Work Text:
It is two in the afternoon, Minho just finished the essay he was working on, and Han Jisung is on a mission.
“Yo, hyung,” Jisung says, settling down on the couch next to Minho who has now shut his laptop and pushed it to the far side of the coffee table as he scrolls through Instagram.
Minho doesn’t respond, and the corner of Jisung’s lips quirk up. Ah. He sees how it is. He should’ve shrugged on one of Minho’s hoodies before coming out here. That would’ve given him an edge.
“Hyung,” Jisung whines. His boyfriend continues to pretend to ignore him, silently scrolling on his feed. Jisung isn’t deterred though. He knows this game well. If Minho’s really too busy to give him attention, he’ll tell him. What he’s doing now— this silence, the way he pointedly ignores him— is just part of their playful push and pull.
There’s only one thing to do: take advantage of his boyfriend’s weaknesses to get the upper hand.
“Hyung,” he says again, much sweeter and softer this time. Minho would never admit it, but Jisung knows how easily the soft and needy thing makes Minho melt. Sure enough, Jisung watches the corner of Minho’s mouth twitch. Gottem, he thinks smugly. Now all he has to do is get the final blow in.
He rests his cheek on Minho’s shoulder, making sure to angle his face and press down enough that his cheek visibly squishes against his boyfriend.
Minho’s facade crumbles instantly, an exasperated sigh leaving his mouth his he visibly fights back a fond smile. “What is it, Jisung?”
Still keeping his cheek pressed to Minho’s shoulder, Jisung wraps his arms around Minho’s, clinging to him like a koala. “So, you know that game that me and Felix have been talking about?”
“The one with the island and all the little animal people, right?” Minho tilts his head to look down at him and Jisung meets his eyes, blinking up at him with what he hopes is doe-eyed innocence. The smile on Minho’s face widens a little bit, and Jisung can’t help but mirror him.
He nods excitedly, more than aware of the way the plushness of his cheek rocks against Minho. “It came out earlier today!’
Minho raises an eyebrow. “Is that why you were squirreled away in the bedroom all day?”
Jisung wrinkles his nose. “Squirrel joke, really?”
“There's no joke, it’s just the right phrase to use when you’ve been hiding in bed all day playing video games,” Minho scoffs, reaching up to flick at Jisung’s forehead. It barely hits him, a gentle thunk that mostly hits his hair anyways. It doesn't matter, Jisung still cries out like he’s been smacked. His boyfriend simply rolls his eyes at his antics.
“You’re so mean!” Jisung whines, sticking his bottom lip out in a pout, knowing the way it makes his cheeks puff out slightly.
“I didn't even flick you for real!”
“You did!” Jisung insists. “I’m wounded! Who knows if I’ll ever recover?”
“You’re being a crybaby, Jisung.”
Still pouting, he shifts so it's his chin resting on Minho’s shoulder instead of his cheek as he looks up at Minho with the most pitiful eyes he can manage. “Hyung, can you kiss it better?”
Minho scowls at him, the color in his cheeks deepening. God, Jisung thinks fondly, he is so cute. “Han Jisung, why do I get the feeling you’re trying to butter me up?”
“I’m not trying to do anything! I don’t feel good and I know you’ll make me feel better, because you always make me feel better,” Jisung insists. He briefly registers the flustered expression that flickers across Minho’s face before he closes his eyes, arms still wrapped around Minho’s. “See?”
A moment passes. Silence. Jisung doesn't waver. He knows his boyfriend.
Sure enough, a warm hand brushes the hair off his forehead and a pair of soft lips are pressed against his skin in its place.
“There. Now stop whining and tell me what you’re asking for.”
Jisung can’t help the short laugh that escapes his mouth as he opens his eyes again, grinning at Minho and his flushed face.
“Well,” he drawls, shifting on the couch so he’s no longer resting his chin on Minho’s shoulder but so he’s leaning fully against him instead, “the thing that’s so fun about that game is that it’s really cute and relaxing, right? It’s charming.”
“Uh huh,” Minho says, eyebrows furrowing slightly as he looks at Jisung, seemingly lost about what he’s asking for.
“And it also lets you hang out with your friend on your islands!” Jisung says, tightening his arm around Minho’s again. “You can just hang out and run around and stuff— hit each other with nets, you know, the good stuff. And I was just thinking that maybe you’d like it.”
