Work Text:
Seokmin's heart buries itself deeper into his chest when a whimpering stirs not too far from him. It's even worse when he picks up the whimpering from his dog not at her bed at the floor of the double bed, but right beside him, at Soonyoung's side of the sheets that should be empty. A switch of the bedside lamp on, the whimpering goes from Wooju's throat to the way her eyes are half-open in a longing for someone that should be there with her right now. Someone that should be at that very spot in this very moment.
He reaches over to scratch behind her ears and run his palm down her back, like he usually does out of comfort. It's that same time of the year when he would close the curtains so the lightning doesn't scare her, sing lullabies to drone out the thunder, and when Soonyoung would hide under the blanket with her. But instead of the reflex dipping the crown of her head straight for the center of his palm, she digs herself into the mattress even more, away from the center of his hand.
"I know you miss him," withers out into a sigh, deems the gesture of affection futile when Wooju stands up just to face away from him.
I do, too evades his thoughts, but what comes out instead of those three words punches him with a dose of reality, "But we broke up, Wooju."
Another string of whimpers shatters four in the morning and a possible return back to sleep. He wonders if Soonyoung would be okay with taking Wooju in at this hour, in the middle of the rain.
"How about I drop you off to Soonyoung later in the morning?" he tries his luck. His hand retreats back under the sheets, under his pillow, and he turns away from Wooju when she doesn't budge a centimeter at her other owner's name.
The rare occurrence of saying Soonyoung's name in the apartment of three, dwindling down to two, would bring up Wooju's mood. It happened the other two times he assured her that she will see him soon. Perhaps she caught onto their routine of things, the vacancy of Soonyoung's presence here. Saying his name three times won't bring him back.
04:13
Seokmin
Wooju is missing you
Is it alright if you get an extra day with her?
07:45
Soonyoung
Of course
At least when he wakes up at his alarm this time, no whimpering accompanies his dread of seeing Soonyoung. But on the other hand, there's no Wooju at his bed, either. Whenever he and Soonyoung trade to watch over Wooju, it's always for a couple of days or a little more than that. It's Sunday morning, an entire day before he has to give Soonyoung a turn to watch over Wooju and satiate her longing to see him, but he thinks he really won't mind having an extra day with her.
With a backpack of her dog food, toys, food and water bowls, he finds her at the front of the door, besides the shoe rack. She sulks flat onto the floor, looks up at him with the hopes of Soonyoung showing up in this home somehow. He steals a better look at where she lies at the shoe rack, and he sighs.
He can't blame her for waiting at Soonyoung's side of the shoe rack. He can't blame her for missing Soonyoung.
At Jihoon's door, Seokmin rings the doorbell with heavy shoulders. It might be Wooju pacing back and forth around that has him exhausted when his day just began, or how he grips onto her bed at his side, barely clutching onto the plush with his fingertips. Before the door even clicks unlocked, Wooju sits up straight at his feet, wagging her tail. Doubt doesn't tinge his judgement to say that it's the happiest he's seen her since his turn started before the weekend.
For one thing, though, he's grateful that Jihoon doesn't mind when Soonyoung takes her in for a couple of days. He learned, after one day of walking in and asking why Wooju isn't following Soonyoung around, that Jihoon loves to have her at his lap while he works on his music.
The door opens to Soonyoung scrunching his eyes at the brightness of the apartment building's hallway. He scratches the mess of his blond hair, the roots already breaking out into his natural hair colors. Any other circumstances besides now, he would have greeted a good morning to Soonyoung and slotted his fingers into his, press a kiss to his palm before his cheek before his lips, and offer to take him to the salon.
"But your natural color looks best on you," he would say.
But not now.
"Hi," stings awkward in the air between them. Seokmin doesn't know what else to say, and he thinks he doesn't need to when Wooju springs up to Soonyoung, paws scratching at the thighs of his pajamas and the desire to be held by him.
"I missed you," Soonyoung coos, cups her face in his hands and lets her lick his face. She jumps from between his palms to around Seokmin's feet.
I missed you, too.
Soonyoung brings Wooju into his arms, already plucks a white strand of her dog hair sticking onto his dark green sweatshirt. When he peers up to him, one eye pinched shut, "I'll-um-I'll give her back to you Tuesday morning, instead of Wednesday?"
He shakes his head, hands her leash over. "No, Wednesday like usual is fine." He scratches the back of his head now that his hands are empty. "She really missed you when I texted you last night."
An awkward tilt of his head, the words sinking in like deadweight between them, Soonyoung agrees with their usual Wednesday morning and nothing more.
He hates how the weather picks up in the rain and the clouds, the radio stations plays the weather report and the call for showers. He hopes Wooju will be fine if nature curses them with thunder, that Soonyoung will go under the blankets with her and pretend that they always did so without Seokmin. He would hate to break Wooju's heart like this, but he also hates the idea that they did already.
----
07:27
Soonyoung
I don't know what to do
Wooju misses you too
The brightness of his phone against the morning grays of this Monday doesn't blind him as bad as the message. He exhales, runs rough digits through his hair because he dropped Wooju off just yesterday after she's been missing Soonyoung the entire weekend. He's not sure if he'll get through work today with Soonyoung's message on his screen.
He tells Soonyoung to keep her with him, that she's been missing him all weekend and he's getting ready for work.
He tosses his phone on the nightstand after the message sends, watches it skitter against the base of the lamp and fall flat with the ping of another message. At the second ping, he curls himself under the blanket, thinks another hour of sleep won't be too bad if he hurries his way out of his apartment and dodges red lights, turns down the radio station with the Christmas songs that sound more like love songs than any other Christmas he's lived through.
