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In the Days Ahead
Title: In the Days Ahead
Pairing: Baekhyun/Chanyeol
Rating: R
Words: 2,600
Summary: Hypothetically speaking, Chanyeol has great timing.
Notes: minor edits. for archiving purposes.
In the Days Ahead
It slips out when Baekhyun is meeting Chanyeol’s thrusts halfway. Word vomit is what Chanyeol calls it, a hurried excuse because Baekhyun’s suddenly getting dressed and storming out of the bedroom and Chanyeol just wants him to come back and he assures him that it’s just—
“The heat of the moment, I swear.” He slips on pants and stalks after him to the living room of their shared one bedroom apartment. “Come on Baekhyun.”
He stops at the door because Baekhyun stops in front of the sofa. Chanyeol can see him tapping his fingers nervously against his palms.
“You just…You don’t say things like that.” Baekhyun turns around suddenly. “At least not during—”
“It was an accident!” Chanyeol scratches his thigh and leans into the doorframe of their bedroom. He's not so much embarrassed as he is just slightly irritated. “Can’t you come back to bed?”
Baekhyun has this look on his face like he’s going to hurl.
“You don’t propose by accident, Chanyeol. People say things like ‘oh yeah baby.’ Not—” Baekhyun plops down onto the sofa and drops his head into his hands. “not marry me?”
“I—”
“I mean what am I suppose to think now?” Baekhyun rubs his face.
“I didn’t mean it?”
“I don’t think that’s really comforting either. We have inadvertently taken the next step. This is mind blowing, life altering, earth shattering. My parents are going to want to know about this.”
“You’re overreacting.” Chanyeol makes exaggerated hand motions as he walks over to the sofa. “Can you overreact later?”
“We’re too young Chanyeol.” Baekhyun bemoans. “I’m not even finished with school yet.”
“Baekhyun—”
“This means big changes.”
Chanyeol looks around their small apartment, immaculately clean because Baekhyun has a talent for that. There’s a grocery list on the fridge pinned up by a photo magnet from their spring trip to Taiwan. They have one closet full of shared clothes, but two racks for shoes because they wear different sizes. Hypothetically, if they did get married, Chanyeol is not sure what would really change, except he would be able to pack on carbs without the guilt.
“Fine. I take it back.”
“You can’t just take something like that back!”
“Ok…” Chanyeol stands behind the sofa and massages Baekhyun's shoulders, attempting to relieve the tension. He's not really sure what else he can do. What's said is said. What's done is done. He's sure Baekhyun is just over thinking, like he always does. By tomorrow, they'll just be laughing at this like its all joke.
The latter relaxes into his touch and considers the implications as he watches the distant city lights of Seoul dance through the crack in the curtains, sporadically illuminating the dim suburban apartment. He can see his own reflection in the window along with Chanyeol. It's so picturesque. Everything looks nice, so Baekhyun is not really sure why his heart is knotting itself up. Chanyeol leans down, lips grazing Baekhyun’s ear. Baekhyun can’t tell if he hears an apology slip between the inhale and exhale of breath.
Baekhyun’s mind fogs again and when he feels the tug on his arm, the reason why he was upset suddenly seems so infinitesimal. “Forget it...”
He follows Chanyeol back into their bedroom, sheds his pants, and resumes their positions, albeit it takes them a bit longer than usual to finish and Chanyeol bites his tongue to prevent any extraneous outbursts from escaping.
-
Baekhyun awakes five minutes before his six am alarm. It's the anticipation that it will go off that wakes him up. He looks over at the sleeping form of Chanyeol and he's not sure why, but the way the saliva collects at the corner of his mouth, the way his nose crinkles during a good dream, and the way his gargantuan legs curl up all the blankets the second Baekhyun leaves them, all seem to suddenly tug at the strings of Baekhyun's heart.
It has taken Chanyeol's accidental outburst to make Baekhyun realize just how accustomed to these small mundane things he has become. It's not that Baekhyun is scared of commitment; it's that after three years of waking up to Chanyeol, Baekhyun isn't sure if commitment is even enough, and it's that exact mindset that Baekhyun is afraid of.
