Work Text:
physically, mark lee is standing in the middle of this mansion surrounded by most of the church congregation milling about in fancy suits and pretty dresses. spiritually however, he’s back in his own bed in his rattiest, comfiest pajamas scrolling mindlessly through the internet.
its been about half an hour since he last saw his boyfriend, who lives in said mansion, and mark’s kinda miffed that he’s left mark here to languish away. he’s had to pretend to listen to this dude, dongyong, talk about his amazing church retreat for most of the half hour and honestly, he’s ready to ditch his physical being and take his spiritual form.
he knows he could try to sneak some wine into his punch cup, just enough to make him feel less frustrated and have time flow a bit faster, but there’s no way to risk it without a partner in crime given the number of adults that are standing around making conversation. inwardly, he curses his closest friends, all a year younger than him and currently on a weekend high school trip to the beach. they had sent a million pictures in the groupchat with things like “miss you mark hyung!” (from jeno) to “we’re having the best time ever!!” (from donghyuck, the menace).
jaemin had taken a video of them playing beach volleyball which he had captioned with a dozen heart emojis while renjun had suggested that they make time to come down together before mark got busy with school, with jisung and chenle as well.
thinking about his friends suddenly made mark crave intensely for ice cream, because a good number of those million pictures was of giant ice cream cones being consumed gleefully by 4 teenage boys. seeing as his boyfriend was still nowhere in sight, mark went off towards the kitchens to try and satisfy his craving. he had had enough to eat for the buffet dinner, thoroughly enjoyed the authentic chinese cuisine, but the almond jelly they loved to serve for dessert was frankly speaking quite vile.
obtaining the ice cream was almost too easy, as the kitchen staff readily acquiesced to his request and mark wonders if they know who he is. he scurries away before they ask too many questions. but now he’s armed with a vanilla cone and he has no desire to go back out to the ballroom, nor stay in the kitchen in the way of the staff, so he ends up wandering through a back door instead and climbs up a flight of stairs.
he has no idea where he’s going but he figures he could just take a walk while he eats his ice cream, and then trace back his steps to the kitchen. easy peasy. he’s about halfway through the hall and his ice cream though when he hears voices coming from around the corner. in a moment of sheer panic, mark tries the nearest door, and finding it unlocked ducks into it and closes it just in time.
its only after his eyes adjust to the darkness that he realises he recognises this room. its his boyfriend’s bedroom, with a king sized bed and a desk top computer opposite that rivalled the size of the bed. mark lets out an incredulous laugh of relief that he hadn’t stumbled into a room with occupants inside. he decides to sit by the shrine of soft toys by the foot of the bed, eager to finish his damn ice cream before it started dripping into carpets he couldn’t afford to clean.
the relief is short lived however because the door’s opening and the lights are on and a very confused voice is saying, “mark?”
its a miracle mark doesn’t drop the cone considering how fast he whips his head around to see sicheng standing in the doorway. belatedly he realises it shouldn’t have been that surprising considering it was his bedroom after all. but the only thing he manages to croak out is, “hi.”
sicheng laughs that tinkly laugh of his and closes the door behind him. “were you that bored by the party that you had to seek refuge in my room with ice cream?”
“first of all, you abandoned me . i had to listen to dongyong for 45 minutes! forty-five minutes dong sicheng. i deserved to be compensated for my time.” he gives his cone a good lick to get his point across.
“ah, i’m sorry. i had to help my mother out with something and then i got stuck talking to guests. i just escaped and was about to text you to come here and chill with me.” he looks genuinely distressed, settling down cross legged in front of mark with a pout on his face.
“can i make it up to you?”
“how? i kind of already took your ice cream,” mark says playfully as he finishes the last of it. “god, that was some good ice cream.”
sicheng smiles at him fondly, “well. i can give you something else just as sweet.”
mark can’t really read sicheng’s expression as he says that with his voice lowered, but he figures anything he has in mind would be better than the party downstairs. oh. maybe sicheng had alcohol up in here. so he asks, “what is it?”
“mmm need you to close your eyes first.”
okay…. maybe it was a secret hiding place mark didn’t need to know of. he bets its behind the soft toys. “haha okay you nerd, way to be mysterious.”
mark closes his eyes anyway, acutely aware of sicheng shifting closer to him, perfume getting stronger. he takes a deep breath, enjoying the pleasant clean smell. fuck. his boyfriend smells so good all the time. he always looks good too, and tonight is no exception, as he’s dressed in a sharp grey suit that brought out the pretty features of his face.
maybe its a good thing he left mark alone downstairs because someone would have definitely caught him staring at the pastor’s son for too long, mark thought with a pinch of bitterness.
all the discomforting thoughts disappear immediately when he feels the press of soft lips against his. for a moment, his brain stops working. he freezes, fist clenched on his thighs. understandably, sicheng reads his reaction as a rejection and pulls away, whispering “sorry”, but mark opens his eyes and blurts out, “please kiss me.”
“shhh baby its okay we don’t have to, i’m sorry i didn’t ask first…” god damn it, sicheng is moving further away and with a still sputtering brain, mark just reaches out to pull his face back to his.
the force of mark grabbing him takes sicheng by surprise and he falls forward onto his boyfriend, so they end up sprawled on the floor with amidst the tumbling mountain of soft toys. they both burst out laughing except mark can feel sicheng’s weight pressed up against him and its making his heart beat so fast. sicheng could probably feel it too, oh god , and now mark’s blushing because they’ve cuddled together when they watch films but this time, its different. there’s a tangible feeling of anticipation in the air.
sicheng still has that expression on his face, cast in shadow now but still questioning, eyes searching mark’s for an answer. its only after sicheng gently brushes away a lock of hair from mark’s forehead that he asks, “can i kiss you mark?”
