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“Hmm… We needed this.” Joshua sighed, letting his head flop back against the couch he was perched on, only creating more real estate for the pair of lips lazily exploring up the length of neck, his jaw, the curl of his ear.
“You said that already.” Jeonghan breathed in response, the exhale of his little laugh tickling against sensitive skin.
Joshua hummed lightly and adjusted the loose hold he had around Jeonghan’s waist where the man was curled half in his lap on the couch. Over his shoulder, it was easy to keep an eye on the rest of the group: Seungkwan and Seokmin were kneeling at the coffee table, locked in some kind of drinking game made up on the spot that looked silly and competitive and mostly designed to get them drunk quickly. There was an empty soju bottle between them already, next to the one Jeonghan and Joshua had finished together.
Usually the pair took turns drinking - otherwise, the end result was always the same (making out on the couch in front of everyone). Tonight though, it didn’t really matter. It was naive, Joshua knew it and he knew Jeonghan knew it too, but being locked away in Jihoon’s studio with the rest of the vocal team like this felt untouchable. It was their sanctuary, these days.
Beyond the coffee table Joshua could see Jihoon perched at his computer, somewhere between working on his own stuff and spinning up beats to set the mood in the studio for the rest of them. He was more energized than he had been all day, having already drunk his fill, and it struck Joshua as funny how visual the correlation was between buzzing Jihoon, full of blood, and the rest of his members flopping around, drained.
“What’s funny?” Jeonghan’s voice purred in his ear, and Joshua realized he’d actually grinned at the thought. It turned out he was an even bigger lightweight after losing a liter of blood. Jeonghan seemed to get as much from just the look in Joshua’s eye and nudged him with his elbow and a laugh.
“Let’s practice! Here, I have some in my bag from my schedule earlier…” Seungkwan announced loudly from the floor with Seokmin as he turned to start fishing in his bag for something. Seokmin’s eyes were wide as he waved his hands enthusiastically in front of him, looking somehow more pale than he already was from being Jihoon’s personal juice box.
“No, no, no, no, no way…” The vocalist pleaded, and it was enough to grab Jeonghan’s attention, who had apparently been listening in from his perch on the couch for a while. The man slid out of Joshua’s lap and down onto the rug to join the pair just as Seungkwan produced whatever he’d been searching for in his bag with an “A-ha!” that made the oldest laugh.
“Of course you have this in your bag, it’s perfect, okay Dokyeomie…” Jeonghan and Seungkwan turned on Seokmin together, who leaned back on his hands away from the pair and tucked his chin to his chest.
“I don’t wanna… I can’t say anything to her…” He muttered, the color returning to his face in the form of a deep blush.
“That’s exactly why we have to practice!” Seungkwan countered a little too loudly, then clamored a little too enthusiastically into his friend’s lap, brandishing the tube of dark lipstick he’d pulled out in a pretty good impression of the makeup artists they were constantly surrounded by considering how drunk he already was. “Pretend I’m makeup noona, I’m doing your makeup, what do you say to me?”
“Uh - um… Noona…” Seokmin blinked rapidly down into Seungkwan’s face as he stuttered, holding still for the man like he would a makeup artist as the dark plum color was brushed onto his lips (mostly inside the lines).
“Yes~” Seungkwan hummed, grinning ear to ear, too engrossed in the task to really get into character, though he did bring his face in closer and closer just to make Seokmin squirm.
“Your breath smells like soju.” Seokmin spit out finally, making a face that fell somewhere between please kill me and please clap . Seungkwan cracked up at the punchline which relieved Seokmin slightly, but only for a moment before Jeonghan shoved him with a dissatisfied whine.
Jihoon suddenly joined the group on the rug, kneeling down across from Seokmin to aid Jeonghan in whining at him. “No!! Do it for real Dokyeomie, here…” The vampire took Seungkwan by the wrist to pull him out of Seokmin’s lap, making an effort to be gentle as he took Seungkwan’s place and the lipstick from his hand. “Seungkwannie, let me…”
Though this was not the kind of teasing Jihoon would usually throw himself in the middle of, it had apparently been gamified enough with the acting that he’d become invested - or maybe he was just in a good mood after eating and wanted to play.
Seokmin blushed again as Jihoon busied himself coloring his lips, momentarily flustered. “Thank you for doing my lips- noona…” He breathed, then shifted slightly with Jihoon in his lap, getting more into character. “Can we… Test them out together~?”
Jihoon lowered the tube of lipstick enough to give the man a lame look, even as their faces were inches apart. “Ayyye, I don’t think anyone would go for a line like that…” He disapproved, but Seokmin didn’t seem deterred, staring at Jihoon’s lips.
“I’ll put the makeup on you now, noona…” Seokmin closed the space between them to press his lips to Jihoon’s own. It was Jihoon’s turn to be flustered, his eyes wide as Seokmin kissed him, and Seungkwan and Jeonghan both cooed with approval when he pulled away to reveal his lips were dark with color now, too.
“Pretty Jihoonie-noona~” Seungkwan reached out to pinch at Jihoon’s cheek, eyes glittering with sincere approval. “You look…”
Jihoon didn’t let him finish, though, lunging forward instead to cut Seungkwan off with his own lips and continue the spread of the lipstick so he wouldn’t be the only victim.
Joshua watched the pair collapse onto the rug together in a fit of giggles before he heard a knocking at the studio door and stood, crossing over to lean against it and listen at the other side - though there was only one person it could be. “Nobody’s home~” He called anyway.
“Shua, let me in! You guys can’t drink without me!” Seungcheol called from the other side, the tone of it enough for Joshua to picture just how pouted the man’s lips must be.
