Chapter Text
Hoseok has barely opened the door before Taehyung is sweeping past him in a whirlwind of hugs and kisses and shoes haphazardly aimed at Hoseok’s neat entryway pile. He’s already in the kitchen by the time he hears the front door close and Hoseok’s tiny surprised almost-a-laugh huff.
He’s sitting on the stool in front of the sink by the time Hoseok makes it into the kitchen.
“Feeling eager?” Hoseok asks, actually laughing now. It sounds gentle, like a relief to hear after the week Tae’s had.
“Work sucked. Love me.” He pouts and makes grabby hands at Hoseok, who crosses the room and allows himself to be pulled into a tight hug. Tae feels him stumble a little, pulled off balance by the force of Tae’s embrace, but that’s fine. He’s holding Hoseok too tightly for him to fall.
He squeezes his boyfriend, rocks him as best he can from his seated position. Hoseok just lets him, nuzzling into Tae with his cheek pressed against Tae’s shoulder.
Taehyung has never had a problem with hugs that go on for too long. He likes holding people close, for any amount of time that they will let him. So he waits until he can feel Hoseok start to get a little twitchy, and then he lets him go. But not before giving him a soft kiss.
“I love you.”
Hoseok smiles down at him, one hand on the shoulder where his head was resting just a second ago. “I love you too. Ready?”
Tae pauses for a second, then brings his arms up to squeeze Hoseok’s middle again, nestling into his chest. “One more hug,” he says, muffled, from where half his face is pressed into Hoseok’s shirt. “Then I’ll be ready.”
Hoseok laughs and pats him on the back. “As many hugs as you want.”
He always smells so nice, Tae thinks, inhaling the soft laundry scent of Hoseok’s old shirt. Everything in his apartment smells nice. He’s a much cleaner person than Tae ever manages to be. Something about his meticulous nature, he guesses. Tae’s always been a little more, well, relaxed. Easily distracted. Willing to let things be however they end up. But Hoseok’s whole existence has these clear, bright, sharp tones to it. They exist in everything from his tidy apartment to his fastidious morning routine to the sharp curve of his cute little nose. They balance Tae, when he needs it most.
He lets himself cling to Hoseok for ten more seconds, starts counting down in his head just to make sure. He could probably stay like this for hours, and Hoseok would probably let him. Hoseok would probably be happy to do that for him. That’s just how his boyfriend is.
Three, two, one…
He squeezes one last time—Hoseok makes a tiny noise like a squeaky toy—and lets go.
“Was it that rough of a week?”
Tae shrugs. There’s no reason he can find for it, but somehow, it really was. “Sometimes it’s just hard.”
“My poor baby,” Hoseok says as he starts shuffling around to turn on the water. Taehyung turns around in his stool to face the sink and watches as he adjusts the shampoo and conditioner bottles and gently places a towel down over the ledge of the sink, looks at it, and shifts it a tiny bit to the left.
“Is it perfect?” Tae asks, grinning lopsided up at him.
Hoseok wrinkles his nose back at him. “Yes.” Then he smiles, and reaches out to check the water temperature. “It’s warm now. Lean down for me?”
He keeps a hand on Tae’s back, just below his shoulder, a comforting point of connection as Tae settles himself down onto the ledge of the sink. He breathes in, surrounded by clean chrome and warm wet air. Then breathes out, slightly startled, as he feels Hoseok kiss the tip of his ear. “I love you, Tae,” he murmurs, right into his ear.
“I love you too,” Taehyung answers, but his voice blends with the gentle hiss of the water hitting his hair and Hoseok’s soft accompanying closed-teeth hiss.
Tae slumps down automatically as the water reaches the back of his neck. It’s like the warm stream flips a little switch in him and he can finally relax. His head stays hanging down and he breathes in the steam in the sink, breathes out all the extraneous energy he’s collected from the week. Breathes in that distinctive smell of clean wet chrome and lets himself be still.
Above him, Hobi is pressed up close around Tae, gently guiding the water until he feels faint warmth surrounding him on all sides. Tae closes his eyes, exhales again, finds himself solidly in this moment with the sink and the warmth and Hoseok’s gentle presence.