“yes.” its more of a breath than a whisper but then their lips are touching again and moving against each other because mark is no longer frozen and oh, it feels so nice. they’d never kissed before. it had taken weeks for mark to gather up the courage to hold sicheng’s hand and when he’d finally done it, the smile on sicheng’s face was worth the hours of teasing he got afterwards. he’d dreamed of kissing sicheng for days on end, spent hours thinking of his pretty lips. finally getting to kiss his hot boyfriend made mark sigh dreamily.
he realises what he’s done a second later and wants to pull away, embarassed as hell but sicheng merely cups mark’s face in between his hands and licks into his boyfriend’s mouth. its a foreign feeling but the moment their tongues touch, mark is unable to hold back a groan because it feels fantastic. sicheng’s mouth tastes like wine, and just a hint of that almond jelly dessert but sweeter, so much sweeter.
mark’s hands are scrabbling to find something to hold onto and they end up in sicheng’s perfectly done hair, which to mark’s delight, makes sicheng gasp. its loud in the otherwise empty room, all the sounds from the outside muffled by thick walls and carpets.
mark’s starting to feel drunk as sicheng continues to alternate between kissing him and licking into his mouth and he pushes him away gently, panting as he tries to catch his breath. sicheng goes readily enough, but not without a final teasing bite of mark’s lower lip and mark groans again because fuck, the sensation is almost too much.
sicheng rolls off of mark swiftly, and in his kiss drunken haze, mark almost misses the sound of a belt coming undone. he blushes once the sound registers because at least he wasn’t the only one affected by 15 minutes of frantic making out. he’s hard in his dress pants and he really does not want to come in them. how the hell would he explain it to his parents?
oh god his parents. they were still at a party with their parents downstairs and people, people who would see their kiss swollen lips and their mussed up hair.
they were gonna need more ice cream, mark thinks vaguely. he turns to see sicheng lying next to him with his arm thrown over his face, still breathing kinda heavy. the urge to keep touching him is overwhelming, as if he could just disappear after fulfilling mark’s fantasies. so he scoots closer, lifts the arm off of the older boy’s face.
“hey. are you okay?”
sicheng only lets out an exasperated groan and screws his eyes shut in answer. mark feels a wave of disappointment crash straight through him, making his throat seize up and fuck no, he cannot possibly start crying because his boyfriend thinks he’s a bad kisser.
“ah. i’m sorry if it…. wasn’t good? i was uh. very excited.” god, his voice sounds so weird and he feels shaky all over. maybe he should leave. right, that sounds like a good idea. he shifts to sit up.
sicheng responds then, finally. he grabs mark’s wrist. “where are you going?” he asks, looking up pleadingly and wait, why does he sound so confused and hurt? he wasn’t the one whose pride got bruised, mark bristles.
“leaving?” and mark can feel his face twisting because he’s trying his fucking hardest not to cry except sicheng is making him feel too much and its overwhelming and yup, there goes the first tear down his face.
sicheng must’ve opened his eyes then because he scrambles to sit up. he leans closer to mark, thumb wiping away the tear all the while murmuring, “no baby please don’t cry mark baby i’m sorry, i’m sorry, i’m sorry”. he kisses the tear track on his cheek, kisses his eyes and his forehead, before pressing a soft kiss on his lips.
“you were so good. too good. i… i didn’t think i could control myself. you don’t know what you do to me.” he’d started off looking into mark’s eyes but now he’s looking down at his hands twisting in his lap.
mark’s throat relaxes then, but now its suddenly very very dry. he reaches out to hold his boyfriend’s hands, intertwines their fingers instead. “sicheng….”
“hear me out for a moment, please?” his eyes are back on mark’s face and the intensity of his gaze makes mark squirm, makes him want to run away because he’s so unsure of what it means. he nods in answer to the question.
“i never want to make you feel uncomfortable okay? i respect you. as much as i would love to kiss you, i never want to pressure you. that’s why when you asked me just now if i was okay, i was trying to um. keep myself under control. i’m sorry i made you think you were a bad kisser or that i didn’t want to kiss you. i want to. all the time. you are so cute. my cute little markie baby.” he’s laughing now, probably because mark screwed up his face at the petname.
he holds his arms wide open and mark shuffles into them, sniffling. he tucks his face into sicheng’s neck and he’s so warm and mark is so grateful that he’s such a kind lovely soul. sicheng kisses the top of his head and mark can’t even deny it, he loves being sicheng’s little baby if it means being reassured and feeling safe.
its been hard for the both of them to spend time together with sicheng in his final year of uni and mark only starting out. sometimes it feels like sicheng is so much older than him, already doing internships and thinking about his career while mark’s still trying to figure things out in school, and in his personal life, like coming to terms with being gay and having his first boyfriend.
everything was so great but also so new and scary, so easy to fuck up. hearing sicheng’s words, unprompted by anything beside mark’s tears, calmed down all his unsaid fears. they sat there for a while, enjoying each other’s presence. they knew they had to get back to the party, had spent too much time away, but for now it was worth it.
bonus
“why isn’t there anything this is so unfair…” mark knows he’s whining but he can’t help it. try as he might, he’s unable to give his boyfriend a hickey despite sicheng explaining the process several times. with examples.
the most frustrating part was that it was way easier for sicheng to get away with hickeys, as he lives on campus most days while mark still cycled home. and mark will never admit it but he loves the idea of sicheng walking around with a hickey because he was too perfect and beautiful otherwise. it figures that his perfection extended to his neck being very resistant to bruising.
mark is nothing if not determined tho and one day he finally manages to give sicheng a hickey with his tiny little teeth. sicheng just kisses him soundly and doesn’t tell him that the hickey only lasts for a day.