News of Sehun’s challenge against Jongin spreads like wildfire throughout the school. Considering the fact that both Pokémon are still just babies, Jay persuades Sehun to wait until at least a whole week after his Pidgey hatched. But being his stubborn self, Sehun insists on only giving it two days to get used to its own body and listening to him. Jungsu seems worried about his new classmate and is constantly giving him little tidbits of advice when they’re together. But once classes end for the day, the tenseness hangs like a fog in the EXO K dorm.

“Get out of my way, ,” Sehun growls at Jongin as the elder blocks his path to the bathroom.

“What the HELL is your problem?! So what if I let you sleep in a little today? That doesn’t mean you have to go and challenge me to a match! The entire school is gossiping about us now, !”

“My PROBLEM is that you LET me sleep in! You know I can never wake myself up on time! And you took advantage of it for seemingly no reason at all!”

Jongin opens his mouth to shout back, but Kyungsoo quickly steps between them.

“Would you two cool it? You sound like a quarreling couple or something! … Let’s all just take a deep breath and deal with this like adults. Even though you’re both barely eighteen, it doesn’t matter. You’re here, which means someone thought of you as adult enough to be trained to be Gym Leaders. Does that mean nothing to you two?” he asks, his voice softening gradually once he has the attention of the fighting “friends”.

“I’m sorry, Kyungsoo-ah… This jerk just gets under my skin so easily. Besides, he deserved it for how he acted when your Drilbur hatched and it wasn’t his dumb bird,” Jongin murmurs softly, ready to take the shorter boy away to the couch to cuddle and just be cute.

Unfortunately, Sehun is not satisfied with this at all, especially not after Jongin’s comment.

“Would you stop it? Seriously. You met this guy not even a couple days ago and yet you’re already on cloud nine it seems. But if you won’t let me use my own bathroom, then I’ll just go next door and use EXO M’s. At least they seem to be somewhat reasonable… Unlike you, Kim Jongin,” the youngest says angrily, yet still somewhat more quietly, before stomping out of the dorm entirely with his baby Pidgey hopping along behind him.

The somewhat-couple stare after the maknae for a few moments and then turn to each other at the exact same time. The two boys blush as they make eye contact suddenly.

“Do you um… want to watch some tv or something?” Jongin finally offers, nodding towards the couch.

“I’m up for it if you can find the remote. Or we can just cuddle… I guess… And talk about stuff,” Kyungsoo says somewhat shyly.

Next door the Chinese-dominated living space sits basically uninhabited, save for one rather baby-faced Chinese boy and his baby Ralts. The soft knock on the door startles him at first. He had previously been lost in deep thought trying to find the best possible outcome for Sehun and Jongin’s fight. No matter how hard he had thought about it, Jongin had the advantage until Sehun’s Pidgey learns an attack that is of the Flying type. But he quickly jumps up and answers it, surprised to find the very boy he had been trying to strategize for standing before him.

“Um… L-Luhan hyung… Can I hang out here for a while tonight? I can’t stand being in the same dorm as Jongin right now… The bastard wouldn’t even let me use my own bathroom so can I at least use yours even if I need to head back to my own dorm?” the taller boy asks somewhat shyly.

Luhan unconsciously bites his lower lip as he weighs the options in his head. His roommates wouldn’t mind as long as Sehun stayed out in the main living spaces, right? After all, there hadn’t been any rules against visiting the other dorms as far as he can remember.

“Be my guest, Sehun-ah. After all, we’re both technically EXO… even if I am Chinese while you’re Korean,” he says with a cute little smile.

Before Sehun can even say thank you he’s ushered into the dorm by his overly-friendly hyung. He’s surprised to find the dorm looks exactly like his… save for the slight difference in colors. Any piece of furniture or accessory that’s green back in his dorm is red here, but in the same place. He slides off his shoes and bows gratefully to Luhan before ducking into the bathroom and making full use of the first urinal he can get to, unaware of the fact that his Pidgey is still following him.