He’s warm. The water continues. Hoseok’s fingers drag up feather-light from below his shoulder, up along his neck, gently combing up backwards through his hair until they meet the water. Then they comb back down, following the water this time. His nails scratch Tae’s scalp so gently it would tickle if not for the water. They drag their way down, back up, down again, fanning out around Tae’s head until his hair is soaked through and he doesn’t remember what it was like to not feel that constant gentle soothing touch. With his eyes closed and Hoseok pressed up against him it’s the only thing he’s consciously aware of.
A sort of daze descends on him, trickling its way down with the water around his ears. And it feels so nice.
The water turns off but he holds on to the feeling, letting his head stay down and keeping his eyes closed. Without the water he can hear the shifting of Hoseok grabbing the shampoo and the click of it opening. Then a second click and more shifting as Hoseok closes it and puts it back on the counter. He waits, placid, for Hoseok’s hands to return to his hair.
“Is my little prince still awake?”
“Hmm.”
Then the hands are back, starting from the center of his scalp and working their way out in loose spirals. Tae slips just a little further into his daze, but the familiar smell of the sink slowly gives way to the smell of shampoo and he resurfaces, inhales the new scent.
“You got new shampoo?”
“Strawberry mint. They didn’t have any more of the old one last time I ran out.” His fingers work their way around Tae’s temples and he can’t help but let out a little sigh. “Do you like it?”
Tae breathes in deeply again. “It’s nice.”
And then they’re quiet. Eyes still closed, Tae can feel the shampoo foaming as Hoseok works it through his hair, then moves his way back up to massaging it over Tae’s scalp. Sounds and smells and even thoughts start to get just a little bit fuzzy around the edges.
The hiss of water starting wakes him back up. He jolts a little, blinking his eyes open before closing them again.
“Still with me?” Hoseok murmurs in his ear.
“Mhmm. More tired than I thought.”
“My poor baby,” Hoseok coos, and Tae pouts down at the drain. “Can you hold on through the conditioner for me?”
Tae nods slowly. “But then you don’t get to have your hair washed.”
“That’s okay.” Hoseok nuzzles himself into Tae’s back, something resembling a hug but without the use of his shampoo-covered hands. “You can make it up to me in the morning.”
Hoseok finally pulls the faucet forward so he can start rinsing out Tae’s hair. He can feel the tingly cooling sensation left from the mint as it’s rinsed away. It helps wake him up a little bit more.
“I love you,” he says, down in the sink. “Did you know that?”
Hoseok turns off the water. It felt like barely any time at all passed while he rinsed out Tae’s hair, but it’s so hard to tell. “Did you know that I love you too?” And with that Tae can feel him pressing kisses onto the back of his head, moving around to place them randomly. “Just a couple more steps now.”
Taehyung frowns. “I don’t want it to be over though.” The frown turns into a giggle though when Hoseok places a particularly loud smooch onto the crown of his head.
“You’re not napping in my kitchen sink, so we’ve got to get you into bed soon.” With that, Hoseok kisses him one last time, just above his ear, and pulls back to grab the conditioner.
“I still love you,” Tae mumbles. “Even when I’m sleepy.”
There’s the click of the conditioner bottle somewhere behind Tae’s head, followed by Hoseok squirting some into his hand. “I think you mean especially when you’re sleepy.”
“I love you especially all the time.”
Hoseok snorts behind him. “You’re so cute when you’re sleepy.”
His hands are back in Tae’s hair now. They move so delicately that he didn’t even notice when they first started. The steadily growing feeling of fingers just creeps up on him, slow and smooth, running along his scalp. The scent grows in time with the feeling, the familiar warm-toned almost-cinnamon of Hoseok’s coconut and hibiscus conditioner.
They’re both quiet again. Taehyung’s eyes are still closed, partly because he’s too tired to open them and partly because the occasional water droplet still drips down past his eyelashes and he doesn’t feel like shifting around to towel off his face. There isn’t much to see in the sink anyway, but keeping his eyes closed does make it harder to keep himself awake.