Minho stares at his for a moment, an unreadable expression on his face. Finally, he says, “Jisung, you know I’m not a gamer, right?”
“I know, I know!” Jisung says quickly. “Just hear me out, okay? It’s meant to be super casual and easy for everyone, even if they’re a kid or an old man—”
“Are you calling me an old man?” Minho asks. Jisung decides it's best not to answer that question.
“And I know it would be a lot to ask you to buy a whole console when you don’t even know if you’d use it, but I just bought the cute special edition that goes with this game, remember? So I still have my original Switch.”
“Why do I get the feeling you’ve been planning to ask me about this ever since you bought that?” Minho shakes his head with a sigh.
“I mean… kind of?” Jisung admits, and his boyfriend sighs again, but the fond smile has returned to his face. “I would’ve asked earlier, but you’ve been swamped with school work lately, and now we’re both trapped at home for a while, so I thought hey, maybe now is the right time to ask him, so… here we are!”
“I don’t even know what you’re supposed to do in your game,” Minho says.
“Oh!” Jisung lights up. “You invite cute little animals to your island, and you build things, and you can design your own clothes and stuff. Oh, and you catch bugs and can collect fruit, and you can fish—”
“You can fish?” Minho interrupts, suddenly seeming much more interested. Jisung can’t help but laugh at how predictable he is.
“Maybe I should’ve led with that,” Jisung muses. “But yes, hyung, you can fish.”
Minho hums at that but it’s obvious he’s listening now.
“Also,” Jisung says slowly, reaching out to pick at a stray thread at the hem of Minho’s shirt. “I was thinking… the islands are cute, right? And you can visit your friends’ islands and hang out while you fish and catch bugs and stuff. I was just thinking that maybe it would be kind of nice to have, like, dates and stuff in the game when we’re free. Like, you can fish while I hunt bugs or whatever, and I can make a cute little spot for us to watch the stars on my island.”
Minho blinks at him for a moment before he shifts, propping his elbow up on the back of the couch as he turns to face Jisung. “Honestly, Jisungie, you should’ve led with that. I like fishing, but I like spending time with you more.”
“Ah, hyung.” Jisung reaches up to cover his face as he whines, clearly exaggerating— but he’d be a liar if he pretended Minho’s words didn’t make his heart do something stupid. “You’re going to make me blush!”
“That’s the point,” Minho deadpans, promptly taking Jisung’s wrists in his hands and tugging them away from his face. Sure enough, despite his exaggerating there’s a telltale flush to Jisung’s cheeks as he pouts at his boyfriend. Minho’s eyes scrunch up into little crescents when he sees that, prompting Jisung to stick his bottom lip out further. “If you think it would be a good way to have ‘dates’ without having to leave the house, then yeah. I’m interested Jisung. I know that would be nice for you.”
Face heating up even more, Jisung glances up at the ceiling of their apartment, unable to meet his eyes. “Yeah, well— don’t get all sappy on me!”
“Why wouldn’t I want to be sappy about my favorite homebody?” Minho asks in amusement, reaching out to hook his arms around Jisung’s waist before tugging him closer, Jisung squeaking as he practically falls against Minho’s chest.
“Hyung,” Jisung whines, and Minho silences him with kisses.
(Minho complains when he sees how much the game is when they’re done fooling around, but Jisung’s offer to buy it for him is shooed off immediately. He’s always like that— complain on principle, spend money anyways.)
---
Jisung doesn’t actually get to play with Minho at all after he buys it, not after the first day when he walks Minho through the basics— as well as teaching him how to time travel by setting the console’s date ahead to speed up the game when Minho starts to look a little impatient. The last thing he wants is for Minho to get bored on day one.
After that, the two of them fall prey to the one major flaw in their relationship after three years of dating and however long they’ve known each other: their completely incompatible schedules. Changbin always likes to joke that he has no idea how the two of them even managed to get together when Minho’s always asleep when Jisung’s awake or vice versa, and if he’s being honest there are days where Jisung wonders that too. Despite living together, somedays they don’t actually see each other that much. Especially when work and school come into play on top of everything else.
