Tying his shoelaces, Austin took in a deep breath and tried to relax his shoulders as he blew it out. It had been nearly a year since he'd had Roh-Ahn in his arms. He'd worked, really hard and lots of overtime, to be able to afford the trip he was about to take.
He'd thought that he would be able to manage it after one semester, but the apartment that he was renting had been condemned. He wasn't surprised, but it had left him hanging pretty badly. He'd stayed with another professor for a week or so while finding different place, but the rent had definitely been higher than what he'd wanted. He supposed he had just been lucky that the dump he had been in had been so cheap.
At least he was proud of where he lived, and if things worked out, he'd be happy to welcome Roh-Ahn into his new home. And if things work out to where I can possibly stay over there, I'm only paying a month to month lease...
The thought, though still up in the air since he hadn't even gotten on a plane yet, brought a big smile to his face as he stood up and grabbed his suitcase.
"Only one way to find out." He told himself as he headed out the door to catch the cab he'd called ahead for.
The ride was short, but it felt like forever before he was standing at the gate waiting for the plane to begin boarding. Deep breaths. He looked toward the giant windows showing the plane he would be getting on shortly right before his phone chimed with a text message.
He fumbled for it, nearly dropping the thing before he managed to pull up the message and read it. "Hello Aus! Take care on your flight! I will see you when you land :D" The Korean was easy for him now, though he still got tripped up now and again. He had studied nearly every night and even gone to one of the local Korean restaurants where the staff were very fluent in it. It was a little awkward to ask for some lessons, and to be able to stay there for extended periods of time to learn more, but it had really helped. He'd also taken several classes in it when he wasn't teaching his own.
Those chefs were pretty darn good, but I can't say they beat Roh's skills. I can't wait to taste his food again... and him.
He knew that he was blushing a little but just shrugged it off and took in a calming breath as he looked down at his shoes, then back out at the plane.
I'm coming, Roh. Just wait a little bit longer.
Ten minutes later he was walking onto the plane. As he sat down, he couldn't manage to get himself to stop fidgeting. He'd only ever been on a plane when he was really little, and he didn't remember anything. His phone chimed again as the plane filled with people, reminding him to silence it, but not before he checked the message.
"You got this! Fighting!"
Without realizing it, he was crying.
"Is everything alright, young man? Are you off to see your loved one?" An old woman who had sat down next to him asked with a warm smile.
When Austin nodded and tucked his phone away, the woman replied. "She must be very eager to see you again, too, if what she said has you so emotional."
He is. Austin corrected in his mind as he smiled at her, not wanting to bother with telling the woman who may or may not agree on the situation that was really not her business.
As soon as the plane began taxiing he clicked his seatbelt into place and relaxed back into his chair. He'd be lying if he said that he wasn't extremely nervous, but as the plane started down the runway, he just squeezed his eyes shut and repeated Roh-Ahn's words in his head over and over until the horrible shaking stopped and they were thousands of feet above the ground.
"You aren't one for flying, are you lad?" The woman asked with a hint of humor in her voice.
Austin hesitantly squinted his eyes open and shut the cover for the window he was right next to before turning his attention to the woman.
"It's not really my thing." He said with a shaky voice.
The woman smiled again and relaxed into her own chair.
"Do not worry, hun. If we fall out of the sky, at least we'll all die instantly. There are rarely any survivors when that happens. I am going to visit my cute grandson who's sleeping with the leader of a band in Korea, so I do hope we make it safely. I've missed embarrassing him." She said as she closed her eyes and began snoring a few seconds later.
You are a strange, evil old woman!
Needless to say, every tiny drop in altitude or fidget the plane made had Austin's heart jumping in his chest. He had planned to sleep most of the flight, like Roh-Ahn had suggested, but by the time it was landing, his eyes were wide open and he had drunk four cups of coffee.
He practically ran off of the plane and immediately straight for the bathroom. Dear god, I'll take a boat back. Or swim, or something! He thought as he relieved himself, then scrubbed his hands, then face, to try and wake up a bit.
Alright. Go find your man now, and don't let him realize that you nearly had a heart attack on the plane.
Turning around with that thought in his mind, Austin nearly miss-stepped and fell right on his ass. Instead, he stumbled backward against the sink, grabbing it with one hand to keep himself upright.
"R-Roh?" He asked, his voice nearly a whisper.
Wow. Just, wow.
There was no wheelchair. No pained hunch or crinkled brow. No cane or walker.
"Hi, love." Roh-Ahn said with the smile that had haunted Austin's dreams for nearly a year.
Austin was stuck, frozen in place as Roh-Ahn walked up to him, only limping slightly as he wrapped his arms around him in a hug. The heat from Roh-Ahn thawed Austin's shock, allowing him to wrap the man in a desperate hug that Austin had to focus on so that it didn't get too tight.