Hoseok’s hands are not helping with that. He’s alternating between stroking his fingers gently through Tae’s hair to condition it, and more firmly pressing against his scalp, just enough pressure to loosen the strands of tension wrapping themselves around Tae’s head. He feels limp, exhales as Hoseok runs his fingers down the whole length of his scalp. Hoseok does it again, runs his fingers back up and back down his scalp, and Tae lets that guide his breathing. As they move up, he inhales, and as they move back down he lets out his breath.
Then Hoseok ruffles up his hair and giggles. “I can’t believe you actually almost fell asleep. Do I really make you feel that relaxed?”
And the way Hoseok says it, like he genuinely has trouble believing it, makes Taehyung start giggling too. “If the sink filled with water and I started drowning, I wouldn’t even notice as long as you were still doing whatever you’re doing right now.”
Hoseok laughs again. “Don’t say that. I wouldn’t let you drown.” He pauses. “I am going to turn the water back on now, though.”
“You’d better not let me drown,” Tae mumbles as the water streams back on. “You wouldn’t be the best boyfriend ever anymore if you did.”
Hoseok doesn’t answer, just rinses the conditioner out of his hair. Tae is about to jokingly ask if Hoseok fell asleep this time, when he hears him ask, in a quiet voice, “Am I really? The best boyfriend?”
“In the whole universe,” Taehyung answers without hesitation. And he means it. Hoseok makes him feel loved in a way that no one else ever has. He’s so profoundly, undeniably good in ways that Taehyung wouldn’t even have thought to wish for in a partner. Of course he’s the best boyfriend.
And he can feel it, like an extra sense tingling, that Hoseok has started to smile behind him, one of those big smiles that covers his whole face. He wishes he could see it, but even though he can’t he still senses it, bright as the sun.
“I don’t know,” Hoseok finally says. “I think I might have some pretty tough competition from a certain someone.”
Then he’s turning the water off and humming to himself as he picks up the extra towel on the counter and shakes it open. Tae feels a gentle tapping on his shoulder so he slowly raises his head from where he’s still slumped over in the sink.
Hoseok starts by reaching the towel all the way around him to carefully pat his face dry. And as he moves down and around to the back of his neck, Tae opens his eyes.
Nothing has actually changed, but his eyes have been closed for long enough that everything feels different, feels new. The colors on the shampoo bottle and the towels, without appearing any brighter or deeper, somehow look more vibrant, closer to their truest hues. Taehyung ponders the blue towel sitting in front of him as Hoseok carefully dries his hair.
“You got quiet, everything okay?” Hoseok asks as he finally sets the towel down on the counter, guiding Tae by the shoulders so they’re once again facing each other.
“Yeah, just thinking about color.”
Hoseok hugs him, using the embrace to lift Tae up so he’s standing. “Anything you want to share?”
“Maybe tomorrow.” And Tae dips down just far enough to give Hoseok a gentle kiss. “Now it’s time to sleep.”
“Will I lose my ranking as best boyfriend in the universe if I don’t carry you to bed?”
Tae giggles. “Nope.” He takes Hoseok’s shoulders and turns him around so he’s facing the hallway, then drapes himself over Hoseok’s back, arms circling his chest and face buried in the crook of his neck. “Now lead the way, best boyfriend in the whole universe.”
This time he can feel Hobi’s smile for real, as Hoseok leans his dimpled cheek down into Tae’s forehead. He shuffles forward as Tae lets his feet drag, clinging onto him.
They make it all the way to Hoseok’s bedroom like that, stumbling over each other’s feet and giggling. Neither of them bothers to turn the light on when they enter. With how neat Hoseok keeps his place, it’s not hard to make it from the doorway to the bed.
And once they’re there, they flop down onto the bed in tandem, which doesn’t go nearly as smoothly as Tae’s sleepy brain had told him it would. There’s a few flailing limbs as they both crawl from the pile they landed in up to the pillows. But once they reach them, Tae resumes his koala hold on Hoseok.
“Clingy baby,” murmurs Hoseok. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” And Taehyung smiles and squeezes Hoseok tighter for a moment before he drifts off.