Work Text:
Ten’s muscles ache as he heads down the darkened hallway to his apartment. His muscles ache from his ridiculous teller job, standing behind a counter all day, handing over change and scanning items, stocking the shelves, cleaning up spills from kids with careless parents. He’s exhausted and he can’t wait to get inside, change, and get a shower.
Ten slides his key into the apartment door and turns it, using his shoulder to force the door open. His muscles complain, aching even more, and he stumbles inside. He stretches his legs out as he heads down the hallway, kicking the door shut behind him. He drops his keys on the table by the door and makes his way into the living room. He grins at Tae as she appears, hovering in the kitchen door way.
“I thought you weren’t back until later?”
“I managed to get my last hour off since there was no work to be done and the new kid showed up an hour early for his shift.” Ten looks up, blinking a moment before smiling. “You cut your hair?” He walks over, gently wrapping a finger through Tae’s hair. It stops at her cheeks now, rather than down to the middle of her back; it’s been bleached, a gentle lilac fade running down the strands and Ten smiles. “This looks really good.”
Tae smiles, shifting on her feet before she knocks his hand away, the smile disappearing as quickly as it appeared. Ten frowns and tilts his head, but she pulls away, heading into the kitchen. All thoughts of a relaxing shower disappear from Ten’s head and he steps forward, leaning against the side of the door frame. “Hey, something up?”
“It’s nothing, I just had… a rough day. Go have a shower and settle down, I prepared some pad thai, I’ll start heating it up.”
Ten licks his lips, eyebrows furrowed. He tries to gauge Tae’s mood, but she just seems tired. He neglects to step forward and wrap his arms around her, as he usually would, pressing a kiss to her neck as a way to say hey, I’m home . He leans back, turning and heading to the bathroom. He sheds his clothes quickly, dropping them into the laundry basket and gets into the shower, turning the water on when he’s stood under the showerhead, enjoying the blasting jet of boiling hot water before it starts cooling. He groans a little, tilting his head to the side, letting it cascade over his tightened neck muscles. He presses his hands against the wall, his head falling forward before as he lets the water run down his back before he lifts his head.
“Tae?”
He definitely heard the door open, he’s sure and he glances at the gap between the wall and shower curtain as he listens to her move across the tiles. The toilet seat is closed and he waits as she sits down. “We need to talk.”
“Okay… Do you want me to come out-”
“-No.”
Ten nods before remembering she can’t see him and makes a noise of acknowledgement.
“I’m not your girlfriend, Ten.”
Ten’s eyes shoot open, his blood running cold. He swallows slowly, reaching forward to change the jet of the shower so he can hear a bit better over it. “What?”
“I’m not your girlfriend.”
“Okay… I’m a little confused here, Tae.”
There’s a few grunts from behind the curtain and Ten stares at it, waiting. He knows those noises, the sound that accompanies Tae slowly processing her thoughts and words. He forces himself to breathe slowly, listening intently and ensuring he doesn’t miss anything.
“I don’t…” She drifts off again and Ten grips the shower curtain. “I’m not a woman, Ten.”
Ten frowns a little and steps back, leaning against the wall. “I’m still a little confused.”
“I’m trans, Ten, I’m a man. I’m not a woman.”
“Ah.” Ten nods a little and stares at the ceiling. He’d read about this a while ago and he kicks himself for not researching it more past reading a few news articles about some stuff that had happened earlier that year. “Okay, what about it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I assume this isn’t just ‘hi I’m a man, surprise’ and there’s more about this to discuss? I mean… you changed your name or something, didn’t you? Or things like that?”
“Taemin.”
“Taemin… Great people… It suits you.”
“Stop mocking me.”
Ten blinks, his head falling forward, staring at the shower curtain. “Ah, if it comes across that I am, I don’t mean to. I genuinely think the name suits you.”
There’s no reply and Ten listens intently. There’s no sound, so Tae must have left the room. Taemin. He catches himself and takes a deep breath. That’s going to take some time for him to get used to. Tae was already a nickname, but now he assumes that the Min must be present for comfort. He hears some noises from the kitchen and sighs softly. It’s okay, he can settle down and process this and later they can talk, or he can research until Taemin wants to talk. Space, that’s the right thing to do, surely? He licks his lips and quickly squirts a two-in-one shampoo conditioner in his hair. He lets it sit only for whilst he washes his body as quick as he dares, before he rinses himself and hops out. He grabs a towel and heads into their small laundry room, grabbing clean clothes from the top of the dryer.
