Work Text:
“you all walk into the dark crypt. on the ground are hundreds of dead bodies, rusted swords and armour make it hard to cross through without making a lot of noise. what will you do?”
“you think taeyong would like it if i told him his braces look nice?”
the group around johnny sighed for the fifth time that night. six of them had gone to mark’s house for their weekly dungeons and dragons game. tonight was a big night for their party. they had finally unlocked the crypt that mark had kept from them until yuta finally passed the charisma check on the giant sphinx blocking the entrance (he serenaded the thing, fucking bards). donghyuck, their halfling rogue had gone ahead to check for traps and they had met up with him just this moment. usually, johnny is on the edge of his seat as mark explains their surroundings and is more often than not the first person to do something when they are given an empty, ominous space. today though, his heart wasn’t in it. why wasn’t his heart in it, you ask?
lee taeyong had gotten braces during the week, and johnny couldn’t stop thinking about them. he had walked into their history class with a scowl on his face and doyoung following behind like a puppy, asking if he could see something. he had vehemently refused until doyoung fluttered his eye lashes at him and pouted, causing taeyong to sigh before opening his mouth and showing the brace laced teeth in his mouth. “happy now?”
johnny nearly spilled his thermos of coffee on his table.
“oh come on, you look great.” doyoung said genuinely, smiling wide. johnny knew doyoung had a retainer from one overnight school trip so he is probably happy he has a braces buddy.
“please, as if my life can’t get any worse. adding braces to all this? i may as well have painted a target on my back.” that made johnny frown but as soon as taeyong walked over to his desk, he panicked and took to looking out the window.
you see, taeyong didn’t know johnny that well, bar maybe a polite hello in the halls of their school or when taeyong sits next to him in history after the seating arrangement was brought in. he wears sweater vests to school, rolls his eyes at the antics of the dull brained popular cliques and takes all the teasing and jarring words that comes his way with no reaction at all. johnny is enamoured with him. he doesn’t understand how people don’t see that he is so very pretty. with his wire rimmed glasses showing off his eyes beautifully, his hair that looks so soft that johnny wants to run his fingers through it and lastly, how cute he looks when he’s concentrated. johnny knows what its like to be made fun of. he’s lanky, so thin people wonder if he’s emaciated, has glasses with lenses so strong they could break concrete and he plays dungeons and dragons proudly. he’s just as much a target as taeyong is. he feels like they could bond over that.
if only he could muster up the courage to talk to him.
if he did, he could tell him he thought his braces were lovely.
“dude, i don’t know what taeyong would say.” mark looks at him uncaring. “go for it. anyway, what are you guys doing.”
“kyber is going to inspect the armour to get an idea of how long this has been preserved.” jaehyun, their elven paladin says, trying to bring johnny’s attention back to the game.
“make a history check.” jaehyun rolls his dice and lands on a 13.
mark nods, jotting down something. “you blow the dust off of one of the helmet and notice an insignia. you recognise this as the old insignia of sarenrae.” jaehyun’s eyebrows raise as he writes down that info.
“johnny, anything you wanna do?”
“yeah i wanna tell taeyong how i feel.”
mark smacked a palm over his face with an eye roll. beside johnny, wendy groans, putting down her pen. “why did you come tonight if all you’re going to do is think about your romantic life? i thought we decided no school drama at the table. this is dnd, not therapy.”
looking at the glares he was getting from everyone at the table makes guilt wash over him so he shakes his head as if to physically remove taeyong from his mind. “you’re right, you’re right. no more school talk.” he picks up his purple sparkly dice. “okay, i am going to check to see if there is a way forward.”
“there is a massive door in front of you. ceiling to floor. decorated with rubies and amethysts that have gathered dust from disuse.”
his gnome wizard is a bit limited in what he can do here, but he does think of one thing. “i will check for anything magical.”
“roll.”
he gets an eleven.
mark shakes his head. “nothing that you can see.”
