It’s far too early when Kyungsoo feels the warmth of his blanket disappearing from his body and Baekhyun’s surprisingly strong fingers poking at his cheek. He doesn’t actually move until he hears his roommate mumble “wake up before I destroy everything you know and love” close enough to his ear that it sends a shiver right down his spine and causes him to slide out of bed out of pure fear for his life.

“It’s five thirty in the morning,” he yawns into his hand, trying to glare daggers at Baekhyun, who’s already sliding under the covers of his own bed. “What was that for?”

Baekhyun waves a hand a hand towards the door and rolls over so that his back is facing Kyungsoo. “Tell that bastard that if he comes knocking on our door again at this time in the morning I will ruin his life, kay?”

Kyungsoo gives his entire body a slight shake before he moves to open the door. He’s too tired to even begin to comprehend who in their right minds would show up at a time like this, so he can’t even bring himself to be surprised when he opens the door to see a tousle-haired Suho staring at him through half-lidded eyes.

“S-Su…. Junmyeon-hyung?” He questions softly, stepping out into the hallway and closing the door behind him. He’s aware he’s standing there in ugly pyjama pants and an oversized white tshirt, but Suho’s outfit isn’t much better—he’s still wearing the same thing as he wore clubbing last night, it seems, except extremely wrinkly and minus the (very appealing) tight, black leather jacket.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Suho says in explanation as he screws his eyes shut tightly to will away a yawn. “Walk with me?”

Kyungsoo’s glad he at least put on his slippers when Suho takes hold of his hand and leads him down the long hallway, past all the other dorms. He stays quiet, letting Suho lead him, while he stares down at their entwined fingers and wonders if this is a dream. In his half-awake daze, it certainly feels like one.

They end up outside. Suho quickens his pace as they hurry across the giant field, over the runway and towards the giant hanger that stores the planes overnight. Kyungsoo slows to a stop, letting his hand unclasp from Suho’s and drop to his side. “Hyung?” He says quietly. Suho turns to look at him, a tiny smile lighting up his otherwise sullen features.

“Have you ever been on a plane, Kyungsoo?” He asks.

“Never,” Kyungsoo shakes his head no. “I was never given a chance to.”

“Mm,” Suho hums and then takes hold of his hand again. “Flying is my everything. I… want to share it with you, Kyungsoo-ah.”

“Aren’t you tired?” He asks, his voice shaking.

“Yeah,” Suho nods. “But it never has and never will affect my flying.”

Kyungsoo’s grip tightens around Suho’s hand—he’s nervous, so nervous, but also excited. Watching planes always fascinated him, but being in one…it seemed like more than he could even hope for. He’s not sure he would have gone for this if it was anyone else, but he trusts Suho. Trusts his capabilities.

“Okay,” he whispers, and they continue their trek to the hanger. Suho lets go of him again, only to punch in a code to one of the garage doors, and it opens slowly, revealing the sleek, black jet, that seems a million times bigger now that Kyungsoo is standing so close to it. It’s a little overwhelming, then, and he can feel the nerves taking over his system, his entire body trembling as Suho leads him over to a step ladder.

“This is my plane,” Suho says proudly, like he’s introducing a pet or a child. “It’s only a one man jet, so it’ll be a bit of a squeeze. Just climb in and sit as far forward as you can, I’ll get in behind you, okay?”

“B-behind?” Kyungsoo stutters. Why behind? Didn’t Suho have to be in front to use the controls?

“Just trust me,” He squeaks as Suho pushes on his to help hoist him into the tiny opening at the top of the plane. He does as he’s told, wiggles forward as far as possible, and he’s surprised when Suho slips in behind him with ease. Suho places the only helmet and pair of goggles in the cockpit over Kyungsoo’s head and then buckles them in, together.

“Lean back against my chest there – okay. Good. Now I can see over you. Don’t worry about obstructing my view of the controls; I could do this in my sleep.”

He closes his eyes when he feels everything begin to vibrate. He’s trembling again in his nervousness, but he doubts Suho can feel it at this point, he’s busy flicking on switches and soon he’s nudging Kyungsoo’s leg out of the way to get more comfortable.