"I missed you, too." Roh-Ahn said with a quiet laugh as they both leaned back just enough to find each others' lips with their own.
When they separated again, after nearly three minutes, Austin realized where they were.
"This probably isn't the best place for this." He said right before Roh-Ahn took his hand and began tugging him from the restroom with more strength than he'd ever thought the guy could possess.
I'm so happy, but I have so many questions.
They stopped at the baggage claim area, then again when they got outside. After a glance around, Austin wasn't sure what Roh-Ahn was intending to do. One of the many golf carts transporting people to and from cars stopped in front of them, and immediately Roh-Ahn tugged him toward it.
"Is someone waiting to pick us up?" Austin asked as the cart stopped and Roh-Ahn pulled him off.
I don't see Wan-Nu, or Teller, or any of the other guys...
"I have a car now." Roh-Ahn said as he walked over to a small compact car.
"Wow, really?" He asked as he walked around the car and put his luggage in the trunk, then slid into the passenger's seat.
It wasn't new, but it was very well kept and, he noticed, that there were mechanisms for the gas and break up by the steering wheel instead of down by the pedal area.
"It was modified for someone else but then they sold it and I bought it." Roh-Ahn said as he plopped down into the seat and started up the car with a push of a button.
You look so happy.
"Austin?" Roh-Ahn asked, making Austin blink out of his daze.
"Yeah? What's up?" He asked.
"You are staring at me funny." He said with a nervous glance before returning his eyes to the road.
"Hmm, funny? I was looking at you thinking that you must be very happy." He said, glad that he had studied so much Korean.
As they slowed to a stop at a red light, Roh-Ahn looked back over at him, his smile wide. "I am very happy now that I have you back." He said, making Austin look away for a moment to cool off a bit.
"You are still so cute." Roh-Ahn added as they pulled into a parking spot in front of a small, well-kept house.
It's really nice.
Stepping out, he looked around at the small, yet soft green lawn. The trees on either side of the driveway, and the little bench swing set up on the porch with just enough overhang to enjoy it while it was raining.
I could absolutely live here with him forever... if he'd have me.
He had thought that his new apartment was a great place, and it wasn't bad, but this...
"Do you like it? I couldn't really do much with it when I couldn't walk well, but I've been working really hard since the surgery." Roh-Ahn said, bringing Austin's attention abruptly back to him.
"You had another surgery?" He asked as Roh-Ahn took his hand and slowly lead him up the white wooden stairs.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I didn't want to make you worry... and when it turned out to be a success, I wanted it to be a surprise." He said as he unlocked the door, then held it open for Austin to step through.
Wow.
To say that he was surprised, not just by the fact that Roh-Ahn could walk again nearly perfectly, was an understatement... but his house was just amazing, too. It wasn't big, but that was absolutely perfect. The rooms were painted a very faint tan color. The kitchen was giant, and seemed to have every gadget in the books neatly in their own space.
Walking toward the first room, he opened the door to see a guest room set up with soft white bed linens and pillows. A dark grey fan rotated its blades slowly overhead and a similar colored curtain pulled partially over the window kept out an excessive amount of light.
"It's really cute." He said, noting the little clock on the wall and several pictures, that he assumed Roh-Ahn had taken from around Korea, because they didn't quite look professional, but they were still very good and just seemed to be his exact taste.
"Aus, come see this." Roh-Ahn said in English, his excitement palpable as he tugged Austin toward the fridge.
When he opened the door, Austin immediately remembered that he had skipped breakfast and not eaten anything on the plane because of his nerves.
"I think I'm in love all over again." He mumbled, earning a quick kiss from Roh-Ahn before he was suddenly tugged out of the room, away from the very full fridge, and into what he couldn't mistake as anything else but Roh-Ahn's bedroom.
It was more decorated than the guest room, but the photos that were on the wall...
"You brat." He whispered as he wiped at his eyes.
He hadn't expected to see all of the random photos they had taken while together in America. Even the dorky ones, the half-asleep ones. The ones where they had been staying up way too late to grade papers, but weren't really grading and were just messing around with the TV on. The ones were they finally went back to that old bastard's ice cream place, only for him to have passed away the day prior. The funeral photo was there, too, but there had been very few tears. The man's family was ridiculously cheerful about his life and had even made it an ice cream social thing. They had both gone home feeling much like a tub of Neapolitan and needing a shower.
Licking all of that ice cream off of his face and neck was one of the highlights of that month for me.
"Aus?"
Turning his attention back to Roh-Ahn, Austin smiled.
"Yeah?" He asked, noticing Roh-Ahn grabbing his other hand to hold them together.
"After I recovered somewhat from the surgery I started saving up as much as I could and began giving out meal samples to people."
Meal samples?
"A lot of people actually really liked them." He continued, though that information was unsurprising. He was one hell of a cook.
Looking down at his feet, Roh-Ahn paused for a moment, then looked up at him with a hesitant smile.
"I am actually a caterer now. I-I'm one of the top twenty in Korea already, though I don't know how that all happened so quickly." He said, his words fumbling over each other a bit.
Why do you seem embarrassed by that, you punk?
"Come here." Austin said, pulling Roh-Ahn into his arms for a strong hug.
"I'm proud as hell of you. Of everything you've done, and everything you will do." He said before holding him at arms length and smiling warmly.
"I'm so proud that you are standing in front of me. That you look so healthy, and that you are doing so well." He said.
Roh-Ahn beamed at him, earning a kiss to his forehead.
"What about you, Aus? You have been doing very well from what I know of our calls?" Roh-Ahn said as he took Austin's hand and led him back to the kitchen.
Without even asking, he took out a container that, when the lid was removed, Austin knew was immediately one of his favorites that Roh-Ahn had made while they were in America. He could eat it every day and never get sick of it.
"I made a lot, and everything else we had at your apartment that you liked." Roh-Ahn said.
So, everything? Hell yeah you are an angel.
As the food was heating up in the microwave, making his stomach growl, Austin pulled Roh-Ahn in for another kiss. Even when the food chimed that it was done, he refused to let the guy go until they were both out of breath.
"I love you." He said before kissing Roh-Ahn one more time.
After grabbing the food and inhaling nearly half of the container, Austin took Roh-Ahn's hand and took him over to the little dining table. Sitting down, he tugged the young man into his lap, then wrapped the arm holding the food container around his middle.
"I've been doing really well, I think. It took me a while to save up because I had to move to a more expensive apartment. The one I was at got condemned." He said as he reached around Roh-Ahn and got another bite of food, then fed Roh a piece.
"I am not surprised." Roh-Ahn said as he took the meat happily and leaned back against Austin's chest while he chewed.
"My new apartment is a month to month lease, so it's nice not to be tied down, even if it does cost a bit more." He hinted nervously before filling his mouth with several pieces of chicken.
Roh-Ahn shifted in his lap until he was partially facing him, then leaned in to press a kiss to his closed mouth, effectively stopping him from chewing out of sheer surprise.
"So you can move in with me soon?" He asked, making Austin nearly choke as he struggled to swallow the food in his mouth.
Once Austin was done nearly suffocating on meat, Roh-Ahn chuckled and mussed up his already messy hair a bit.
"I missed you, a lot. And I don't want you to ever disappear from my life again. A phone call or video chat isn't enough. It's not you eating dinner with me. Or watching movies on the sofa until I fall asleep. Or lying in bed snuggling... or doing other things." He was going to continue, but Austin sealed his mouth with his own. It was a very gentle kiss, but when he leaned back, he knew exactly what he was going to say.
"If you'll have me, I'll move in immediately, and I'll never fucking leave." He said, knowing that he could always deal with his stuff back in the states another time, or even have his brother or parents take care of it.
Roh-Ahn sniffed a little and smiled. "I could use some help with the financing part of this catering business.." He hinted, making Austin laugh quietly.
"I am horrible at math, but I am damn good at studying when I want something." He said in Korean with a wink, earning another kiss before Roh-Ahn slid from his lap and pulled him toward his room.
"We have a lot of things to catch up on, first." He said right before he stumbled a little.
Austin ran forward, easily catching him. Gained a little weight. I like. He thought, proud that he wasn't nearly as light as he had been. He'd been worried.
"What, pray tell, are we catching up on in your room?" He asked with a wicked smirk that soon matched Roh-Ahn's.
"Naked things!" Roh-Ahn yelled excitedly as he wrapped his arms around Austin's neck so abruptly that he fell forward and they both dropped to the carpet partially inside, and partially outside, Roh-Ahn's bedroom.
"Here is good enough." Roh-Ahn chimed as he began kissing Austin's neck, immediately making his breathing grow ragged.
"Shouldn't we shut the bedroom door?" He panted as he shifted a little, his pants quickly growing uncomfortably tight.
Roh-Ahn let his head drop to the soft carpet, making Austin's thoughts pause as he just stared down at the beautiful man beneath him. The man who wanted him. Who had waited for him. Worked hard for him.
"The door to the house is closed, and you'll be the only one who ever has a key. So love me, Austin, and don't ever stop."
-End
(Sorry I don't do very pervy stuff in this specific series lol I hope you guys enjoyed it, I really loved writing for these two dorks.)