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(P.S. Myungyeol relationship starts to develop in the next few chappies, and is imminent xD)

"Hang on..." Sungyeol retracted his hand for a moment, and Myungsoo curled his fingers close to his empty palm, so that it didn't feel too lonely.

"Hmm?" Myungsoo turned around to look at Sungyeol. Something wriggling, furry and warm was into his face, causing him to make a series of very unmanly squeaks in surprise, and stumble backwards involuntarily.

"Sungyeol!" Myungsoo raised his hands to defend himself from the wrath of the kitten at him, which only blinked sleepily in response, "Don't do that!" Myungsoo spluttered.

"Why?" Sungyeol asked, one eyebrow raised, and Myungsoo just knew that his best friend was about to challenge his courageous front.

"It's not because I'm scared of baby cats." Myungsoo shook his head vehemently. "No. You'll just scare the poor..." Myungsoo trailed off and stared at the soft, fluffy creature, "...Kitty..." He finished lamely, shuddering a little.

"Mmm." Sungyeol brought his hand that cradled the kitten closer to Myungsoo's defensive ones, and deposited it there, much to the horror of his friend.

"We'll have to smuggle him on the bus back to your house." Sungyeol motioned to Myungsoo's jacket with his currently free hands. "And you have a jacket that has a pocket on the inside. Perfect." Sungyeol grinned at the paling Myungsoo.

"But...but..." Myungsoo struggled to find words, "You found him. Finders keepers. You should keep him with you." Myungsoo tried to hand the kitten back to Sungyeol, who merely motioned to his non-pocketed jacket, and refused to take the creature.

Myungsoo could see no point in resisting anymore, and shut up, and gently, gingerly placed the little cat in the inner pocket. It wriggled about a bit, and went to sleep, lulled by the rocking of Myungsoo's strides as they headed to the nearest bus stop.

The silence between the two boys was a comfortable, friendly one, but Myungsoo broke it because he couldn't contain his curiosity anymore.

"Where did you get it?" Myungsoo turned his head, so he faced Sungyeol without breaking his stride.

Sungyeol understood what Myungsoo was talking about. Sometimes it amazed Myungsoo how well Sungyeol knew him already.

"Remember those guys this morning?" Sungyeol winced a little at the memory, and Myungsoo silently sympathised with him. "The biggest guy's family owns a cat (unfortunate creature), and it had kittens, and...and...and..." Sungyeol took a deep breath to calm himself.

"It was one day after school, I turned the corner (you know, the one before the bus stop), And they were there, teasing the kitten, flicking small pebbles at it, and after one of them kicked the poor creature, I snapped, and..." Sungyeol trailed off.

Myungsoo couldn't really visualise Sungyeol, snapping, and so Sungyeol went on to explain,

"I got into a fight with them--" Sungyeol was interrupted by Myungsoo.

"What? All of them? At once? By yourself?" Myungsoo was glad he couldn't picture the scene. Sungyeol seemed to ignore his questions.

"--And the teachers were alerted by the commotion, and they separated us, rounded us all up." Sungyeol shrugged defeatedly.

"What happened after that?" Myungsoo's voice was low. Sungyeol in air through his teeth.

"They were expelled." Sungyeol ran a hand through his hair, "They were going to be anyway, the school was just looking for a better reason, I guess. They were an absolute terror in my school, what with all their violent bullying, extortions, and general chaos they created on a daily basis. They blamed me of course, for being kicked out of school, and so they me." Sungyeol finished his story. Myungsoo had a feeling it wasn't so simple.

"How long has this been going on?" Myungsoo's voice was coaxing.

Sungyeol on his lower lip for a while before answering. "I don't know..." He avoided eye contact with Myungsoo.

Myungsoo wished he'd hit the boys this morning with all he had. How dare they. To Sungyeol. The most amazing part of his life (that was soon coming to an end, but Myungsoo didn't want to think about that right now. There were more pressing issues at hand).

"But it's alright now. I've got you, and Sunggyu, and your other friends to back me up. I'm not scared anymore." And he smiled so brightly at Myungsoo all of a sudden, that Myungsoo almost believed him.