‘I’d better be a good host and at least make tea…’ Luhan thinks to himself as he waits for Sehun to relieve himself.

With that thought, he ducks into the small kitchenette that’s attached to the living room and puts a pot of water on the small stove to boil. His Ralts shuffles over to him and tugs at his pants lightly, making a cute little noise in the process.

“Sorry baby… I bet you’re hungry, aren’t you?” he asks in a tender voice, earning an excited squeal from the tiny Pokémon.

After a quick glance at the pot he goes over to the small pantry and gets out a bag of Pokémon food, frowning when he realizes the pieces are rather big and crunchy-looking. He sighs heavily and puts the bag on the next shelf up with just the slightest struggle. Pouting to himself, he decides to check the mini fridge for some semblance of baby food… or at least a soft type of human food. Some rice would probably be okay… but he doubts that there will be much of that in the dorm yet.

“What’re you looking for?”

The sudden question scares Luhan a bit. He whirls around and practically walks right into Sehun, blushing madly as he does so.

“W-Well… um… I need to feed Ralts, but I can’t find food that’s suitable for a baby Pokémon… All we have is the large pellet-like food that grown Pokémon eat,” he explains rather quickly, unaware that he’s avoiding any eye contact with the younger.

“Oh. Have you checked the fridge yet?” the oblivious boy asks.

“I was just about to when you walked in and scared the crap out of me…”

“Sorry about tha- Oh! You started some tea?” Sehun asks as the tea kettle whistles loudly.

Before Luhan can even respond, Sehun moves over to the stove and expertly shuts off the flames. As if he’s in his own home he quickly reaches up to the cupboard above the stove where the tea is stored.

“Hmm… They keep Red Chai? How odd… Want some of that, hyung?” he asks somewhat politely.

“S-Sure,” Luhan mumbles quickly before ducking back into the fridge again.

Without another word the two of them work around each other. Eventually Sehun manages to get two cups of piping hot tea set out on the small counter. Luhan quickly finds a jar labeled “Baby Pokémon Food” on one of the shelves in the fridge and gets a spoon. He scoops up his little Ralts in one arm, cradling it like a baby and then starts feeding it slowly. Unbeknownst to him, he even makes little faces at his Ralts as if he’s teaching a human baby how to spoon feed. It’s not until Sehun chuckles a little that he looks up at the other with a pout on his face.

“What’s so funny?” he asks in an almost-whine.

“You are. You’re just too adorable, hyung,” Sehun replies quickly, not even thinking through his words.

A short silence settles over the small kitchen as the color of Luhan’s cheeks darkens considerably. Suddenly the baby Pidgey starts pecking lightly at Luhan’s foot, causing said boy to nearly jump out of his seat.

“H-Hey! … Oh.. It’s your Pidgey. Looks like it’s pretty attached to you already,” the Chinese boy says with a soft smile.

Sehun looks utterly bewildered at first, making it obvious that he had forgotten about the little bird entirely.

“There you are little one. Are you hungry too?” he asks in a soft voice.

The tiny brown bird blinks up at him then makes a soft crooning noise. A bright smile lights up its trainers face. Wordlessly he scoops up the newborn bird and sets it down on the table. He pulls the jar of Pokémon food close and overturns the lid, pouring some of the mushy food into it.

“Here. You can use this as a dish for now… But I should probably get you a real dish as soon as I can,” he murmurs softly as his Pidgey starts pecking away at the food.

“You’re such a great dad, Sehun-ah,” Luhan expresses in a tender tone.

At first Sehun’s only response is a soft hum. As those words roll around in his head his eyes slowly start to widen a little.

“Oh my god… I am a dad… I never thought of it that way before,” he says after a few moments of near-silence as the two babies continue to eat.

“We’re all dads now. But I have a feeling it won’t be the last time we will be raising baby Pokémon like this,” the elder ventures.