It goes like this: Minho wakes up hours before Jisung. He plays his game while he wakes up— he does like it, much to Jisung’s delight, even if he admits it took him a bit of jumping ahead in time to get the ball rolling and to really get into it. Eventually, Jisung wakes up and Minho makes them coffee and breakfast (lunch, really). Minho starts to work on either his homework or things from his internship that he can do remotely. Jisung plays Animal Crossing in their bedroom. Minho makes dinner and they eat together. Jisung works on his homework and Minho plays on his game. Minho heads to bed around nine because he’s an old man. Jisung finishes working and plays his game past midnight before finally crawling into bed with Minho.
Rinse and repeat, sometimes with an online class that one of them is begrudgingly forced to attend added into the mix.
So four days later, when Jisung finally doesn’t have any new homework to work on and Minho’s finished all of his internship work, needless to say, he is way too excited to actually get to do things with his boyfriend in the game he essentially begged him to buy. He practically tosses Minho onto the couch and smothers him with blankets, Minho watching him zip around the apartment in amusement as he sips the hot chocolate he made for them. When he’s finally satisfied with everything, he crawls under the blankets with his Switch and snuggles up against Minho’s side.
“Did you do your hair?” Minho asks in amusement, reaching over to pluck at the strands of hair that are carefully brushed off of Jisung’s forehead.
“Duh, it’s a date,” Jisung says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Of course I’m going to make myself nice.”
Minho raises an eyebrow at him. “Well, I guess I missed the memo then. I thought it was like a casual thing.”
“A date is a date, hyung!” Jisung announces. Then he takes a moment to look at Minho— his dark brown hair ruffled and falling into his eyes, the familiar pair of circle glasses perched on his long nose. A simple black T-shirt that shows off how nice Minho’s arms are these days. Jisung clears his throat. “Besides, you’re you. I don’t think you really need to dress up or anything when you’re you.”
Minho laughs softly at that, reaching behind Jisung to wrap an arm around his waist. “You’re cute, Jisungie. I think you’re cute even when you don’t dress up, so the feelings mutual.”
“Is that an upfront compliment I hear?” Jisung says, unable to keep the grin off his face. “From you, hyung?”
Minho rolls his eyes at him, taking back his arm as he picks up his Switch. “Well, that’s the last you’ll hear of it if you’re going to be like this.”
Jisung just laughs.
Despite agreeing that they’d hang out on Jisung’s island, he still nags Minho into letting him visit his island first so he can see what he’s been doing by himself. When Jisung arrives, the first thing Minho does is bonk him on the head with his net.
“Wow,” Jisung says dryly. “How romantic.”
“Aren’t I?” Minho smirks.
Without another word, he starts leading Jisung across the makeshift paths of his island. Despite time traveling (which Jisung is also guilty of), he still hasn’t unlocked paths. Instead, he’s marked them with trees and flowers. Minho’s house is cute and mismatched on the inside, seemingly putting down every piece of furniture he gets to fill the space. He pulls a stack of peaches out of his storage and drops them to Jisung’s feet, earning a little squeak of delight as he picks it up and drops his own stack of cherries for Minho to pick up.
“You have such cute villagers,” Jisung says in awe as they run by the square where a goat is sitting on a bench. “All of mine are kind of ugly.”
“Just be better,” Minho tells him nonchalantly, and Jisung twists to kick his leg under their blankets, earning a smug smile from his boyfriend. “Yeah, I really like all of mine. My favorite one lives over here.”
Sure enough, a little house by the riverbank comes into view. A little squirrel villager that Jisung recognizes is out front watering the flowers around his house.
“Oh! Marshal! Yeah, I love this dude,” Jisung says. “I think Felix had him in the last game.”
Minho simply hums in agreement, pausing to talk to the villager in question. Jisung circles the house slowly, taking in the state of it.
“Why do you have all those flowers planted around his house?” Jisung asks, tilting his head to look at Minho. The rest of Minho’s island has seemed fairly organized from the little walkaround tour so far. All of his fruit trees are organized into specific orchards. All of the other villager houses that he’s seen have had only a couple meticulously placed flowers outside at most, maybe a couple of furniture items set out to mimic a backyard.
The squirrel’s house, however, is surrounded by nothing short of a field of flowers. There doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to it, all sorts of colors and types planted together as if Minho simply planted whatever flowers he got here. It’s lovely despite the chaos, but it does stick out among the rest of Minho’s town.
