Work Text:
Busted
one
one two…uppercut…jab!
Lucas skilfully swung from right to left, all the while angling his torso with the precision of years of practice. Sweat ran down his worked-up body, but he barely noticed as his eyes focused solely on his prey. His lithe opponent didn’t dare miss a beat, carefully dodging each powerful punch, each calculated swing and each quick jab as if he knew Lucas’ routine in and out…
Huffing a quick and irritated breath, Lucas expertly moved his legs to distract his opponent and for a moment, this seemed to work. With a quick punch, Lucas landed a hefty fist squarely on the others chest, making him groan in pain as the wind was knocked out if him.
Lucas smirked, knowing he was close to winning.
His opponent smirked back and unexpectedly landed a clean cut on Lucas’ mouth, catching him off guard during this split second of vulnerability. He grimaced, hating the fact that his opponent had got him in the mouth, especially now with the familiar metallic taste spreading across his tongue.
“UGH HYUNG,” Lucas whined frustratedly, stopping the match altogether, “I TOLD you the lips are off limits - NOW HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KISS RENJUN IF MY LUSCIOUS LIPS HAVE A GASH?!”
Johnny laughed at Lucas’ boyish worries and felt only slightly guilty, knowing that Lucas took pride in his lips and was probably devastated that they were a little damaged now.
“Yah, Hyung is sorry okay? You know I didn’t mean to do that." Johnny started unwrapping his gloves as he looked at Lucas apologetically, “I think that's enough for todays practice, you did very well and I almost let you beat me.”
Johnny said this knowing it would distract Lucas from his current dilemma and spark back his old competitiveness.
“No way hyung,” he jabbed back teasingly, “I’m the best student you have and you know I could beat your old ass any day.”
They both laughed as they got ready to leave the boxing club.
Winter in Korea was deceptively cold, Lucas was harshly reminded as he stepped through the front doors of the club, out into the street. Not that he minded all that much, but after that heated boxing match the frigid wind was almost twice as bad. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets and trudged out into the snow.
He was supposed to be meeting up with Renjun, something he was pretty sure he was late for. It was hardly his fault though, Johnny had insisted they train particularly hard that day under the pretence that Lucas was 'getting lazy', which was of course ridiculous. He slowed his pace and looked around, scanning the square for any sign of the boy.
He stopped short, his breath catching in his throat which surprised him, as he had seen Renjun many times before. He was standing by the now frozen fountain, the snow falling around him, catching on his hair and eyelashes and making him look like some sort of ethereal woodland prince. He looked disarmingly innocent.
"'Wait...Ethereal woodland prince?! What is this, a fan-fiction?" Lucas scolded himself, "Come on man, get a grip!" He shook his head as if to dislodge the thought, maybe the cold was getting to him after all.
"What happened to your lip?"
Lucas frowned, he had forgotten about that. "Hi to you too," He grumbled, "It got busted during boxing."
He must have looked really grumpy because Renjun giggled, "It’s not that bad." Lucas raised his eyebrows skeptically.
"Really it’s not, but if you’re that upset about it I might have just the thing."
His words seemed helpful, but Renjun still looked like he was holding back a laugh. Lucas shook his head, sighing. He could be so adorably infuriating at times. "Fine by me, I guess," he finally agreed. Renjun took his hand and pulled him along, through the swirling snow.
Back at his house, Renjun lead him into the kitchen. He reached up, fingertips stretched out, but his hand was still quite a way from the top shelf he was trying to reach. He looked round for a chair, and then glared at Lucas. "You dare make any short person jokes about this-"
"Who, me? Wouldn’t dare. I’m way to chivalrous." he said smirking, reaching easily past Renjun’s still outstretched hand and grabbing the strap of the bag.
"Wait no no no be-"
Renjun’s words were cut off as the entire contents of the bag came crashing down on the pair of them. More startling, however, was that the entire bag seemed to be filled with…lip-balms?! Lucas lifted his arms around Renjun to shield him from the onslaught of chapsticks while slotting his own face in the safety of their embrace; the chapsticks felt more like hailstones to be honest. With the two huddled awkwardly together; there was a stunned silence as the last few lip balms rolled off the shelf and fell tinkling onto the floor.
"- careful." Renjun whispered as he embarrassingly looked up at Lucas’ stunned face, which was relatively close.
Lucas gave him an amused look. "You know, I’m not a judgemental person. Like, I collect loads of things, but lip-balms?"
"I don’t collect lip-balms!” Renjun defensively huffed as he weakly pushed Lucas’ arms away, "I thought it would be a good idea to buy in bulk, okay? So I meant to order 40 but must have accidentally said 400 or something…” His voice trailed off as he glowered at Lucas.
"Calm down, you’re like a bad tempered old woman", he said, laughter bubbling up inside of him as he thought of a stunned and adorably confused looking Renjun receiving a package of 400 lip-balms in his mail. Renjun scowled at him, yet this seemed to only worsen the problem.
Renjun stared at Lucas, who had now collapsed in a heap of giggles, and shook his head in bewilderment. This kid... his fringe had fallen into his eyes and his expression reminded Renjun of a clumsy yet overexcitable Labrador puppy. He couldn’t help but smile.
"Would you shut up so I can put this lip balm on?" He asked somewhat grumpily as he grabbed the nearest lip-balm.
Pulling Lucas near him, he reached up and placed his small hand behind Lucas' thick neck, guiding his head down to a more reachable height and missing the way Lucas shivered at the gentle contact. This kid was really annoyingly tall. He shook his head and focused on his lips, avoiding his eyes altogether.
Lucas felt Renjun’s fingers trace ever so gently across his lips, as if afraid he would hurt him more; his breathing steadied. His hands were warm against his neck, despite the freezing weather, and he looked surprisingly concerned. Their close proximity lead to Lucas finding himself staring at Renjun’s pouty lips, in longing and in fascination. Lucas wondered how they taste, which flavour of lip balm Renjun has on? How would their lips would slot together if they kissed right now, whether or not Renjun’s lips were as soft and pouty as they seemed…
He felt Renjun’s eyes leave his lips and slowly trail upwards, landing hesitantly on his doe eyes. The gentle grip on his neck had now become heavier with meaning, with desire? The laughter in his face a few moments ago had now vanished completely, replaced by a strange expression Lucas was fairly certain was mirrored on his own face.
Not for the first time, Lucas found himself wondering just how much more there was to this boy than meets the eye.
He could only guess he was about to find out.