shoulders, half-anticipating that he’d be pushed away and called a moron— but Renjun only closed his eyes and puckered his lips cutely for Jeno’s to land on. It was chaste, soft and sweet and short-lived, but the fact that it had happened gave Jeno the confidence for a second kiss (a little longer), and a third (his tongue venturing past Renjun’s lips, shocked at the ease with which they gave way, as though they’d been waiting for this).
And then Renjun was the one to pull back, lips parted and pupils dilated, but still managing his usual expression of vague disdain. “That was enough. I only wanted three. I will bite your lips off if you overstimulate me.”
“Fair enough. Just give me fair warning before you do— I really like kissing you.” As if to prove his point, Jeno pressed one quick and daring kiss to Renjun’s ear before he stood up, making it instantly twitch.
“Fuck off, Lee Jeno.”
“Sorry, sorry! You’re just cute!” Jeno laughed quietly as he hit the lightswitch, and in the veil of darkness, he changed quickly into his pajamas. When he rejoined him in bed, nudging him over, Renjun cuddled up to his side.
“You, too,” Renjun whispered softly, almost as though he didn’t want Jeno to hear. “Cute. Like a big, dumb puppy that I can’t bring myself to stay mad at.”
Jeno laughed. He couldn’t tell if that was supposed to be a compliment or a backhanded insult, but he figured he’d take it either way.