Work Text:
Ever since Uea told King about what happened with his dad, he can't help but be a little worried all the time. He knows technically it's not healthy, he also knows Uea isn't weak and he knows how to take care of himself. But whenever he sees him shake terribly through a nightmare and reject King's attempts at comforting him, he feels like he failed Uea. Even though he didn't know him when it happened, he feels that he was the one who failed to protect him.
So he's always looking into Uea's eyes, trying to collect cues on how he's feeling. Whenever Uea reaches for a kiss, King allows him a few seconds to rethink if he's really comfortable with it before kissing him. The last thing he ever wants is to be one of those insensitive douchebags that Uea used to date who didn't ever care about how he was actually feeling.
That's not to say he doesn't feel like he's on cloud nine whenever Uea allows him to hold his hand, to put his arm around his waist when they're together, to kiss his cheek and his lips when he can. He thinks the younger felt that when they became boyfriends, his consent would no longer mean anything to King, if his initital surprise when King still asks before touching him is anything to go by. Uea always seems surprised even when he tries to hide it, and King doesn't know why it still makes him angry at his ex-boyfriends and guilty for not realising sooner at the same time.
"Look at these two." He has Uea's head on his shoulder, his arm perpetually resting around his waist, when he hears Jade's voice.
"Shh." He covers Uea's ears gently with his hands. "He has a headache and just fell asleep."
"Oh." Jade's voice gets softer then, looking at Uea fondly. King knows how much he cares about Uea, always feeling grateful that his boyfriend has friends that support and love him no matter what.
"I wanted to take him home but he insisted he has a lot of work to finish." He looks down as the younger grabs hold of his shirt in his fist like he's worried King is just going to leave. He gently pats his hand while a smile takes over his face.
"Wow, you're in love." King's head whips up as he hears his coworker say it too loudly for his liking.
"Hey Jade!" He picks up a pen and throws it at him. "He's going to hear you and I haven't even told him yet!"
"He probably knows already you aren't exactly as subtle as you think you are!" Jade whisper yells. "Look at the two of you now!"
King stops mid stroking his boyfriend's hair back from his face because it must be bothering him in his sleep, "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You're going to have to tell him at some point."
"I will, when he's comfortable and he trusts me."
"He's sleeping in a public place, with his head on your shoulder King. I believe he trusts you plenty."
"I just," King sighs, looking back down on the person he has come to respect and love, "I want him to be sure of his feelings before I burden him with mine."
"And how would you know that?" It's so weird for King to be talking to Jade this seriously, usually they're just at each other's necks teasing and making fun of each other.
"I don't know, I just don't want him to feel weighed down by my feelings for him." He drops a kiss on his boyfriend's forehead, feeling his love for him multiply several times, "I'll give him as much time as he needs."
"I don't understand." Uea picks up another kennel of popcorn as he positions himself in the comfortable embrace again. This is probably one of his favourite places to be right now; right here resting in the crook of King's neck while his torso rests on his chest.
They came back home late from working overtime and were both too worked up to fall asleep so they decided to microwave some popcorn and watch a movie.
"He invited her to come with him to the restaurant because he needed a date, but he also knew they wouldn't be able to go home alive." King dropped another kiss on his forehead, just because he can. Uea muffled his blush by stuffing in another piece of popcorn.
"I knew from the start there was something off about him." Uea nodded very seriously, making King look at him fondly while letting out a soft chuckle. "What?"
"You're very cute." He playfully bites his cheek, then wraps his arms tighter around him as he rests his cheek on top of his head.
"I'm not cute. I'm ferocious." Uea isn't ready for this conversation to be over yet.
"Yes, totally."
"I am!" But he can't look up because of the hold King has on him.
"Yeah, yeah." Another kiss on his forehead.
"Can you let me know when you're done with that?" They're together in the kitchen, Uea is cooking while King is pretending to need everything that Uea is using because he keeps hovering behind him, arms reaching around his back.
"King." Uea giggles as he feels an arm straight up wrap around his waist now, lightly enough that he could shake it off if he wanted to. King is always respecting his boundaries, trying to ascertain if he's comfortable or isn't whenever they're together.
While Uea doesn't want him to feel like he's walking on eggshells around him, it's also nice to feel cared about.
"I just needed the pepper." Then he's pressing fully on Uea with his arm still around him, making him giggle again at the sad attempt at flirting.
"And you couldn't have gone around me?" He points at the obvious space next to him that he could've also reached the pepper from.
"Just trying to be efficient and make sure my boyfriend is fed his breakfast as soon as possible, so sue me." King pouts as he turns around to continue cooking the noodles.
Uea smiles as he follows King to rest his chin on his shoulder, wrapping his arms around his waist now.
"You're being cute today." King says as he adds more seasoning to the pan. "And I hate to end this but we need the vegetables chopped, baby."
"Are you saying I can't hug my boyfriend now?" Uea titls his head on his shoulder, smiling as he sees the older's ears redden.
"You're doing this on purpose."
"What? Showing affection to my boyfriend? Why, I am doing this on purpose." He presses a kiss onto the red ear lobe, watching in fascination as the deep honey skin at the back of King's neck flourishes with red.
"Go, um, cut vegetables." King is blushing full on now, stuttering through his words.
Uea decides to relent, pressing one final kiss on his shoulder (which makes King squeak in surprise) as he turns around to continue cutting the vegetables with a smile on his face.
"Where were you?" Uea says as he walks into the pantry room, seeing King stand there stirring sugar into a mug.
"Oh, Uea! I had an on-site thing boss made me attend. I was going to text you but it was so spurr of the moment I forgot. I was coming to you now." King smiles as he lifts the mug in his hand.
"You.. You're supposed to let me know where you are." Uea tries not to pout. "You didn't tell me."
"Why?" A grin takes over his coworker's face, "Were you worried about where I was?"
He stalks towards Uea as he begins his rambling, "Of course I wasn't worried. Why would I be worried? You're a grown man, you can take care of yourself. It's just that you know um Jade! Jade kept asking me where you were so I um called you a few times and you didn't answer so Jade, um, got worried. You shouldn't worry Jade!"
He sees King lift his hands to ask for permission, which he nods at, and his boyfriend wraps his arms around him gently pulling him to him. "I'm sorry I didn't text Jade, I didn't realize how worried Jade must've been."
"Yeah, well, when you didn't pick my call Jade got even more worried. That wasn't a very nice thing to do."
"I'm sorry." King rubs his nose against Uea's. "Please forgive me, I promise I'll always text you to let you know if I go somewhere unplanned."
"Yeah, well, you don't have to. It's not like I care. But if you want to I won't, um, I won't delete the messages." Uea placed his hands on his arms as he looked to the side trying to appear disinterested.
"Thank you, baby." King then kisses his cheek making Uea bloom the prettiest shade of red. "Did I tell you look really beautiful today?"
To suppress the squeak coming from inside of him at the compliment, Uea rushes to clear his throat, "Where is my coffee?"
King bites back a smile, picking up the mug from the table, "Here, cutie."
And maybe King won't be able to admit his feelings right then, but he knows he's always going to go where Uea goes as long as he allows him to. So he hopes he has a lot of time to finally tell the boy he loves how much he loves him.
How he belongs to him, heart and soul.
fin