Work Text:
they didn’t talk about what it meant, really.
what sungwoon’s name, written so carefully (or sometimes carelessly, if the elder was in a rush) on daniel’s skin meant, what it could mean.
sungwoon just liked writing on things, and daniel didn’t mind being written on.
~
it started in their 10am philosophy class. originally, sungwoon doodled on himself. it was a way to keep himself alert and awake during the early morning class, he figured out pretty quickly.
it was one day during their second week when he heard the hushed and amazed ‘woah, cool,’ from his left. he stopped, head turning just enough to spot the guy next to him, just to make sure he was the one being talked to. he was pleasantly surprised to find out he was.
“thank you,” sungwoon whispered back, eyes tracing over the loops and swirls and lines he’d traced on his forearm. it was cool if he had to say so himself.
“can you… could you draw that on me too?” the guy asks hesitantly, probably realizing how weird it sounds. he looks nice enough though, like someone just suffering through the same class as sungwoon.
“sure,” sungwoon responds nonchalantly, moving his chair closer to the guy. giving him a small smile to reassure him or something , sungwoon takes the guys wrist in his hand and positions his arm.
“my name’s daniel, by the way,” the guy- daniel offers quietly, eyes flicking between where sungwoon’s gently drawing on his forearm to the notes the teacher is writing on the board. daniel does his best to write them out, not wanting to fall behind.
by the time sungwoon’s done, the hour and fifteen minutes of class are up. moving away to pack up his stuff, sungwoon realizes he didn’t pay attention at all.
by some grace of god, daniel stutters out an awkward ‘i managed to take notes, if you want them,’ and sungwoon lets out a sigh of relief.
“yeah, that’d be fantastic, thanks,” sungwoon says, already pulling out his phone. pulling up a fresh contact page, he hands his phone over. daniel quickly inputs his number, handing the phone back to sungwoon with a smile.
giving daniel a smile back, sungwoon makes his way out of the lecture hall with a ‘ see you tuesday!’ and makes sure to text daniel a quick ‘ my names sungwoon btw,’ before he forgets.
they fall into a rhythm after that. sungwoon spends 15 minutes drawing on himself, daniel inevitably asks ‘me too?’ like a little kid, sungwoon spends the rest of class drawing on him instead, daniel texts him the notes afterwards. they don’t really hang out, unless sungwoon happens to see daniel at the coffee shop on campus and gets called over, but all in all- they have a routine.
it’s one day before midterms when sungwoon is too tired to draw anything. he hadn’t slept in god knows how long, mind full of all different terms for different classes, and he just wants to sleep.
but- but daniel’s holding out his arm, expectant look on his face, and sungwoon never can deny daniel’s eerily-similar-to-a-puppy eyes.
so, he picks up his pen, and to the best of his ability, writes a short:
‘i’m absolutely exhausted,
i’m so sorry.
love, sungwoon’
right on daniel’s forearm. it takes the younger a minute to read it, and when he does he pouts, face full of worry turning on sungwoon. picking up his own pen, daniel reaches out for sungwoon’s wrist, pulling his arm out.
‘why?
-daniel’
he writes. sungwoon giggles a little, daniel writing his own name seeming absurd even though sungwoon knows its from him- but he just did the same thing, didn’t he?
‘ midterms.
i havent slept in like 30 hours
-sungwoonie’
‘ you need sleep!!!
i demand you come back to my place after this and sleep
-daniel’
‘why yours?
i could just go to mine, i have a bed you know
-woonie’
‘cause i dont trust u to sleep
u’ll probably keep studyin or sumn’
and well, daniel has a point. sungwoon was planning on studying more after this, brain still not wrapped entirely around a few concepts, but daniel’s turned his worried look back on sungwoon, and he can’t resist.
so he agrees.
he figures it’s weird, going to someone’s dorm to essentially just sleep when you’ve never actually hung out before, but sungwoon’s exhausted and his judgment isn't exactly the best right now.
it’s only when he’s trailing behind daniel (not on his own accord- daniel’s got these stupidly long legs and well, sungwoon’s short. he can’t walk that fast) that he thinks to say something about how weird the situation is.
