Chapter Text
There’s a strong smell of cooked ham and baked apple pie filtering through the air as Jihoon steps out of his room. Of course, with the day being so close to Christmas, an occurrence such as this was not unheard of, still, as Jihoon paused to inhale the sweet scent deeply, he finds himself eagerly awaiting the upcoming holiday.
With a small smile adorning his face, Jihoon heads towards the part of their apartment where the sounds of laughter and joyful voices come from.
On his way to the kitchen, he passes by the large room shared between Jisoo and six other members and blinks at the sight of Jeonghan and Jisoo cuddling atop one of the bunks. With a soft chuckle, Jihoon pulls the door close to provide the couple some privacy and continues on his way, passing by a cheerful Seungcheol who greets him by ruffling the soft pink strands of his hair.
Jihoon lets out an indignant shout and pushes Seungcheol’s hands away. He’s about to retaliate with a punch when his target disappears behind the door he just closed and a smug wink is the last thing Jihoon sees.
Carefully, Jihoon attempts to return the displaced strands back in place, but gives up when his efforts give way to no success. With a grimace, he heads towards the scent of apple pie and cinnamon, passing by the other two vocals sitting by the couch and pays them no heed.
At least, until Seungkwan lets out a whine, “Jihoon-hyung. Do you wanna watch a movie with us?” The young man shifts to create space between Seokmin and him, and taps the cushion invitingly. On Seungkwan’s right, though farther than he used to be, Seokmin lets out a bright smile at the idea of his favorite hyung nestled between them, tapping on the cushion as well.
“No thanks,” Jihoon says with a shake of his head, “I’m hungry and the smell of that apple pie isn’t really deterring my hunger.”
With a sigh, the two men lets him go, watching as Jihoon disappeared into the kitchen before returning to their movie.
Arriving in the kitchen, Jihoon watches as Jun, Wonwoo and Mingyu flitter around each other in an elegant dance as they try to avoid getting in each other's way while preparing the group’s supper. The three are on dinner duty today; something Jihoon is looking forward to since, in his personal opinion, both Mingyu and Jun make amazing chefs (Wonwoo, on the other hand, would go under the category of ‘sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t’).
As his eyes shift from the trio to the oven where the heavenly smell is released, he catches sight of the maknae and Minghao, huddled in front of the oven and peering curiously into the glass, sometimes leaning towards each other to exchange excited murmurs.
Jihoon smiles at their bright eyes and is about to approach them when Jun stops by in front of him, a plate in one hand and a fork in the other. Jun offers it to him with a kind smile and watches as Jihoon’s eyes brightened to almost the same level as the two maknaes by the oven, hands it to him and steers the younger boy into one of the seats by the dinner table.
“Eat,” Jun whispers, letting out a conspiratory wink as he returns to his preparations and only then does Jihoon look up from the wonderful slice of pie the man had given him to see the first pie sitting on the counter with only one slice missing--his slice.
Jihoon laughs at the realization that the older man has just snuck him an early dessert and is about to take a bite when the front door slams open and a snow-covered Soonyoung stumbles inside. Slowly placing his fork back on the plate, he watches as his boyfriend took off his hat and shook his hair, running a hand through the blond strands for good measure as his eyes survey the room. Jihoon watches as it ran past him, stopped then returns back to him, a grin blooming on the man’s face.
Soonyoung slides off his coat, hangs it on one of the available hooks and kicks off his boots, replacing them with his house slippers before he trudges over to Jihoon.
“Hey,” Soonyoung greets, pressing a cold kiss on Jihoon’s warm cheek, the contrast of temperatures sending pleasant shivers up Jihoon’s spine.
“Hey,” Jihoon replies and finally takes a bite of the pie. Soonyoung lets out a visible pout at the lack of kisses he received and, with a small frown, buries his face into Jihoon’s warm neck, arms wrapping around the younger’s torso into a tight embrace.
“Jihoonie,” The dancer whines, pressing kisses on the pale skin, causing Jihoon to squirm and his cheeks to flush.
“Stop, stop,” Hunching his shoulders, Jihoon pulls free of Soonyoung’s hold and turns to reciprocate the kiss from earlier, “You big baby.”
Soonyoung laughs and winks flirtily, “Only for you, babe.”
--
He’s busy being coddled by Soonyoung on one of the loveseats when Seungkwan shoots up from his seat beside Seokmin and points giddily at the window with a loud yell.
“It’s snowing!”
Those two words had the pair of maknaes from the kitchen running off to the entranceway. Hansol appears from the small room he shares with Jihoon and Chan to join the two.
Across from them, Seungkwan’s tugging on Seokmin’s arm to get him up, chattering “Hyung, it’s snowing! Hurry up already, come on, come on, come on.”
The two watch as everyone disappeared out the door, Jeonghan holding onto the wrists of a chuckling Seungcheol and Jisoo. The few minutes of chaos gave way to silence as everyone left, leaving the two in serene peace.