“okay, is there a visible lock?” a nod, “i will try and unlock it with knock at 3rd level.”
mark nods, looking at his notes. “okay, roll to lock picking.”
johnny takes his lucky d20 dice and rolls. he sighs, five. mark can’t help but giggle a little at the party’s only wizard being unable to use magic properly.
“this lock is centuries old, practically rusted shut. you try and pick it but your spell can barely get through the layer of rust.”
“locks busted. try and find a key.” he says as Jora, his character.
wendy, known as tel, the human druid, asked mark if she could roll to search for a key. the game continued on for the next hour. in that hour, they had progressed some, with seulgi tiefling cleric, seraphine, unlocking the door and bringing them into chamber where they fought a beholder that seemed to be protecting something. it ended when marks mom said jaehyun’s dad was here to pick him up and so everyone just dispersed and went home. before johnny left however, mark pulled him back.
“hey, man. if you want, you should invite taeyong. i’m always down for new players. and don’t listen if donghyuck kicks up a fuss, he just doesn’t like change.”
johnny smiled at his friends sincere words before bidding him goodbye and heading home.
he just got the go ahead. he’s gonna ask taeyong to his dungeons and dungeons game.
easy, right?
he just needs to figure out how to talk to him.
yeah…easy.
— — —
that monday, johnny walked into school with one thing on his mind. talk to taeyong. it should be easy. he had history with him and that was first thing, so that was good. he could rip the bandaid off as soon as he got in the door, and wallow in regret as taeyong no doubt rejected his offer. but, if he didn’t do it now he would never do it so it really was now or never.
stepping into the class early, he knew taeyong would be in there. when they have history first thing he likes to get there early so he can get some extra study in. it’s how johnny finds him. tucked in the corner, pen in hand and writing something down. he takes a deep breath. come on, suh, you can do this.
he takes the first few steps, and then all of a sudden he’s in front of taeyong who glances up, owlish. he looks ready to dash away, but waits for johnny to say something.
so johnny says this.
“have you ever played dungeons and dragons?”
taeyong blinks for a second, shocked at what was just said to him. “uh, what?”
johnny was getting redder by the second but no way was he wasting this moment of confidence by backing out. “i, uh, was wondering if you’d like to play dungeons and dragons with my friends and i. you don’t have to but i, uh, i just thought i’d ask.”
the younger boy shifts in his seat a bit, getting more closed off. “i’ve never played before.”
“that’s okay!” johnny is quick to answer. “we can teach you the basics.” he swallowed hard, here he goes. “and i could, um, help you create a character if you want. we can meet up after school.”
again, taeyong didn’t really flinch or make any other facial expression other than confusion and discomfort which did not ease johnny’s panic. however, after a few seconds (that felt like years, holy shit), he nodded. “okay, i’d like that.”
“really?” the taller said far too quickly and shocked. did he just succeed.
taeyong shrugged, shy smile on his lips. “it’ll be fun. my mom said i should take up a hobby. this seems cool.”
did this seriously just happen? he’s not dreaming, is he? he just successfully asked his crush on a kind of date? he must be dreaming.
“o-okay, well, i’ll see you after school. we can go to the coffee shop near the campus.” taeyong nodded, giving the older his number before sticking his nose back in his study notes. the seventeen year old tried to suppress the grin that was threatening to consume his lips but he couldn’t help it. he was so damn happy.
the end of the day rolled by pretty quickly, with johnny in the cafe all of a sudden with his player’s handbook and a character sheet for taeyong when he came back from ordering their drinks.
the brunet returned with a tray with their coffees on it. “so,” he began, “where do i start?”
“well, first you gotta choose your race. there’s a lot to choose from but i have a list here of the most popular ones.” he passed the handwritten list to the student, who skimmed it.
taeyong looked up. “you said your friends play with you?” johnny nods. “what races are their characters? i don’t wanna step on anyones toes.”
