Lavender Bubbles °• Changjin

○ 28 ○

By time the event ended, Hyunjin was practically dragging Changbin to the car to leave. He looked like the city drunkard, feet shuffling along as he dragged himself to vehicle and deflated down in the passenger seat to his balloon state. To the older's surprise, he managed to stay awake throughout the hour and a half drive back to his apartment, talking about the various things that happened during the event, one of which being the interesting case of the missing child loose in the event center who wasn't actually missing nor was a child. Though his voice was drowned out by growl of the air conditioner, Changbin managed to hear enough of his words to understand what he was saying.

They arrived back to his apartment at some ungodly hour in the morning, again. The kind of hour that was reserved for nightclub hopping, existential thoughts, and exciting haunted graveyard visits, not the kind of hour that everyone wanted to be up at unless they were a plagued insomniac. Changbin took the other's phone and unlocked the door, entering first to set the  folded suit jacket down on the couch. How he ended up with it by the end of the day, was a complete mystery to him.

The door thumped close with a beep, alerting that they were both locked inside the apartment. Changbin turned back to Hyunjin.

In time for him to witness Hyunjin collapse onto the floor.

Changbin's heart plummeted.

He lurched forward, "Hyunjin?!"

"No, no! I'm okay, I'm alive," The younger's voice came muffled, his cheek brushing onto the hard wood as he wiggled his body around a little. Like a worm, scooting forward on his stomach a few centimeters before setting himself comfortable again. His hands stretched out onto the wooden floor as he huffed out a tired breath and put his chin on the floor to give Changbin a squishy smile. He curled his hand into a thumbs-up, "I'm okay, this is the first step of my after-event self-care routine."

Changbin wandered over to him, his hands trembling lightly by his sides as he scanned him over, "Laying on the floor? That's your self care?"

"It's my therapy," Hyunjin nodded, a dopey smile dazing him out as he pushed himself onto his back and splayed out like a starfish. He reached his hands far, that cute little mueh sound coming from again to let Changbin know he was stretching his muscles out. He shut his eyes as he muttered to himself,  "My costless, effective therapy."

"Yeah, costless, effective therapy," Changbin repeated. He set his hands on his hips and turned around from the adorable little puppy eyes looking up at him from the floor, a heavy exhale from his lungs calming the light shakes quivering him throughout his body. He clenched his hands, tensing them up for a moment before releasing them wide, the motion causing the side effects of the unnecessary adrenaline dump to ease little by little. With another deep breath, Changbin rubbed at his own exhausted eyes no doubt dotted with red at the lack of the beautiful thing called sleep he wanted. He tried to brush his reaction off with a joke of, "Shit, I think I'm going to have to go to therapy after seeing you drop to the floor like that."

"Sorry, I should've warned you," Hyunjin winced. He rolled his feet back and forth like a child as he stretched a hand out to Changbin, fingers crawling along the floor as he reached out to him, "Do you want to sit with me?"

"On the floor?"

"On the floor.

Changbin furrowed his eyebrows, "Uh..."

Well, yes, I do want to.

He blinked down at the younger.

I want to, why am I not saying anything?

"I know it's kind of a dumb request," Hyunjin retracted with a defeat killing off the brightness in his expression. He pulled his hands in to him, coming to lay them atop his chest as he stared blankly up to the smooth ceiling above him, a knee folding up as he laid still on the floor. His chest rose gently. Then fell. Like a gentle ebb and flow on a beach side, in and out, the calming repetition of the breaths the only thing Changbin chose to focus on. After a moment of only those breaths filling the silence between them, Hyunjin murmured up to the ceiling "You don't have to if you don't want to, I won't force you or anything. Even if you're only in the apartment with me, I like the company regardless."