Work Text:
"She's dreaming..."
The faint hum was almost entirely drowned out by the buzz of the machines around him. But Minseok did not intend to be heard. No, the song was just lingering on the back of his head, finding its way to his lips without the mechanic even noticing. His eyes were perfectly fixated on the spot where his slim fingers loosened a tiny, magnetic plate with forceps under the rather cold light of a small lamp - the room was already brightly lit, but the golden light (that raised the temperature of the room unnecessarily) would be a tad too distracting for this task.
In fact, he was focusing so hard that a mere human would feel his eyes twitch for a split-second every now and then. Minseok himself was not entirely human though, unlike most of the crew on this exploration ship. His appearance was very similar indeed, but there were small differences. Some advantageous, some mildly disadvantageous in the presence of humans. The biggest advantage, however, was Minseok's affinity to temperature. He was of a very cold descent, to where he had been horribly sweating when he had first arrived on this ship - especially in the machinery rooms - he was now perfectly acclimatized.
He kept humming, eyelashes the only thing that moved ever so slightly as he gazed down at the object of his attention in deep concentration.
There, just a little more-
The door opened and his forceps slipped, leaving a minuscule scratch on the soft metal.
He clucked his tongue in annoyance.
There was no need to turn around, for the number of people that randomly entered the machinery was small. The ones that deemed it unnecessary to introduce themselves? Only one.
Warm arms slung themselves around Minseok from behind, perfectly disregarding the task Minseok was currently working on.
"Hey."
A simple greeting, low but full of life. Warm breath flowed down his neck, and Minseok unconsciously closed his eyes, fingers relaxing around his tools, though a part of him refused to give in this easily.
"I'm working, Chanyeol."
"I can see that," his lover hummed, but the arms he had crossed in front of Minseok did not budge. His palms rested on each of Minseok's upper arms, which then rubbed up and down. As if Minseok needed additional warmth. But Chanyeol was always eager to share his warmth, holding on to him even if their skin was sticky with sweat.
Still, there was something up, and Minseok felt it. It was lingering in between his words, an underlying excitement. It was the unusual silence that gave the other away. Chanyeol was not usually this silent. There were only two possible explanations - either he was in a bad mood (which did not seem to be the case) or he was itching to get something off his chest. He was probably grinning to himself like a kid. Minseok did not have to turn around to know. They had been together for awhile now.
"Come on. Out with it," he demanded softly, leaning into the embrace. "What has you visiting me on your free shift that couldn't wait half an hour?" Because in half an hour, Chanyeol would have joined him anyway.
It seemed like his excitable fellow had only waited for him to ask, since the reply came immediately.
"The snow, Minseok!" he exclaimed a little too loud considering the proximity, and Minseok scrunched his brows at the sudden volume and excitement.
"The next scheduled planet is supposedly icy cold and it's snowing all the time!"
Now this had Minseok put down his tools entirely and he twisted his head to look into the warm orbs of his partner and lover.
"Really?"
He could see the tiny freckles on his lover’s nose up this close. He really liked those freckles. But the way his bright eyes crinkled when he smiled was even nicer.
"Really! We'll arrive in about 10 days and stay for a whole week! Jongdae told me, so it's gotta be true," he claimed with perfect conviction. Minseok bumped their noses together.
"Did you bribe Dae into giving you more info than a tech assistant should have? Again?"
Chanyeol mewled in complaint, even though he returned the gesture, rubbing their noses once, then twice.
"Only ten days, Minseok! We ought to know anyway, if it's that short of a time span, don't you think?"
Right. A human day was not too long of a time frame.
"Snow, Minseok! Real snow!" Chanyeol emphasized as he squeezed the shorter one's arms. Even stoic Minseok could not have kept up the facade any longer, and a grin tugged at his lips, which grew into a wide smile.
"Yeah," he breathed out, pecking the corners of Chanyeol's lips, just to place a soft, lasting kiss right on his lips - the most effective way to quieten the noisy boy. "Snow."
The word itself tasted cold on Minseok's tongue. Chanyeol did not share the feeling, and yet his enthusiasm was so much higher than Minseok's.
