kicked to the curb

Suho purses his lips as he settles back against the headboard of the bed and plays with loose strands of Kyungsoo’s hair. His hair is always messy in the morning and today is no exception. For once though, the younger man isn’t fussy with Suho, but that’s probably because he’s still blissfully unaware in his sleep and not conscious so he can’t be fussy. It’s really annoying how fussy Kyungsoo can get.

When Suho plays with his hair or Jongin tries to hold his hand, Kyungsoo always gets fussy and tries to shake them off. He doesn’t like it, but for the life of him Suho can’t figure out why. He wonders sometimes if maybe they really did just force Kyungsoo into this and he wonders if the younger really wants it or not.

Sighing, he buries his fingers deeper into Kyungsoo’s hair and holds it there. It feels nice. Kyungsoo’s back rises and falls as he breathes in and out, his cheek pressed against a pillow and his legs stretched out to the other end of the bed. Suho puffs his cheeks out and thinks back again on how the younger man landed himself here.

Chanyeol was the one who found him last year. They were forced into a partnership during an organic chemistry lab or something or other. Usually Chanyeol wiggles his way out of partnerships with the professor given his condition and the fact that he just plain hated working with other people, but the professor would hear none of it this time around and said he worked with Kyungsoo or he failed the lab. For a minute Chanyeol really seemed to go for the idea of ditching and receiving no credit but then he thought of his already not so good GPA and decided against it, so he worked with Kyungsoo on the lab.

That day he was extra nervous and almost wore gloves to class but Kris made him take them off because “you look like an idiot wearing snow gloves in spring” so he was forced to go without. Suho didn’t really know what happened that day, apparently Kyungsoo was clumsier than most and Chanyeol struggled to keep out of his way and failed, because when he came home the first thing he did was poke Jongin on the arm which had him shrieking in pain from where Chanyeol had fucking burned him.

“The hell was that for?” Jongin yelled at him while holding his injured arm in his hand.

Chanyeol stared at him for a moment before walking over to Tao who had been observing them from the couch and he reached down to grab his hand. As expected, Tao screeched and yanked his hand away, tears springing to his eyes as he cradled his burned wrist.

“What the actual fuck is wrong with you?” he snarled.

“I thought maybe I had it under control,” Chanyeol explained as he stared down at his hands, a bit miffed. “I guess I was wrong.”

“Obviously!”

The taller man shrugged his shoulders and sighed. “Well, I thought maybe Jongin was a fluke but I was pretty sure he wasn’t so I thought I would test it on you just to be a hundred percent sure.”

Tao sulked as he blew cool air onto the red marks on his wrist. “Why me?” he whimpered.

“Because you’re a little cocksucker and I hate you,” Chanyeol said nonchalantly before disappearing off to his room. Sometimes it was scary how passive aggressive he could be. Tao glowered down at his hand and the reminder that Chanyeol had fucking touched him while Jongin went to go get them ice packs.

When Kris confronted him about it later because Tao couldn’t take his ice pack off for thirty seconds without the burn bothering him, Chanyeol had simply told him that he thought his power was finally under control, but he guessed he was wrong.

“Why would you think that?” Kris asked.

Chanyeol didn’t answer him though, just shut the door in his face.

However, the next day he did it again, only this time he tried it out on Jongdae because he happened to be the first person he had spotted and Sehun because Luhan had been using him as a shield. The elder had only winced and given him this look while Sehun outright screeched and shook his hand wildly before Luhan made him stick his hand under a cold stream of water. He only frowned as he stared down at his hands in confusion and walked away as the two nursed their injuries.

“Would you stop doing that!” Kris scolded him again later.

“But -” Chanyeol sighed and shook his head. “Never mind. I’ll stop.”

“What?” Kris insisted but Chanyeol wasn’t speaking anymore. “Chanyeol, what is it? This isn’t like you. What’s bothering you so much that you’re going around burning people?”

The younger man sat slumped quietly in his seat for a moment as he stared down at his lap. Then finally he opened his mouth. “This kid in my chemistry class...I touched him by accident once but he didn’t even flinch. He hadn’t even noticed I touched him, so I thought I finally had it under control, but then I burned Jongin and Tao and figured it was a fluke. But the next day he talked to me and patted me on the hand and nothing happened again, but then I burned Jongdae and Sehun. I’m sorry. I just thought I finally had it.”

Kris stared at him for a minute like he was debating whether or not to believe him. “Is it him maybe?”

“I thought it was me at first, but now I have my doubts. Do you think he might be...? Anyways, I guess I can look into it.”

