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There’s a quiet knock on the door before it cracks open, light flooding in from the hallway. Hoseok looks away from his phone to see Jungkook step into his bedroom, closing the door behind him. He can tell it’s Jungkook despite the dark. They know each other so well that Hoseok could probably pick him out from a crowd a football field away just from the way he walks.
“You’re still awake, hyung?” Jungkook asks quietly, hovering a few paces away from the bed.
“Just scrollin’ through insta,” Hoseok says. meaning he’s having trouble falling asleep, as he does sometimes, so he resorts to looking at things he doesn’t care about on social media as a distraction. He knows it’s bad for his eyes to look at his phone in the dark but he does it anyway. Sue him. It’s better than letting his brain run through the same thoughts, over and over again.
“I couldn’t sleep,” Jungkook says, a note of hesitation in his voice.
“Come on, then,” Hoseok says, shuffling closer to the wall to make more space for Jungkook, who needs both the verbal and physical confirmation that he can crawl into his hyung’s bed. They don’t do this often. Hoseok really doesn’t mind, but he knows Jungkook is embarrassed about it.
Jungkook settles himself under the covers and quickly pushes his face into Hoseok’s chest, a one-eighty from how he’d been shy before. Hoseok lifts a hand to pet at his hair. it smells like shampoo.
“Can I be little spoon?” Jungkook mumbles into his shirt.
“Sure.”
There are a few awkward moments of maneuvering, Jungkook being a large boy on a small bed, but then they are successfully back to chest, Hoseok’s arm immediately moving to drape over Jungkook’s waist.
Hoseok can feel the warmth radiate from Jungkook, can feel the rise and fall of his breathing. Everything in his head is so focused on those details that he can make himself forget what had been bothering him tonight. With each rise and fall of Jungkook’s ribs under his arm, more of those inconsequential worries dissipate into the air. With a few more, Hoseok finally feels sleep skirting the edges of his consciousness. Like his body is perhaps considering allowing exhaustion to take over.
Then Jungkook sighs into the pillow, and the sound draws Hoseok back into awareness enough to notice that he’s started scratching lightly at Jungkook’s chest, over his tshirt. his arm is moving slightly with the back and forth motion. Hoseok stills. he really hopes Jungkook doesn’t think he’s being weird or that he wants to… try anything. Though he pets and prods Jungkook on a daily basis, it’s never been in the context of lying in bed together so he doesn’t know if Jungkook is okay with it. And he also doesn’t want Jungkook to think that Hoseok thinks it’s okay to just touch him however he wants just because Jungkook is ace. He knows how much it bothers him when that happens. His brain is starting to fizz nervously.
“Feels nice,” Jungkook says into the dark, right before Hoseok opens his mouth to apologize.
Oh. Okay.
His brain sighs in relief.
Hoseok hums and continues the movement, his fingers skimming over the soft fabric of Jungkook’s shirt in small circles. Hoseok can feel the shape of Jungkook’s muscles, the dip between his pectorals. Jungkook sighs again and snuffles contentedly into the pillow.
Hoseok himself is finding this supremely calming, he realizes. It’s kind of like meditating, or petting a cat. Jungkook can be quite catlike sometimes, Hoseok thinks. He can come across cold and distant if you don’t know him well and he can be weird about wanting affection. But then there are days where he just plops his head into your lap and expects pats. It’s cute. Hoseok closes his eyes and listens with half an ear for the telltale snoring (heavy breathing, to be accurate) of an unconscious Jungkook, but it doesn’t come yet.
After a while, Hoseok is running his hand in aimless patterns across Jungkook’s tummy, which is soft and incredibly warm. Jungkook’s shirt has ridden up a little so Hoseok’s fingers run into that barely-there trail of hair that starts under Jungkook’s bellybutton. Hoseok’s getting pretty drowsy at this point so he figures it’s a good time to stop, and he doesn’t want to make Jungkook uncomfortable.
“Was that ok?” Hoseok asks quietly, to make sure.
“Yeah, ‘s fine,” Jungkook grumbles, sounding sleepy and cute, “More tum scratches please.” He grabs Hoseok’s hand and presses it to his belly. Hoseok huffs a laugh at the preciousness. Knowing jungkook, he’ll be embarrassed when he remembers how he acted in his sleepy state, but he should know that Hoseok won’t tease him about it. Jungkook’s slowly becoming more comfortable asking for the contact he wants these days, and Hoseok wants to encourage it.
So Hoseok abides by his wishes and continues with his eyes closed, eyelids pleasantly heavy, feeling Jungkook’s warm skin beneath his fingertips. He moves in circles and figure eights, mapping out the subtle shape of his abs, occasionally scratching lightly at the hair above Jungkook’s pajama pants with short nails.
At some point he registers that Jungkook’s breathing has developed a rumbly tone, indicating he’s asleep. And Hoseok, feeling peaceful and accomplished from having successfully sent his Jungkook to dreamland, drifts off soon after that.