Because to Chanyeol, snow was something mystic and exciting, something he had heard about from wistful humans and sometimes Minseok, when he was in the mood. Whenever any of the crew members would talk about the soft, white flakes of ice falling from the sky, Chanyeol was all attentive ears and eager, shining eyes. The same shining eyes that were now trained on Minseok, speaking of nothing but pure, childlike excitement.
"I can't wait to see it. With you. It'll be a little dream come true," he said with a voice so earnest that it managed to fluster Minseok. In order to play it down, he playfully rubbed their cheeks together, teeth tugging at Chanyeol’s ear to elicit a distracted yelp.
It had not been love at first sight, but quite the opposite. Love at first sight was a very human concept anyway - where Minseok came from, they believed in 'growing into love', meaning that a true bond takes time to form. Chanyeol, who had been raised by humans, had once told him that it was similar for humans, but that they also believed in fate; the idea that two people could be destined for each other with souls that matched.
Even today, Minseok wasn't too sure about that. Maybe his and Chanyeol's souls were inverted, molding together like puzzle pieces. The first time they had met, the pieces had merely been spread out in a crooked way.
It had been about two years ago, when Minseok boarded the ship as a new technician from the tiny planet Sideral. He had been the odd one out in his birth place because the endlessly monotone lifestyle wrapped up in ice and snow was boring him, and greatly so. Even if his body biologically might be perfectly accustomed to this environment, Minseok tended to think that his mind wasn't. He wanted to leave this place behind as soon as possible, and what better way than to apply to work for humans, a race that generally preferred races similar to them -for simple accommodation reasons- and would have great use for his affinity with cold.
Among Minseok's people, it was a given to handle the cold, to weave it into the air. It wasn't completely magical though - if you wanted to cool something down, something had to heat up, as well. Minseok had never really noticed that back at home, where any amount of heat would not be enough to cause serious changes like the ice around them melting. But it definitely showed in a human-friendly environment.
That was where Park Chanyeol entered the frame. Minseok soon realized that the reason the humans were so accepting towards him was that they already had Chanyeol on board, a person who appeared to be the exact opposite of Minseok.
Chanyeol had been born in a small colony on a planet that was highly sought after by various species. At the human-age of five, his planet was wiped out and contaminated. Luckily, Chanyeol had been taken in by one of the human ships, and raised by them. He turned out to be an excellent mechanic, too, how Minseok noticed on his first day on board. Of course he saw nothing but a rival in him. After all, this boy was technically younger than him, but possessed much more experience in terms of both humans and their technology. He even seemed much more comfortable in the use of his heat-control. It irked Minseok and pushed him to do better - after all, he couldn't afford these humans leaving him behind. Returning to his home planet was definitely not an option.
Chanyeol, however, seemed perfectly oblivious about Minseok's intentions to outdo him. He followed him around like a shadow, shared all his knowledge with excitement and was undeterred whenever Minseok would only sharply brush him off.
Having you here is so comforting.
I love humans, but your presence is something else.
I really like being around you.
He said all of this so unabashedly, so easily, that Minseok was positive no humans would have taught him to do so. For a long time he'd assumed this was all about Chanyeol seeking comfort in another, non-human comrade or possibly even friend.
That is, until one day they shared a random talk in the engine room, and Chanyeol had leaned in to lick a small stripe across Minseok's cheek. He could still recall his own shock and confusion at the sudden action, and the way Chanyeol's skin flushed a light shade of red, eyes wide and shining as if he couldn't quite believe what he was doing.
He didn't get it back then, couldn't, really, but a few awkward talks with selected crew members led to the explanation he needed. It was a thing for Chanyeol's species, which lived in excruciating heat. The gesture of a wetting another's skin with saliva was an attempt at cooling the skin, aided by the fact that they heated up their own body, thus slightly cooling those close to them. It was an ancient, primal behavior, that was mostly symbolic nowadays.
In other words, Chanyeol was seriously courting him.