“We’re not drinking,” Joshua tilted his head to the side as if the accusation completely confounded him. “This is vocal team practice!”
Seungcheol was nowhere near convinced. “I can tell from this side of the door that Seungkwan and Dokyeom are drunk.”
Suddenly worried that Seungcheol might notice how tipsy he was next, Joshua cut the conversation short. “Talk to you later, Seungcheol~”
He ignored the continued knocking and calls from Seungcheol as he made his way back to join the others, and by the time he’d sunk down onto the rug, the leader seemed to have given up and wandered away. Joshua’s attention was quickly pulled back into the group by a pair of Jeonghan lips - now plum colored like the others - lunging for him, which he quickly dodged.
“Hey, I think this stuff is contagious or something,” Joshua feigned concern, pulling his eyebrows together and using a hand to Jeonghan’s shoulder to hold back another kiss attack.
“Jihoonie got me,” Jeonghan admitted, grinning up at Joshua as if to display the slightly smeary results. Joshua reached up to carefully thumb away a smudge of the stuff at the corner of Jeonghan’s lips.
“I’ll get you too!” Jihoon appeared on the other side of Joshua and pounced, easily able to get on top of him with Jeonghan’s (giggly, breathless) help. This was really descending into chaos, Joshua thought dizzily as the pair took turns smearing their lips against his own to dye them dark like the rest. Somewhere near his feet, Seokmin and Seungkwan were all over each other, too. Maybe mixing soju and blood sucking hadn’t been such a good idea.
“Or maybe it was a really good one,” Jeonghan was purring in his ear again, either reading his mind or Joshua had said more out loud than he realized. Jihoon was on the other side of him, trailing lipstick kisses down the length of his jaw, and being sandwiched between the two was enough to make Joshua’s heart thump faster in his chest. Yeah, this wasn’t so bad. But there was some reason they weren’t supposed to do this…
“Shua-hyung, can I…?” Jihoon shifted more fully over him now, leaning up to look him in the eye, his own dark eyes blazing with thirst. Entranced by the expression - how could he ever say no? - Joshua nodded and lifted his chin slightly, allowing Jihoon access to the soft side of his throat.
The vampire leaned down and in a flash his fangs were out and sinking into the soft flesh. Joshua let out a tiny whimper, the kind of thing he usually was able to hold back if he hadn’t been so undone already, but Jeonghan swallowed it for him, capturing their lips together in a deep kiss.
Joshua squirmed beneath the two, feeling hot all over. Jihoon taking his blood was becoming as familiar a feeling as Jeonghan’s lips on his own, but never usually together. Was he still on the rug, or was he floating? Wasn’t there something he was supposed to be doing?
The door he was supposed to be keeping an eye on swung open with a bang!
“Aha! I got the key from Bumzu! So what’s going on in here…”
Seungcheol appeared in the doorway in a triumphant pose, and Jihoon and Jeonghan jumped off of Joshua and back onto their knees, eyes wide. Joshua was equally shocked as he sat up on his elbows and brought a hand up to where Jihoon had just been attached to his neck - but as always, there was no wound left behind, the vampire’s venom healing up the punctures and leaving behind only smeared plum.
Seungcheol observed the five of them on the rug covered in lipstick and all quite flustered and crossed his arms, cocking his head to the side like he wasn’t really sure what to make of what he was seeing. He laughed somewhat nervously. “Uh huh, this doesn’t look like much of a vocal practice…”
“It’s all my fault, hyung, I have a crush on our makeup noona, okay!!” Seokmin announced way too loudly as he jumped up, having enough sense to draw attention to himself and away from the vampire situation on the other side of the carpet.
“Yeah, we were helping him practice, as you can probably tell the situation’s hopeless, but we were playing with this lipstick…” Seungkwan jumped right in, stumbling to his feet and brandishing the tube of lipstick once again, starting towards Seungcheol with a grin. “In fact, maybe you can help too, come here…”
Seungcheol broke into more nervous giggles and began to back up, putting his hands up in surprise. “Hold on, wait a minute…”
Seokmin and Seungkwan began to chase their leader around with the lipstick, laughing as they went, and Jihoon hopped up to join in, energized again and always enthusiastic about torturing Seungcheol. The group all circled the studio desk and couch a few times before Seungcheol broke out into the hallway again, and the trio pursued after him. It was exactly what Seungcheol wanted, anyway - to be included. Seungcheol just didn’t know the half of it.
Joshua eased up into a sitting position with a sigh as he watched them all go, seeing spots in the corner of his vision. “We probably need to tell him soon.” The weight of everything was back again. The weight they’d all been forgetting, for a minute there.
“It’s not up to us, is it.” Jeonghan retorted, the same back and forth they’d had a hundred times.
Really it was, though. If they told Jihoon they needed to tell Seungcheol, he wouldn’t stop them. But when was the right time to drag Seungcheol into this?
There was a reason why they hadn’t relaxed like this in a while, why they were all so desperate for a break together, a moment to let down their guard. Taking it one day at a time for the past few weeks was starting to take a toll on everyone. How long were they really capable of sustaining Jihoon on their own, and how long before someone else found out? What then?
Joshua shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut a few times, trying to shake the dizziness of blood loss and soju. This was no time to be fooling around, he should’ve known better.
“Joshuji…” Jeonghan reached up to pet at the back of his head, no doubt observing how drained he looked. “Sit on the couch, I’ll bring water.” His voice was gentle, and he waited until Joshua met his gaze before reaching up to thumb away some of the smudged lipstick at the corner of his mouth. He looked the man over a moment, then lowered his hand again. “You… Are covered in lipstick.”
Joshua groaned as Jeonghan giggled, pulling out his camera phone to observe the damage and groaning again.