By the time Chanyeol wakes up, Baekhyun is gone, like usual. He always tries to arrange his schedule so that classes are in the morning because he claims that’s when his brain is in the best shape. Chanyeol quit school a while ago so he’s not sure how valid that claim really is. Baekhyun also works afternoon shifts at a men's apparel shop.
What Chanyeol calls self-employment, Baekhyun calls unemployment and he’s constantly nagging him to find a real job. Somehow Chanyeol always loses the argument that Magician is a real occupation.
He offhandedly works a few birthday parties, bringing in enough to piece together something for the rent, and Baekhyun never does seems to complain about his magic hands when they’re between the sheets, which Chanyeol thinks is completely hypocritical. However, he has, nonetheless, promised to at least search for a “real job”. He also thinks Baekhyun worries entirely too much.
Chanyeol mopes around a bit in the morning, and after two pots of coffee, a fruitless search through the newspaper's classifieds, and exactly thirty minutes of video gaming, it occurs to Chanyeol he should try and get on Baekhyun's good side--not that he's on his bad side or anything. Well. Chanyeol recounts how Baekhyun left without kissing him goodbye or leaving a goodbye of any sort, so he's not entirely sure which side he is on.
There's not really any dirty clothes, but Chanyeol does the laundry anyways. He forgets to separate the colors and accidentally turns one of their white shirts pink. Chanyeol stuffs it into the space between the mattress and the box spring.
The part about doing the laundry that Chanyeol actually likes is that he doesn't really have to worry about sorting the clothes. It all just goes into the closet. He thinks it should be mildly alarming that they don't really differentiate between who's shirt is who's, but it's nice isn't it, having twice the amount of clothing? Chanyeol dumps the socks into the drawer without bothering to pair them up and he suddenly thinks how awkward it'd be if one of them got fat.
-
He surprises Baekhyun with a lunch date. It's nothing special. They just eat at the university and Baekhyun pays. (Technically they both pay but Baekhyun won't entirely admit to sharing a bank account mainly because he thinks that the admission would warrant some sort of frivolous spending on Chanyeol's part).
They do that weird thing where they eat in silence and chew as loudly as possible to fill the void. It's like they're both aware of the topic on each other's minds, but still remain wordless regardless. Chanyeol thinks he hears Baekhyun humming a strange tune but the wind on the campus lawn carries it a bit too thin and Chanyeol isn't sure what he hears. It could be avoidance, or some variation of denial.
“Ok. So hypothetically speaking…” Chanyeol pokes at his cafeteria salad, “If I had hypothetically proposed, I mean officially, but hypothetically--not accidentally--proposed. Hypothetically, what would your real, but hypothetical answer be? Hypothetically.”
Baekhyun blinks a few times and maneuvers his tongue to dig at the piece of lettuce caught in his molars. It doesn't work so he uses the plastic fork to pick at the inside of his mouth. He suddenly remembers that he forgot to grab the grocery list off of the fridge when he left in the morning. So, as he frees the bits of leaves from between his teeth, Baekhyun mentally reviews the items on that list and hopes he'll remember them when they stop at the store after Chanyeol picks him up from work.
“Can you rephrase that into a real question?”
-
It's probably the cereal aisle and the sight of all those smiling cartoon characters on boxes that spark the sentiment in Chanyeol.
“How many hypothetical children would you want to have?” Chanyeol pushes the grocery cart with one foot on the metal bar between the wheels and the other gliding along on the tile floor, kind of like he’s surfing. “Three sounds like a good number.”
They do that weird thing where Baekhyun pretends to be lost in thought as he calculates nutritional contents of breakfast bars and acts as if Chanyeol is just background noise. Chanyeol throws a bunch of sugary cereals into the cart. Baekhyun puts them all back.
“I’m ignoring you, hypothetically.”
They move onto produce and Baekhyun tries to buy vegetables. Chanyeol puts them all back out of spite.