“this is… weird, isn’t it?” sungwoon says, trying to quicken his steps just slightly. not enough so daniel will realize he’s struggling to keep up but- just so he doesn’t fall behind too much. that would be embarrassing.
“not to me,” daniel says, looking back to give sungwoon a signature eye scrunch smile. sungwoon learned pretty quickly daniel smiles a lot , no matter the situation. laughs, too. sungwoon found it endearing, but you’d never catch him saying that out loud.
except, he does say it out loud.
he says it out loud, loud enough for daniel to hear (and laugh at) because he’s absolutely exhausted. minus one point for ha sungwoon.
“you sound like my mother,” daniel says, realizing sungwoon was falling behind and slowing his steps slightly (thank you, lord jesus). “that’s all she ever tells me. ‘daniel, honey, you’re so endearing when you smile!’ ” he mimics, letting out a slight laugh at the end.
sungwoon catches himself smiling before he can stop himself, looking at daniel instead of where he was walking. it’s really only a matter of time before he comes face to face with a pole and completely brains himself. minus two points for ha sungwoon.
“jesus- fuck,” he says, one hand clamped down over his left eye, feeling dizzy and off kilter. he crouches down before he can topple over, other hand braced on the concrete.
“holy shit- are you- are you okay?” daniel asks, voice full of concern. he bends down too, so he can look sungwoon in the eyes (eye?), and fuck, his face looks just as concerned as his voice sounded.
“‘m, fine. fuckin fantastic. haven't slept in 32 hours, freakin’ out over midterms, just ran into a fucking pole,” sungwoon says, hissing as the pain in his forehead gets worse.
“here, let me just-“ daniel says, reaching out for sungwoon.
and then he was off the ground, being carried by daniel himself. and, minus three fucking points for ha sungwoon.
“what the fuck,” sungwoon practically whispers in shock, opening his unhurt eye to look up at daniel. “you know i'm like, afraid of heights? please, i can walk, i swear.”
“is that why you’re so short? it would make sense,” daniel ponders for a second, before shaking his head and looking down at sungwoon. “no, no walking for you. plus, we’re almost at my dorm and you’re not that heavy so… my answers still no.
“what the fuck,” sungwoon repeats, closing his eye again and groaning. today was shaping up to be too much .
he must’ve dozed off somewhere in between the walk and getting to daniel’s dorm, because next thing sungwoon knows he’s awake in a comfy bed (as comfy as a university issued bed can be), swaddled up like a baby. it’s dark out at this point, and sungwoon can hear -rather than see- someone typing across the room.
“um,” sungwoon says into the darkness, shifting around to get untangled. he hears a bang, and then a hissed ‘ fuck’ and immediately feels bad. “sorry,” he says into the darkness again.
“‘s fine, just didn’t know you were awake,” daniel says, voice raspy and deeper than sungwoon remembers it being. a desk lamp flickers on, and then sungwoon sees the full picture.
daniel, with his hair sticking up at odd angles (probably from running his hands through it countless times over the hours), notes scattered around an open laptop, pens everywhere. it’s a perfectly accurate college nightmare.
it’s then when sungwoon sees daniel’s arm. his arm, that sungwoon had written on earlier in the day, wiped so carefully clean except for one thing.
that one thing being sungwoons name, written so carelessly in the moment, a stark contrast against daniel’s skin.
“what time is it?” sungwoon says, swallowing thickly and pushing whatever he was feeling down, down, down. he could deal with it later (or never, preferably). he forces his eyes to flicker back up to daniel’s face.
“almost 2,” daniel says around a yawn, jaw cracking. he picks up a half empty water bottle, taking a sip. sungwoon forces himself to not stare at the bob of daniel’s adams apple. “you slept for a long ass time, had to keep checking that you were breathing and shit.”
“so you lecture me about sleep, yet you’re still awake working on god knows what? amazing,” sungwoon says, amusement evident in his voice. he feels- he feels weird, but in a good way.
“at least i don’t stay up for 32 hours and then force myself to go to class like a lunatic,” daniel says around a laugh, closing his laptop and letting out a long breath. sitting back, daniel stretches much like a cat would, and groans as various joints pop.
“touché,” sungwoon says, sitting up. he hisses, all the pain from running into a pole earlier coming back full force. “i should- i should go, probably.” he says.
“no, no, absolutely not. you’re not leaving at 2am ,” daniel says like sungwoon is an idiot, turning around to look at him for the first time since he woke up. he grimaces, like something is bad, and sungwoon panics.
“is my face really that fucked up?” sungwoon questions, thoughts of leaving pushed to the back of his mind for the time being.
“i mean, you got a pretty great bruise all around your eye and up into your forehead. impressive, if i do say so myself,” daniel says, standing up to get a closer look. he leans in close enough that sungwoon could lean up and kiss him, if he wanted. but he doesn’t. he totally doesn’t want to. “do you want like… pain meds or some shit?”
and okay. there’s absolutely no reason sungwoon’s stomach should’ve flipped at that. daniel was being bare minimum. a bro. a pal who cared about his pal that was dumb enough to run into a pole. but it does and sungwoon forces himself to swallow.
“yeah, please,” sungwoon says weakly, eyes flickering back down to daniel’s arm for a split second. still says sungwoon , he confirms, blinking a few times. he probably just missed it, right? he had to have. there’s no logical reason daniel should still have sungwoon’s name on his arm. his mind goes back to how close they are currently, how sungwoon could kiss daniel right now, easily.
and then daniel’s moving away, disappearing into his bathroom. sungwoon shakes his head, just trying to clear all the weird fucking thoughts .
sungwoon hears a few things fall, and a series of curses, before a triumphant ‘aha!’ rings out across the room. then daniel’s emerging again, tiny bottle held up in his hand, pleased smile on his face.
“here,” daniel says, fumbling with the bottle for a second before popping it open and shaking out two little pills, depositing them into sungwoon’s outstretched hand. “that’s atrocious,” he comments as he watches sungwoon swallow them dry.
“shut up,” sungwoon mumbles, laying back down. if he was being held hostage for the night, he might as well try to sleep more.
it’s only when daniel turns off the lamp and moves to lay down next to him that sungwoon realizes his mistake.
“uh,” sungwoon says intelligently, pulling the blanket closer to him like a shield, back against the wall.
“please don’t be a blanket hog,” daniel practically whines, sungwoon just being able to imagine the pout on his face.
“this is weird,” sungwoon comments, giving up the blankets reluctantly. “like, this is weird.”
“you say that a lot, and yet i never find anything weird,” daniel says, snuggling into his own ( his own, sungwoon reminds himself, this is daniel’s bed) blankets. “you think we’d be on the same page at least sometimes.”
“maybe it's just because you’re weird,” sungwoon responds, feeling his heart do weird things when he realizes how close in vicinity they are. what the fuck?
“thought i was endearing,” daniel says, voice laced with a smile.
“shut up and go to bed . leave me alone,” sungwoon says, feeling his ears heat up. he didn’t mean to say it outloud. he didn’t. rolling over so his back was facing daniel instead of the wall, sungwoon huffs.
“drama queen,” daniel says, stupid smile still evident in his voice. sungwoon feels a poke to his back and huffs again. “so dramatic.”
“i said, go to bed,” sungwoon says, feeling more like he was speaking to a kid than someone his age.
“fine,” daniel says, moving to get comfortable. comfortable, which included moving closer to sungwoon, apparently. sungwoon huffs for a third time, and closes his eyes.
daniel falls asleep quickly, if evidenced by his soft snores, and sungwoon stays up thinking about his stupid fucking name on daniel’s stupid fucking arm.
