Work Text:
OKAY
Jackson stood in the hallway with his luggage, he shouted to the members that he was home. Finally, home, with his boys. He missed them so much and was looking forward to seeing them. His flight from China had been delayed, the guys knew that and they had told him through text that they would wait for him before going to dance practice.
His shouting stirred no maknaes, Mark’s quiet footsteps weren’t heard padding down the hall, there wasn’t the smell of his favourite Cantonese dish Youngjae and Jinyoung habitually made for him when he came back. There was just a small sticky note taped to the fridge; ‘Jacks, couldn’t wait any longer, see you when we get to the dorms. We’ll be pretty late, like 1 am. LUMU - Jaebeommie’
Jackson wanted to cry, he was so used to being pampered whenever he returned to the dorms. The lack of anyone there made him uneasy, the code ‘lumu’ (it meant ‘love you, miss you’, something they had made up to not be found out) had the opposite reaction than intended. He wanted to crawl into bed and sob. So he did.
Mark had rearranged their room since he had last stepped foot in it. The beds were no longer pushed together, they were on opposite walls. The dressers and bedside tables creating almost a wall between them. There were clothes neatly folded laying next to Mark’s unmade bed. Jackson’s bed was also unmade, like someone (or two someones) had been sleeping in it and the call from the maknaes a few nights ago resurfaced in his brain.
Jackson grabbed Mark’s pillow and stumbled to his bed, his vision blurry from unshed tears. He laid on his bed, miles apart from where it should be next to his best friend’s. The covers were still warm like he had just missed the members before they left. It made the first tear fall and after the first fell the rest followed. The dam had broken and Jackson clutched Mark’s pillow desperately. He buried his face into it as he sobbed. It was cathartic, falling asleep wrapped in his still warm comforter, gaining no comfort, and crying his eyes out.
--- -.- .- -.--
Jackson was woken by a warm body pressing up against his. The person wrapped their arms around his waist and slung a leg over both of his. A muttered ‘morning, Wang Gae’ was said against his back in between his shoulder blades. He immediately recognised the person as Jinyoung. His closest dongsaeng using the special nickname only when he was sad, in front of fans, or extremely tired.
The vocalist obviously wasn’t fully awake or ready to start the day yet. He snuggled into Jackson’s back and peppered soft kisses against the smooth, tan skin. Jackson had no idea when he slipped off his shirt and pants to put on pajamas - which was just pajama pants, to be honest - maybe Mark or Jaebum had done it. Jinyoung’s gentle kisses left wet spots on his back, he rolled to face the younger member and circled his own arms around him.
“Good morning, Park Gae, how did you sleep?” His voice came out scratchy, reminding him that he had sobbed himself to sleep. He hoped Jinyoung was too tired to catch on, otherwise he would go into ‘mom mode’ and drill Jackson for what he was hiding from them.
Jinyoung buried his face in Jackson’s neck to continue the cuddle session before remembering Jackson had asked him a question. “It was good, hyung. How was the flight in, bumpy? The drive here wasn’t bad either, right?”
They carried light conversation, quiet to not wake anyone in the dorm. Mark was heard softly snoring on the other side of the room, “hey, Nyoung, when did Mark-hyung rearrange the room? He never mentioned it to me.”
Jinyoung explained that Mark was really missing Jackson and didn’t want it to show, so he enlisted Youngjae and Yugyeom to help redecorate to make it new. He claimed it helped him with missing Jackson and insisted the others change their rooms and the living room. Jinyoung chuckled at the small story, it made Jackson feel guilty for staying gone so long.
“We should start getting up, I can make you breakfast. What do you want, hyung?” Jackson mumbled back that whatever he made was fine with him, he didn’t want anything special. Except he did. He wanted dim sum, the kind Jinyoung and Youngjae made for him. Jackson just didn’t want to ask for it early in the morning.