“Hypothetically, that is a real question. I’m just saying. ” Chanyeol argues, pushing the cart faster to catch up with Baekhyun as they leave the produce section and enter the bakery one. Chanyeol holds up a loaf of bread as if asking permission.
“Get the whole grain.”
“It is.”
He drops the bread into the cart. Baekhyun moves it to the top of the grocery pile so it won’t get crushed. He motions for them to go back so he can reclaim the discarded vegetables.
“Hypothetical questions are not real questions.”
“Yes but, hypothetically speaking, they are.” Chanyeol pushes the cart towards the frozen foods. "I think we need frozen yogurt."
"We still have some at home."
Baekhyun tugs on Chanyeol’s sleeve for him to stop pushing so he can mentally review their shopping list.
“We need eggs. And I’m still ignoring you.” Baekhyun steers the cart by the tail end in the opposite direction. Chanyeol hates when he does that because now he's being pulled along and has no control over the cart he's supposedly pushing, so out of spite he makes it difficult by dragging his feet on the tile.
When they’re in line at the register, after a long winded complaint about the inexperienced cashier, Baekhyun learns, unfortunately, that Chanyeol had forgotten to hit the ATM beforehand. Therefore, he’s stuck paying for their weekly groceries with credit.
“When we are denied a mortgage because of our bad credit rating, I’m blaming you.” Baekhyun says as he signs the receipt, “us and our three children will be homeless and all of it will be your fault.”
Chanyeol smiles.
“So you admit three is a good number.”
-
"You're just doing this because it's your week to cook dinner." Baekhyun says without looking up from the menu.
"No I'm not."
"Right. This is just coincidentally the third dinner this week that we've had out." Baekhyun is smiling on the inside though. This place has embroidered table cloths and aromatic candles, so he wants to think that Chanyeol did it on purpose.
Chanyeol sips on his water and watches as his breath fogs up the glass.
When the waiter comes over to their table, Baekhyun orders--after a bit of internal debating--for the both of them. Despite the place being a restaurant neither of them have been to, Baekhyun knows exactly what Chanyeol would want to order. It's only after the waiter walks away that Baekhyun realizes the alarming state of their situation. He knows Chanyeol too well. He knows him better than he knows himself.
Chanyeol's looking at him with that look again, like he's going to start talking about the hypothetical questions he's been clamoring on about all day. Baekhyun does everything to avoid eye contact.
"Did you find a job yet?" Baekhyun says as he stares into his lap.
"Technically, I have a job."
"You know what I mean."
There's a moment of pause and Baekhyun can only guess that Chanyeol is doing that grinning thing.
"I will."
Baekhyun reaches for his water and continues not looking at Chanyeol. The only problem with not looking is that he runs a risk of knocking over the things he's not looking at. When the glass of water spills all over the table, Chanyeol is the one who jumps at the spill, wiping it up before it could reach the edges of the table and before it could stain Baekhyun's pants. It forces Baekhyun to look at him for a moment.
"Sorry..."
Chanyeol just resumes his seat and taps at the table like nothing happened. He grins again and through that, Baekhyun can tell exactly what's he's thinking about. Therefore, he goes back to avoiding eye contact.
Baekhyun studies the pattern of the table cloth. The restaurant is nice. The low lighting is nice. The background music is nice. However, all of it just reminds him of the frightening depedency he has on Chanyeol--how he can never really fall asleep until he hears his snoring first; how he needs the boy to drive whenever they visit the city because Baekhyun refuses to drive in crowded places; and how, for three years, Chanyeol has been the source to all of Baekhyun's distress, his joy, and his irrational heart palpitations.
It's frightening because Chanyeol's supposedly hypothetical situation is actually not very hypothetical at all. It's very real and very much in front of him, smiling with the ugly face-crinkling smile only Chanyeol has.
It's frightening but also kind of nice--nice like the nice wine Chanyeol insists they purchase.
"Joonmyun got a dog." Baekhyun says, finally lifting his eyes to meet Chanyeol's. "He showed us pictures."
