Work Text:
With the wind in his face, the sounds of the city all around him, and ten stories beneath him, Baekhyun felt like flying. He wanted to let go of the edge of the window and see the lights fall towards him, hear the cars honking and the sirens blaring. A taste of death; that’s all he wanted. To feel the exhilaration of impact without actually experiencing it. Crazy, but Baekhyun was exactly that, hoisting himself out of his room and up, scaling precariously to reach the roof just above his window. The movements were routine now. Right foot here, left foot there, reach up and grab the rusted metal and he was pulling himself up to the place he felt most free, atop the musty apartment building where he could see out into the city.
He swung himself over the railing and saw a familiar pair of eyes watching him.
“Can you stop doing that?” It was Kyungsoo, the person Baekhyun had gotten used to seeing in his special place, and the only person he allowed there. He had the usual judging look directed at him but reached over to hand him a cigarette anyway, tossing him a lighter before shaking his head. “What if you fall?”
Baekhyun pocketed the lighter and took a drag, grinning at Kyungsoo as he leaned on the railing. “Aw, are you worried about me?”
“Just take the stairs like a normal human being.”
“What does it even mean to be normal?” Baekhyun asked, turning back to look out at the view. He stretched out a hand and yelled out to the abyss, “Normal is boring!”
Baekhyun didn’t have to look back to know Kyungsoo was laughing at him. “Is that why you’re so interesting?”
“Am I?” He sat down, letting his legs hang from the side of the building. When he looked back, Kyungsoo was watching him.
“Maybe,” Kyungsoo said.
“Well does that mean you’re boring, then?”
“I don’t know.” Kyungsoo got up and sat next to him, folding his legs underneath him. “Am I?”
“No,” Baekhyun said.
Kyungsoo let out a huff of a laugh and turned back to observe the traffic, bringing his cigarette to his lips. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better, but thanks.”
“No...” Before he could take a drag Baekhyun leaned in and kissed him, holding onto the railing with his right hand that held the cigarette. The response was slow, lazy almost, Kyungsoo lowering his hand as he kissed him back. Baekhyun could taste the smoke on Kyungsoo’s mouth, in it, like stealing a bit of his air. He pulled away and Kyungsoo continued what he was doing, the city lights reflecting on his glasses as he let out a puff of smoke.
“So,” Kyungsoo said finally, as if nothing had happened, because nothing had. A kiss wasn’t something unexpected between the two of them. Even when it didn’t have any sort of meaning. “Why did you come here?”
“Because I missed you. Super duper much.”
“Ha ha.” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. “Is it a secret? You told me you only come up here because you like this place for escape.”
Escape. He had called it that, hadn’t he? Baekhyun was surprised Kyungsoo remembered; it had been a while ago that he’d said it.
“Parents fighting again. Nothing new. My earbuds don’t block the sound well enough.” Baekhyun shrugged and leaned his head against Kyungsoo’s shoulder, liking the familiarity of the position. “Why are you up here?”
“Just in case you came,” Kyungsoo said.
“Kidding?”
“Not kidding.”
“Oh. Why?”
“In case you needed to escape,” Kyungsoo said. “And in case I could convince you to take the stairs next time.”
Baekhyun smiled. “I won’t.”
“You just love flirting with death, don’t you?”
“I love flirting with you.”
Kyungsoo sighed, though it was less of the directed sort and more of an involuntary kind of sound. “You should be glad it’s me up here, and not some broken-hearted New York girl who would fall for your disgustingly cheap charms.”
Baekhyun scoffed. “My charms aren’t cheap.”
“Why do you give them away so easily, then?”
“You’ve never seen me outside of this rooftop.”
“Who says?”
“I do.” Then Baekhyun doubted it. He turned his head to look at him. “Have you?”
“No. Maybe. We live in the same apartment, dumbass.”
“But I’ve never seen you.”
“You’re never paying attention.” Kyungsoo snuffed the cigarette and tossed it over the edge. “You’re always daydreaming.”
“Not flirting, then, but daydreaming.”
“Hah.”
“Tell me where you’ve seen me.” Baekhyun sat up, turning to him.
Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow. “Why? So you can avoid me?”
“No, so I can know. You’re kind of like an online friend. I never see you in real life.”
Now Kyungsoo was laughing. “What, is this not real life?”
“Tell me,” Baekhyun insisted. “If you’ve seen me we can meet, right? You’ve broken the fifth wall already; there’s no point in us just meeting here.”
“Was that the rule this whole time?”
“For me it was. Like there was a reason why we never saw each other other than when it was up here.”
Kyungsoo considered that. “What was the reason?”
“I don’t know. There just was one.” Baekhyun gave up and tossed his cigarette too, lying back even though the ground was dirty. He was planning on taking a shower when he got back anyway. “You know how it’s like a different world when we’re up here? Like a bubble. I just feel like if we step out of it it’ll break or something. That’s why. I didn’t want to risk it.”
“...Surprising.”
“What?”
Kyungsoo’s hand found his just to play with his fingers. He shrugged. “I didn’t think you thought about that stuff. It’s just very… cute.”
“Cute?”
“I couldn’t think of another word.”
Baekhyun laughed and tugged Kyungsoo down. They met lips again, open-mouthed, warm, Kyungsoo’s fingers dancing just under Baekhyun’s shirt but moving nowhere even with Baekhyun chasing his lips as he pulled away. “I want to kiss you forever,” Baekhyun said.
“I want to do more than that,” Kyungsoo answered. His hands settled at Baekhyun’s sides, underneath his shirt, moving up. He leaned down again. “Have you ever thought,” he asked, lips brushing against Baekhyun’s, “that I’m just as much of your escape as this rooftop is?”
“Maybe,” Baekhyun said. He shuddered under the fluttering touches of Kyungsoo’s fingers, breathing out.
“I want to be your escape,” Kyungsoo murmured.
Baekhyun closed his eyes and let him.