Taemin must have had a shitty day; the clothes aren’t even folded, only strewn on top of it. She always folds it. He always folds it. Ten rubs his legs down with the towel aggressively.
“Taemin likes horror films. He likes to be scared. Taemin likes to sit and listen to music. He likes to dance. Taemin likes Yuxiang shredded pork. He got extremely excited when he saw a cart for it at the airport when we went on holiday, and he begged me to buy him some.”
Ten nods,repeating the sentences in his head, chanting it over and over as he pulls a shirt and boxers on. He will get this right. Ten gives another, more determined, confident nod and drops his towel into the machine - there’s already a load of towels and washcloths in there, he’ll put it on tomorrow before he goes to work. He takes a deep breath and heads out, smiling at the scent of pad thai filling the apartment.
Ten pauses in the doorway, finding the kitchen empty. He raises an eyebrow and steps forward, turning the stove off before he makes his way to the bedroom. “Taemin, dinner’s-” He’s not there either and Ten swallows. He heads back to the bathroom and quickly fishes his phone out of his jeans pocket and heads to the couch.
Ten quickly starts a call with Tae and frowns. He puts the call on speaker phone and opens his contacts. He finds Taemin’s and quickly edits it, adding the Hangul to the end and sighs before he opens the call again, biting his lip as he waits for the call to go through. It doesn’t, and Ten stares at the wall as he listens to Taemin’s voicemail telling him to leave a message. He tries again only to get the tone stating that his phone is off and Ten throws his phone onto the couch.
He rubs his face and gets up, dishing himself up a plate before he puts the rest of it in a container to go into the fridge. He eats standing up, leaning against the counter and washes his plate off, stacking it to dry overnight. It’s barely eight pm and he debates what to do. He should do research, he should. But also he is exhausted and he might not understand what he’s reading which could be much worse if he reads that something is bad but reads it as a good thing. He bites on his lip before he grabs his phone and heads to bed. He has a day off the day after tomorrow and he can spend the entire day researching properly then.
Ten grunts as he gets the mop out of the back room, sighing silently. If he had a Won for every time some parent let their kid run rampant and knock shit over, losing stock and wasting his time, he wouldn’t need this stupid fucking job in the first place. He stares at them as they leave the shop, gritting his teeth. He could march over there and shove this mop-
“Hey!”
Ten yelps as he walks into someone, backing up as quickly as he can. “Sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you.” Ten jumps to attention and heads behind the till before he starts blinking, staring at the customer. “Jongin?”
“Hey.” Jongin is busy texting, dropping a small basket on the counter.
Ten scans them, wincing slightly. Sanitary towels, two boxes of make at home fried chicken, lamb skewers and Taemin’s favourite candy. “I guess that Tae-” Ten pauses. Would Jongin know? Would he be putting Taemin in danger by telling Jongin his name?
“Taemin is staying with me, yeah.”
Ten’s shoulders slump and he lets out a sigh of relief. “Did I do something wrong?”
Jongin shakes his head, putting his phone back in his pocket. “No, he just had… a really bad experience yesterday with someone being a fucking. Cock sore. It just had him on edge and he misread your tone, I think. He’ll be okay.”
Ten smiles, licking his lips as he puts the stuff into the bag. “He’s okay?”
“Yeah, he’s just, feeling a little down in general. Don’t worry, I think you two are fine. Think because you know Taemin, god knows what goes on in his head.”
Ten snorts, ringing up the total. “I’ve got this don’t worry about it, and yeah, Professor bloody X couldn’t read he-his mind.”
“Still catching yourself?” Jongin chuckles, taking the bag. “Don’t worry, it took me a week to get used to it. As long as it’s clear you’re trying, Taemin will be fine. I can’t speak for the rest of the community but Taemin doesn’t mind as long as there’s a genuine effort being made.”
Ten nods and pulls his wallet out, chucking the cash into the till. “Thanks, Jongin, I appreciate that.”
Jongin waves and Ten nods as he heads out. He sighs and closes his eyes for a moment, thanking whichever deities that he didn’t mess up and asking them to help him with this before he grabs the mop. He heads to the third aisle, glaring at the exploded box of juice before he starts scrubbing the ground.