"When can we go and get a look for ourselves?!" Chanyeol whined impatiently and shifted in his seat. Minseok felt the heat that radiated off him in waves, and outbalancing him would require attention he did not have right now, for his eyes were fixated on the parameters and data about the running engine around them.
"Yeol, you're overheating the place. Get a hold of yourself, we're still in the landing process."
Arms were slung around his side and Chanyeol smushed his cheek against his right shoulder. He was much taller than Minseok, but making himself small was something he'd practiced diligently.
"We've already landed, the rest is just some boring protocol stuff - look, it's all completely fine!"
Always so impatient. To be fair, he was sort of right. It was just that Minseok had a hard time sharing his enthusiasm. It was hard to get excited by the prospect of snow if you grew up with it lying so high that you could drown in it, child or adult.
"You can go on ahead-"
"No, definitely not, no way!" Chanyeol continued to whine as he started to drag Minseok away from their panels and down the hallways to the elevator. Minseok goodnaturedly rolled his eyes as he patted Chanyeol's hot skin.
"You're way too excited, you'll melt me," he gently remarked, and he felt the temperature evening out a little, spurred on by guilt. It was a little complicated to humans, the play of temperature that was happening whenever those two were around. Minseok was able to cool his body or surroundings. His body could stand all sorts of cold, but was a little sensitive towards heat. When he got excited, he tended cool down even further. With Chanyeol, it was the exact other way around.
So having the two of them together in a room could either cause absolute chaos... or a perfect balance. Humans didn't know much about it, but they knew enough to know that having both of them on the team opened up an endless amount of possibilities. And lucky for them, they got along more than just well, and were so in tune that outbalancing the other came naturally.
"I'm sorry. I bet the snow will melt way too quickly for me to even look at it closely at this rate..." Chanyeol mumbled as he fidgeted in his place. Minseok huffed out a tiny laugh.
"That's normal though. I'm not sure your body could handle enough cold to keep snowflakes alive."
Chanyeol pouted and whined into his nape, sending a rare shiver down Minseok's spine. Because ironically, only Park Chanyeol could make him shiver.
"It's so pretty! And white! There's actual ice there, do you see that?"
Minseok felt a few amused eyes on them as Chanyeol excitedly bounced up and down in front of a wide window.
It was a sea of white indeed. A thick blanket of snow, mountains made of ice so clear it looked like glass, under a vast, white sky. It was so familiar, and yet it differed from Minseok's birth place in a way so subtle he couldn't pinpoint it. Ice and snow may look the same to humans or people like Chanyeol, but to him, there were thousand different kinds of them. Just like to Chanyeol, there were countless types of warmth.
"For me? Really?"
Minseok nodded vaguely, unable to meet Chanyeol's eyes. They were still so full of leftover embarrassment after that thing he did in the engine room. Sometimes, Minseok's fingers would trace out the spot where the other's hot tongue had touched him. Not that he had ever brought it up after that. Not that Chanyeol had brought it up. No, for once the other appeared to be flustered about the slip-up, and a little scared Minseok might push him away for good. He didn't. Minseok just needed some time to think, to listen to his thoughts play out and feel for his body's reactions towards Chanyeol.
Chanyeol carefully took the little assortment of scented tea candles Minseok had bought on the latest planet they'd visited, which were from a bunch of human merchants. Candles were of course completely useless aboard a spaceship, but Minseok had loosely guessed that the other might like actual, real flames.
"Let's light one of them?" he asked as if he wasn't the owner of them now. Minseok shrugged and sank into one of their work benches. Open flames were something rather rare and mildly scary to him, but he couldn't deny looking forward to seeing Chanyeol's reaction to them. The other crammed himself in next to him, fully concentrated on opening the wrapping paper ridiculously carefully.
"Vanilla? Orange?"
Minseok's eyes flitted up to the other's face in question. He hadn't noticed just how focused he'd been on the his hands. Chanyeol didn't seem to notice.
"What do you prefer?" he elaborated and Minseok shrugged, suggesting the orange-scented one. It was a rather exotic scent to him with a unique mix of sweet and tart, not entirely unlike the one he smelled whenever he got a whiff of Chanyeol's hair.
