‘You are a twenty-one year old man, Byun Baekhyun,’ he thinks to himself, heart racing and tears pricking the back of his eyes as he clutches tightly onto the pillow in his arms. ‘It’s just thunder. Thunder can’t do anything to you. Don’t get out of bed.’

    He’s been repeating the same thing in his head for the past thirty minutes while the distant rumbles slowly but surely became window-rattling crashes. He presses his face harder into the pillow, pulling his blanket over his head and swallowing a small scream at the sound of an ear-bursting BOOM that shakes the entire dorm.

    How his bandmates haven’t woken up yet is beyond him. It’s so ridiculously loud outside that even if he wasn’t terrified, he still wouldn’t be able to sleep through it.

    ‘It’s just thunder, Baekhyun. Just a sound nature makes sometimes. You’re fine, you’re safe, so don’t get out of-”

    His mantra is abruptly cut off by another sound-shattering BOOM, and before Baekhyun can stop himself he’s already scrambled out of bed and is scurrying past his sleeping roommates and into their shared closet. Another roll of thunder comes seconds later and he’s slamming the door shut, closing himself into the safe space and cowering in a corner, on top of a pile of dirty clothes that Tao’s been trying to hide from Minseok.

    Baekhyun doesn’t bother to stop the flow of tears pouring from his eyes. He’s practically vibrating in his tiny corner of the tiny closet barely big enough to fit him inside, his arms still clutching the pillow in a death grip as he attempts to control his breathing.

    ‘Just thunder, just thunder, just thunder-’

    Baekhyun lets out a small shriek as the closet door swings open - just in time for another BOOM to shake the dorm room. His scream is met with another, familiar scream, and before the thunder can come again Baekhyun is pulling Jongdae into the closet and closing the door behind him.

    “Baekhyun?” Jongdae asks, sounding just as frightened as Baekhyun feels. Now, with two bodies in the small closet, free space is even harder to find but he can’t really complain - the more cramped it is the safer he feels.

    “What are you doing?” Baekhyun hisses, his voice muffled by the pillow he’s immediately returned to since pulling Jongdae inside.

    It’s not lost on Baekhyun how the only person to come to his rescue is Jongdae of all people. Not that he doesn’t love Jongdae - he does love Jongdae - but putting a man who’s scared of thunder in a closet with a man who’s scared of the dark can only be a recipe for disaster. If he’d thought for a second that Jongdae could actually help him he wouldn’t have bothered with a closet. But it’s obvious from the way that his new closet-mate is fidgeting every two seconds that the guy is just as scared as Baekhyun, if not more.

    “T-The storm woke me up and I thought you might be f-freaking out...why are we in a closet?” Jongdae asks in a trembling whisper. Baekhyun wants to hug Jongdae instead of the pillow, but he can’t quite get his arms to move from their locked position.

    “It’s safe in the closet,” He explains, wiping furiously at his tears now that he’s been joined by someone that has the potential to see them. Though if he was thinking rationally he’d realize that neither of them can see anything.

    “It’s dark in the closet,” Jongdae mumbles, huddling even closer to Baekhyun, which he didn’t realize was possible. “It’s a good thing C-Chanyeol’s easy to wake up, I didn’t know where to find you.” Then he lets out a startled sob, practically flinging himself into Baekhyun’s lap. “Something t-touched me!”

    Immediately Baekhyun unclenches his arms from the pillow and wraps them around the trembling man on top of him, holding tightly on his waist and pressing a quick, soothing kiss on the only bit of skin his blind lips can find.

    “It’s okay - hey, I’m right here,” Baekhyun murmurs, squeezing Jongdae comfortingly when he lets out a small whimper, “I won’t let anything get you.”

    How Baekhyun has gone from the rescuee to the rescuer he’s not absolutely sure, and while he still flinches every time a BOOM resounds from the walls, he’s more focused on calming Jongdae down then worrying about himself.

    Jongdae doesn’t say anything for a while, still shaking uncontrollably and shoving his face into the crook of Baekhyun’s neck while they both try to ignore the uncomfortable feeling of the ends of neatly arranged shirts brushing against their foreheads and the ever-increasing noise form the sturm outside. Baekhyun does his best with what he’s got; rubbing small circles on the small of Jongdae’s back and pressing comforting kisses into his hair whenever Jongdae lets out a terrified whimper.

    He’s pretty sure that Jongdae, at least, would be fine if they just left the closet and a light, but he can’t quite convince himself to leave his safe haven. And he has this unnatural fear that if they walk out into the bedroom, the thunder will murder Jongdae and Baekhyun will be forced to forever feel guilty for the death of his lover.

    “What are you thinking about?” Baekhyun finally asks, because the longer the silence wears on the more he’s forced to pay attention to the storm. He’s trying so very hard to not to pay attention to the storm.