~
sungwoon must’ve dozed off at some point during his thinking, because when he comes to next, he’s extremely warm and his chest and stomach feel... heavy?
he groans, and tries to move into a more comfortable position, but finds that he’s stuck. like, truly stuck. opening his eyes, sungwoon finally understands why.
daniel, in the middle of the night somehow, had managed to get sungwoon flat on his back so he could wrap entirely around the shorter male. daniel has his head on sungwoon’s chest, mouth open (and drooling a little, amazing) , arm draped heavily over sungwoon’s stomach, legs wrapped completely around sungwoon’s.
sungwoon’s stomach does the flip again, and he just prays daniel won’t wake up to a racing heartbeat in his ears. why was he acting like this?
like sure, daniel was attractive. anyone could see that. and sure they spent every week together, for an average of almost 3 hours, sometimes more if they bumped into each other outside of class but- but it wasn’t enough to be feeling like this, sungwoon tried to reason.
they were friends. bros. pals. maybe acquaintances at best.
so why was sungwoon getting very not-bro-like feelings for the man (practically) on top of him?
“has anyone ever told you that you think loud enough to wake a sleeping bear?” a voice rasps out, shaking sungwoon from his thoughts.
“jesus fuck,” sungwoon says, practically jumping out of his skin. his eyes travel from the ceiling down to daniel’s face, only to find his eyes still closed tight. “i do not, by the way.”
“then how am i awake right now, at probably 8am, after going to bed around 3,” daniel says, sniffling slightly. he snuggles closer to sungwoon, and sighs happily. “you’re quite warm for a tiny man, by the way.”
“it’s like 11, idiot, thats a solid 8 hours of sleep. also, will you ever stop bringing up my height?” sungwoon asks, hands flexing. he didn’t know where to put them, what to do with them.
“absolutely not,” daniel says, eyes finally cracking open. he reaches out for one of sungwoon’s hands, forcefully placing it on top of his own head. “as a tall person, it’s in the handbook that i have to bring it up any chance i get. sorry, just following orders.”
“fuckin asshole,” sungwoon grumbles, fingers automatically carding through daniel’s hair, more on instinct than an actual want to. not that he didn’t- want to, that is, but rather he just couldn’t process what the fuck was going on.
sungwoon feels, more than hears the contented sigh daniel lets out, vaguely registering daniel locking their pinkies together with his free hand.
they lay in silence for a while, sungwoon trying his best to calm his racing heart (it’s not going well, if he’s being honest), daniel dozing in and out of sleep.
“y’know, sungwoonie,” daniel starts, voice laced with sleepiness. “i never actually wanted you to draw on me. i just wanted an excuse to talk to you,” he says, yawning.
“huh?” sungwoon says intelligently, hand stilling in daniel’s hair. he starts back up again when daniel makes an unhappy noise, but he’s still confused.
“like, getting ink off skin is a bitch and i’m kinda neurotic about being messy, but i needed an excuse to talk to the cute guy sitting next to me for the past two weeks, so. draw on me, hot guy ,” daniel says, hand flapping around lazily as he explains.
sungwoon decides to be bold for once. “explain leaving my name on your arm, then, if you’re so weird about being messy,” he says, eyes flicking down to where daniel’s ( sungwoon’s) arm is back across his stomach.
daniel hums. and hums again. and waits a while before answering.
“i like it,” is all he offers, shrugging the best he can in the position he’s in. “makes me feel… wanted,” he adds, sleepy and candid and honest. sungwoon feels something bloom in his chest.
“so you want me… to want you?” sungwoon asks hesitantly, praying he’s not reading any of this wrong. sure, daniel called him a hot guy but- but that could mean anything. it didn’t have to mean daniel actually wanted anything to do with sungwoon.
“if that’s how you wanna put it,” daniel responds, the only indication he feels anything about this conversation being the red tips of his ears. cute .
sungwoon is at a loss for words, so he does the only thing he can think of. he moves his hand to hold daniel’s chin gently, tips his head up, up, up , and kisses him. kisses him, soft and gentle and languid, like they have all the time in the world.
and maybe they do.