Chapter Text
Hao wants to be asleep. He is in a great position to be asleep, too: in bed with a dog at his feet, warm but not too warm, finished with skin care and teeth brushing. He doesn’t have work tomorrow but he had it today; a very long photoshoot followed by 4 hours of dance practice. His limbs are begging for him to be unconscious.
But Hanbin is out with some of his old school friends tonight and Hao is waiting up. He wasn’t going to, and Hanbin had told him not to, since he predicted he would be back late. But that was before Hanbin started blowing up his phone with a series of increasingly incoherent messages, and then blurry selcas showcasing his flushed face and bloodshot eyes.
Hanbin doesn’t get drunk often, so when he does, it tends to be like this. Hanbin with lowered inhibitions is a true sight to behold and, like every other version of Hanbin, Hao loves and supports him with his whole heart. And Hao isn’t worried, per se; he knows Hanbin’s friends will get him home safe, and that the lack of messages in the last 20 minutes or so doesn’t mean anything bad has happened. (He also knows that because, fine, he’s checking Hanbin’s friends’ Instagram stories and one of them updated with a cute video of Hanbin a few minutes ago, so.) But still. He’ll feel better when he’s made Hanbin drink some water and tucked him into bed.
He tries to distract himself with a dumb vertical drama for a bit before giving up. He decides a better use of his time will be to prepare everything for Hanbin’s drunken return, so he sets Hanbin’s pajamas out on the bed and prepares a toothbrush with toothpaste in the bathroom. He’s just in the middle of placing a glass of water on their bedside table when he hears the front door open, a bag dropping to the ground, and Hanbin yelling “JJANGHAO!” at a very inappropriate decibel level for after midnight.
Hao hurries out of their bedroom and towards the entryway to their apartment, to where Hanbin is leaning against the door with one shoe off. His face lights up when he sees Hao, and he holds out his arms. “Ahh!! JJANG-”
“Shhh, it’s late,” Hao whispers, trying to hide the smile that is threatening to come up on his face that would aggressively contradict his statement of admonishment. He can’t help it though, Hanbin is agonizingly cute, with his excited smile on his face purely at the sight of his boyfriend. Hao crosses to him and accepts Hanbin’s very tight hug. He can smell his perfume, as nice as ever, but also whiskey. He’s completely trashed, poor boy.
“Sorry,” Hanbin stage whispers back in his ear. “I missed you. My Haohao.”
“I missed you too,” Hao says, and pulls back from Hanbin so he can unzip his jacket. “How was it?”
“It was good, just… ah! Ended up being more drinks than I thought. I think there might be some videos. That were taken. By my friends,” Hanbin says sheepishly, words slightly slurred, as Hao finishes taking off his jacket and places it on the coatrack by the door. He can tell Hanbin is focusing very carefully on staying upright, so Hao quickly crouches down to untie his other shoe. “On social media…oh, I hope they’re not too embarrassing.”
“Just one of you dancing to Next Level,” Hao says, standing back up. “It was very cute. Lean against me and kick your shoe off.”
“Aww, you checking up on me,” Hanbin says in a cute voice, before kicking off his shoe. It hits the wall with a thud. “Oh, whoops– oh hi baby!” Sansan has emerged from the bedroom to run up to Hanbin, excitedly wagging his tail. Hanbin crouches down to pet him, and Hao allows them a generous 20 seconds of reunion time because it’s frankly adorable and he’s weak, before grabbing a discarded capybara dog toy from the ground and throwing it across the room for Sansan to chase. Hanbin looks disappointed to be suddenly dogless but Hao uses the distraction to steer him to the bedroom without protest.
Once he’s gotten Hanbin to sit on the bed, he grabs the glass of water from the bedside table and hands it to him. “Drink this. I’ll be right back.” He quickly goes to the bathroom and runs cold water over a washcloth.
When he returns to the bedroom, he’s pleased to see that Hanbin has nearly finished the glass of water, and is holding the glass against his flushed cheek. Hao carefully takes it from his hand (he doesn’t trust Hanbin to not drop it) and sets it on the bedside table, and then sits down next to him on the bed. He takes the washcloth and starts pressing it against Hanbin’s cheeks one by one.
Hanbin lets out a happy sigh, and looks at Hao like he’s an angel from heaven. “That feels nice, thank you.”
“You’re welcome. You always get so flushed when you drink,” Hao says, fondness dripping into his voice.
“Or maybe,” Hanbin says, pausing for effect, wiggling his eyebrows at Hao, “It’s like, because you’re so pretty and I’m just like, you know. Reacting to that.” Hao starts laughing. “No, I’m serious! It’s chemical. You don’t even know. Do you remember Boys Planet? I was flushed like, all the time because of you.” He pokes a finger into Hao’s chest. “The makeup noonas had to keep covering it. But then. I would see you again. And it would like… all start over again.” He giggles cutely. “So nothing would work for long.”
Hao can’t help but preen at that, the way he always does when Hanbin drops information like this. He doesn’t know how, three years later, he’s still managing to uncover more news of Hanbin’s feelings for him from the very beginning. He wants to say something back, but he’s unfortunately speechless. Hanbin’s love being an endless well just isn’t something he’s used to. He hopes he never gets used to it. He gives Hanbin a quick kiss instead.
“I talked about you a lot tonight,” Hanbin continues happily. “Told everyone what you’ve been up to. How amazing you are. And…” Hanbin looks around from side to side as if he’s worried one of his friends has teleported into their bedroom to be hurt, and when he speaks next, it’s in a whisper. “I was a little rude. In my head. Because like, I’d say something about you, and then someone would bring up like, a non-you thing… and I was like, ‘wait, can we like… go back to talking about my boyfriend’s photoshoot,’ and it was just in my head, but you know.” He rests his head on Hao’s shoulder. “A little rude.”
Maybe Hao shouldn’t feel the palpable delight he does at knowing he preoccupies Hanbin’s thoughts to this extent, even when with other people. But sue him, he is who he is. He loves it. And he loves Hanbin.
He sets the washcloth on the bedside table and begins rubbing Hanbin’s back. “Awww. My sweet drunk baby.” He kisses his cheek and stands up. “Come on, let’s get you into pajamas, yeah?” He goes over to their dresser and pulls out Hanbin’s rarely used pajamas (he usually sleeps naked or with shorts if that, but when he’s drunk he tends to wake up chilly).
It only takes him about 30 seconds total to procure the items of clothing and turn around, but in that time, Hanbin has taken off all of his clothes and lain down on his side, head propped up on his hand. He’s staring at Hao with one of his sexy pouts that he usually reserves for Vogue Korea.
Hao bites his lip to try to not laugh, but he fails instantly, doubling over. “You’re ridiculous.” Hanbin’s delighted smile in response shows this was the exact reaction he was going for.
“Don’t pretend you don’t find it sexy,” Hanbin counters, taking the shirt from Hao and dutifully pulling it over his head. He gives up after that, so Hao takes over putting his arms through the sleeves.
“I would never pretend that, baby.” It is sexy, is the thing, the way everything Hanbin does is sexy. And it also makes Hao feel a little teary if he thinks about it for too long; Hanbin hasn’t always been this comfortable in his skin. Now he’s naked around his boyfriend just to be silly. Hao is deeply proud of him, and more than a little emotional. “But let’s get you to sleep. I won’t make you brush your teeth, but you have to in the morning.”
“Okay…” Hanbin says, and quickly jumps up to pull on the sleep shorts. “But you’ll still kiss me with tongue if I ask, right?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Okay.”
Hao turns off the light as Hanbin gets under the covers. He slides in beside him, and Hanbin instantly pulls him in close and throws a leg over Hao’s hip. They both hear the sound of Sansan scampering in, taking his place at the foot of their bed.
“Thank you for taking care of me,” Hanbin says after a moment. “My nurse, aw.”
“Your sexy nurse,” Hao corrects. “Be serious.”
“Oh, of course,” Hanbin says, very seriously. “Haohao, that part is always, like, unstated, okay? Whenever I call you anything. Please pretend ‘sexy’ is in there somewhere. Promise me. Because I can’t always say it. In all situations.” He sounds deadly serious, and holds out his pinky finger.
Hao smiles at his silly, perfect boyfriend, and loops his pinky around Hanbin’s. “Of course. Now will you go to sleep?”
“Yes, Zhang Hao-nim,” Hanbin says, saluting him. He settles under the covers, and gives Hao one last kiss. “Love you. I’m gonna dream about you.”
Hao feels so in love he could burst, and wonders how it’s possible for love to always feel this good. But he’s not about to question it, not really. It’s just real, and true, and the best thing. “I love you too. I’ll dream about you too.”