He avoids reaching too close to Soonyoung's side of the bed. It wrings his heart into a burden knowing it's been a couple of weeks since he slept on this bed beside him. He does, though, reach out across the mattress, silently wish his morning wasn't so silent.
When he sheds off his work attire, rips the necktie loose but not falling through, his heart steps back more at the reindeer sweater they bought at the pet store a week before things went downhill. It's been sitting on the coffee table in the living room, untouched since the day they bought it. He feels awful that it's still in its packaging, unbroken and untouched like the promise he and Soonyoung made to put it on Wooju for her first Christmas, what could have been their first Christmas all together.
----
Christmas Eve gifts him with today and tomorrow off, along with a curse of Soonyoung's name the first thing in the morning. He sits up in the bed, steadies himself with a deep breath at reading just his name alone.
08:16
Soonyoung
I know you said Wednesday morning but I'm bringing Wooju to you today
She's crying and I hate doing this to her
The thought of Wooju crying takes over his thoughts, succumbs to the blur at his eyes at the tears at his phone screen as he types out a message that he sends long before processing what he just wrote to him.
The space is heavy when Seokmin opens the door to the darkening blotches all over Soonyoung's shirt and jeans and how he has Wooju tucked into his arms, his rain jacket wrapped around her. With a clatter of the shiver that goes from his spine to his voice behind his teeth, "I forgot my umbrella here."
"Come inside." Before he weighs out his decision, he holds onto Soonyoung's wrist, a soft run of his thumb over cold skin, and tugs him inside. "You're going to get sick."
He digs for the clothes Soonyoung left behind without looking back and although he discovers a shirt and sweatpants, he knows it's not enough. He pulls out one of his sweatshirts, the one Soonyoung would have stolen if it wasn't for the fact that they used to live together. "Are you okay with borrowing my clothes?"
Soonyoung crouches over to place Wooju on the floor. They watch her pounce back and forth between him and Soonyoung's feet, the way Soonyoung wiggles his toes in the Christmas socks whenever she bounds for him sending him back to their memories of their first early-spring together. He shakes his head, "I'm going back to Jihoon's."
He freezes up at the spot, how short-lived Wooju's joy of seeing them together is and she doesn't even know it.
But maybe Wooju picks up on the way Soonyoung makes his way over to the door, grabs for his jacket on the floor and slips it on. Maybe Wooju knows it'll happen all over again when Soonyoung steps in front of the door and slides his shoes over closer, ready to shove his foot in.
Maybe Wooju knows because a few steps following behind Soonyoung, she whimpers before the tiles change for the front door and Soonyoung's side of the shoe rack.
When Wooju disappears, they track her down at the side of the bed. They sit down around her, backs against the bed, and watch her settle into Seokmin's lap. Their arms are close to brushing, and the distance widens more when Soonyoung seems to notice it, too.
Soonyoung strokes her head with his thumb until there's a press at Seokmin's thigh, their dog standing up to drop herself into Soonyong's lap. But she doesn't go too far, though, not as far as he thought. He wonders how he could have even half the heart to put Wooju through this when she perches her head on Soonyoung's bent knee and everything else of her at his lap.
"Why did we break up?" Soonyoung whispers.
"I just-" he shrugs. Why did they break up in the first place? "I shouldn't let you be a stranger."
Wooju rubs her face into Soonyoung's palm and for the first time in a while, it's the Soonyoung he knew since the start--soft smiles and a kind heart for dogs, not too far from Seokmin. "I know it's your first relationship and you were scared of opening up too much." He sighs heavy into the center of his chest. "But, Seokmin, I don't want you to cry alone. If there's anything you want to get off your chest, I'll listen."
He sticks these options into the back of his mind, more like the sleeve of his sweatshirt. "Okay." He nods, wipes his cheek with the back of his wrist. "Okay, Soonyoung." A sting of silence takes up every corner in the dark. "Hey, Soonyoung?"
His eyes drift from scratching Wooju's chin to Seokmin's eyes. The sheen at the bottoms of his eyes, he feels awful for making him cry. "Yeah, Seokmin?"
He takes a deep breath in, takes the first step into letting him not be a stranger anymore and again after this. "I missed you."
A smile cracks minuscule into the dark like the only star in the sky. It's falters on its way up and about with everything that happened this December, but it's there. And so is Seokmin's when he hears, "I missed you, too."
----
Has it really been weeks since Soonyoung last slipped into bed with him?
The perch of Soonyoung's hand at his waist and poking the pinks of his cheeks all tell him that not a lot of time passed, though, he won't forget everything in between. He reaches to the ball of white at Soonyoung's head, serene despite the hard rain threatening at the window. A nuzzle of Wooju's nose into his hand, his head falls deeper into his pillow, and the tug at his waist pulls him closer to familiarity and warmth he wished for.
"It smells like Wooju on my side," he mumbles against his neck.
"She slept there when you were gone," Seokmin admits lowly, and he doesn't have the guts to confess he didn't want her to move back to her bed, either.
"Well, I'm here now, and she's still sleeping here," teeters into a light chuckle, rumbles warm at his skin and the sweatshirt of his Soonyoung asked for last night.
He pulls himself back and the warmth off of Soonyoung follows him, yearns for his neck to perch into again. Soonyoung leans forward to hide his face into his neck, but Seokmin slips uncertain digits across his cheek, strokes at the pink there and soothes down the inevitable cough out his lips. And when Soonyoung opens his eyes, he doesn't know where the gasp finds the courage to escape.
The endearing smile wanders up to his eyes, cheek curving into the shape of his palm, a "Merry Christmas, Seokmin" try to coax him the reality of it all. The perch of his forehead against Soonyoung's and the tease of the tip of his nose against his convinces him well-enough that this is real.
"Merry Christmas, Soonyoung," dances into a whisper over his lips.