“Yeah… You’re probably right about that. We’ve still got a long way to go before either of us take over at a gym. But wherever I end up, I hope it’s not too far away from you, Luhan hyung,” Sehun says honestly.

“M-Me?  ... Why would you wanna stay near me? ... We only just met a couple days ago…” Luhan stammers nervously.

Sehun simply gives him a wistful smile and a little shrug.

“Because you’ve been the nicest to me ever since we got here. It’d be a shame to be so far away from someone who’s just so… bright and cheerful all the time,” he finally replies just as Luhan nearly starts to beg for a reason.

“W-Well I…”

“You don’t have to explain yourself you know. It’s just part of who you are, right? Or is there something special about me that makes you want to help me?  … It’s because I’m the youngest newbie here. Isn’t it?”

The rather flustered Luhan bites his lip and turns his attention to the now-sleeping Ralts in his arms. Something about the boy across the table definitely did feel… different. It’s been a good different though. To him it seems like there’s some part of Sehun that the younger is keeping hidden from him until he peels away the walls he keeps up. But then again, he knows that virtually everyone he’s ever met is like that. Sehun just feels different than that though. Like there’s something more to him than what most people have to offer.

“That’s not the reason…” he eventually starts to say, but he cuts off again after that.

Sehun smiles a little and patiently waits. He watches closely as his new friend’s eyebrows knit together, the older clearly very absorbed in thought. He brings his cup up for a few more sips of tea as his eyes scan over seemingly every detail of the other. From the messy cowlick at the back of his head along the length of his milky neck and down to the rather dainty fingertips with well-kept nails, everything about the elder seems literally flawless in his eyes.  Unbeknownst to him the other is staring back at him just as intently. Both boys blush furiously when they look up into each other’s eyes at the exact same moment.

An awkward silence settles over the table then. Both Pokémon are now fast asleep, nestled against their trainers. The whole dorm seems to freeze for a few short moments until the front door opens with a resounding kerchunk of the lock.

“Ni hao! Is anyone home yet?” I rather cheerful-looking Lay asks as he steps inside, carrying his Slakoth in his arms.

Neither of the boys in the kitchenette responds. Lay pouts to himself as he slips off his shoes and shuffles into the dorm further. Without warning, he starts singing a song to himself. Of course he doesn’t have any idea that anyone else is even present, so he’s under the assumption that he’s singing to his Pokémon only. After gently setting his slumbering Pokémon on the couch he plops down beside it and stretches his arms high above his head.

“Damn… it’s been a long day…” he mutters in Chinese.

“You can say that again,” Luhan responds reflexively, using Chinese as well.

Lay goes rigid before slowly turning his head toward the source of the voice.

“Ack! You two were here the whole time?!!” he practically shrieks as he jumps up from his seat.

“Sorry we didn’t say so before… we were um….” Luhan begins, but soon trails off as he looks for a word.

Sehun simply looks between the two, utterly confused thanks to all the Chinese that had passed between them.

“Were you guys… spying on me for some reason?” Lay asks warily.

“N-No! I swear we weren’t… we just… didn’t want to wake our Pokémon from their naps,” the elder finally lies, not wanting to admit that he had been checking out the visitor to their dorm.

Lay blinks at them a couple times before looking at the two still-sleeping Pokémon on the table. A gentle smile appears on his face as he settles back into his seat. All caution from before seems to have passed thanks to that quick explanation. His head rests against the back of the couch quite comfortably and his eyes slowly close. Just as he starts to drift off, Sehun turns back to Luhan and clears his throat.

“Um… what did you say to him?” he asks in a near-whisper.

“That we didn’t want to wake up our Pokémon…”

“Okay, good. Let’s just keep it at that…”

“What’re you two…. Whispering about over there?” Lay asks with a huge yawn.

“N-Nothing at all! Don’t mind us… We’ll just um… be in my room if you need anything,” Luhan chirps up quickly.