Soonyoung pulls away from the embrace he has Jihoon trapped in and nudges the smaller boy aside to get up. With a smile, he offers a hand to Jihoon, pulling him up when the younger took it.
“Come on,” Soonyoung says, steering Jihoon towards doorway, only stopping to pull on his boots and his coat as well as Jihoon’s. “Let’s go.” He adds and exits the door, locking it (for there have been many cases of extreme fans ransacking idol’s houses and, really, their life already lacks privacy, they don’t need anymore of their private life being publicized) before heading outside, Jihoon in tow.
A scene straight out of a hallmark card greets the two as they step outside the apartment’s front door. Jihoon takes the time to study their surroundings; the field of snow, the cluster of his friends rolling around in the snow and laughing, the frost on the windows. It’s--
“Beautiful,” Soonyoung breaths out and Jihoon turns to see Soonyoung’s eyes scanning their surroundings with wonder.
“Yeah,” Jihoon agrees, his eyes trained on his boyfriend’s profile. The snow is falling softly around them, some resting on Soonyoung’s face, some on his eyelashes. Jihoon appreciates how the cold air is causing his boyfriend’s cheeks to redden and he bites the inside of his cheek to refrain from pulling on the man’s collar and kissing him senseless.
There’s a moment between them that Jihoon can’t describe. Soonyoung turns to face Jihoon, a warm smile decorating his face. They’re left staring into each other’s eyes as they slowly lean closer. Jihoon could almost taste the peppermint in Soonyoung’s breath when a blur of white smacks right into his boyfriend’s face.
Soonyoung pulls away with a screech, tugging on his collar to remove the snow that managed to slide between his clothes and his skin while Jihoon laughs. His amusement is cut short when he is hit as well, this time on the back of his head and he turns to find the perpetrator.
A seemingly innocent Seungcheol is tossing a snowball in one hand while looking off to the side with a smile.
Jihoon’s eyes narrow as he kneels down to scoop a ball of snow, sputtering when he’s hit again, this time on the face. “Oh, it’s on.” He declares and brushes the snow from his face to increase visibility. Beside him, Soonyoung gathers a pile of snow and starts to create a fort, Seokmin and Seungkwan rushing towards them to help.
With their teamwork, the fort is up in minutes and all three of them start to create their ammo, piling snowballs upon snowballs while Jihoon aims and shoots at the opposing fort consisting of Seungcheol, Jeonghan and Jisoo.
On their other side, Jun is smirking as he throws a snowball at Jisoo’s face, causing him to disappear behind their fort from the force. He’s up in seconds though with a snowball flying from his direction that Jun dodges, laughing when it hits an unaware Mingyu.
Mingyu’s eyes twitch and he gathers a pile of snow, dumping it on Jun with a triumphant yell. Jihoon snickers and ducks just in time to avoid the snowball Minghao launches at him.
By this time, everyone has become a part of the fight and Jihoon’s grinning in delight when Soonyoung catches his face, brushing his mittened fingers on Jihoon’s cheeks with a pleased smile.
“Hey,” Jihoon murmurs, eyes flickering towards Soonyoung’s lips. He thinks that Soonyoung looks amazing like this, cheeks reddened, eyes bright and lips parted.
“Hey yourself,” Soonyoung whispers back. Before Jihoon can breath out some kind of response, Soonyoung’s kissing him, nipping on his lips and pressing with enough force that Jihoon lets out a soft moan. Soonyoung growls positively at this and angles his head to the side so he can press closer, arms wrapping around Jihoon’s waist tightly.
He pulls away shortly to mouth at Jihoon’s neck, pausing at times to bite before pressing soothing kisses on the wound.
“Soonyoung,” Jihoon tries, but Soonyoung continues on, reaching the spot right where Jihoon’s shoulder and neck meets and sucks a bruise on the spot--a place he knows is especially sensitive.
Jihoon’s mouth falls open in a silent moan, but he regains his bearings quickly, calling again. “Soonyoung.”
A muffled, “What?” tinged with annoyance is all the reply Jihoon gets before he’s rolling over to switch their positions.
Soonyoung lets out a loud yelp as he tumbles down, but once they’re situated he places his hands on Jihoon’s hips, raising an eyebrow at the change.
“You should’ve just told me, y’know.” Soonyoung hummed.
Rolling his eyes, Jihoon points at a huddled Wonwoo and Mingyu a few feet away, “You just about got ambushed, idiot.”
“Yes, but you saved me.” Soonyoung said cheekily.
Jihoon just raises his eyebrow before scooping a pile of snow and dropping it on Soonyoung’s face.
“I give, I give.” Soonyoung gasps, shaking off the snow from his hair.
“Good,” Jihoon says and presses a kiss on Soonyoung’s lips.
All around them, there’s snowflakes falling and members running around, chasing each other with balls of frozen water. But in that moment, time is frozen and there is only him and Soonyoung, Soonyoung and him.
And frankly, Jihoon’s alright with that.