It feels like it takes forever for the plane to get out on the runway. He cannot describe the feeling he gets in that split second that the wheels finally leave the ground. His heart seems to drop from his chest to his stomach, and he feels invincible, weightless, like the sky that they’re rocketing towards is all his. He feels Suho’s body shake behind him before he hears the laughter, and he can just tell that Suho knows, knows exactly what’s going through his mind at that moment and how he feels.

It’s amazing. There’s no other word for it. He’s still a bit nervous, fingers curling tightly into Suho’s knees, which are on either side of him, as he looks out of the window at the ground for the first time and realizes just how far up they really are. He can’t even tell what the base is, down there, it’s just a mass of buildings and roads and grass and the cars along the highways are just like multicoloured ants.

“Hold on tight,” it’s his only warning before the plan suddenly makes a sharp turn, tilting almost completely on its side as it takes the curve. Kyungsoo isn’t entirely sure what the noise is that escapes his mouth, but it sounds somewhere between a screech and a yelp, and Suho’s laughing again as the plane straightens itself out and continues to fly on. “Sorry about that!”

He can only whimper as Suho rocks the plane back and forth through the air. Kyungsoo’s able to regain himself quickly, leaning over Suho’s left knee to stare out of the window again. They’re even further up, small, wispy clouds obstructing his view of the ground this time. He never, ever, once imagined that he’d be able to look down on them.

“Do you want to try it?” Suho asks him after he’s managed to completely calm down again. Kyungsoo’s not exactly sure he heard it right.

“T-Try it?” He gasps out. He feels Suho’s chin rub up and down against his shoulder. He’s nodding. “If you want me to kill us both.” He says in the end.

“Don’t be silly,” Suho chuckles as he takes both of Kyungsoo’s hands from his knees, places them onto each joystick and then covers them with his own. “I’m right here.”

“Okay…” Suho pushes his hand slightly, the one covering the right joystick, and it dips below the clouds again. “This one controls altitude.” He says, but Kyungsoo has absolutely no idea what that word means, so in his head it’s the ‘up and down’ one. “And the other is how you turn. Don’t push that one too far, or you’ll flip the plane.”

Kyungsoo takes a deep breath and puts a little bit of pressure on the left joystick, hoping to turn the plane just a bit to the right. When the entire thing tilts sideways again he squeaks and withdraws his hands, his chest heaving as he struggles to get his breaths out regularly again. “I’m going to die.” He’s now covering his face, peeking through his fingers at the controls. Suho straightens the plane out again and then giggles into his shoulder. “I want to go back on the ground. Put us down.”

“You did fine. You wanted to turn, right? It’ll always tilt to turn. Don’t worry.”

“I’m going to throw up.”

“Okay, okay,” Suho says and he shifts himself slightly to reach one of the buttons on the dash. He then pushes the right joystick forward again, and Kyungsoo thinks he might actually throw up when the plane begins a steep descent towards the ground. He gulps and covers his eyes completely, not removing his hands until he feels the plane touchdown.

 “Where are we?” He asks, when he peeks outside the window. All he can see is trees and grass, so he’s pretty sure they’re nowhere near the base.

“Sector four,” Suho answers easily, like his statement didn’t suddenly make me a criminal, oh my god, I’m going to—Kyungsoo’s cut short of his thought when Suho wriggles out from behind him and pushes open the door, as well as the window on top of them. “I know what you’re thinking. I come here all the time, I’ve never been caught. It’s my favourite place in the world to relax.” He climbs onto the edge of the doorframe and leaps off the plane, landing easily on his two feet on the ground. Kyungsoo gets up to do the same, but pales when he sees how far he actually has to jump.

“Where’s the stepladder?” He asks slowly, and Suho grins at him.

“Just jump. I’m here.” He holds out his arms to prove it and Kyungsoo’s sure that he’ll put the best pilot out of commission if he takes the advice and jumps.

“Step back, please, I don’t want to kill you,” Suho chuckles and nods, taking one step back. Kyungsoo half-jumps-half-slides down the side of the plane and loses his footing once he hits the ground, tripping right into Suho’s waiting arms.

“You okay there?” Suho asks him, amused, when he doesn’t make any efforts to straighten himself up. He groans out loud and slides his arms around Suho’s neck. He’s never felt this dizzy in his life.