After that Lay gives no more responses. As the two boys at the table quietly get up and clean up their dishes he gradually drifts off to sleep. When Luhan finally nods towards his room there are soft snores coming from the now-sleeping boy on the couch. Sehun silently lifts his Pidgey into his arms and follows the elder into the bedroom. Luhan has already put his Ralts down on his pillow when Sehun arrives and even closes the door behind him.

“So… um… M-Make yourself and your Pokémon comfortable. Just don’t mess with any of Tao’s stuff or he’ll probably kill me later…” the elder says softly.

Sehun nods a little and carefully lays his Pidgey down beside the Ralts.

“They’re so cute…” he mumbles to himself, but in the silence of the room Luhan hears him perfectly.

“They really are… Do you think they’ll become close friends even with their type difference?”

“I say if we can become close friends with our ethnic differences, then our Pokémon can become close friends too. Besides, they won’t have much of a choice if we spend more time together in the future,” the younger responds rather calmly.

A deep blush reappears on Luhan’s face as he looks at his guest again. Not wanting to leave awkwardness between them from earlier, he attempts to apologize for his behavior.

“Listen… I’m sorry I was staring at you earlier… I mean… You’re pretty easy on the eyes, but I never meant to so blatantly check you out… or to even check you out for that matter…” he starts, but Sehun cuts him off.

“I was no better. Really, it’s okay… Though I’ve never been so… attracted to? Yeah… I suppose I could say that… To another man. Do you get where I’m going with this?”

Luhan opens his mouth to respond, but quickly shuts it again when he realizes he doesn’t actually know what he wants to say. Regardless, he gives Sehun a little nod before looking down at the floor. Before he even notices it himself, there are tears silently crawling down his slightly-rounded cheeks. Sehun, however, notices them right away and quickly moves closer, gently cupping the elder’s face in his hands and wiping away the tears gently with his thumbs.

“Hey now… I’m not saying that I’m not going to let something happen between us. I’m just not used to having my heart and my head be so at ends with each other…. On one hand, my head is trying to consider my future. It knows that my parents want grandkids and that I have an older brother who could cater to that desire of theirs, but he’s also very socially awkward… So I kind of see that as my job to make them happy. But then my heart is saying that giving this a try won’t hurt anything,” he explains in a soothing voice.

“S-So what you’re saying is… I’m just a test drive for you?” Luhan asks weakly, tears still escaping his eyes.

That question catches Sehun completely off-guard. He hesitates at first as he rethinks the words he just said and realizes how Luhan had read them much differently than his original meaning.

“No no… Don’t be silly. Sure, I can’t promise that this will be forever. But hyung… I do really hope it lasts a long time, even if it’s not forever. And I never, ever want to hurt you… But I’m sure I will accidentally at some point.  That’s a given in basically every relationship ever. Just don’t assume that I’m trying to push you away… especially not right this second. Let’s give ourselves a little time to ease into an actual relationship though… Like you said, we only met a couple days ago. We both have another four years here at least. There’s no rush at all. Can we try to be friends first and see where things go from there?”

“O-Okay… I’d like to give that a try. B-But you’d better not start flirting with any girls! … Or other guys for that matter… If you do, I’m going to assume that you don’t want to be more than friends. And if it comes to that… I probably won’t be able to stay friends with you. Or at least I won’t be able to act the same way around you anymore…” Luhan says softly, his tears stopping as he talks.

“Don’t worry, I won’t be doing anything like that. But you can always call this off as well for any reason. But I’d like to ask that you at least explain your reasoning with me. I won’t argue with you or try to keep you if you really don’t want to be with me. Understand?”

To that, Luhan simply nods and hugs the taller boy tightly around the middle. His heart flutters lightly as he realizes what he just agreed to; a guaranteed relationship.

{OOC: Hello all! I apologize for the rather delayed update here... School has been kicking my lately! But I hope some serious HunHan and some sprinkles of KaiSoo will make up for that at least a little! As always, comments are much appreciated. I'll try my best to update this again before I head back to school on Sunday, but I cannot make any promises.}