“Chanyeol,” A whiny, extremely familiar voice broke through the younger’s slumber, causing him to roll away from the person speaking and let out his own sound of complaint.

“Channieeee~” The voice grew more pleading, small hands finding their way onto Chanyeol’s shoulders and shaking him in an attempt to jolt him awake. Everyone else had already left, and Baekhyun was bored out of his mind.

Chanyeol suddenly cried out his name in terror, bolting upright in bed and Baekhyun’s shirt in his long fingers as he stared at the older with wild eyes.

“Holy , are you okay!?” Baekhyun questioned urgently, lowering his hands to cover Chanyeol’s shaky ones.

“I’m alright,” Chanyeol whispered, sliding his hands out from under Baekhyun’s in order to yank the dainty boy against him.

“It was... just a nightmare.” He sighed, warm breath tickling the nape of his best friend’s neck.

Baekhyun shivered at the sensation, lifting his arms and encircling them around the younger’s neck as he deliberated on whether to ask his distraught best friend what horrible things he had dreamed of.

Before Baekhyun could say anything, however, Chanyeol gently slid out of his grasp and rose to his feet, mumbling something incoherent and absent-mindedly kicking a pile of dirty clothes to the other side of the room as he headed towards the door.

Baekhyun scurried along behind him, tentatively reaching out a hand to tug at the hem of Chanyeol’s cotton tee.

“Channie,” He whispered, voice hesitant and so hushed that the other boy was barely able to catch his name.

“Yeah, Baek?” Chanyeol had ceased walking, half-turning and slightly inclining his head so that he was gazing down at the concerned male currently having a hold on him.

The sudden unexpected eye-contact was more than enough to cause Baekhyun to grow unsteady, knees wobbling under the unintentional intensity in the taller’s distressed copper orbs.  

“U-um-” He stammered uncontrollably, no longer capable of recalling what he had been planning on telling the increasingly intimidating boy who was smiling patiently at his own uncharacteristically awkward self.

Chanyeol blinked a few times, gaze lowering to watch Baekhyun’s oh-so-pretty fingers slip from their grasp on his shirt and fall limply at his side.

“You okay?” He asked, sounding both worried and a bit confused.

“I should be asking you that!” Baekhyun exclaimed, appearing to be quite frustrated with himself.

“Why is that?” Chanyeol cocked his head to the side, eyebrows knitting together in curiosity at Baekhyun’s sudden outburst.

“Well…” Baekhyun shyly rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to avoid both meeting Chanyeol’s searching gaze and directly addressing the issue.

“You know.” He answered cryptically after a moment, seeming satisfied with his somewhat obscure reply.  

“No, I don’t.”

Stupid Chanyeol. You don’t know much of anything, do you? You can’t even see how much I love you.

ing idiot.

“What you said this morning,” Baekhyun murmured, ensuring that his response was spoken much softer than the frustrated voice currently throwing a tantrum in his cluttered mind.

“Oh, that.” And with those words, Chanyeol was back to his overly bubbly, somewhat inept self.

“Don’t worry about that!” The younger impulsively clasped his fingers around Baekhyun’s wrist, dragging him down the stairs and gently pushing the smaller boy down onto the couch before turning on his GameCube and inserting a disc into it.

He spun back around to flash Baekhyun that absolutely darling grin, that grin which completely overtook and transformed his entire face- that same derpy grin which never failed to cause Baekhyun’s heart to hammer in his chest, like something imprisoned determined to escape the confines of its cage.

“Wanna play Zelda, Baekkie?”

Baekhyun’s concerned expression turned into that of unbridled excitement, the older boy bouncing up and down in his seat in anticipation of playing his and Chanyeol’s favorite video game.

“Do you even have to ask?”

Chanyeol laughed- a bit too exuberantly given that Baekhyun’s comment hadn’t been quite as hilarious as he seemed to have found it- before racing over to join his best friend on the couch.

As soon as it reached the title screen, Chanyeol handed the controller over to Baekhyun with an expectant smile.

“I played for like two hours last time, so it’s your turn.”

“ing finally!” Baekhyun cried, practically snatching the controller out of the younger’s unresisting grasp.

“Do I get to fight that bastard Ganondorf? Please tell me I get to kick his .”

Chanyeol chuckled softly, shooting the other boy a highly amused look. “Maybe this is why I played for so long. You get way too into this.”

“You haven’t even seen the half of it, Park Chanyeol. