cold | junhao

十三

Jun arrives at Minghao's front door with one more bruise than he had when he left home. dismounting the bike that had caused said bruise, Jun leans it up by the front door, giving it one nasty glare before knocking impatiently on the door.

Just as Minghao had expected, the sky is dark and grey today, and the wind is brisk and chilled, sending shivers up and down Jun's spine. What's more, he swears he can feel droplets of rain trickling down the back of his neck. He knocks again, desperate to be let inside. Hurry up, Hao, he thinks. I don't want to get ill on my birthday.

Finally the door swings open, and Jun barges in with a sigh of relief without even glancing at the boy who opened the door. Now he does though, and he notices how Minghao's hair is dripping wet, and he seems to be wearing nothing but a dressing gown.

"Sorry," Minghao says after closing the door. "I was in the shower."

Jun shakes his head in dismissal and wanders through to the kitchen, slipping his phone onto the counter top and leaving it there to explore, while Minghao watches him in bemusement. 

He beelines for the room behind the kitchen, where he knows he'll a find a few certain furry friends, and Jun can't help the smile that bursts on to his face once he peeks his head through and is greeted by happy pattering of feet and loud mews. He sits down amongst the piles of toys and lets Lulu and Xing leap onto his lap. He cradles them gently, but his eyes are still searching for another kitten. 

He finds Ai fast asleep, her little body curled in on itself.

"They got a hello before I did - I'm offended."

Jun glances behind him at Minghao, now in the room and string at him with his arms crossed and a playful grin on his face. Jun stands up and walks over to him, wrapping his arms around the younger to envelop him in a hug. "I'm sorry sweetheart," he says, pouting. He tries to say more and carry on his acting, but his giggles get the better of him as well as Minghao firmly pushing him away, with a disgusted expression as he over-exaggerates and wipes his hands off on his robe. 

Jun laughs, for some reason feeling in a much happier mood than he normally is. Maybe it's the feelings in his heart that have only been getting stronger as the past week has been rolling on, and maybe that's got something to do with the way something erupts in his chest at the sight of Minghao's bright smile, and shining eyes and blushing cheeks.

Jun pauses, unable to stop himself from staring at Minghao. He realises how his eyes must be giving him away, but honestly he can't care enough to hide it. Minghao meets his eyes for a second before looking away swiftly and scooping up the bag of food to fill up the bowls in the corner of the room.

Watching him as he proceeds to coax Ai awake, Jun's eyes are wide and starry while Minghao does such a mundane task as feeding her, with a special type of milk that he pulls out from somewhere. Jun vaguely remembers him saying that Ai is too young to eat whole foods, and should still be relying on her mother's milk. 

"Paint my portrait if you'll watch me for that long."

And suddenly Jun's yanked back to reality, where Minghao still hasn't spared another glance at him, but could feel the sharp gaze on the back of him head. Jun looks away.

He lets Minghao finish what he's doing, now averting his eyes to anywhere besides the other male in the room. After a couple of minutes he settles on fussing Lulu, occupying himself by scratching behind her ears and rubbing her belly, which Jun likes to think she's smiling at.

He hears a shuffle, followed by Minghao's voice. "What time shall we eat lunch?"

Jun shrugs, "I've had breakfast already, but if you haven't then we can eat earlier or whenever you're hungry." Minghao nods. After they settle in the living room and Jun digs out his phone, Minghao excuses himself to carry on getting dressed. Jun watches him go with a small smile, before sighing at the expansive messages that have been pinging through on his phone all morning. The longest ones are from Jeonghan and Seokmin, wishing him a happy birthday among other things.