Archive of Our Own ^beta

Over the past few years, Stray Kids had gotten well accustomed to their resident tsundere and all of his ways- but as of recent, another one of these “quirks” had seemed to manifest.

The live had been so much fun. Meeting Sana- (noona, his head reminded him), and YoungK sunbaenim after so long had made him incredibly happy. With all the schedules and promotions, being the leader had made it difficult for him to meet his comfort people.

He’d already been jittery in his seat, serotonin flooding through his veins at the sheer overwhelmingness of it all; when Minho had made that- that absolutely adorable “aang” sound and bit his shoulder.

Even thinking about it now made him flush. Chan shuddered, realizing he’d been frozen with the toothbrush in his hand for way too long. He was just about to finish washing his face, when Minho came up behind him and leaned over to reach for the bottle on the shelf.

“Night hyung, please go to sleep for frick’s sake. We’ve had a long day today.”

“I will Min, I’m feeling pretty exhausted, weirdly enough.”

“Well, Mr. Chan-ssi, when we mortals have an entire day of work on-camera, we get exhausted! Isn’t that fascinating?”

Minho comically widened his eyes, turning towards him.

Chan pouted.

“Don’t make fun of me-” he mumbled, unintentionally stretching out the end of his sentence.

Minho chuckled, leaned over to place back the bottle, and slightly bent to give him a nip on his shoulder blade.

Chan froze, attempting to calm his heart. Why did Min have to be this adorable. Just why.

“Sleep good, hyung.”

“You too Min.”

Chan exhaled, sliding back down the wall. Those Minho simp accounts that kept appearing on his timeline- he could relate to them on a spiritual level. Chan stretched himself out, and walked over to his bed in hopes of getting a nights’ sleep.

Seungmin snuggled into his bed, placing his phone onto the side for a little so he could stretch out his back.

He eyed Minho’s bed- he’d left the curtain open today, and Seungmin figured that was as much of an invitation as he would get. He picked up his phone and climbed down, walking over to Minho’s notoriously “off-limits” bunker.

Minho appeared to be playing a game on his phone, leaning against the wall behind him. Seungmin smirked. Focused Minho was much more forgiving- and with that knowledge, he wormed his way next to Minho.

“Hey hyung~”

“Mhm~”

“I’m going to stay here now.”

“Mhm.”

“And I’m going to play Day6 songs at full volume.”

“Mhm.”

“And bark in tune to Sweet Chaos”

“Mhm.”

Seung pouted. He’d come here for attention, and while Minho’s indifference wasn’t unexpected, he certainly wasn’t going to put up with it.

“Hey hyung, the cat on your phone,” Seungmin waggled his finger at the back of Minho’s phonecase, taking note that Minho’s eyes had moved away from his phone screen.

“That’s...” Seung hummed in thought “Yangie? Or was it Pongie?”

Minho gave him a disappointed stare, throwing a light punch in his general direction.

“Hyung, Dori is such an out-of-fashion name. Maybe you should go for Pongie!! It’s easier to remember too!!”

Seungmin gave Minho a bright smile, fully aware of how much he was annoying MInho.

“Seungmin-ah, do you want to join Hyunjin in the air-fryer?”

“Hyungie, you love me too much to do that~”

“Sure I do.”

Minho grumbled, finally putting aside his phone. Seungmin internally cheered at his victory.

“What did you want, Seungmin-ah.”

“Nothing, I just wanted to annoy you.”

Seungmin gleefully grinned at the noise of annoyance Minho let out, and purposely slumped against Minho, the “oof” he let out filling him with satisfaction.

Seungmin would rather steal Gyu (the last time he’d done that, Changbin had banned him from the studio for a week) than admit that he treasured times like this with Minho. While playing into the whole “divorced couple” image was fun, he wished people would know how well Minho and him got each other. There were times when they could just sit together for hours, and they’d still feel comfortable enough that words weren’t necessary.

Seungmin turned back to his phone, scrolling through the list of videos, one of them catching his eye.

Minho biting SKZ- A compilation

“Hyung, look- is your dieting getting too hard?”

Seungmin cheekily grinned at Minho, dodging the light smack that Minho had sent in his direction.

“I’ve literally only done that once-”

Seungmin clicked on the video, smirking as he watched Minho’s brow furrow more and more as the video went on. Damn, stays were observant.

“Hyungie, you’re becoming your cats, aren’t you~”

Seungmin waggled a finger cheekily in front of Minho’s mouth, only for him to instinctively nip at them. A second later, Minho looked horrified, seemingly after having realized what he’d just done. Seungmin fell off the bed laughing.

“Kids, what’s happening-”

Chan walked into the room, eyeing Seungmin on the floor, still giggling, and MInho sitting on the bed, his face schooled into stoic nonchalance.

“Minho, are you bullying your dongsaengs again.”

Minho rolled his eyes, lying back down on the bed, while Seungmin nodded vehemently.