Jinyoung shuffled out of bed as the door opened. All three maknaes peeked their heads in before rushing to Jackson’s bed. Yugyeom took the right side, Youngjae flanked Jackson on his left, and Bambam plopped himself right on Jackson. The Thai burrowed his face in Jackson’s chest and hugged him tightly. All of them began to talk about how much they missed the Chinese member.
The noise woke Mark, he groaned and threw a pillow in the bed’s direction. “Yah! I told you, if you sleep in Gaga’s bed, you are quiet in the morning!” The pillow hit Yugyeom square in the face and caused all the boys to laugh, thus making the room louder. Mark shouted into his mattress.
“But Markipooh, they just miss their favourite hyung!” Jackson barked out, this got Mark’s attention. He practically ran to Jackson’s bed and threw himself onto it. Bambam barely shifted in time to avoid an elbow to the face. “Gaga, you’re back!” Mark shouted into Jackson’s ear.
Jackson pulled Mark closer to him, “yes, I’m back. And you have me for a while while we’re on tour, Mark-hyung.” He brushed his nose against Mark’s in, what the American had explained years ago, an eskimo kiss.
The younger members gagged and pushed themselves away from the two cheesy members. “We’re gonna go tell Jaebeom-hyung that you two are being gross!” Yugyeom cackled, but was stopped by Jackson grabbing his wrist. “Yugy, can’t you carry me to the kitchen though? Jinyoungie made breakfast for us, but I don’t want to walk and you’re the strongest one here.” Jackson thought if he appealed to Yugyeom’s pride and flatter him, the maknae would carry him everywhere for the day.
He reluctantly agreed, but everyone in the room knew he liked being needed. Yugyeom would do anything his hyungs asked of him, if they told him to jump, he’d ask how high. Jackson enjoyed being cared for, no matter who was doing it. He climbed onto Yugyeom’s back and wrapped his arms around his neck. Like Jinyoung had done earlier, Jackson pressed small kissed to Yugyeom’s back. A soft ‘thank you’ for carrying him.
Jackson was deposited into Jaebeom’s lap at the kitchen table. Jackson knew he was the more affectionate hyung and could cuddle him while Jinyoung bossed around the younger members. Mark had disappeared to the bathroom to escape work. Jaebeom was pressing kisses to Jackson’s temple and hair, Jackson was soaking the attention up.
Jaebeom whispered to him that he was looking a little touch starved, Jackson blushed and replied with ‘you have no idea, hyung.’ A simple way of Jackson begging for more cuddles. “I got the day off for us, but we have to start earlier tomorrow. What do you want to do today, Jacks?”
Jaebeom’s soft question caught him off guard, he had no idea what he wanted to do until Jinyoung smiled at him. “Um… I haven’t seen Jinyoungie’s drama yet, it was blocked in China. Can we watch it today?” All the members were cooing at Jackson’s sheepish confession, but reassured him that that was a great idea. “It’s perfect, Mark-hyung hasn’t seen it either! He would always fall asleep when we watched it together.” Bambam blurted.
--- -.- .- -.--
The day was spent laughing, blushing, and crying over the drama. Jaebeom had demanded they all cuddle in a big pile in the living room, he proceeded to drag mattresses into the room and situate them so everyone could sit or lay on them. Mark had fallen asleep on Jackson’s shoulder four episodes in, no one had the heart to wake him. They had skipped lunch and promised each other take out for dinner, very healthy.
After dinner, they had turned on another drama. Jackson wasn’t as invested in this one and caught himself dozing off. He was warm and content, a completely different feeling from last night filled his heart. He draped an arm over Yugyeom and turned into him to sleep, he wasn’t expecting the maknae to cuddle him back but he was glad he did.
Jackson was so happy to be back with his boys. He had missed them, the rapid Korean conversations, the demanding choreography, the limited lyricism. The time he spent with the other members made debuting worth it, made the solo career five hours away worth it. His stress he didn’t know he had seeped out of his body and a sleepy smile formed on his face. He nuzzled deeper into Yugyeom’s side before drifting off to sleep. Warm and content and happy and loved.