"Aren't you pissed off at them? Don't you want to take revenge?" Myungsoo's fist was already clenched, already imagining how goddamn good it would feel to throttle the guys from that morning.

"Huh?" Sungyeol turned to stare at Myungsoo, eyes wide and curious. "Revenge? Why...?"

And Myungsoo realised that the person walking beside him really wasn't human. Sungyeol was probably the nicest being alive. That was what made him love Sungyeol.

Love?!

Myungsoo brought his hand to his temples and rubbed hard. Love? Sungyeol? Myungsoo brought his other hand to slap his face, trying to shake himself away from the weird thought. Then he paused. Maybe it wasn't so weird. Sungyeol was his best-est of friends. Of course he loved the guy. Like, as a close friend, or a brother or something. Loving again in the other way would just complicate things, and he knew from experience never to mix friendship with romance. Sungyeol would probably just get disgusted with him, and abandon him. And then he'd be alone once more.

Myungsoo had never realised how much he hated being alone.

"You okay?" Sungyeol looked at Myungsoo oddly, and he realised that one of his hands was still kneading his forehead, and the other was smacking his face. Weird. He looked weird.

"Do you think I'm weird?" Myungsoo asked, and then regretted doing so. He was afraid of the answer. But for the life of him, he couldn't work out just what was so terrifying about the thought of Sungyeol thinking he was a weirdo.

"You are weird in a way, I guess..." Sungyeol mused, after considering Myungsoo for a while.

Myungsoo's heart sank impossibly low.

"...But it's a good weird, so I guess I'd call it being unique." Sungyeol finished off with a grin at his best friend's expression. "Be sure to hide the cat." He reminded Myungsoo as they stepped into the lights of the bus stop.

Once aboard the bus and grabbing a seat, Myungsoo leaned back, and counted the number of lights on the bus to try to stay awake. He'd run quite a bit that night, and he was tired out. And he didn't trust Sungyeol to get off at the correct bus stop. The beach wasn't the most pleasant place to spend a winter's night.

"Twenty two. Including the GPS screen beside the driver." Myungsoo muttered to himself.

"Hmm?" Sungyeol looked up from the book he was reading. Myungsoo recognised it from the last time he'd visited Sungyeol's house.

"Fairy tales? Again?" Myungsoo raised an eyebrow. "Just how old are you, Sungyeol?"

His friend clutched the book to his chest. "No one's ever too old for happy endings."

Myungsoo couldn't find anything to refute that, so he just grumbled quietly to himself.

"I believe in happy endings." Sungyeol offered with another one of his huge smiles, and Myungsoo had to in his cheeks to stop smiling back. Damn his smiles were contagious.

"Well I don't," Myungsoo was about to add a very decisive 'so there' for further emphasis, but an unexpected wriggling movement against his chest startled him into giving a startled yelp instead. The kitten had woken up.

At first, Sungyeol couldn't figure out what in the world was wrong with Myungsoo. Then he noticed a small movement in his jacket. The kitten! Animals weren't allowed on the bus, and they weren't near Myungsoo's apartment yet. He didn't fancy walking in the cold. Sungyeol hurriedly placed a hand over the moving chest part of Myungsoo's jacket, and it soothingly.

"Yah... Stop it..." Myungsoo swatted Sungyeol's hand away, feeling the heat creep up to his cheeks for some unknown reason. "People are staring at us strangely..." He trailed off, and Sungyeol realised how misleading his actions were. It wasn't like that at all! Sungyeol looked around desperately at the other commuters who glanced away quickly. It was just that touching Myungsoo felt so....

Natural. It just felt so right to be so touchy-feel-y with Myungsoo.

Sungyeol marveled at his hand. How many times had he used it to grip Myungsoo's hand? How many times had he used it to Myungsoo's hair? How many times had he used it to pat Myungsoo's back? Sungyeol couldn't help thinking back to the way his hand had brushed against, cradled Myungsoo's (perfect) face when he'd given the boy thank-you-kisses. Sungyeol's face burned slightly, and he looked away, out of the window.