Suho’s breathing falters and he pulls Kyungsoo closer, places steadying hands on his hips and waits, silently, for him to come to again.

“Dizzy,” Kyungsoo mumbles, and he curses himself for seeming so vulnerable, curses his lack of ability to speed up his recovery.

“Come on, let’s sit down.” Suho leads him slowly over to a comfortable looking patch of grass and helps him take a seat. “You’re doing really well for your first time. A lot of people even pass out.”

“Mn,” Kyungsoo can believe that, he’s sure he’s not far from it himself. He feels like he’s leaning on Suho a little too much, but it’s the only thing that stops the world from spinning too quickly.

Suho places an arm around his shoulder and he releases yet another trembling breath, but this time for a completely different reason. “Why?” He wonders out loud. He wants to know lots of things. Like why Suho asked him to dance with random girls yesterday, why Suho decided to wake him up for this at 5:30 in the morning and why, why, why is he treating him like this now?

“Because I’m sorry,” Kyungsoo isn’t sure which question this is in answer to. “I’m sorry for making you dance with those girls yesterday. I didn’t want that. I feel so stupid.”

“You didn’t want it,” Kyungsoo states.

“Mmn. I panicked… I was really shy.”  

“Shy?” Yet another question is now nagging at Kyungsoo’s mind. He didn’t think Suho was even capable of anything close to shyness. He’s perfection in human form—what is there to be ashamed of?

“I wanted to ask you to dance with me. Not anyone else. But then I thought you’d say no. Because I’m not sure what all of your expressions mean yet, I was worried you thought I was…”

“I would have said yes,” Kyungsoo clarifies. It’s a little too late, but maybe Suho would appreciate knowing. “Despite my horrible dancing skills. That’s why I looked like…whatever I looked like. I thought I’d make a fool of myself in front of you.”

Maybe it’s the time of day, maybe it’s the fact that he hasn’t really had much of a chance to organize what he feels about Suho into proper thoughts, but he’s finding it surprisingly easy to admit all of this.

“Even if you made a fool of yourself, Kyungsoo-ah, it would have just made me like you more.”

“Like me more…” He sighs happily as Suho’s grip tightens. He pulls them both back so they’re lying on the grass. Kyungsoo curls up against his chest. It’s comfortable, so comfortable.

“It killed me. I went looking for you when I noticed you disappeared, I saw you outside with Kai and it killed me. He’s like a brother to me. I’d give him anything. But not you, not that easy. I couldn’t sleep because I thought he had you and I…”

“He doesn’t have me. I’ve always only thought about you.” It’s true. Since the day they met, his thoughts have always somehow found their way back to him. His smile, his laugh, his perfection, his flying. Everything. But he still can’t wrap his head around the fact that Suho likes him. Likes him; plain, simple, boring and not-conventionally-attractive Kyungsoo, someone who has never been desired by anyone until he moved to zone one, and suddenly a hotshot pilot and his prodigy best friend (a man too good for even his dreams) have both expressed interest in him in the space of 12 hours.

They remain there, silent, for god knows how long. Kyungsoo hopes he isn’t being a bother, running his hands over Suho’s chest, abdomen, up and down his arms, revelling in the feel that this is his, now. This is all his.

He props his chin up on his hand after a while and smiles when he sees that Suho is fast asleep, lips parted ever so slightly, his breaths coming out in short puffs. He looks so angelic when he’s sleeping, that Kyungsoo can get over the fact that they’ve landed illegally in government territory. He wants to stay there forever, just him and Suho. Nothing but happiness. No war. No rivalries. No pressure. Just them.

-

I finally got the last scene out of my system, so I posted this a little early in celebration of that. 19,320 words in total, but it could probably hit 20k with edits/rewrites as I go. :3

You're all getting so into it haha, but yeah, this fic was mostly done/is finished now, the ending won't change depending on which pairing is more popular etc~ lol 

We're just over halfway done now :D 

One thing I do have to say is, is that this is an entire universe. I have plots shelled out for taoris, hunhan, a surprise future pair (lol) and baekyeol. Which one of these would you be most eager to see?