"Who's Joonmyun." Chanyeol holds his wine glass up like he's making a toast.
"Guy from work." Baekhyun clinks his own glass with Chanyeol's. "I think we should get one."
"A dog?"
The waiter comes with their food but places Chanyeol's order in front of Baekhyun and vise versa. Chanyeol taps on Baekhyun's foot under the table to prevent him from verbally complaining about the mistake and they just silently switch the plates after the waiter leaves.
"Yeah. Wouldn't a dog be nice?"
Baekhyun takes advantage of the moment Chanyeol is occupied with cutting his meat to steal a bit of his side vegetable, mentally comparing to his own and deciding they're about the same.
"Listen... about last night--"
"--I mean I'm not entirely sure we're ready for a dog. I'm hardly home with school and work and all, and I question your sense of responsibility--"
"--hey"
"--but a dog is still nice, don't you think?"
Chanyeol takes a bite of his chicken. It's okay. It tastes nice.
"I mean we'll be ready some day. After graduation, and if I can get land that job downtown, I'm sure I can fit dog caretaking somewhere into our schedules."
"Yeah..." Chanyeol swirls the remaining bit of wine left in his glass and marvels at the way low lighting flatters Baekhyun's features. "A dog is nice."
He sees Baekhyun smiling down at his dish.
-
“Will you just at least say yes, hypothetically. So my ego won't be entirely shattered.”
“Fuck, Chanyeol. This is… mmmfgg... This not—” Baekhyun inhales sharply, “the right time to have this discussion.”
“Just say Yes, I will hypothetically marry you, if you hypothetically ask.”
Chanyeol uses his free arm to push Baekhyun’s knees up to his chest so he can hit that delicious spot inside him straight on. They fall into a comforting but accelerating rhythm and Chanyeol pecks at the corners of Baekhyun's lips, not entirely kissing him because he wants to hear every word Baekhyun exhales.
Baekhyun hooks his ankles over Chanyeol’s shoulders, his own arms clenching the headboard as he unwinds, spilling out ropes and ropes of—
“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”
Pairing: Baekhyun/Chanyeol
Rating: R
Words: 2,600
Summary: Hypothetically speaking, Chanyeol has great timing.
Notes: minor edits. for archiving purposes.
In the Days Ahead
It slips out when Baekhyun is meeting Chanyeol’s thrusts halfway. Word vomit is what Chanyeol calls it, a hurried excuse because Baekhyun’s suddenly getting dressed and storming out of the bedroom and Chanyeol just wants him to come back and he assures him that it’s just—
“The heat of the moment, I swear.” He slips on pants and stalks after him to the living room of their shared one bedroom apartment. “Come on Baekhyun.”
He stops at the door because Baekhyun stops in front of the sofa. Chanyeol can see him tapping his fingers nervously against his palms.
“You just…You don’t say things like that.” Baekhyun turns around suddenly. “At least not during—”
“It was an accident!” Chanyeol scratches his thigh and leans into the doorframe of their bedroom. He's not so much embarrassed as he is just slightly irritated. “Can’t you come back to bed?”
Baekhyun has this look on his face like he’s going to hurl.
“You don’t propose by accident, Chanyeol. People say things like ‘oh yeah baby.’ Not—” Baekhyun plops down onto the sofa and drops his head into his hands. “not marry me?”
“I—”
“I mean what am I suppose to think now?” Baekhyun rubs his face.
“I didn’t mean it?”
“I don’t think that’s really comforting either. We have inadvertently taken the next step. This is mind blowing, life altering, earth shattering. My parents are going to want to know about this.”
“You’re overreacting.” Chanyeol makes exaggerated hand motions as he walks over to the sofa. “Can you overreact later?”
“We’re too young Chanyeol.” Baekhyun bemoans. “I’m not even finished with school yet.”
“Baekhyun—”
“This means big changes.”