“Taemin likes chicken, his favourite is fried. Taemin likes candy with his horror movies, Taemin-”
“Excuse me?”
Ten whips around, blushing slightly when he finds a customer behind him. “Hi, sorry! I didn’t hear you. How can I help you?”
“I’m looking for the chips.”
Ten pushes the mop cart out the way slightly, blocking the spillage before nodding down the aisle. “Just further down there.”
The customer nods and slips by, looking over the bags. “So you must be the boyfriend.”
Ten looks up, eyebrow raising. “Excuse me?”
“Tae’s boyfriend.”
Ten flinches hearing the nickname but swallows. “What about it?”
“Shame. She’s a nice girl, god knows what’s gotten into her hea-”
“-We’re closed.”
“Sorry?”
“I said sorry, we’re closed.”
“But the sign out front says open twenty-four hours-”
“-Get the fuck out before I forcibly remove you from the premises.”
The customer stares at him; Ten sort of recognises him. He used to be present a lot on Taemin’s Instagram feed but just sort of disappeared. That question clearly no longer needs to be answered. “I said, get out.”
“All this for some fucking-”
Ten isn’t sure what happens. He really doesn’t. The next thing he’s aware of is a blinding pain shooting through his hand and the guy stumbling away from him, cradling his nose. “I said, get the fuck out.”
The man stumbles backwards and Ten watches him disappear around the corner. He hears the door open and shut and he breathes out. He grimaces, shaking his hand and staring at it. It’ll definitely bruise by tomorrow. He’s just grateful that this side of the store isn’t covered by CCTV. His manager won’t have any evidence of the altercation and Johnny, Ten’s old friend studying theatre, will easily be able to hide the bruises.
“Piece of fucking shit, storming in here, pulling that-”
Ten breaks off as he turns around, staring at the end of the aisle, swallowing. Taemin hovers by the end of the aisle, chewing his lip. Ten licks his lips before moving back to the spill, quickly finishing it up. “I’ll be at the till in a second, just let me finish this.”
“You just… punched a guy for me.”
Ten slowly nods. “I mean, he was being a cunt so.”
“You just broke someone’s nose because they were being cruel. You just risked your job assaulting a customer.”
“Yell that just a bit louder, I don’t think my manager heard you from the other side of town.” He looks up with a smile, showing he’s just being playful. Taemin’s lips quirk slightly into a smile.
Taemin laughs slightly and shakes his head. He looks like he’s going to say something but Ten shakes his head. “Don’t mention it. We can talk about it when you come home, yeah? Enjoy your night or nights with Jongin and then we can sit down and have a full discussion, rather than it in little bits where we might misunderstand things, yeah? You’ve had a rough few days, take a night or however many you need to destress and relax.”
Taemin smiles and nods, disappearing. Ten puts up the wet floor sign and drags the cart back to the employee room before he heads to the counter. He snorts as he pulls Taemin’s basket close. “You know, Jongin came in earlier and bought all this.”
Taemin smiles and holds up a pack of towels. “He got the wrong ones.”
Ten rolls his eyes, exaggerating. “Men.” He pauses. “Men who don’t menstruate .”
Taemin snickers and shakes his head, slowly putting them in his bag as Ten scans them. “You can just say cis.”
“Isn’t cis a slur?” Ten looks up to find Taemin staring at him like he’s grown four heads.
“A slur is a word that holds weight in insulting someone or a group of people and is in tandem with the oppression of people. Are you oppressed because you’re a man?”
Ten purses his lips. “Okay, less time reading Twitter and more time reading trans resources.”
Taemin chuckles, shaking his head. “I’ll send you some later tonight-”
“-No!” Ten leans back and pulls his wallet out, staring Taemin down. “No, I will find them or ask Jongin as he seems very well educated on it. You will relax.”
“Ten, I can open a few links and send you them and then turn my phone off.”
Ten squints, slowly depositing his cash into the till. “If it won’t stress you out or upset you… then fine. But any inch of stress added to you and I’m telling Jongin to confiscate your phone.”
“What am I? Twelve playing flash games in math class?”
Ten chuckles and leans on the counter. “Can I get a kiss?”
“Hm, when you learn what a slur is.” Taemin grins and leans in to press a kiss to Ten’s cheek, darting back so he can’t trick Taemin for a lip kiss, leaving him pouting.
