Chapter Text
Once they were back at Mark’s house, a somewhat heavy tension settled between them. The break from reality had been nice, yes, but nothing is always nice, and the time had come for a serious discussion; that much, they could both feel.
Mark’s head swam as he tried to formulate a plan, his fingers laced with Jaebum’s on the couch, watching (you guessed it) Pawn Stars. Jaebum looked to be almost asleep, his eyes closed to narrow slits, but they tracked the screen aptly. Mark swallowed.
“Jaebum,” he said quietly. He looked up at him, his eyes returning to normal. “I have to talk to you.”
“I know,” Jaebum said. Mark frowned.
“How?”
“Your hands tighten when you think about bad things,” he murmured, brushing his thumb over Mark’s knuckles and making him flush at the gesture. “What’s up?”
Mark noted that despite his calm air, the slump of his shoulders and his hand constant in his own, his temperature dropped, the chill sinking deep into Mark’s bones. He was scared.
“I.. You know that, if things ever get too bad, you can come here, right?”
There was a long pause, and Mark thought at first that he’d overstepped some unspoken boundary, ventured too far into territory he wasn’t supposed to, and his anxieties tripled with each millisecond that passed. Jaebum took a shaky breath.
“I do.”
“I mean it, Jae. I want you to be safe.”
“I… thank you.”
“Of course.” I love you.
The words were left unspoken, but they both felt as if they’d been uttered directly to their hearts.
Mark did his best to explain the situation to his mother without including anything about weed, dance clubs, alcohol, sex, or being boyfriends (which was a question in itself,) and thankfully she mostly understood. She offered Jaebum the guest bedroom of the house without hesitation.
At dinner that night, which his mom insisted upon, they discussed.
“So Jaebum,” she said. He looked up sharply from his noodles.
“I understand that there’s some… trouble, at home. Am I correct in assuming that staying here would be safer for you?”
He slowly chewed on his noodles, taking his time before answering. Winter pulsated off of him in steady beats, chilled against Mark’s skin.
“Yes, ma’am,” he murmured. “But please don’t feel obligated-”
“Hey,” she cut him off. “You need somewhere to stay and we have a spare bedroom. My only obligation is being hospitable to my guest.” She made a point of taking the burden of staying off his shoulders..
Jaebum flushed, glancing down at his food before his eyes flickered up to her.
Thank you, his eyes said.
She smiled. Of course.
Mark watched all this quietly, as he did. He sat and observed and processed everything that was happening, trying not to feel like the ground was moving out from under his feet and he was tripping over himself to try to keep up with it.
She accepted Jaebum. She accepted that he was Mark’s (best) friend, and she willingly offered to house him here to save him from potential danger.
Jaebum was safe. He was here. He was sitting to Mark’s left, eating dinner with them and talking to his mom, calm and less worried than Mark had seen him in a few days.
The lingering possibility of his mom accepting that he was probably (totally) in love with his best friend, his ice elemental best friend, weighed heavily on his mind, setting into his bones, making itself at home amidst the embers.
She liked Jaebum enough, right? They were getting along, eating and chatting, and his mom accepted him no matter what, right? She was his mom.
He hadn’t even come out, yet. He’d just sort of let them assume that he was single because none of the girls knew him as more than the quiet kid. But the knowledge that if he did, he might not be accepted by his parents, well. It hurt. It sat in his stomach like a rock, cold and heavy. He shuddered.
To his right, Jaebum shot him an apologetic smile, thinking that he was the cause of Mark’s shiver. Mark managed a tight smile back.