Work Text:
"Be honest, Joo," Jiseok snickers, thinking back of Jooyeon's whiny voice when he'd called him asking for help at one in the morning the night before because he's still too shy to talk to fans by himself. "There's no way you came all the way back here just because you needed someone to do a live with. You're not that dedicated to your idol duties."
"First of all, says who?" Jooyeon quips. Jiseok is about to inform him that literally everyone would back him up on that, but then Jooyeon continues, "And second, I didn't come here for the live, I told you I came here with my mom and thought I might as well."
Fair. Jiseok had in fact seen Jooyeon's mother when they'd met up and then dropped her off at the train station before they came to the company to do their livestream. He's angling for something more than that, though. "Hmmm. Is that really all there is to it?"
"What else could there be?" Jooyeon's huge smile suggests he's very much aware of what Jiseok is getting at, but if he wants it spelled out to him, Jiseok will bite.
"Oh, I don't know, maybe something about how you've been calling me five times a day ever since I went home."
"Okay, fine," Jooyeon relents, laughing. "So maybe I wanted to see you."
Jiseok tries, and fails, not to preen at how easily he gave in. Maybe he wanted to see Jooyeon too, but he'd never be the first one to admit it. "Heh. Knew you couldn't live without me."
"I really can't," Jooyeon readily agrees, and the way he can just say these things now has Jiseok less preening and more actively fighting off the somersault his heart wants to do.
There's that look in Jooyeon's eyes, the one that speaks a thousand words that all amount to a confession, and Jiseok finds himself unable to handle it at this very moment. He's only been on the receiving end of it through a screen for the past two weeks and he finds he has forgotten how intense it feels in person. He turns to the cup of water they've been sharing and drains what little is left in a noisy gulp.
Jooyeon doesn't let it deter him, continuing in a soft voice, "I missed you, Seok. I'm sorry I couldn't be here on your birthday."
And, yeah, this is what has been on Jiseok's mind. They'd still had their celebration, even if not physically, but… As happy as he'd been to be with his family this year, to be pampered by his grandparents and eat his mother's homemade food, something was missing. Five somethings, really, but especially his other half.
"I still want my birthday kiss, for the record," Jiseok admits quietly, privately even though there's no one else with them in the room. When he looks up from the now-empty cup, he's met with the sight of pink flooding into Jooyeon's cheeks like watercolor.
He can no longer ignore that funny feeling in his chest, then, like it's caving in around his heart, or like his heart has suddenly swelled a few sizes too big for his ribcage. He's grown familiar with it over the time he's known Jooyeon, and even more since they became each other's person. Raw and tender, and Jiseok is practically bleeding it. Love.
"Didn't we already say we'd do that when everyone gets back together?" Jooyeon says, punctuated with a pitchy little laugh.
Jooyeon is nervous. Has been since they met up, and Jiseok doesn't really understand why, now that they're no longer streaming. He doesn't, but it's getting to him too, so he runs his fingers through his hair just to give them something to do. "You know that's not what I mean, Jooyeonie. I want a real birthday kiss."
"Uh," Jooyeon says in response. Jiseok watches as his teeth come out to gnaw on his smile. "Here? We're still at the company."
"We've kissed plenty of times at the company when no one's looking, Joo," Jiseok informs, eyebrows furrowing together even as he smiles too. He can't help it, Jooyeon is cute when he gets shy, but — he's not normally like this when it comes to physical affection. Usually, it comes to him effortlessly and Jiseok is the one who gets shy over it. "What's the deal with you today? It's just me, you don't need to be so nervous."
"I'm not nervous," Jooyeon denies a bit too quickly.
Jiseok rolls his eyes. "It's been ten minutes since we ended the live and your hands still aren't on me. And now you're refusing me a kiss."
Jooyeon's expression turns a little sheepish, a little apologetic. His hand moves out of his lap to find Jiseok's, and instinctively their fingers slot together the way they always do. "I would never refuse you anything," he starts. So painfully sweet that Jiseok's heart lurches in his chest. "I just. It's exactly because it's you that I don't know what to do with myself."
Jiseok squeezes his hand tighter and moves closer on the couch, bracketing Jooyeon with his knees. "What do you mean?"
"I mean." Jooyeon turns to fully face Jiseok now, too. "We haven't seen each other in a while, right?"
"Sure."