Chanyeol looks around their small apartment, immaculately clean because Baekhyun has a talent for that. There’s a grocery list on the fridge pinned up by a photo magnet from their spring trip to Taiwan. They have one closet full of shared clothes, but two racks for shoes because they wear different sizes. Hypothetically, if they did get married, Chanyeol is not sure what would really change, except he would be able to pack on carbs without the guilt.
“Fine. I take it back.”
“You can’t just take something like that back!”
“Ok…” Chanyeol stands behind the sofa and massages Baekhyun's shoulders, attempting to relieve the tension. He's not really sure what else he can do. What's said is said. What's done is done. He's sure Baekhyun is just over thinking, like he always does. By tomorrow, they'll just be laughing at this like its all joke.
The latter relaxes into his touch and considers the implications as he watches the distant city lights of Seoul dance through the crack in the curtains, sporadically illuminating the dim suburban apartment. He can see his own reflection in the window along with Chanyeol. It's so picturesque. Everything looks nice, so Baekhyun is not really sure why his heart is knotting itself up. Chanyeol leans down, lips grazing Baekhyun’s ear. Baekhyun can’t tell if he hears an apology slip between the inhale and exhale of breath.
Baekhyun’s mind fogs again and when he feels the tug on his arm, the reason why he was upset suddenly seems so infinitesimal. “Forget it...”
He follows Chanyeol back into their bedroom, sheds his pants, and resumes their positions, albeit it takes them a bit longer than usual to finish and Chanyeol bites his tongue to prevent any extraneous outbursts from escaping.
-
Baekhyun awakes five minutes before his six am alarm. It's the anticipation that it will go off that wakes him up. He looks over at the sleeping form of Chanyeol and he's not sure why, but the way the saliva collects at the corner of his mouth, the way his nose crinkles during a good dream, and the way his gargantuan legs curl up all the blankets the second Baekhyun leaves them, all seem to suddenly tug at the strings of Baekhyun's heart.
It has taken Chanyeol's accidental outburst to make Baekhyun realize just how accustomed to these small mundane things he has become. It's not that Baekhyun is scared of commitment; it's that after three years of waking up to Chanyeol, Baekhyun isn't sure if commitment is even enough, and it's that exact mindset that Baekhyun is afraid of.
By the time Chanyeol wakes up, Baekhyun is gone, like usual. He always tries to arrange his schedule so that classes are in the morning because he claims that’s when his brain is in the best shape. Chanyeol quit school a while ago so he’s not sure how valid that claim really is. Baekhyun also works afternoon shifts at a men's apparel shop.
What Chanyeol calls self-employment, Baekhyun calls unemployment and he’s constantly nagging him to find a real job. Somehow Chanyeol always loses the argument that Magician is a real occupation.
He offhandedly works a few birthday parties, bringing in enough to piece together something for the rent, and Baekhyun never does seems to complain about his magic hands when they’re between the sheets, which Chanyeol thinks is completely hypocritical. However, he has, nonetheless, promised to at least search for a “real job”. He also thinks Baekhyun worries entirely too much.
Chanyeol mopes around a bit in the morning, and after two pots of coffee, a fruitless search through the newspaper's classifieds, and exactly thirty minutes of video gaming, it occurs to Chanyeol he should try and get on Baekhyun's good side--not that he's on his bad side or anything. Well. Chanyeol recounts how Baekhyun left without kissing him goodbye or leaving a goodbye of any sort, so he's not entirely sure which side he is on.
There's not really any dirty clothes, but Chanyeol does the laundry anyways. He forgets to separate the colors and accidentally turns one of their white shirts pink. Chanyeol stuffs it into the space between the mattress and the box spring.
The part about doing the laundry that Chanyeol actually likes is that he doesn't really have to worry about sorting the clothes. It all just goes into the closet. He thinks it should be mildly alarming that they don't really differentiate between who's shirt is who's, but it's nice isn't it, having twice the amount of clothing? Chanyeol dumps the socks into the drawer without bothering to pair them up and he suddenly thinks how awkward it'd be if one of them got fat.