    “There’s s-something coming down from the ceiling,” is Jongdae’s immediate response, and it’s followed by a terrified shudder rolling through his body as he quickly continues. “And it feels like something’s breathing down my n-neck, and...and I’m scared to stay in here because there’s no where to get away, but if we leave then the crazy axe murderer is going to find us.”

    To Baekhyun, it’s the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard. They would know if there was a crazy axe murderer running around the dorm, and there’s no room for another person to be in the closet with them meaning that nothing can be breathing down Jongdae’s neck, and even if something was coming out of the ceiling, it wouldn’t be able to make it past the clothes hanging above them.

    But he’s by the far the last person in the world with the right to make fun of Jongdae’s fear. At least Jongdae’s afraid of things that could potentially happen (well okay, ghosts in the closet and crazy axe murders aren’t actually realistic). Baekhyun’s fear is literally the stupidest thing in the entire world. Or at least that’s what he thinks.

    Still, he’s not really sure what to say after hearing Jongdae’s worried confession.

    ‘It’ll be okay’? But it won’t be okay, because even though they’re sure to make it through the night at least partially untraumatized, that doesn’t mean that Jongdae won’t get stuck in the dark again, and it definitely doesn’t mean that the Earth will stop sending thunderstorms to Korea.

    ‘We’ll be fine’? Well sure, for now. But Baekhyun couldn’t promise the future, or at least not without lying through his teeth.

    ‘It’s all in your head’? Definitely not, even if it is true.

    “Want a distraction?” Baekhyun asks, and he feels Jongdae’s hair brush against his chin as he raises his head up curiously.

    “W-What kind of distraction?” Jongdae asks, a hint of suspicion in his voice that makes Baekhyun smirk despite the circumstances.

    If there’s one thing Baekhyun has learned in his twenty-one years of life, it’s that distractions are a godsend. And really, they haven’t had much time alone since their comeback...

    Completely ignoring the loud BOOM that echoes throughout the dorm, he moves his hand from Jongdae’s back, reaching carefully in front of him until he feels a familiar nose only inches away from his own. He trails his fingers down until he feels a pair of slightly parted lips, and apparently Jongdae’s caught on because he begins shaking his head.

    “Baekhyun, I don’t really think that this will-”

    Baekhyun misses on the first try, bumping their noses painfully together, but he’s more careful on his second attempt and their lips brush in a tender kiss that has Jongdae sighing against his mouth.

    “It’s already working,” Baekhyun argues victoriously in between light, teasing pecks before he slides his tongue against Jongdae’s bottom lip.

    It’s too cramped in the closet to do much more than kiss, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t take full advantage of what they can do.

    At first the distraction isn’t perfect - Baekhyun still jumps a little when the crash of thunder comes unexpectedly, and Jongdae’s still shaking like a leaf - but eventually their fears fade in lieu of sweet kisses and burning fingertips.

    Baekhyun is currently working on giving Jongdae’s collar bone an embarrassingly large hickey when the younger man pulls away, tensing up for a split second before relaxing and running a hand through Baekhyun’s hair. “The storm’s gone,” he points out. Surprised, Baekhyun listens for the sound of thunder, or even rain, but there’s nothing except for Chanyeol’s muffled snores und Minseok’s senseless mumbles from the other side of the door.

    “You wanna sleep in my bed tonight?” Baekhyun asks, and he feels Jongdae nod. “Then I’m afraid you’ll have to get off of me.”

    They have to open the closet door just to be able to untangle themselves. Baekhyun’s legs are asleep, making it hard for him to get up, but even as Jongdae cracks his back uncomfortably, he helps him to his feet.

    “I’ll get us some light,” Baekhyun whispers, making a move to walk unsteadily away but then Jongdae is gripping his hand, trailing behind him from the closet to the bedroom door. It’s only after Baekhyun turns on the bathroom light that Jongdae eases up, and Baekhyun can’t help but give him a fond kiss on the cheek as he leads them to Baekhyun’s bed, making sure to leave both the bathroom door and the bedroom door open so that Jongdae has enough light to feel comfortable.

    They crawl into the singlet - Baekhyun briefly remembering that he left his pillow in the closet but he doesn’t care enough to go get it - and immediately curl into each other. He’s just on the cusp of sleep when he hears Jongdae’s voice, and has to strain to keep himself awake long enough to listen.

    “Next time you know there’s a storm coming, ignore the closet and just come find me instead. I think I lost three years of my life walking through the dorm in the dark.”

    Baekhyun smiles. “Okay.”

----

A/N: I'm really tired, so I haven't edited this yet. In other words: sorry for any mistakes, and I'll do my best to fix them in the morning =). I hope you like it.