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If Wooyoung is being honest with himself, he knows he shouldn’t cut through the alley behind his apartment. It had been the one thing he’d promised Yeosang he wouldn’t do when the other moved out. But it had already been a tough morning, and he was running late. His intern shifts at the hospital were precious to him, and at the moment few and far between when he was cramming in classes.
It all really came down to the fact he was late.
Distracted from the moment he woke up, had to change his shirt after spilling coffee down it. In retrospect, forgetting he was changing into his scrubs the second he got there anyway. As he ran out the apartment realised he’d miss his train if he didn’t take the short cut. And it was raining, so he thinks the least amount of time spent outside is only fair.
But Yeosang is right, Yeosang is always (annoyingly) right.
He’s only just taken into account where the mugger had a rather pathetic looking knife held not even close to him. He awkwardly pulls the piece of toast dangling out his mouth out at the utterance of “give me your wallet.” Wooyoung may not have thought this through, but he wasn’t dumb. He’s not about to play the hero and end up kebab on this guy's (again, pathetically small) knife. Not really worth the risk.
“Alright.” he says gently, losing his breakfast to the floor as he raises his hands. He’s just about to reach for his pockets to fish it out. More heartbroken about his almost full stamp card for his favourite cafe than the pathetic state of his bank account when the first shot hits.
The sound is familiar, mostly from the news. But one minute the guy is standing across from Wooyoung, the next he’s half way down the alley with his hand stuck to the wall. The knife clatters to the ground as his hand is webbed to the concrete of Wooyoung’s apartment block.
A few more shots, as his limbs are stuck entirely to the wall.
“It’s not very nice to take what doesn’t belong to you.”
Wooyoung whips around at the new voice. About half way up his building, sitting cross legged on the rail of his fire escape; like the place belongs to him.
Spider-man.
The suit is familiar from the news again. Bright reds and blues, all clinging to the man’s body with webbed stitching. The eyes of it narrow of their own accord, like it's reacting to his own face. Wooyoung’s attempted mugger starts spewing profanities, threats that have even him raising an eyebrow.
The last shot slaps over his mouth, nose still free to allow him to breathe.
“Boring conversation anyway.” he sighs, and jumps down to the next fire escape. It’s still two stories up, and Wooyoung finds himself craning his neck to catch a glimpse. The boy looks down at him, crossing one leg over the other as he half dangles off the railing “you okay there, pretty boy?”
Wooyoung scoffs “you flirt with everyone you save?”
Spider-man laughs, swinging off the bottom of the railing. Wooyoung’s heart jumps into his throat, even when he knows the other will be fine. He catches himself at the last second, dangling from a web. Wooyoung watches with thinly veiled wonder as he lowers down; dangling from a single web upside down until they’re mostly level.
“If they’re as pretty as you.” he says back.
Wooyoung finds his lips twitching in spite of himself, taking a step towards him “I have a boyfriend, y’know.”
He somehow knows the man is smiling under his mask, he hears the mechanical whir of the eyes widening again “Oh yeah? Does he treat you well?”
Wooyoung hums “most of the time.”
A scoff from the upside down man. Wooyoung still takes another calculated step towards him “and is he as good looking as you?”
Wooyoung stops when their faces are level “mh, yeah. Very handsome.” He hears the man hum, even if it’s slightly muffled under the material “he’ll be very thankful you saved me.”
“And what about you?” his voice is far too cocky for Wooyoung’s liking “are you not going to thank me?”
Wooyoung tilts his head “I suppose I should. I’m sure my boyfriend will understand, you did save my life afterall.”
He doesn’t wait for the, no doubt, cocky answer; reaching up slightly to find the seam of the mask. He pulls it down gently, rolling it over the boy’s lips until just the bottom half of his face shows. His lips are plush, cupid’s bow dipping into a defined line.
Wooyoung leans forward to kiss him. His lips are slightly chapped, and Wooyoung feels his own cherry lip balm smear onto his mouth. The boy hums appreciatively into his mouth, and Wooyoung wants to smile. The kiss is awkward, uncoordinated as he hangs upside down. Wooyoung grins into it just before he pulls away, pushing the mask down over those lips again. He presses another kiss right into the middle of it, where he knows his nose is.
“Thank you, oh great Spider-man; for saving me.”
He knows Yunho is definitely smiling now.
“Anytime. If you kiss your boyfriend like that he must be the luckiest man in the world.”
Wooyoung grins “oh, he is.”
He hears the warm familiar sound of Yunho laughing from under the mask, he rights himself and shoots a web upward again. Wooyoung can’t help but smile as he settles back on that tall railing.
“Well, see you around, pretty boy.” he salutes sarcastically.
Wooyoung rolls his eyes “don’t be late for dinner! I’m making your favourite.”
Yunho swings up on to the top of the building "like I’d miss our anniversary! See you later, baby.”
‧₊˚🕷‧₊˚
Wooyoung sighs as he blows out the candles on the dinner table. The chair across from him stayed empty far longer than it should have. The silence feels louder, the clink of him tidying away the plates feeling like a gunshot. He tries to be annoyed at first, but it slowly sinks into worry when he flicks on the news.
Spider-man caught in a bank robbery shoot out, police wait for the hostage situation to clear.
It’s hard to be irritated, when concern for Yunho immediately flares over it. He checks his phone again, the last message from a few hours before stares mockingly back at him.
Yun ❤️ [18:34]
Just wrapping up with talking to the cops downtown, should be heading home real soon! Love you ૮ • ﻌ - ა
Wooyoung hates how quickly his anger folds into worry, annoyed with himself for not replying; especially when there’s fuck all he can do to help. He knows he has no right to be angry anyway, despite the way it simmers in the pit of his stomach, fighting with the worry for his boyfriend. Yunho has missed dinners before, it’s not a big deal. His work is important. It just sucks when the dinner he misses is their 5th anniversary.
He feels frustrated tears sting in his eyes as he numbly packs up the dinner into little containers. A habit he doesn’t really think through, the back of his mind thinking that Yunho can take it to work for lunch.
He keeps himself busy on purpose, settling down on the couch. He doesn’t turn the news off, desperate to get a scrap of an update. He takes out his text books in an attempt to study, but ends up reading the same paragraph over and over. He forces himself to concentrate, and it almost works. Attempting to quiet the noise in his head with something familiar. He sits for hours, eventually giving up on work completely to flick through the news channels a bit obsessively.
He falls asleep in a ball on the couch, the news keeping the room lit while he does.
It’s a few hours later he startles awake; the sound of several things falling from their unit waking him. He then hears Yunho swear under his breath, and he sits up quiet suddenly.
His boyfriend is leaning against the table by the window, several of his own figures lay on the floor where he’d clearly clumsily climbed in their fire escape.
“Yunho?” he breathes, and the boy startles; probably having expected him to go to bed. The TV reads back 02:09 at him.
“Hey, baby.” he breathes, one hand leaning against the table as he lifts the other. There’s a rather crushed bouquet of flowers in his hand. Sheepish smile on his face “happy anniversary?”
Wooyoung blinks “it’s not our anniversary anymore.”
Yunho winces at his words “I know, I’m sorry I got… there was a thing and-”
Wooyoung knows his anger is unjustified, but it doesn’t stop it rearing its ugly head as he repeats “a thing.” a bit coldly “there’s always a thing.”
“I know, baby, I’m sorry I-” he tries to take a step towards Wooyoung but hisses, doubling over in pain and clutching at his ribs “shit.”
Concern wins again, and Wooyoung rushes over to him to steady him. Yunho leans into the hold as he rights him, and only now with the aid of the streetlights can Wooyoung see the blood. His suit is torn in a couple places; there’s a gash on his cheek and he thinks he can smell burnt hair.
“Sit down.” he orders, pulling his stupid boyfriend away from the window towards the couch. Yunho puts the flowers down gently on the table before he goes willingly. Wooyoung steadies him with a hand to his chest.
Yunho flops down on their couch with a pained groan and Wooyoung reaches for the lamp. Light floods the room and he finally sees the sorry state Yunho is in. His chest clenches at the sight. He can see bruises starting over Yunho’s eyes and nose, and the suit isn’t torn, it's melted.
Wooyoung takes a deep, steadying breath “take it off; i’ll get my first aid kit.”
He leaves Yunho there, trying not to think too deeply about it as he runs to the bathroom to get their, well used, first aid kit. It’s when he sees a smear of Yunho’s blood on his hand that he has to bite down a whimper. He takes a few breaths, like he’d been taught, as if he could summon calmness if he asks nicely enough. It doesn’t quite work; but he manages to take the kit into shaky hands and walk back out.
Yunho’s head is tilted back against the couch when he returns, the top half of his suit ditched on the floor beside him. His lean chest has another cut on it, but it seems to have stopped bleeding at least. There’s obvious bruise marks starting to bloom over his ribs and a couple of burns dot his abdomen.
Wooyoung sighs, steadying himself, and drops down to the couch beside him. Yunho’s eyes flicker open as he starts digging through the kit for what he needs.
“You should see the other guy.” Yunho smiles at him.
Wooyoung can’t find it in him to smile back. He’s just… tired. Worrying for Yunho like this never came easy. His fingers catch on the rubbing alcohol, he splashes probably more than he needs onto a clean rag due to how unsteady his hands feel.
“Breathe in.” he doesn’t mean for the order to sound as cold as it does “this’ll sting.”
Yunho barely has the time to suck in a breath before he touches it to the cut. He seethes in obvious pain, his fingers catching around Wooyoung’s wrist but knowing better than to try to move his hand away. The cut is only surface deep, and Wooyoung is at least glad he doesn’t have to take Yunho to the hospital for stitches. He’s already raised a few eyebrows with his coworkers on how his sweet golden retriever boyfriend is always getting injured.
Wooyoung doesn’t think they’re buying the ‘clumsy’ excuse much anymore.
He cleans the trying blood from the cuts, ignoring Yunho’s little noises of pain as he does so. If he thinks too hard about them he knows he might start crying.
“Baby...” Yunho tries again as he reaches for the burn bandaids.
Wooyoung just shushes him as he cleans them gently too.
“Wooyoung.” Yunho says, voice more serious than Wooyoung’s heard in a while. He can’t bring himself to look up and meet Yunho’s gaze, trying to busy himself with sticking the last bandaid on “sweetheart, look at me.”
Wooyoung knows his eyes are stinging as he looks up, his chest feels tight. The adrenaline is wearing off, and he kind of just wants to cry. The bruises have darkened ever so slightly on Yunho’s face, clear where he’d taken a hit to his nose. Wooyoung really likes his nose.
“What’s going on in your pretty head?” Yunho says quietly.
Wooyoung takes a shaky breath “you scared me.”
His boyfriend’s face screws, and then he seems to realise that it hurts so it screws more. Wooyoung tries not to be fond “I know, I’m… I know it doesn’t mean much, but I am sorry.”
“I know you are.” Wooyough sighs “you always are.”
Yunho looks a bit like a kicked puppy “how do I make it better?”
Wooyoung looks up at him “I don’t think you can. I know I don’t have any right to be angry. I don’t think I am, not really. And I knew what I was getting myself into when you told me about… this.” he gestures to Yunho’s suit on the floor “but… I don’t know, I’m just tired of worrying.”
Yunho is quiet for a moment, before he says; quietly, like the words might break him “please don’t break up with me.”
Wooyoung’s chest aches at that, and he shakes his head. His hands shoot to hold Yunho’s face, his boyfriend winces slightly but doesn’t pull away “Oh, Yunho, that’s not… that’s not what I meant.” he sighs, bringing his head forward to rest his forehead on Yunho’s “you’re stuck with me, for better or worse.”
Yunho nods, his eyes closing. They’re silent for a long moment before he says “I love you.”
Wooyoung smiles at last “I love you too.”
“How about no crime fighting on the holidays?” Yunho tries to joke, and Wooyoung can’t help the laugh that tumbles out of his mouth.
“How about you just come home when you say you will?” he knocks his head against Yunho’s lightly “you owe me an anniversary dinner.”
“I owe you the world.” Yunho says, a bit too seriously.
“Start with taking me to dinner.” Wooyoung pauses “several times. I like jewelry too.”
Yunho laughs, that stupidly handsome smile breaking out on his face “I can do that.”
“And maybe some flowers that don’t look like they’ve been minced.”
Yunho leans in to kiss him. Wooyoung just lets him, the feeling so familiar. Yunho kisses him like he always does, eager. His hands come up to cup Wooyoung’s jaw, tilting his head for better access to his mouth. Wooyoung finds his hands slipping down to Yunho’s bare shoulders, the skin warm under his palms.
Loving Yunho is always a quiet ache he carries. Yunho is bright, sweet. And a bit addicting. He hates the way his breath shakes when Yunho pulls away from the kiss, barely far enough to count. They breathe heavily into each other’s space.
“What’s the diagnosis, Nurse?” Yunho grins that stupid hot smirk “am I cleared for physical activity?”
Wooyoung rolls his eyes “absolutely not, I’m taking you for x-rays. I think your ribs are broken.”
Yunho whines as he pulls away, but Wooyoung is already thinking up another excuse as to why he’s taking him to the ER. Again.