The other lit the candle with his thumb and forefinger gently pressing on the wick, and a small little flame came to life. Fascinating.
The way it flickered, the fact that Chanyeol had created it, the tiny dot of soaring heat that began to fill the air with a faint, fruity scent.
Minseok folded his arms to rest his chin on them, watching the flame closely. He'd never seen a fire this tame before. It didn't seem scary at all. Though maybe that was because he had Chanyeol right next to him.
"I can see the flame reflecting in your eyes."
Minseok blinked up at him at the sound of his unusually calm voice. The atmosphere felt intimate in a way he couldn't quite explain. In order to easen the strange tension, he reached out for a second candle, a plum-colored one. If he was very honest with himself, he was just itching to see Chanyeol light another flame. He did so without questioning him, face propped up on one hand as he observed both the candles and Minseok. And Minseok observed the flames with rapt interest. The second one bloomed a little higher than the first one, flickered a little wilder as if trying to find a state it was comfortable in. Minseok wasn't even sure whether it reminded him of himself or Chanyeol. He slowly inched out his fingers to feel the heat around it. It was surprisingly bearable, except for a point directly over the flame, where it was a little too hot to be comfortable.
When the flame flickered and Minseok quickly withdrew his fingers, Chanyeol chuckled. He extended his own, free hand and with a swipe, the restless flame died down into a more pleasant one. The tiny, calm flame rose a little as if taking the excess energy of the other one and soon they had come to mirror each other, pleasantly glowing at medium height.
"They're the same now..." Minseok murmured, and tilted his head on his forearms as he was lulled in by the sweet scents mingling. Chanyeol only hummed in gentle disagreement.
"They'll never be the same. Even now, they're not."
Minseok focused on the flames which looked perfectly identical to him right now, and then back on Chanyeol. He, too, was now looking at them with an unreadable gaze. It was mostly easy to pen him as a simple, excitable boy with a talent for machinery. But in moments like these it was exceptionally hard, for there was a lot he knew and understood that would always remain a mystery to Minseok.
It drew him in, more than the candles, and before he knew it he had slowly sat up, gaze fixated on Chanyeol, who responded with a silent question swimming somewhere in those deep, warm orbs.
Minseok reached out to place a hand in his nape and draw him close. Closer, until the tips of their noses touched. His eyes close on instinct as he rubbed his nose against the side of Chanyeol's, whose breath hitched audibly. He was obviously confused, but tried to respond accordingly, clumsily bumping their noses and drawing a little smile from Minseok. His fingers slid up to cup the back of his head and get a little control over him. It seemed to work, for Chanyeol turned a little calmer.
Like the two flames, they were balancing each other out.
With slow, gentle strokes Minseok rubbed their noses together. Up the left side, down to coyly switch sides. The way their lips almost brushed ever so often, sent an obvious spark of excitement through Chanyeol, though he did refrain from taking the lead on this.
When Minseok finally withdrew, he felt a little dazed. His insides were tingling and he barely dared meeting Chanyeol's eyes. When he did, he saw a lot of confused affection, and of course he would have to spell it out in Chanyeol's language. So after a second of hesitation, he darted out his tongue to place a quick lick right above the other's lips.
Now this Chanyeol could understand crystal clear.
It was rather amusing to the crew members how obviously disappointed Chanyeol was when there was no snow five days into their stay. But no matter how unenthusiastic Minseok himself was, seeing Chanyeol down like this was depressing enough for him to sweet talk their commander into letting them out.
Usually, at least one of them ought to be on standby, but they were just within shouting reach of the ship, so it would be alright, just for a bit, were the commander’s exact words.
He might have regretted his streak of friendliness when a comically bundled up Chanyeol was throwing snow at him awhile later. He had not quite gotten behind the concept of snowballs yet, and they were so loose that they tended to burst into a rain of powder snow before even reaching Minseok. Still, Chanyeol was so obviously having the time of his life that there was no stopping him. Even though he was wrapped up in a thick, padded coat and wore equally thick gloves, he kept taking turns at both marveling and complaining about the cold.
