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The first thing Nam-gyu’s brain registered after waking up – there was something on his chest.
Okay, he thought, already on the verge of panic, there’s no reason to freak out just yet. Something could be pretty much anything. A blanket that Thanos would’ve most likely thrown over him while Nam-gyu was sleeping, or Thanos’ head itself… No, that wasn’t it.
Because this something was small. And moving.
Oh no. Oh no, no, no.
Nam-gyu absolutely didn’t want to open his eyes. Fuck everything, he would just stay here and lie like this for eternity. Whatever horrid creature took residence on his chest – he hoped it wasn’t permanent, at least – instilled too much fear in him. He couldn’t move. Couldn’t let the beast know he was alive. Maybe it would lose interest soon and leave him alone.
The abomination in question, unfortunately for Nam-gyu, had other plans in mind.
It fucking sprinted.
Nam-gyu shrieked, abruptly sitting up. His eyes were now open – against his will, which was important – and the creature was nowhere in sight. He blinked, perplexed. It was here just now. It ran towards his throat, and then Nam-gyu jerked… Even if he somehow threw the beast off himself in a surge of panic, it couldn’t have gone far. Which meant that it was still somewhere here. So why the fuck couldn’t Nam-gyu see it?
He couldn’t have imagined it. That wasn’t even a possibility. Nam-gyu was used to trusting his intuition, and right now it was telling him that the animal must be nearby. And as much as Nam-gyu was dreading the prospect of meeting the disturber of his peace, he knew it had to be done.
Nam-gyu almost braced himself for the inevitable battle with the unknown intruder when another sound pierced the stillness.
“Dude,” Thanos griped. “Why are you screaming? It’s what, nine in the morning?”
It was twelve, but Thanos didn’t need to know that. Nam-gyu almost felt bad for waking him up, but hey, he had a good reason for it! He was afraid, okay? Some fearsome beast was swaggering around their apartment, and Nam-gyu would rather not think about this fact, thank you very much. But the reality was harsh, and it was kinda inevitable that he had to catch the animal. Better sooner than later, anyway.
Nam-gyu rose from the couch that he was sprawled on, and the questions slowly began to arise inside his fogged head. What happened yesterday? Why was he sleeping on the couch? Why wasn’t Thanos sleeping next to him?
Nam-gyu looked at his very miserable-looking boyfriend, barely suppressing the urge to tousle his hair, already messy enough. It wasn’t like Thanos was a big fan of an absolute atrocity that was otherwise known as hair gel, but Nam-gyu still enjoyed the sight of his bed hair whenever he could catch it. There was something that touched the strings of Nam-gyu’s soul in the way Thanos looked just after he woke up. Was it the palpable confusion in his gaze? Was it the way he rubbed his eyes, as if trying to force just the tiniest bit of sleep into them? Nam-gyu couldn’t say for sure.
“Help me,” Nam-gyu whispered, slowly looking around. “We need to catch it.”
“Catch what?”
Nam-gyu sighed. Thanos had that look on his face, one that was saying that he wasn’t even the slightest bit closer to understanding what the fuck Nam-gyu was saying. Nam-gyu pressed his eyes shut. Inhale, exhale. He needed just a little focus to finally explain what was happening and why he was two seconds away from a panic attack.
“Uh,” Nam-gyu trailed. Very helpfully, if the way Thanos’ confusion only deepened was anything to go by. “An animal?”
It was Thanos’ turn to sigh. Being the supportive and loving boyfriend that he was, Nam-gyu didn’t rush to scold him for being this slow. First of all, he woke up not even five minutes ago, and Nam-gyu knew Thanos needed a bit more time to get his brain to work in the morning. So, there was this, and also a strange fog that couldn’t be attributed to the usual post-sleep haziness. Judging by Thanos’ face, he felt the effects of the fun evening as well.
“Are you still high?” He mumbled.
Oh. Yeah. That’s what the strange fog was, probably. But Nam-gyu wasn’t high, at least not anymore, he could swear! There was no familiar light-headedness, no urge to laugh his lungs out, no easiness in his limbs that prompted him to do stupid things. Speaking of which…
“What did we do yesterday?” Nam-gyu muttered. “Why am I on the couch? Why are you on the floor?”
Thanos sent him a glare that spoke louder than a thousand words. Apparently, he had no idea as well. Good. It was relieving to know that Nam-gyu wasn’t the only one.
“I remember smoking,” he trailed. “Some good stuff. We were at Se-mi’s, right? She’s the one who has that big ass pool that you fell into…”
Thanos scratched his head, as if trying to accelerate his thinking process. If Nam-gyu was being honest, even some divine intervention probably wouldn’t have achieved that, but hey. He wasn’t much smarter either. And this was no time to be condescending, as they joined their efforts to reconstruct the events of the previous night.
“Uh, I think so? Could this be why my head hurts so much?”
“Your he…”
Nam-gyu moved faster than he could finish the sentence. If this fool managed to hit his head on the pool tiles…
“Turn to the left a little bit… Okay, good, now to the other side…”
He inspected the skin carefully, trailing his fingers along the scalp. Nam-gyu could hear his own heart beating like a drum. It wasn’t the first time Thanos raised hell while being high, but normally, he didn’t complain about headaches either. But even as Nam-gyu checked both sides of Thanos’ skull, no signs of injury or traces of blood were found. One problem less.
“Okay, fine,” Nam-gyu exhaled, relieved. “Then you must’ve hit your head elsewhere.”
Thanos hummed in agreement. “I remember being high.”
Nam-gyu snorted.
“Wow, a genius. Anything else, Mr Einstein?”
Thanos sniffled. Oh, great, now Nam-gyu felt bad about mocking him. How could he keep teasing Thanos when he looked like a wet cat?
“Hm. There was this dude, with an iguana or something…”
Nam-gyu felt his insides turn to ice. A dude with what, excuse him? He’ll have to have a serious talk with Se-mi regarding her friend circle.
But maybe this wasn’t connected to the problem. For all he knew, Thanos could’ve just picked up a hedgehog on their way home. He had that nasty habit of picking up tiny helpless creatures and making taking care of them his entire life’s purpose. Nam-gyu had a weird deja vu about that, somehow…
He tried to recollect the first seconds after waking up. No, it couldn’t have been an iguana. The legs that he felt were too tiny to belong to such a huge lizard, not to mention that it sitting on Nam-gyu’s chest would’ve made the breathing process practically impossible. Okay, not an iguana, then. What a relief.
“Maybe you’re right and I just made it up… I just thought that I felt someone sitting on me when I woke up, but then I got scared and chased it away…”
Thanos hummed. “Was it small?”
Nam-gyu didn’t like where this was going. Oh no. Was it too late to just jump out of the window and run away as far as possible?
“Like that thing?”
Nam-gyu followed Thanos’ gaze, which was directed to a vacant area under the couch. He squinted, struggling to make the beast out, but all Nam-gyu could see were just some indistinct specs of different colors. One of which was suspiciously green, which made his stomach churn.
It was still too small to be an iguana, Nam-gyu remarked. With each passing minute, he was more and more sure he’d acquire a paralyzing fear of iguanas by the time they get to the bottom of this.
“Uh, I kinda can’t see anything. Can you…”
“Of course, my boy,” Thanos sang in English.
Nam-gyu could feel his heart swell with warmth. Thanos may have been a goofball, but he was a caring person at heart, and he made a point of letting it show as much as possible when he was in Nam-gyu’s company. If Nam-gyu told someone that the great Thanos hands him his glasses at the drop of a hat, no one would probably believe him.
It was a good thing that Nam-gyu wasn’t going to tell anyone.
“Thanks, hyung,” Nam-gyu purred, deliberately brushing his fingers against Thanos’. It wasn’t his fault, okay? That was on Thanos for being a damn human furnace at all times. And if Thanos noticed something, he chose to be merciful and not comment on it, which was a truly remarkable instance.
Nam-gyu put his glasses on, blinking once, then twice, before his vision became clear again. Though, on second thought, maybe he shouldn’t have done that, because staring at him from under the couch was a pair of huge, weirdly round eyes. Well, most eyes were round, but these were too round. Either way, that didn’t matter.
What mattered was the creature’s hiding spot. Under the couch. The very couch Nam-gyu had been sleeping on. He barely stifled a panicked shriek that threatened to escape his throat at the thought.
“Hyung,” he started carefully. “What is that?”
The beast seemed to hear them, because it stepped closer after hearing Nam-gyu’s words. Nam-gyu yelped and clung to Thanos, praying that his hyung was strong enough to protect him from whatever this was. Now, let it be clear that Nam-gyu held relatively little fear for the creature itself. It was a regular-looking lizard, bright green in color, with three little horns protruding from its head – one from the snout and two from above its eyes.
As if reading Nam-gyu’s thoughts, Thanos whistled lowly. “Looks sick, whatever this is.”
Nam-gyu couldn’t help but agree. The only two facts he had problems accepting were that this creature somehow ended up in their room and that none of them remembered exactly how it ended up there.
“Wait, gimme a minute...”
Nam-gyu didn’t even manage to say something before Thanos jumped forward, holding a phone in his hand, and pointed the camera at the lizard. It froze in place, and for a while, Nam-gyu had the pleasure of witnessing the strangest staring contest he could ever imagine. Then Thanos finally blinked. Damn, Nam-gyu was rooting for him!
“Ta-daa! That is a male Jackson’s chameleon, or Tri…Triocera… Triceratops jacksonii! Males have horns, females do not. Looks like our baby is a boy.”
Nam-gyu shook his head. There was no way this was happening for real. He probably smoked too much and blacked out on Se-mi’s couch, and this all was just some kind of fucked up dream.
“So what that dude had wasn’t an iguana.”
Thanos gulped. “Apparently, it wasn’t.”
Nam-gyu sighed, feeling the tiredness overpower him. “Maybe there’s something on insta? If we both don’t remember how it ended up here, maybe there are at least some photos left?”
Thanos hummed in agreement. He opened the app and clicked on his profile – and voila! There it was. The last updated pic featured the aforementioned dude handing Thanos a glass enclosure box, lined with peat moss, with the chameleon itself comfortably settled inside it.
“At least we don’t have to give it back, I suppose.”
“At least…?” Nam-gyu huffed, aggravated.
Though if he were to consider it more closely… The lizard finally blinked at him, its eyes enormous and oddly… trusting? Is that even a thing for chameleons? Either way, since Nam-gyu was a kid, he had dreamt of someone he could take care of, and even the creature starring in his dreams was most often a cat, or a dog, or a hamster, or a parrot… The idea of keeping a lizard wasn’t exactly off-putting. Perhaps it would be cool, even.
“Ugh, okay, we can keep it,” Nam-gyu admitted defeatedly. But he couldn’t feign annoyance anymore, once he saw Thanos’ eyes light up. He looked like he was dangerously close to jumping with joy.
“For real, Nam-su?”
“Yes,” Nam-gyu rolled his eyes, choosing to ignore the nickname this time. Just this once, though. “But it’s so hard to look after, I can’t even imagine…”
“Mhm,” Thanos agreed, and wow. It was strangely alluring to hear him sound this serious, and Nam-gyu allowed himself to focus on the tone of Thanos’ voice just for the tiniest fraction of a second. “It says here that he needs a bigger enclosure, with a lot of vertical space. That corner would be ideal, don’t you think? We’ll also have to change the lining, because cleaning moss is a hell of a task… Maybe we can get him some newspapers instead.”
“Hm, I think paper towels are more fitting,” Nam-gyu mused. Even if it took him some time to warm up to the idea – and he would have more than one crashout about all of this in the future – he was going to be the best chameleon parent this critter could ever dream of.”
“Okay, towels, noted. Lots of plants, too. Only the best for our baby. And the heating… It says that ceramic heat elements are the best at providing the required warmth.”
Nam-gyu just nodded along. He wasn’t a specialist in lizard keeping, so he would rather trust what the internet had to say and hope for the best.
“I think it’s best that we start now,” Thanos beamed, looking far too happy for someone who just complained about his head hurting. “Where’s the cage we brought him in?”
Nam-gyu stared at him blankly. “Hyung, I have literally no idea.”
But Thanos isn’t upset with his answer, not in the slightest. If anything, his smile got even more giddy as he slipped his arm around Nam-gyu’s waist, pulling him closer. Nam-gyu couldn’t refrain from sagging readily into his boyfriend’s side, and he didn't really want to.
Huh. Life wasn’t all bad, as it turned out. Sometimes life was also being a parent to a fucking lizard with the most gorgeous guy Nam-gyu had ever seen.
This time, it was him who initiated the body contact, pulling Thanos closer and sealing their lips together. The kiss was short-lived because Nam-gyu had been pretty unsettled with the thought of their child watching them closely, but they still had a couple of moments to themselves. And in those moments, Nam-gyu allowed himself not to care about anything, except for how perfectly their mouths fit against each other. Like two pieces of a puzzle. Like a key to the lock.
“But I’ll help you to look for it,” Nam-gyu offered, tucking his nose in the crease of Thanos’ neck. His words were a bit muffled, but he didn’t doubt that Thanos heard them clearly.
“Hm,” Thanos grinned, feigning thoughtfulness, which Nam-gyu wasn’t mad about. As long as Thanos kept combing through Nam-gyu’s hair like this, he would be allowed to do pretty much everything. “Will you cook me your famous breakfast?”
“You’re driving a hard bargain here,” Nam-gyu mumbled. “You’re lucky that you’re so gorgeous, or else…”
“Or else what?” Thanos replied with that ever-present teasing smile that made Nam-gyu fall in love so utterly and irreversibly.
“I guess you’ll never know.”
Nam-gyu left a quick peck to his boyfriend’s nose, before making a tentative move towards their new pet. Nam-gyu’s confidence, just a tiny ember at first, flared brighter when the creature didn’t run and proceeded to watch him curiously, letting Nam-gyu pick him up. Maybe they’ll build a semblance of friendship, after all. Sometime later, when Nam-gyu wouldn’t be too afraid to break one of the chameleon’s horns by touching them a tad too hard.
“And as for the name… How does Loki sound?”
Thanos hummed approvingly. “Sounds cool. I like it.”
Nam-gyu sent him the brightest smile he was capable of, before leaving the room and starting his search of the cage. It wasn’t exactly a small thing, so Nam-gyu was sure they’d find it in no time.
The day promised to be long and stressful, with all the preparations and information to memorize. But there were two of them – and together, Nam-gyu had no doubts, they could do anything.