-
He surprises Baekhyun with a lunch date. It's nothing special. They just eat at the university and Baekhyun pays. (Technically they both pay but Baekhyun won't entirely admit to sharing a bank account mainly because he thinks that the admission would warrant some sort of frivolous spending on Chanyeol's part).
They do that weird thing where they eat in silence and chew as loudly as possible to fill the void. It's like they're both aware of the topic on each other's minds, but still remain wordless regardless. Chanyeol thinks he hears Baekhyun humming a strange tune but the wind on the campus lawn carries it a bit too thin and Chanyeol isn't sure what he hears. It could be avoidance, or some variation of denial.
“Ok. So hypothetically speaking…” Chanyeol pokes at his cafeteria salad, “If I had hypothetically proposed, I mean officially, but hypothetically--not accidentally--proposed. Hypothetically, what would your real, but hypothetical answer be? Hypothetically.”
Baekhyun blinks a few times and maneuvers his tongue to dig at the piece of lettuce caught in his molars. It doesn't work so he uses the plastic fork to pick at the inside of his mouth. He suddenly remembers that he forgot to grab the grocery list off of the fridge when he left in the morning. So, as he frees the bits of leaves from between his teeth, Baekhyun mentally reviews the items on that list and hopes he'll remember them when they stop at the store after Chanyeol picks him up from work.
“Can you rephrase that into a real question?”
-
It's probably the cereal aisle and the sight of all those smiling cartoon characters on boxes that spark the sentiment in Chanyeol.
“How many hypothetical children would you want to have?” Chanyeol pushes the grocery cart with one foot on the metal bar between the wheels and the other gliding along on the tile floor, kind of like he’s surfing. “Three sounds like a good number.”
They do that weird thing where Baekhyun pretends to be lost in thought as he calculates nutritional contents of breakfast bars and acts as if Chanyeol is just background noise. Chanyeol throws a bunch of sugary cereals into the cart. Baekhyun puts them all back.
“I’m ignoring you, hypothetically.”
They move onto produce and Baekhyun tries to buy vegetables. Chanyeol puts them all back out of spite.
“Hypothetically, that is a real question. I’m just saying. ” Chanyeol argues, pushing the cart faster to catch up with Baekhyun as they leave the produce section and enter the bakery one. Chanyeol holds up a loaf of bread as if asking permission.
“Get the whole grain.”
“It is.”
He drops the bread into the cart. Baekhyun moves it to the top of the grocery pile so it won’t get crushed. He motions for them to go back so he can reclaim the discarded vegetables.
“Hypothetical questions are not real questions.”
“Yes but, hypothetically speaking, they are.” Chanyeol pushes the cart towards the frozen foods. "I think we need frozen yogurt."
"We still have some at home."
Baekhyun tugs on Chanyeol’s sleeve for him to stop pushing so he can mentally review their shopping list.
“We need eggs. And I’m still ignoring you.” Baekhyun steers the cart by the tail end in the opposite direction. Chanyeol hates when he does that because now he's being pulled along and has no control over the cart he's supposedly pushing, so out of spite he makes it difficult by dragging his feet on the tile.
When they’re in line at the register, after a long winded complaint about the inexperienced cashier, Baekhyun learns, unfortunately, that Chanyeol had forgotten to hit the ATM beforehand. Therefore, he’s stuck paying for their weekly groceries with credit.
“When we are denied a mortgage because of our bad credit rating, I’m blaming you.” Baekhyun says as he signs the receipt, “us and our three children will be homeless and all of it will be your fault.”
Chanyeol smiles.
“So you admit three is a good number.”
-
"You're just doing this because it's your week to cook dinner." Baekhyun says without looking up from the menu.
"No I'm not."
"Right. This is just coincidentally the third dinner this week that we've had out." Baekhyun is smiling on the inside though. This place has embroidered table cloths and aromatic candles, so he wants to think that Chanyeol did it on purpose.
Chanyeol sips on his water and watches as his breath fogs up the glass.