“Is this oppression?”
Taemin bursts into laughter as he heads for the door, shooting a grin over his shoulder.
Ten shuts his laptop with a groan, rubbing his eyes. He should really start wearing his glasses more when he sits on his laptop. He’s lost count of how many pages he’s read, how many words he’s consumed and his brain hurts . This was a much bigger research project than he thought it would be but frankly, it’s horrifying.
Well, the whole trans aspect isn’t horrifying, that’s not what’s freaking him out. It’s the statistics of pain, trauma and harm. He breathes out, reminding himself that Taemin is fine and at Jongin’s. That is something he’s going to have to come to terms with and not berate Taemin with questions about. Taemin has to live with that fear every day, Ten does not need to add to that.
He stands up and stretches his back before he heads for the door, grabbing his keys. He needs a walk. He sighs and wraps his hoodie around himself as he heads out the apartment complex. He feels much more confident in his knowledge and how to properly support Taemin. His idea from earlier comes back to him and he turns, heading in the way he just came from, heading to the small shopping street around the corner.
Within an hour, he’s done and he pushes the door to the apartment open. He freezes at the sound of someone walking around. He slowly puts the bag down, leaving the door open so he can run if he needs to, and peers round the corner to the living room. “Jesus, Taemin, you scared me.”
Taemin looks up from where he’s cleaning the window sill, bouncing around and dancing to a beat in his head. “Oh, hey, where were you?”
“I went for a walk, did some shopping.” Ten hesitates. He wants to walk forward and grip Taemin, hold him close and kiss him, but instead he opens his arms, letting Taemin come to him.
He does, throwing the rag over Ten’s shoulder near the laundry room and sinks into Ten’s arms. Ten lets out a breath, holding Taemin as tight as he dares. They stay that way for a while before Taemin pulls back, dropping onto the sofa.
“How’s work after..?”
Ten holds up his hand, still coated in stage make up from when he had to send a picture to his boss earlier. “Cleared up”.
Taemin chuckles and shifts on the couch. Ten can see how uncomfortable he looks and takes in the tight shirt he’s wearing. “Hey, I have a surprise.”
Taemin raises an eyebrow and Ten heads back into the hallway, grabbing the bags and kicking the door shut. He comes back and sets the bag next to Taemin before settling down on the armchair. Taemin watches him before looking through the bag eyebrow raising. “Why are you giving me a bag of your clothes?”
“They’re yours.”
Taemin blinks a little before pulling a shirt out, holding it up. He pulls it on, wriggling around under the fabric before his other shirt gets pulled out, and tugs on the hem. Ten purses his lips. “A little baggy but it fits.”
“The bagginess is perfect.” Taemin turns to the side, staring into the mirror hanging on the living room wall. “It’s absolutely perfect.”
Ten smiles softly and holds his arms out. Taemin moves across the room, curling up to press against Ten’s chest. Ten gently massages Taemin’s scalp, just taking him in, his presence, his breathing.
Taemin leans up a little. “Did you read those pages Jongin sent you?”
“Yeah, and about thirty others.” Ten chuckles. “There’s a lot and I can’t promise I’m going to get it all right straight away… But I promise I’m trying.”
Taemin nods, staring at the wall. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean... Ten you’re straight.”
Ten shrugs, pressing a kiss to Taemin’s forehead. “And you’re still the same Tae. You still have the same personality, the same quirks, the same annoying habits. The same hobbies, loves and hates, likes and dislikes. You’re still the same person I fell in love with, but now you’re just… happier. Yeah, I’m okay with that. And if that means I’m not straight then I’m not straight.”
Taemin smiles, settling back down and Ten wraps his arms around Taemin as tight as he dares. “Want to go take a nap?”
Taemin nods and Ten helps him up before he stumbles to his feet, both of them laughing. Taemin strips down to a pair of boxers and the shirt and Ten does the same. They collapse in bed and Ten holds Taemin as tight to his chest as he can. Taemin pulls away, scrunching his nose to settle differently and Ten chuckles. He watches; Taemin falls asleep quickly, breathing evening out within a few minutes and Ten lays there, just staring.
He reaches out, gently moving Taemin’s hair behind his ear and breathing out slowly. “I love you, Taeminnie, no matter what.”