He takes Jiseok's other hand in his too and rubs over the back of it with his thumb. "You look even prettier now and my heart can't take it, Jiseokie."
He's stubbornly looking down at their linked fingers and the angle has his stupid pink hat covering half his face, but the red tips of his ears are poking out between long locks, and god. That's so fucking cheesy. Jiseok's eyes burn, and this time he's glad Jooyeon isn't looking.
He swallows the surge of emotion down and hopes it's convincing when he says, "You literally see my face every day."
"On call!" Jooyeon protests. He lifts his face to pout up at Jiseok, and Jiseok, regrettably, finds out he's not above cheesy sentiment himself. "It's different when you're… right here."
Jiseok thinks back on the comment he'd picked out to read, the one saying that they both look handsome today. It had been a subtle enough way to compliment Jooyeon, using someone else's words to be honest in a way he normally isn't, because meeting up with Jooyeon did have him falling in love all over again.
Which is silly when they've only been apart for two weeks, but. He supposes when they're used to spending every day together — in the same dorm, in the same practice rooms, on the same stage — that counts for a lot. He hopes it does, anyway, because there's no other explanation for how badly looking at his boyfriend's blushing face has him craving his kisses right about now.
"You're so cheesy, Lee Jooyeon," Jiseok declares, already climbing into Jooyeon's lap.
"If that's what you want to call my honest feelings," Jooyeon smiles, shameless, and Jiseok knows it to be true.
He might actually cry if he ruminates on that for too long though, so he frees one hand from Jooyeon's gentle grip to brace it on Jooyeon's shoulder. "Just kiss me, you sappy fool."
Jiseok can't be straightforward about his feelings like Jooyeon is, thinks too much and runs his mouth, and maybe that's something he wants to work on now that he's one year older. But Jooyeon meets his eyes, lets his gaze fall to his lips, and then he's leaning in, so Jiseok can allow himself this childishness for now.
The moment their lips touch feels electric, almost like it's their first all over again. Like Jiseok is nineteen to Jooyeon's eighteen and they're just two loud teenagers with a dream and a crush on each other big enough to fill up an entire room. It's soft and sweet, lips on tingling lips that move together and chase each other, but where they used to be clumsy they now fit one another like a glove.
Jooyeon's hand, the one that isn't still tangled up with Jiseok's, finds its place on Jiseok's hip and tugs him closer, but not harshly. It's a suggestion, one that Jiseok gladly follows because pressed against his boyfriend, heartbeat to heartbeat, is exactly where he wants to be.
Jooyeon sighs into his mouth, and Jiseok's chest squeezes tight around his heart again. They're too young to think about forever, but Jiseok has always been told he's got an old soul so he supposes it's fitting that that's what he wants. A mere two birthdays after him and Jooyeon got together, he's already wishing for a future where he's old and gray and still in Jooyeon's arms.
A future where they have each other's touch to bring warmth and comfort. Jooyeon's hand trailing goosebumps up Jiseok's arm to reach his cheek and cup it gently, Jiseok's hand taking off Jooyeon's cap to tangle softly in his long hair and pet through it to bring out all those lovely sighs for Jiseok to swallow. Just for him.
Maybe Jiseok is the sappy one. He licks into Jooyeon's open mouth and hopes his tongue spells out all these sentimental wishes that he's still too immature to put into words.
But they've never needed words to understand each other. The gentle heat that Jooyeon's tongue responds with feels like a promise.
When they finally pull away, Jooyeon follows it up with one tiny little peck on the tip of Jiseok's nose, and then he smiles, big and bright and beautiful. "Happy birthday, Jiseok-ah."
To Jiseok, it feels like he's holding the sun itself when his hands curve over the apples of Jooyeon's smiley cheeks. He doesn't want to let go.
"Are you going home after this?"
"No, I was planning to sleep at the dorm and go back in the morning."
"Then I'm staying too." Jiseok supposes he will have to let go soon enough, but one night is better than nothing. They'll just have to make the most of it so that it sticks until the break finally ends. "But I'm not planning to let you sleep tonight. A kiss is not the only present I want you to give me, Jooyeonie."
Jooyeon swallows audibly, but his grin doesn't falter even a little bit. If anything, it just grows wider. "Yeah," he says, pulling Jiseok closer once again. "Sounds like a plan."
The kiss he gives him then is slightly hungrier, but it melts on his tongue just as sweetly.