“Yes, I nearly lost my fingers to the devil!!”

Chan’s mouth fell open into an ah. “Yeah, I hear that’s how the emotionally constipated express their affection.”

Chan dodged the arm Minho flailed out at him, and lightly patted Minho’s head. He turned and left the room.

“So hyung, this is you showing your affection for me, right?”

Minho levelled an unimpressed stare at him.

“Ha ha, keep telling yourself that.”

Seungmin simply grinned back, leaning in and lightly nipping at Minho’s cheek. He watched as Minho’s ears slowly got redder and redder, till they resembled freshly picked cherries.

“Love you too, hyung~”

Seungmin walked out of the room, a light skip in his step, leaving behind a very flustered, and very panicked Minho.

Minho should’ve expected this- after all, he had poked fun at Changbin first. This was bound to happen.

They were on Weekly Idol for a Lunar New Year special, and the inevitable “aegyo song” segment of the show had come up. And of course, he wasn’t going to miss a chance to throw his fellow hyung line members under the bus.

Sadly, his plan had backfired- with Chan and Changbin ganging up on him, and Binnie stating that he was SKZ’s aegyo king (not before throwing a mildly frightened glance at him, though).

Minho steeled himself, as the first notes of the 어떻게 song started playing.

He scrunched his face into what he hoped was a cute expression, and attempted to fumble out the lyrics. As the song went on, he could feel his ears growing hotter as he shrank back into himself.

As the last line played, Minho’s voice cracked, a sudden high tone making its way into his words. He groaned, wishing the ground would swallow him whole.

He shut his eyes, waiting for Jisung or Seungmin to start imitating him- it didn’t offend him, but he was way too embarrassed to respond back like he’d normally do.

“Min’s ears have changed colour, y’all”, Chan’s lilting voice teased him.

Minho clapped his hands over his ears, hiding behind the member closest to him- who also happened to be the one who’d gotten him into this mess. Min bit his shoulder in retort, making sure to direct an icy glare at him.

“Hyung, you were cute!!” Changbin mumbled back, patting his head- and running away the second Minho’s eyes got icier.

“Changbin-ah, get back here~ Your hyung has a few things to tell you~”

The rest of the group laughed as Changbin attempted to escape the devil bunny.

Felix and Hyunjin were very accustomed to Minho’s “nomming” habits, and several of his other habits as well.

Very often, they’d spend hours figuring out choreographies, or practicing together through the mornings and they’d end up collapsing into a pile in front of the mirror.

Felix’s natural love language was cuddles and hugs, and so was Hyunjin’s. Unsurprisingly, they’d often flop onto each other, and if they were in the mood to annoy Minho, they’d pull him into the cuddle pile.

One thing they’d come to understand was that Minho always had his own lil’ ways of telling them whether he needed affection.

For Felix, it was backhugs, and he was always happy to oblige. Even the great Lee Minho was not exempt from the Lixie charm. On rare occasion, Minho would lean on Hyunjin’s shoulder, and they’d take that as their cue to run their hands through his hair, or lie down with him.

Hyunjin had also come to learn that Minho threatening to shove him into an airfryer meant that he wanted his attention, and knowing that had somehow made him fonder of Minho- even though the idea of being fond of Minho was very, very gay™.

As of recent, Hyunjin had noticed one thing. On days when they had incredibly hard choreographies, Minho would lie down next to them, and nip at their ears. Sometimes he’d nuzzle their hair, but more often than not, he’d nip them.

Today, Hyunjin had happened to make himself comfortable on Felix’s legs. They’d been scrolling through their phones when Minho had come back with bottles of water and cola.

Surveying the dance practise room, Minho flopped down onto Hyunjin’s stomach. Hyunjin lightly whined, when he felt a slight nip on his waist. Hyunjin sighed- another day of petting Minho’s head to sleep, it looked like.

That said, he wasn’t complaining.

Hyunjin eyed his hyung; it was hard to believe that this soft and sleepy Minho was the same person who’d shove tissues in his mouth if he wanted to.

“Hyunjin-ah, I’m aware that I’m pretty, but you dont have to stare so hard at me-”

Hyunjin exhaled, pinching his nose. Nope, this was definitely the same Minho.

Jisung had had the most exhausting vocal lesson, and all he wanted to do was sink into his bed and stay there, preferably for the next couple of months.

He stepped into his room, only to find an extremely familiar sight- a certain Lee Minho, sprawled out on his bed almost as though he were competing for the Guiness World Record for the stretchiest human.

Well, there was only one thing he could do.

Jisung flopped straight onto Minho, twisting himself to cause maximum damage. Minho groaned loudly, pushing him off while moving away to make room for him on the bed.

A couple of minutes later, the two of them had comfortably pretzelled themselves together. Jisung felt himself slowly nod off, when a sudden whine cut through his foggy thoughts.

“My neck is about to break, ow-” Minho mumbled, shifting so that he was now snuggling into Jisung’s neck.