"How could you live in this cold everyday? It's exhausting to keep it away from your body!" he huffed out while scooping up snow with his hands. It seemed like less of an attempt at sculpturing something in particular, and more of sheer enjoyment about the feeling of snow hardening under pressure. Indeed he tended to accidentally melt a bit of the snow whenever he got too distracted to keep his warmth to himself. With an exasperated huff, Minseok intervened, keeping the snow in its form with bare hands.
"I don't need to keep the cold away, Chanyeol," he said gently, and the other hummed in understanding.
"Right... then it's probably okay to do this!" he exclaimed, all but shoving Minseok in the high, untouched snow. The poor boy could only yelp as the soft mass of ice crystals caused gentle friction against his skin. Such a familiar feeling, he thought as he half-heartedly wrestled against Chanyeol. It was a lost fight on his end, because he obviously could not stand rolling around in the snow for too long. His brown curls were drenched when he sat up with a huff only minutes later, melted snow plastering them to his skin.
"I think my hair might freeze up."
"No it won't," Minseok argued, equally out of breath as they both knelt in the mess they had created. "Your heat control is way too bad to be that selective."
Chanyeol shoved him with a pout, but soon another thought seemed to take over.
"Say, what does snow feel like?"
"What do you mean? You touched it plenty of times by now?" Minseok asked with a tilted head, and Chanyeol shook his head like a wet dog.
"No, not like that - I can only touch it with gloves, right? If I touch it with my bare fingers, it just feels... cold. What does it feel like for you?"
Minseok blinked. He had not really spent much thought on it, how the cold numbed other people's senses.
"Like this type of snow?" he asked, fingers scooping through the mass of already slightly melted snow around them. It was still fluffy, but not to the point of powder snow anymore. Chanyeol nodded eagerly, giving Minseok something to earnestly thing about.
"Uhm. It's soft, but also has this lightly coarse texture, if you feel closely. It's also pliable and light and... I don't know. It just feels like snow," he ended lamely. Chanyeol nodded as if he understood, and before Minseok could say another word, the other all but jumped and made a loud, excited noise, grabbing Minseok's upper arm.
"What-"
"Look, it fell from the sky, I swear it did!" Chanyeol exclaimed, pointing at a lone snowflake on his shoulder. They both simultaneously looked up, only to see another one. And another one. Softly, soundlessly, the sky went from an empty white to being covered in tiny, vague, grey shadows of falling snowflakes.
After the common, tell-tale shy flakes announcing the change, more and more followed. Heavy ones that Minseok could feel clearly settling in his hair. Light ones that looked whimsical as they fluttered towards the ground. For once, Chanyeol was utterly silent as he stared up at the sky. The only sign betraying his state of mind were the fingers clawing at Minseok's upper arm still.
Only when a cheeky little snowflake landed on Chanyeol's nose, did the spell break.
"It's snowing, Minseok," he whispered in an awe that painted a smile on the other's face. He reached out to sling an arm around him, but Chanyeol almost absently drew him into a back hug, eyes never straying from the sky. There was no use struggling, and Minseok quite frankly enjoyed being held like this once in awhile, so he clasped his hands over the ones on his stomach and just looked up and towards the horizon. So many snowflakes. Countless little pieces of snow falling from the sky to form a thick blanket. A soft, pliable and slightly coarse coat.
It was certainly not the same snow that used to fall on his home planet. But it was snow, and the feeling of calmness washing over him was overwhelming. He had barely ever missed home, never even considered returning, but still... he was now remembered of how comforting snow could feel. So peaceful. It was miraculous how a little piece of home followed him into this corner of the galaxy.
"It's so beautiful," Chanyeol breathed out, and a serene smile spread over Minseok's face.
"It is."
He felt the warm tip of Chanyeol's nose nuzzling his cheek and up his hairline.
"It smells like you," he whispered, and Minseok shifted his weight to fully lean against his lover. "It smells like home," his deep voice whispered directly into his ear, sending a shiver through Minseok. A hot, but pleasant shiver.
"It does," he replied with a smile.
It was not the same, they were not the same, but the feeling was.