Jisung can’t tell if he’s imagining it or not, but he almost thinks the tips of Minho’s ears start to color.
“No reason,” Minho says, but he doesn’t sound very convincing.
Suddenly struck by a realization, Jisung’s eyes dart up to land on the plushies sitting up on the shelf across from them— a cat and a squirrel, the animals their friends always tell them they resemble— before drifting across the room to the vase full of lilies that Minho brought home for him a few days ago. That’s a fairly often occurrence; Jisung loves flowers and Minho knows that.
He looks back down at the Switch in his boyfriend’s hands and at the little white-blonde squirrel and his house surrounded by flowers and can’t help himself.
Jisung bursts into laughter.
Minho’s ears are definitely red now, the color seeping down into the rest of his face and he looks at Jisung indignantly as the younger laughs so hard he rocks back against the arm of the couch. He knows Jisung made that connection, there’s no point trying to lie. Voice slightly strained, he says, “Stop laughing.”
Jisung does not. In fact, Minho’s embarrassment only serves to make him laugh harder.
“Jisung,” Minho says again, and now his voice is definitely strained.
Ignoring his pleas, Jisung leans forward, cupping Minho’s warm face in his hands and kissing him. Minho remains frozen against him as Jisung kisses him, seemingly unwilling to bend. When Jisung shuffles a little bit closer and throws one of his legs over Minho’s so he’s practically in his lap, the poor man finally gives in. He melts against Jisung, placing the Switch down on the couch next to him so he can wrap his arms around Jisung’s waist and pull him closer, letting Jisung kiss away at him as much as he wants.
When they finally stop, Minho’s face has turned entirely red, his cheeks burning hot against the palms of Jisung’s hands.
“You’re the cutest person ever, hyung,” Jisung says through a giggle, the tip of his nose brushing against Minho’s.
The color of Minho’s cheeks deepens at that. “Shut up.”
“Absolutely not,” Jisung says sweetly. “Personally, I think it’s adorable that you latched onto the little blonde squirrel guy and decided to lavish him with flowers. It’s just like real life! You have a type.”
“Okay, get off,” Minho says, trying to push Jisung off of his lap. Jisung just circles his arms around Minho’s neck instead, laughing as he clings to his perch.
“Don’t get pouty because I caught you!” Jisung says, darting forward to steal another kiss.
“You didn’t— I—” Minho struggles for a few seconds before his voice dissolves into grumbles. With a defeated sigh, he reaches up to cup Jisung’s cheeks before roughly tugging him into a deeper kiss.
Jisung laughs against his mouth, placing his hand on Minho’s shoulder when Minho nips at his bottom lip and gently pushing him back. “You’re distracting me.”
“I’m kissing you,” Minho says.
“You’re distracting me by kissing me. I would like to talk about your fondness of the squirrel villager, hyung.”
“I don’t,” Minho says bluntly, letting one of his hands fall to Jisung’s waist and skimming his fingertip against the soft skin just under the bottom of his shirt.
Jisung gasps, reaching down to grasp at Minho’s hand and holding it still. “Okay! Okay! I’m done! But don’t you want to come to my island?”
“I do,” Minho admits, before glancing at their discarded Switches with a look of dismissal. “But I’ll be honest, Sungie, I want to kiss you more.”
“Ah,” Jisung says, looking at the games thoughtfully. After a moment, he releases Minho’s hand. He smiles at Minho, shifting so he slides forward in his lap a little more, fully pressed against him as he wraps his arms around Minho’s neck again. “A break, then?”
“It’s not a break,” Minho corrects, his now freed hand sneaking under Jisung’s shirt and settling against the small of his back while the other tugs the collar of Jisung’s shirt to the side, giving him room to dip his head down and press a kiss to his pulse point. Jisung gasps again. “It’s just part of the date.”
When Jisung laughs this time, it’s breathy. “Alright, hyung. But you better come to my island after we’re done.”
He can’t see his face, but Jisung’s been with Minho long enough to know the feeling of him smiling against his skin. “Of course, Jisungie. Whatever you want.”
“And after we’re done you can tell me about your little squirrel friend,” Jisung says because he can’t help himself.
Minho pinches his side, earning a squeak from Jisung.
It’s definitely not a bad date, not when Minho kisses him the way he does.