Kris pursed his lips together thoughtfully and folded his hands on top of the table. “If he does turn out to be like us, what do you think it is? Maybe he can’t feel pain?” Which, when he thinks about it, sounds way more detrimental than anything else. “Or maybe he’s impervious to fire or something.”

Chanyeol shook his head and thought back to the time at the lab with Kyungsoo. He had accidentally broken one of their test tubes and then started flipping out and crying when he cut his hand on the broken glass while trying to clean up his mess. “No, I’m pretty sure he can feel pain, but I’m not so sure I even burned him in the first place. It’s like he’s immune or something. I don’t know. I guess he could be impervious to fire.”

“Okay, well, I’m counting on you to investigate then.”

And investigate Chanyeol did. Sort of. He befriended Kyungsoo first and foremost, taking immense pleasure in the fact that he could touch the other freely which made being his friend less of a chore and more of a pleasure. It was after he had the younger man in the palm of his hand that he confronted him about it. Turned out that while he was well aware of his inability to die (considering he was a hundred and three and feeling just fine), he was not aware of any second ability.

“I think you can negate other powers,” Chanyeol explained to him. “That or it’s just mine. I’m not sure.”

“Oh.” Kyungsoo furrows his brows together. “I didn’t know.”

And that was how Kyungsoo was recruited into their little group.





He spent the first month or so mostly with Chanyeol and sometimes with Tao whom he recognized from seeing him on campus occasionally. That had been fine at first. Suho hadn’t thought too much of him at the time, his attention focused more on Jongin anyways. He had admitted that Kyungsoo was cute what with his perpetually bewildered expression, but he also thought that about Minseok as well sometimes.

Everything had been normal up until Kyungsoo stayed home sick one day because he had a particularly bad cold. That left him home with both Jongdae and Jongin who both were stay-at-homes because they had decided it wasn’t quite time to start school again.

Jongin was lazing around as per usual, sprawled across the couch and channel surfing while texting both Suho and Sehun. The former rarely answering him because of work and the latter enthusiastically texting him back, though Jongin was only secretly hoping that he would get Sehun in trouble with his teachers.

Unlike him, Jongdae was something of a busybody and he spent his free time volunteering for different organizations and causes because he couldn’t stand being cooped up at home all day long. Today was an exception though because Jongdae had apparently taken it upon himself to care for Kyungsoo in his sickly state.

He was in the kitchen cooking what smelled like soup (God did Jongin hate soup) when Kyungsoo stumbled out of his and Chanyeol’s shared room, his eyes red from restless sleep and he was coughing rather violently into his arm.

Jongdae was upon him almost instantly, a bottle of cough syrup in one hand and a spoon in the other. “I’m making soup right now. Take a tablespoon of this and I’ll go get you a bowl of soup, okay?”

Kyungsoo nodded his head obediently and sniffled as he took the proffered bottle and spoon from the elder and shuffled over to the kitchen table to sit down. Perking up, Jongin stared in the direction of the kitchen, his phone vibrating on his stomach. Grabbing the device, he rolled off of the couch and walked over to the kitchen where all of the activity was evidently occurring.

“Gross,” he muttered as he eyed the cherry flavored medicine in front of Kyungsoo. “I hate cherry flavored medicine. It always tastes like shit.”

Kyungsoo hummed as he uncapped the medicine and and poured a spoonful of the red liquid. Jongin slid into the seat beside him. With a grimace, he swallowed the medicine down. Jongin made a face as if it was equally as torturous to watch Kyungsoo take the medicine as it was to actually take it.

Jongdae came back and set a bowl of steaming soup down in front of Kyungsoo before taking a seat across from him. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

Kyungsoo groaned and sipped at the broth to rid himself of the cherry medicine taste. “Not very good,” he answered truthfully, resting his forehead in his hand and stirring his soup around mindlessly with his spoon. Looking just a bit reluctant, Kyungsoo lifted the spoon to his mouth to take another bite.

“You should sleep some more after you eat,” Jongdae suggested.

Honestly though, Kyungsoo wasn’t feeling all that hungry at the moment and he seemed to spend more time staring at his soup rather than eating it. With a sigh, he took another spoonful of the soup before giving up and slumping in his seat. He leaned over to Jongin just because he happened to be there, lolling his head against the younger boy’s shoulder and closing his eyes. The younger tensed at the contact.

“I’m not hungry,” he mumbled, curling up against Jongin’s side.

“You should still eat though,” Jongdae chided him.

Kyungsoo wasn’t listening though, already falling asleep against Jongin’s side. The youngest looked over to Jongdae with a pleading expression though he only sighed and asked him to help Kyungsoo back into bed.

Pursing his lips, Jongin did as he was told and helped guide Kyungsoo from the kitchen table to his room where he lead him to the bed, even tucking him in when Kyungsoo was all settled. The elder rolled onto his stomach soon afterwards, pressing his cheek into the pillow and sighing.

That was probably the time when Jongin determined that he wanted Kyungsoo. And he wanted him bad.



“He’s cute isn’t he?” Jongin brought up a couple weeks later while fiddling with his fingers and staring nervously out the window so as to avoid Suho’s stare.

The elder lifted his head up from Jongin’s shoulder and stared at him, waiting and willing Jongin to turn around and face him which he eventually did. The jealousy was obvious in his eyes. “Who’s cute?” he sniffled a bit bitterly as he played with his hair and touched his face like he was searching for flaws to fix.

For a moment Jonging thought about not answering, hoping maybe they would drop the subject then, but he didn’t really want to. “You know,” he ended up saying vaguely. “Kyungsoo.”

“Oh.” Suho seemed suspicious as he stopped his movements and just stared at Jongin. “Um. I guess he is.” He played with the edge of their blanket, a frown on his face as his mind worked to figure out just what, exactly, Jongin was trying to get out. Fuck, were they about to break up? “Why do you ask?” He sniffed and held his head up, trying not to let his morbid thoughts get the best of him. He was older anyways, damn it. He was a man.

“Do you think he’s cute?” Jongin asked shyly. “Do you like him?”

“I like you.”

Jongin rolled his eyes. This was not going the way he planned or hoped for. “I like you too. But do you like him as well as me?”

Suho raised a brow and everything seemed to click now. “You want a threesome?”

“I like him,” Jongin whined, not at all enjoying the way Suho put it. He made it seem so....bad. “But I like you too. Is that so horrible? I want him with us, Suho. But if you don’t want it that’s fine too.”

The elder pursed his lips together and sighed as he slipped out of bed. Jongin took this as a bad sign and he sunk down in his spot. “I’ll think about it,” Suho eventually said as he glanced back at Jongin. The younger boy smiled, pleased with the answer and Suho shook his head. That’s what he was all about anyways: pleasing Jongin.



“Thinking about it” involved dates. Many dates. Chanyeol thought it was weird when Jongin and Suho kept asking Kyungsoo if he wanted to go out for dinner with them and he kept telling them to shove off, but Jongin would only stick out his tongue before dragging the taller man’s roommate away. Kyungsoo hadn’t thought much of it though, not like Chanyeol at least. He only thought they wanted to be friends, so he humored them, going out whenever they asked and looking just the slightest bit uncomfortable because he was a third wheel after all.

He thought they were just going out, having fun, hanging out. You know, guy stuff. Jongin and Suho thought otherwise though and the younger boy was more pleased than jealous whenever he caught Suho staring at Kyungsoo. It was just how he wanted it.

Some more dates later, Suho decided that, yeah, he could live with Kyungsoo as well and that was all Jongin actually heard from him before he was marching into Chanyeol’s room and declaring Kyungsoo as his (and Suho’s). Neither really understood what was going on until he and Sehun, whom he had recruited through very tactful means

(“I’ll buy you a milk tea if you help me.”

Sehun debated the deal for about thirty seconds. “I’m in.”

Luhan rolled his eyes.) started moving his things out of his room.

Kyungsoo had been confused but pliant as he was led from his old room with Chanyeol to his new one, but he may have only been pliant because he was confused. Still, he hadn’t actually argued over the arrangement. What he did do was pretend that it was only because Suho and Jongin “just want to be friends.”

He still does it too.





The door to the room opens and Jongin shuffles inside, wiping his face with a small towel and the fringes of his hair damp with water. He’s all dressed and he probably just finished washing his face and brushing his teeth. He has a dentist appointment this morning. Suho knows because he remembers making it for him since Jongin would never do it himself.

“When do you have to leave?” he asks, sitting up a little straighter on the bed.

Jongin drops the towel to the floor carelessly and walks over to the bed, crawling back in it after Suho spent forty minutes trying to wake him up. Suho pulls his legs up to avoid the other as he crawls over Kyungsoo’s still sleeping form and lays himself down on top of his back. He presses his nose against the back of Kyungsoo’s neck and inhales deeply. “In like,” he pulls out his phone from his back pocket and brings it up to check the time, “half an hour.” He shoves the device back into his pocket and closes his eyes, turning his head just enough so that his lips are pressed against Kyungsoo’s neck.

Amazingly he doesn’t awaken but he does shiver in his sleep at the touch.

“Leave him alone,” Suho hisses because it’s his day off and he would really like a few more minutes of sleepy Kyungsoo because sleepy Kyungsoo isn’t fussy and Jongin’s going to wake him up if he keeps up with this.

“But he’s not pushing me away for once,” Jongin whines as he mouths at the nape of Kyungsoo’s neck. They’re molded together almost perfectly with Jongin’s chest pressed up against Kyungsoo’s back.

“You’ll wake him up if you don’t stop,” Suho warns.

As usual though Jongin doesn’t listen to him and instead presses his lips into the juncture where Kyungsoo’s neck meets his shoulder and he sucks on the skin there, softly at first and then harder. That wakes Kyungsoo up as he groans and blinks his eyes, slowly gaining an awareness of his surroundings. Suho groans and decides that he might as well join in while Kyungsoo is still only half awake.

“What are you doing?” he asks, squirming underneath Jongin when he feels the younger’s lips against him.

Jongin presses his weight down, pinning Kyungsoo beneath him who can’t even fight him off when he’s awake and stands no chance in his half conscious state. His tongue flicks out to taste flesh and his teeth graze his skin as he sucks more vigorously, intent on actually leaving something this time.

“Stop it.” Kyungsoo jerks his head away in an attempt to escape, but then Suho is there, running his fingers through his hair and lifting his head off the bed so he can kiss him. He moans and tries to push himself up so he can get away, but it’s hard between Jongin pinning him to the bed and Suho holding his head. The eldest catches his lower lip with his teeth and gently suckles.

Jongin pulls away just enough, his mouth parted and his warm breath ghosting over Kyungsoo’s neck. “I’ve got like twenty minutes left before I have to leave. Indulge me for once.” Kyungsoo can’t really say much with his lips occupied by Suho though.

At some point Suho and Jongin pull away long enough to kiss each other over Kyungsoo who whines about Jongin being heavy but doesn’t do much to fight him off. There’s not really a point when he can’t win.

“You need to go or else you’ll be late,” Suho eventually murmurs, patting Jongin on the cheek. The younger boy sighs put reluctantly rolls off of Kyungsoo who is up in a flash and out of the room before they can utter a word. Jongin sighs again and fixes his shirt and hair so he looks a bit more presentable.

“Do you think he even likes us? I thought he liked us.”

Sliding out of bed, Suho sidles up to his boyfriend and wraps his arms around his waist. “Well, I love you,” he assures Jongin as he places a kiss to his cheek.

“I wish you could use your power on him,” he complains. “It’d be easier -”

“I would never hypnotize him and you know it,” Suho reprimands him. “And anyways, there are other ways to deal with this.” He slides a hand under Jongin’s shirt and strokes at his toned stomach.

Jongin smiles at that.





Kyungsoo thinks he must have done something wrong.

He thinks that because when he comes home from school one day late in the night because he spent too much time at the library trying to get his work done, Jongin and Suho are already asleep on the bed, cuddled together. And it’s really weird because they usually stay up for him no matter how late it is, especially Jongin since he never has to get up early.

Frowning, he thinks maybe they were just tired and he walks over to the bed to crawl in, but there isn’t much space for him either. He bites his lip and fidgets by the bedside, wondering how to get in without waking them up and ultimately concluding it to be impossible. But where is he supposed to sleep then?

He ends up going to Chanyeol’s room, his old room, because the taller boy is out tonight. He’s staying with Baekhyun at his apartment. So he crawls into the cold bed and curls up on his side. It doesn’t really bother him other than the fact that he’s so used to two warm bodies beside him that Chanyeol’s empty bed seems almost exaggeratingly cold.

And the weirdest part is that the next morning neither Suho nor Jongin ask him where he was last night. They say hi and try to kiss him as usual but they don’t say anything about him coming out of Chanyeol’s unoccupied room. Kyungsoo either thinks their secretly angry at him and hiding it really well or both his boyfriends have been replaced by alien clones.

A few days later, he comes home early because his only class for the day has been cancelled at the last minute and there’s really nothing to hang around campus for since Chanyeol, Tao, and Baekhyun are all in class, so he heads home instead. He expects to come home to Jongdae and Jongin, the former doing something productive and the latter sprawled lazily on the couch and he thinks that maybe he should ask Jongin if he wants to go out something, but when he gets home neither are there to greet him.

He heads up to his room, pushing the door open and thinking maybe he’ll take a little nap, but he freezes in the doorway because Jongin and Suho are in bed having a rather intense makeout session which is weird because today is definitely one of Suho’s work days. He thinks about clearing his throat or doing something to interrupt them when Jongin moans, pulling Suho in closer by the neck while his hips roll forward to grind against the elder’s. Kyungsoo quickly scurries away from the room, his face a scarlet color and an uncomfortable heat in his stomach. He doesn’t talk about it to them when he goes to bed that night and they don’t say anything about it either though they probably don’t know that Kyungsoo saw.




“Where’s Jongin?” Baekhyun asks one day while they’re sitting in the coffee shop. They’re supposed to be working on their homework because that’s the point of the coffee shop but Kyungsoo is the only one actually working. Tao is sulking over more economics reading, Baekhyun is trying too hard to touch Chanyeol who eventually threatens to move to the other side of the table if he doesn’t stop and Sehun is there again being his usual self, attached to his cell phone.

The question causes Kyungsoo to glower and slump in his seat, pressing his pencil harder against the paper as he tries really hard to focus on integrals and derivatives which are completely pointless anyways. His lead snaps from the force and he sighs.

Sehun looks up from his phone and stares at Baekhyun because it’s a good question. Usually, Jongin joins them by now because it’s boring at home, but he hasn’t shown up lately. Sehun eventually looks to him like he’s supposed to have all the answers and he forces out a gruff, “what?”

“Nothing,” the youngest says with a shrug as he goes back to his phone. “I just thought you would know where he is.”

As a matter of fact Kyungsoo has no idea where Jongin is. Maybe at home, but he always gets really bored there by himself. He stares at his math homework for about another minute before he’s pulling his phone from his backpack and texting Jongin.

Where are you?

He taps his fingers impatiently on the table as he waits for a reply.

Out.

Out where?

Why do you want to know? I’m just out. Is something wrong?

Well it isn’t anything terribly wrong, but Jongin is still usually here with him and it’s weird that he’s not today so it feels wrong. Kyungsoo thinks that should count.

No. We were just wondering where you were. Usually you hang out with us at the coffee shop but you’re not here so....

The next reply takes even longer to come and Kyungsoo rests his head miserably on the table as he stares expectantly at his phone. Almost ten minutes later Jongin finally answers.

We? Who’s we? And anyways, I’m on a date with Suho right now. Want us to bring you something back for dinner?

No he doesn’t want anything. In fact, he’s pretty sure he just lost his appetite for the rest of the night. He snatches his phone from the table and slips out of his seat, grabbing his backpack and ditching the rest of them at the coffee shop. He isn’t really sure where he’s going to go. He doesn’t want to go home, but there isn’t really another place to go. Maybe the library or something.

Baekhyun looks over to Chanyeol and touches him on the hand, trying not to flinch at the pain but he can’t hide it. The taller man hisses as he yanks his hand away and glares at him. “Stop doing that,” he scolds him.

“You should go talk to him. He looked like he was going to cry,” Baekhyun tells him.

“Then let him be,” Chanyeol says. “Kyungsoo prefers to be alone. He’s still not very used to friends. Give him some time and then try to talk to him.”

Baekhyun doesn’t seem convinced though and he slips out of his seat to follow after Kyungsoo despite Chanyeol’s advice. He catches up with him at a street corner because Kyungsoo is waiting for the light and clenching his phone tight in his hand. “Hey, are you okay?” Baekhyun asks him as he pulls Kyungsoo away from the curb so that he won’t walk away.

“I’m fine,” Kyungsoo answers curtly, obviously a lie. He’s a bad liar.

Baekhyun frowns and awkwardly tucks some of Kyungsoo’s strands behind his ear. “You don’t seem fine,” he says. “Is something about Jongin bothering you?”

Kyungsoo fidgets and hides his phone away in his pocket. “No,” he lies again. Baekhyun taps him on the cheek, silently telling him to stop that because he’s really bad at it. “It’s just...I don’t think they - Suho and Jongin I mean - want me anymore.”

The elder pulls his hand away and gives Kyungsoo a weird look. “Isn’t that...” he trails off and pauses, wondering if he’s about to say something incredibly dumb because he’s still getting to know everyone especially Kyungsoo. He thought he knew the other. They had taken a class together the year before, but it was different now because they’ve learned things about each other they hadn’t known back then. “Isn’t that good then?”

He must have said something stupid because Kyungsoo looks stunned and hurt and his eyes start to tear up again. “Good?” he asks.

“I meant for you!” Baekhyun clarifies quickly. “I always thought they, like, annoyed you. I thought you didn’t want to be with them.”

Kyungsoo reels backwards at that. “You thought that?”

“Well, it just seemed like you never cared. Jongin...I mean, you just always seem annoyed with him.”

“That’s not true,” Kyungsoo denies in a hiss. “That’s not true...at all! That’s not true!”

Baekhyun holds his hands up defensively feeling really sorry and really stupid at the same time. “Okay, I’m sorry. It’s my bad. I didn’t know. Maybe you should go home and talk to them.”

The thought of home sets Kyungsoo off and he turns away from the other. “They’re on a date,” he says quietly, with significantly less venom than he would have expected. He was still bitter, but he didn’t have the energy to show it. “I don’t want to go home.”


There’s a pause before Baekhyun speaks again. “Do you want to stay at my place for tonight?”




Chanyeol is just getting off the phone with Baekhyun when his door opens and Jongin pops his head in. He doesn’t say anything to the taller man as his eyes scan the room. “Kyungsoo’s not here?” he eventually asks when his search turns up fruitless. He hasn’t seen Kyungsoo all day. As far as he knows the elder never even came home.

The door opens wider and Chanyeol rolls his eyes when he sees Suho there as well. God, did they know what knocking was? “No, he’s not here. Not coming home tonight at all apparently.”

Suho looks alarmed. “What? Where is he then?”

“With Baekhyun,” Chanyeol says as he flops down onto his bed and rolls over and away from them. “He just called and said Kyungsoo was going to stay with him tonight. He was crying and shit I guess. Said he didn’t want to come back home.”

Jongin all but kicks the door open as he strolls into the room, heading straight for Chanyeol. “Where does your boyfriend live?”

The elder raises an eyebrow and turns his head to look at him. “Excuse me?”

“Where does he live? Tell me.”

“What are you going to do? Teleport there and haul Kyungsoo’s ass back?” The way Jongin steels himself against Chanyeol tells him that that is exactly what his plan is. “Lay off, Jongin. He was miserable today and obviously he doesn’t want to be here. With you. Besides, you and I both know you can’t get there anyways. You have to know what a place looks like to teleport there.”

“Then I’ll fucking walk there. Address. Now.”

“Look, you little fucker,” Chanyeol snarls as he sits up in bed. “This is your fault to begin with, okay? Kyungsoo’s been alone his entire fucking life. He’s never had a boyfriend before let alone two. He has no fucking clue what you guys want from him and you’re the sick little bastard who pulled him into your twisted relationship anyways. You fix it. I’m not helping you.” With a huff he falls back into the bed, ignoring the look of utter shock on Jongin’s face.



“Only you,” Kyungsoo sighs as he squeezes out a little dot of cream onto Baekhyun’s newest burn marks before wrapping another band aid around his finger. “You should really just stop touching him. Otherwise these band aids are going to become a permanent accessory for you.”

Baekhyun smiles as he admires his latest battle wound. It’s sore and it’s bothering him but he’s learned that the less he is dependent on ice the faster the burning seems to stop. “I don’t mind. I think it’s quite fashionable.”

Sighing, Kyungsoo crinkles up the band aid wrapper and closes the lid on the first aid kit. “You know, most people would have started hiding from Chanyeol at this point. It freaking hurts to touch him, but you still won’t stop. I think there’s something actually wrong with you.”

“No way,” Baekhyun denies as he curls his fingers into his sweatpants to keep him from irritating his wounds any further. “I have to keep trying otherwise nothing will change. And anyways, I don’t mind. Really. At least the band aids are like a reminder.” Kyungsoo mutters something that sounds suspiciously like idiot as he drops the wrapper on the floor in front of him. “You can touch him though, right? Because his power doesn’t affect you.”

Kyungsoo is silent as he stares at Baekhyun, but the elder doesn’t seem jealous or upset, just curious. “Yeah. He can’t hurt me.”

“Is he still warm?” Baekhyun asks, fingers tightening their hold on his sweatpants. “Is he still warm when his powers don’t work?”

The younger hesitates for a minute like he’s afraid there’s a right and wrong answer and he’ll pick the wrong one. “Yeah. He’s always warm.”

Baekhyun smiles, pleased with the answer and they fall into a comfortable silence after that. It takes a minute before Baekhyun stands up from the floor, cleaning up the band aid wrappers and picking up his first aid box to put away before returning to Kyungsoo who hasn’t budged from his spot.

“Do you think -” he starts before stopping himself.

“Hm?”

“You said that you thought I didn’t want them, right? Do you think they think that too?”

Baekhyun stares down at him and slowly lowers himself to the ground, squatting first before falling back on his ass. “What makes you think that?”

Kyungsoo is silent for a moment again. “They’ve been - they’ve been kind of ignoring me.”

“Oh.” Baekhyun stretches his legs out and leans over to touch his toes, wiggling his fingers which barely brush against them. “Well, to be fair, you kind of always ignore them too. Or at least Jongin. I’m not really sure about Suho. Actually, I’ve never seen you with him before.”

“I don’t mean to!” Kyungsoo cries defensively, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around his shins. He lets out a breath and rests his temple on his knee. “You don’t get it. I’m not the kind of guy people want to date. I’m too quiet, you know? There had been a few people in the past but they all decided I wasn’t the one, so it’s like weird for me to have two boyfriends now. I never know what to do and I’m not used to affection. It makes me uncomfortable.”

Baekhyun blinks. Wow, that had been much simpler than he expected. “Just tell them that then. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“Yeah, but...” Kyungsoo trails off as he traces circles around his kneecap and sighs again. “Isn’t it kind of lame to be my age and still - I mean I’m over a hundred but I’m still...” he struggles to find the right words, his face flushed and red in humiliation. “Pure.”

Baekhyun gapes at him. “Seriously?” Kyungsoo nods his head in shame. “You’ve never,” he makes crude thrusting motions with his hips that has the younger flushing a darker shade of red and he has to be the most pathetic guy ever.

“Neither has Chanyeol!” he shrieks just to get back at him. However that backfires when Baekhyun lightens up, his eyes eager and curious.

“Seriously?”

“Well how could he? It would be too painful for his partner...” His face becomes bright red as he speaks because - holy shit - he’s talking about Chanyeol’s nonexistent sex life and he’s pretty sure the other wouldn’t approve. That and it just feels kind of awkward.

“First time for everything.”

Kyungsoo groans and hides his face in his knees. “Please don’t try it,” he mumbles. “I don’t think you’d ever be able to do it again. Just stop touching him. It makes him angry.”

“I’ll never stop,” Baekhyun tells him. “Because one day I know it won’t hurt to touch him anymore and I don’t ever want him to think otherwise. Besides he’s my boyfriend. Uncontrolled power or not I have every right to touch him whenever I want.”

Kyungsoo doesn’t say anything to that. He only sits quietly and admires Baekhyun’s bravado.

“Anyways, for my help I was thinking you could do me an itty bitty favor.”

The younger looks up at that. Baekhyun doesn’t elaborate but gives Kyungsoo a pleading look which he can’t turn down because the other is trying to comfort him and he’s also offering up a place for the night. A favor sounds fair so Kyungsoo agrees blindly, no questions asked.





Arms wrap around his waist and tug him into the room the second he opens the door. With a shriek he tumbles into the bedroom, landing against someone’s chest but he doesn’t know if it’s Suho or Jongin because arms hold him tight against the body but he thinks it’s Suho because it doesn’t feel like he’s hugging a really tall tree.

“Where were you?” Okay, that’s definitely Suho. “You never came home last night and we were worried but Chanyeol said you were with Baekhyun. Are you okay? Is something wrong?” A hand slides up his back to tangle in his hair and Kyungsoo lets out a shuddering breath as he wraps his arms loosely around Suho’s waist, pressing his cheek into his chest.

He hears some shuffling before another set of arms wrap around his torso and pull him away from Suho. The elder and Jongin struggle for a moment while Kyungsoo doesn’t really help either as he’s pulled this way and that. Eventually he’s pulled from Suho’s arms and into Jongin’s but he doesn’t mind as he wraps his arms around the younger boy’s waist instead.

“I’m okay,” he mumbles into Jongin’s shoulder.

The younger tilts his head, lips just brushing against the outer shell of Kyungsoo’s ear. “We love you,” he confesses quietly, clearly speaking on his own and Suho’s behalf. Kyungsoo tenses in his arms and doesn’t say anything. The silence that hangs in the room is deafening.

Suho fiddles with his fingers, tugging at them and bending them, shooting Jongin nervous looks before staring at Kyungsoo’s back. He thinks about going over to touch him, but the younger man is still so tense in Jongin’s arm. Jongin tightens his hold on Kyungsoo like he’s afraid the other might jump up and run away if he gives him the chance which he won’t.