“okay, so there’s mark, he’s our dungeon master. he creates the story.” taeyong nodded, seemingly interested. “then there’s the players, the six, now seven of us. we call ourselves the the guild. there’s jaehyun who plays an elven paladin named kyber. donghyuck who’s a halfling rogue called briar, yuta is a half orc bard named winifred, seulgi from science is seraphine, our tiefling cleric. wendy is tel, the human druid and i play jora, a gnome wizard.”
taeyong snorted at that, causing johnny to frown. “what?”
“nothing, it’s just…aren’t gnomes like super short?”
“so?”
“it’s just funny that you’re playing such a short character and you are so tall you can’t fit through the door of our history class.”
hearing taeyong giggle made his heart thump, so he just playfully scowled. “hey!” which made taeyong giggle even more.
after the giggling subsided, taeyong looked over the list once more, frowning when he came across one word. “what’s an aasimar?”
“oh, they’re race of angels. some of them are fallen so their wings are gone. they’re pretty cool.”
taeyong soaked that in for a second before he nodded. “i wanna be one of them.”
johnny, not really shocked because come on, taeyong’s practically an angel anyway. he writes down taeyongs race and then moves onto the next part. “okay. what’s your name?”
taeyong tapped his pen for a few moments before he shakes his head. “i don’t know, come back to me.”
so they leave that for last as they go through all the rest of the information. taeyong picks ranger as his class, because once johnny mentioned he could have a pet, his eyes lit up. “can i have a wolf?” he asks and johnny wants to melt on the spot right there. if he had the capabilities he’d try and get taeyong a real life wolf right then and there.
after all his stats and spells are picked, they land back on his name. “any ideas?”
again, taeyong sits in silence as he thinks. johnny can understand his thought process. he goes through a lot of thinking to come up with his character names.
“anything i want?”
“anything.”
more thinking before. “i like ryn.”
beaming, johnny writes that down. “and there we go. taeyong, meet ryn, your aasimar ranger with wolf companion.”
simmering with excitement, taeyong looks back up at johnny, metal coated teeth glinting in the light. god, he’s so cute.
“can i name my wolf?” when he nods, taeyong taps his fingers against the table before he writes down next to his wolf character sheet, raven.
as taeyong did this, johnny pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to mark.
leave a seventh seat open, taeyong’s coming!
— — —
on the night of their weekly game, taeyong turned up at the exact time he was supposed to, arriving before most of them, except johnny who had come nearly an hour early to make sure he wouldn’t miss taeyong. he watched from behind mark’s living room window as taeyong bid his mother goodbye in her car.
he was so nervous. this could go either one of two ways. one, taeyong absolutely hates the game and he never speaks to johnny again, or two, taeyong loves the game and wants johnny to invite him back and maybe on a date. johnny hopes it’s the latter.
“dude,” mark says from behind him, startling him. “you look like a creep.”
johnny scowled, grumbling, “i just wanna make sure he gets in okay.”
“by peeking out like some kind of pervert?”
“shut up!” he whines, getting up from his spot when marks mom calls for them to meet their friend. in the foyer stands taeyong, looking more than awkward. gone are the sweater vests, replaced with a normal t shirt and hoodie. he’s not as dressed up but he’s still so beautiful. the hoodie engulfs him and johnny tries not to nosebleed at the sight. mark greets him, thanking him for coming. then johnny and taeyong locked eyes and johnny swears he saw a dusting of pink on his cheeks.
“h-hi, taeyong.”
“hi.”
silence. cool, this is going great.
mark notices the awkwardness and claps his hands together. “shall we go downstairs? everyone will meet us down there.” the older two nod and the three descend into the den where mark has the table and map set up. taeyong’s eyes widen at the sight, in awe and surprise. mark’s maps were always super detailed, it was hard not to be impressed.
“hey, sit next to me, i can help you.”
the younger boy nodded and set his stuff down. “i didn’t know i was supposed to bring dice.”