When the waiter comes over to their table, Baekhyun orders--after a bit of internal debating--for the both of them. Despite the place being a restaurant neither of them have been to, Baekhyun knows exactly what Chanyeol would want to order. It's only after the waiter walks away that Baekhyun realizes the alarming state of their situation. He knows Chanyeol too well. He knows him better than he knows himself.
Chanyeol's looking at him with that look again, like he's going to start talking about the hypothetical questions he's been clamoring on about all day. Baekhyun does everything to avoid eye contact.
"Did you find a job yet?" Baekhyun says as he stares into his lap.
"Technically, I have a job."
"You know what I mean."
There's a moment of pause and Baekhyun can only guess that Chanyeol is doing that grinning thing.
"I will."
Baekhyun reaches for his water and continues not looking at Chanyeol. The only problem with not looking is that he runs a risk of knocking over the things he's not looking at. When the glass of water spills all over the table, Chanyeol is the one who jumps at the spill, wiping it up before it could reach the edges of the table and before it could stain Baekhyun's pants. It forces Baekhyun to look at him for a moment.
"Sorry..."
Chanyeol just resumes his seat and taps at the table like nothing happened. He grins again and through that, Baekhyun can tell exactly what's he's thinking about. Therefore, he goes back to avoiding eye contact.
Baekhyun studies the pattern of the table cloth. The restaurant is nice. The low lighting is nice. The background music is nice. However, all of it just reminds him of the frightening depedency he has on Chanyeol--how he can never really fall asleep until he hears his snoring first; how he needs the boy to drive whenever they visit the city because Baekhyun refuses to drive in crowded places; and how, for three years, Chanyeol has been the source to all of Baekhyun's distress, his joy, and his irrational heart palpitations.
It's frightening because Chanyeol's supposedly hypothetical situation is actually not very hypothetical at all. It's very real and very much in front of him, smiling with the ugly face-crinkling smile only Chanyeol has.
It's frightening but also kind of nice--nice like the nice wine Chanyeol insists they purchase.
"Joonmyun got a dog." Baekhyun says, finally lifting his eyes to meet Chanyeol's. "He showed us pictures."
"Who's Joonmyun." Chanyeol holds his wine glass up like he's making a toast.
"Guy from work." Baekhyun clinks his own glass with Chanyeol's. "I think we should get one."
"A dog?"
The waiter comes with their food but places Chanyeol's order in front of Baekhyun and vise versa. Chanyeol taps on Baekhyun's foot under the table to prevent him from verbally complaining about the mistake and they just silently switch the plates after the waiter leaves.
"Yeah. Wouldn't a dog be nice?"
Baekhyun takes advantage of the moment Chanyeol is occupied with cutting his meat to steal a bit of his side vegetable, mentally comparing to his own and deciding they're about the same.
"Listen... about last night--"
"--I mean I'm not entirely sure we're ready for a dog. I'm hardly home with school and work and all, and I question your sense of responsibility--"
"--hey"
"--but a dog is still nice, don't you think?"
Chanyeol takes a bite of his chicken. It's okay. It tastes nice.
"I mean we'll be ready some day. After graduation, and if I can get land that job downtown, I'm sure I can fit dog caretaking somewhere into our schedules."
"Yeah..." Chanyeol swirls the remaining bit of wine left in his glass and marvels at the way low lighting flatters Baekhyun's features. "A dog is nice."
He sees Baekhyun smiling down at his dish.
-
“Will you just at least say yes, hypothetically. So my ego won't be entirely shattered.”
“Fuck, Chanyeol. This is… mmmfgg... This not—” Baekhyun inhales sharply, “the right time to have this discussion.”
“Just say Yes, I will hypothetically marry you, if you hypothetically ask.”
Chanyeol uses his free arm to push Baekhyun’s knees up to his chest so he can hit that delicious spot inside him straight on. They fall into a comforting but accelerating rhythm and Chanyeol pecks at the corners of Baekhyun's lips, not entirely kissing him because he wants to hear every word Baekhyun exhales.
Baekhyun hooks his ankles over Chanyeol’s shoulders, his own arms clenching the headboard as he unwinds, spilling out ropes and ropes of—
“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”