Eventually though, Kyungsoo pushes him away just enough to hold him out arms length but he doesn’t make a move to run away for once. “Um.” He’s sure his face is really red because it feels warm and he fans himself in an attempt to calm down. “I’ve never said this before so it’s really weird and awkward for me but me too. I...love you guys too and I don’t want for you to want me to leave.” Suho moves then, cupping Kyungsoo’s face, his eyes clenched shut, and pressing a soothing kiss to his forehead. “Don’t get rid of me,” he begs.

“We wouldn’t do that to you,” Suho coos as his hands drop to his shoulders and he gently sways them side to side. “We would never do that to you.”

For once Jongin keeps quiet as he moves closer and places his hands on Kyungsoo’s hips, tracing the waistband of his jeans, and rests his chin on the shorter male’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. It’s just that you guys make me nervous and I don’t know what to do and I know it’s probably frustrating, but I -” he gasps and surges forward to bury his head against Suho’s shoulder when Jongin presses his fingers against Kyungsoo’s bare stomach. He shivers and lets out a little whimper at the touch.

“We love you,” he repeats, fingers traveling further up the other’s abdomen. “I love you.”

Suho hands joining the youngest’s in exploring his body as well. “I love you too.”





Baekhyun grins as he rests his chin in his hand and stares at Kyungsoo who is typing away on his laptop in front of him, oblivious to the staring. He said something about an essay for history he needed to write up. Jongin is with him again, spending his time antagonizing Chanyeol along with Sehun because Kyungsoo is too busy to pay much attention to him. Chanyeol whines and fights back and wonders why Baekhyun isn’t helping him, but his boyfriend is too occupied by Kyungsoo to come to his rescue.

The thing is the younger man is absolutely glowing. A quick glance around the table tells him that no one else seems to notice, but he has. Baekhyun is quite familiar with that kind of glow too. He wonders if Kyungsoo is even aware of it. He glances over to Jongin. He has to notice too.

Standing up from his seat, he abandons his boyfriend to Jongin and Sehun’s mercy in favor of scooting into Kyungsoo’s seat with him. Jolted from his thoughts, Kyungsoo stops typing and turns his head to peer at Baekhyun curiously.

“Yes?”

Baekhyun grins. “So, how was it?”

Kyungsoo stares at him cutely and Baekhyun is tempted to reach up and squish his cheeks. “How was what?”

“Kyungsoo,” he leans in close so that no one else will hear them talking. “You’re glowing.” He emphasizes the word as if emphasis gave the euphemism more meaning.

The younger doesn’t appear to understand though as he continues to stare at Baekhyun in confusion. “Glowing?” He looks down at his skin in confusion, but he looks just fine.

“Yeah, you know...glowing.”

“Okay...”

Baekhyun sighs when it becomes obvious that Kyungsoo does not understand what he is trying to say and clearly the only way to get through to him is to be painfully blunt. How tragic. “You had sex last night, didn’t you? I’m just asking how it was.”

The squeak that Kyungsoo releases momentarily draws everyone’s attention though Tao was the only one quiet enough to have actually eavesdropped on their conversation earlier. “Did you really?” he asks, eyes glinting and a smile on his face.

“Did he really what?” Sehun asks.

“Nothing!” Kyungsoo says loudly before Tao and Baekhyun can answer. He sends Jongin an evil look, blaming him for this mess and the younger boy looks beyond confused by the glare. Eventually Sehun and Jongin drop it and return to their previous activity of annoying Chanyeol which leaves Kyungsoo alone to deal with Tao and Baekhyun.

“Well?” the younger of the two eventually prods.

“Can we not discuss this here? Or anywhere. Like ever.”

Tao pouts while Baekhyun sighs and they both reluctantly agree to drop the subject despite the overwhelming curiosity gnawing away at them. “Alright fine,” Baekhyun relents. “But about that favor you owe me then...”

Kyungsoo shuts his laptop and picks it up from the table. “Well, would you look at the time,” he mumbles, standing up from his seat. “Suho will be getting off of work soon. Jongin, you coming?”

Jongin looks confused as he slides out of his seat to follow after his boyfriend. Suho doesn’t leave work for another hour actually and he’s only a ten minute bus ride away. He waves goodbye to the others before trailing after his boyfriend, jogging to catch up with him and slipping an arm around his waist.

“You know, Suho doesn’t get off work for another hour. Why are we leaving so early?”

Kyungsoo doesn’t answer at first because he was only looking for an escape from everyone. “I miss him,” he eventually answers.

Jongin smiles and pulls Kyungsoo closer. “Love you,” he coos right into the elder’s ear.