“don’t worry about it.” johnny shook his head. “dice are way too expensive anyway. you can borrow mine.” he fishes out his purple sparkly dice from his box. “she’s lucky. she might help you win some fights if we get into any.”
a grin came across taeyong’s lips and he thanked him for the loan.
the rest of the group showed up not too long after and mark got started when everyone was introduced to taeyong and got settled. then, he began to recap what had happened last time. it was a thrilling game. ryn was introduced and taeyongs description of him was so beautiful. silver pink hair, with piercing green eyes and tall frame. his wolf beside him ebony black with the same coloured eyes. the younger took to it like a duck to water, turning to johnny every now and then to ask how to do a spell or attack properly. sometimes the rolls weren’t on his side but more often than not his attacks landed pretty well.
they were in combat with a nasty ogre, and it nearly got them all. seraphine was running low on healing spells, jaehyun was suggesting they abandon combat and taeyong had one celestial arrow left. “i’m gonna try and hit him.”
“come on, taeyong!” yuta cheered. “you can do it!”
taeyong was getting riled up from the excitement, taking a shaky breath with a smile before rolling the d20. it clattered on the table and landed on its side, revealing a natural 20. everyone at the table shouted in victory. in the heat of the moment, johnny scooped taeyong up in a hug who reciprocated. as mark explains how the monster is hit fatally by the arrow, the two boys are still clinging onto each other.
“and as he falls to the floor, raven comes up to you and nudges your hand, happy that you took him down and wasn’t hurt.”
everyone laughs and begins to calm down. this was the point where johnny realises he’s still holding taeyong. they separate like they’ve been burned before returning to their seats. mark wraps the game up quickly after, telling them they’ve been contacted by their friend and how they are in need of aid. jaehyun balks at the cliff hanger. “no, don’t leave it there!”
“i’m sorry guys, i’ve got hockey practice in the morning. we’ll pick it up next week i promise!”
after a chorus of booing, they collect their stuff and get ready to leave. taeyong texts his mom to pick him up, packing his stuff up also.
johnny takes a breath, zipping his backpack shut before turning to the other. “so, did you have fun?”
startled, taeyong looks up from his phone. “what? oh, yeah, i really did. it was so fun. now, i gotta convince my mom to buy me a set of dice for christmas.” they both giggle as they ascend upstairs.
“i’m really glad you enjoyed it.”
they got to the hall where they waited for their parents. an awkward silence envelops them for a few moments before taeyong turns to him and blurts. “can you be honest with me?”
johnny blinks before nodding. “of course.”
“did you invite me tonight because you needed a seventh player or because you like me?”
what?
“i’m only asking because doyoung said you asked me on a date, but this can’t be a date, i mean, this was with your friends, and we didn’t really talk out of character. and i mean, why would you ask me out, i have a permanent frown, i dress like an old man and these stupid braces make my teeth-“
“i like all those things about you though.”
this time, taeyong was shocked. “w-what?”
“you asked me why i would ask you out and it was for all the reasons you just listed. listen, i know i’m not good at this at all, but i really do like you and please don’t insult your braces, i think they are so cute.”
as johnny spoke, the younger’s cheeks went redder and redder with every word. he squeaked when his braces were mentioned, eyes shooting down to his converse. “r-really?”
“yes, and i know i’m not exactly a looker or anything, but i hope you will take me for me.”
gazing up through his lashes, taeyong gave him a small smile. “i already have.”
now, they were both smiling like idiots in the middle of marks foyer. johnny couldn’t believe this was where he confessed to taeyong.
“i hope you come back next week.” he chuckled, prompting taeyong to giggle.
there was a honk outside, taeyong’s mom’s car pulling up. taeyong bit his lip before turning to johnny and giving him a peck on the cheek. “wanna go to the coffee shop tomorrow? my treat.”
all the taller could do was nod before taeyong grinned wide and left for his mom’s car.
mark peeked his head up from the den. “so? thoughts?”
“bro, i think d&d got me a boyfriend.”
“well, shit.”