"AIEEEEHAHAHAHHA!" Myungsoo jolted out of his seat, squealing, then giggling like a rabied schoolgirl. The kitten had wriggled against his ribs again, and it tickled him so.

Everyone on the bus stared at him. Myungsoo sat again calmly, then slid further down in his seat, and tried to pretend he wasn't there.

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"Oh god. I'm pooped." Sungyeol pulled off his shoes and stumbled into Myungsoo's apartment, flopping messily on the couch. Myungsoo scooped the kitten out of his pocket, and set it down on a nest of blankets on his bed. It should stay safe there while the boys were getting ready for bed.

Myungsoo smiled at Sungyeol.

"You can use the bathroom first." Myungsoo offered generously, and Sungyeol took it up, dragging himself wearily off the couch. Myungsoo headed to the kitchen to make himself a mug of hot chocolate. They'd gotten off the stop after Myungsoo had screeched, and walked the rest of the way home in the cold, and Myungsoo needed something nice and warm to wrap his hands around. He rubbed his nose, searching for two mugs (he presumed Sungyeol was every bit as tired and cold as he was from the long, cold walk back).

Having drunk his fill of the sweet steaming liquid, Myungsoo wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, and set Sungyeol's share down on his coffee table. The toilet was silent now--Sungyeol had probably already tucked himself in bed. Pausing with one hand on the doorknob, and listening hard just to make sure he wasn't about to walk in on a...busy...Sungyeol, Myungsoo relaxed, and swung the door open.

And came face to face with Sungyeol, as bare as the day he was born.

Myungsoo could tell even with the covering of clothes over his body, that Sungyeol wasn't what he'd consider big in his build, but he'd never actually realised just how slender Sungyeol actually was. Myungsoo's eyes travelled from Sungyeol's equally shocked face, to his shoulders, to his arms, with just the right amount of softy curving muscle and flesh to be perfect, to his flat tummy, down to his narrow waist, down to his...

Myungsoo didn't trust his eyes to look any farther, and shook himself out of his dream-like trance.

"Oh. Oh gosh. I'm sorry...I'll just..." And then he leapt out of the bathroom, as if to save his life (although it might have well been--his heart was hammering so hard against his ribcage, it seemed as if it would explode at any moment). Sungyeol was so good-looking, even his body was perfect (or--what he'd seen of his body, rather). The bathroom door he was leaning against flew open again.

"I'm done, you know, are you urgent? I can clear out for you..." Sungyeol reappeared, with the meagre covering of a towel around his waist. Myungsoo's eyes travelled to Sungyeol's smooth, pale legs, and he gulped (though not visibly, he hoped).

"I-It's fine." Myungsoo tried to avert his eyes from Sungyeol. The sight was dangerous in more than one way.

"No really, I'm done with the bathroom--" Sungyeol stepped out, closer to Myungsoo.

"It's f-fine..." Myungsoo waved his hands infront of his face in an attempt to force himself to stop staring at Sungyeol.

"No really--" Sungyeol took another step.

"JUST GET BACK IN, SUNGYEOL." Myungsoo shoved the boy back into the bathroom. "AND PUT ON SOME CLOTHES ALREADY." He huffed, breathing a little heavily.

"I've got a towel," Sungyeol's voice sounded slightly echo-y in the toilet.

"REAL CLOTHES." Myungsoo sprinted into his bedroom, scrabbled for a pair of pyjamas, and stuffed them into the bathroom. He touched his face. Too hot to be normal.

How embarrassing.

Scurrying back to his bedroom, Myungsoo gently lifted the sleeping kitten on the blankets, placed the bundle gently on the floor, careful not to wake it up, and then dived under his covers, shielding his face from a very bewildered Sungyeol who returned to the room fully dressed (much to Myungsoo's relief).

"Myungsoo?" Sungyeol peered over at the blanketed lump that was Myungsoo, "Don't you need to wash your face, and brush your teeth before you sleep?"

Myungsoo pretended to be asleep.

And so Sungyeol shrugged, the night light that Myungsoo had just left there for the next time Sungyeol decided to sleep over, turned out the light, and fell asleep, tired out from the day's activities.

It wasn't so simple for Myungsoo, wonderfully tortured by the earlier images...

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