Jisung felt his insides become goo- skinship with Minho was rare, so he’d take any chance he’d get.

This... This was a-okay.

Jisung moved over his phone so that they’d both share the same screen, and managed to discreetly sniff at Minho’s hair. Take note, Jisung was not a creep. Minho just had good taste in shampoo; he was stealing it from Seungmin after all.

“Hyung”

Minho hummed back in affirmation.

“Your hair smells tasty. Kinda like cotton candy.”

Minho turned to look at him, giving him a confused stare.

“This is my usual shampoo, Jisung-ah. What do you mean-”

“No hyung, it really does smell like candy.”

Jisung took a derisive sniff at his head as though to prove his point.

“Hyung, if you weren’t older than me, I’d probably nom your hair.”

An evil glint entered Minho’s eyes as he locked his legs around Jisung’s.

“Well, I’m your hyung, and I would like to know what flavor a Quokka would be!”

Jiung gasped, letting out a wail as he fake struggled against Minho’s tight hold. All he felt was a light nip on his cheek, and he turned to a very accomplished-looking Minho.

“Hyung?”

Minho gave him a deadpan stare. “What.”

“Hyung you just. Bit me.”

“Yes.”

Jisung raised an eyebrow at him.

“How else was I supposed to figure out what a quokka’d taste like.”

Jisung’s mouth dropped into an “ah”. He nodded, and the two went back to laying on the bed to get some much-needed rest.

Jeongin opened his eyes to an unfamiliar room. He panicked for a split second, before turning to his right and finding Minho sleeping next to him, hair floofed up in an unusually cat-like manner.

Ah, right. He was at Minho’s house.

Minho had invited him over for Christmas ‘cause his parents and brothers had decided last minute to go on a trip to Hawaii, and there was no way he was sitting alone and dejected at his home in Busan.

And in all honesty, he liked it here. Minho’s mom pinched his cheeks and gave him extra soup when he asked for it.

And she secretly baked him brownies so that he’d get to eat them without Minho. Minho’s mom was the best.

Jeongin stepped out of bed, considering annoying Minho for a split-second, but figuring that that was too tiring for his mental state right now.
.
.
.
Was it really though.

Jeongin walked over and let out the most dolphin-like screech he could muster, right into Minho’s ear. All he saw before yeeting out of there was a very sleepy, and very very angry Minho, attempting to step out of bed with his eyes on fire.

“So, Jeongin-ah, since you’re my favourite dongsaeng, I’ve decided that you’re worthy of being introduced to my cats!!” Minho beamed at him.

“Hyung. I know your cats-”

“Yes, but you haven’t ever met them, have you?”

Minho dragged him over to the cat tree in the living room.

Jeongin could make out three half-asleep, and very furry blobs hanging off of the tree branches. He watched as Minho walked up to one of the cats, and softly rubbed his hand against her head. And apparently that had been enough to wake him up- the cat purred back at him, leaping off of the tree.

“Hyung, am I supposed to do that?”

“O-oh? Yeah sure, go ahead” Minho mumbled back distractedly, his attention already focused on… Soonie, if his memory served him right.

Jeongin turned back to the cat tree, finding the grey colored cat looking straight at him, her eyes wide and glassy.

“Dori-?” He whispered under his breath, as he sat down next to the tree, waiting to see if he’d come down.

Dori sank down to the floor, and slunk over to Jeongin, appearing to take interest in the strand that was hanging off of a rip in his jeans. Jeongin hesitantly stretched out his hand, letting Dori sniff him, and once he seemed to have approved of him, he began petting his head.

Jeongin looked up to see Minho watching him, softly smiling.

“Y’know, Dori doesn’t get close to strangers that easily.”

Jeongin smirked back, “I’m me though, I don’t blame him.”

Minho rolled his eyes, turning back to Soonie. Jeongin felt a soft pressure on his fingers, and turned to look at Dori nipping his fingers.

“H-hyung?” Minho looked up, questioningly.

“Is dori upset with me? He’s biting me…” Jeongin pouted.

Minho slid over to Jeongin and lightly released his fingers from Dori. “No no, that’s just how cats tell you that they like what you’re doing. It’s like, them showing affection.”

“Ohhhhh, I see.” Jeongin stared at Dori.

Wait a second.

“Hyung, there's this other creature that also bites people to show affection.”

Minho hummed back in reply, his attention now on Doongie, who’d appeared to have dropped down from his position on the cat tree.

“It’s a very interesting creature, y’know. One of a kind.”

Minho looked up at him, his curiosity having been piqued.

“They call it… the Lee Minho!” Jeongin finished, bursting out into a giggle, as he watched Minho groan.

“Bold of you to assume I like any of you-”

“Hyung, Seungmin showed me the compilation.”

“I- Kim Seungmin.” A threatening expression spread across Minho’s face, as he whipped out his phone and began furiously typing out what appeared to be highly creative ways to cook a person.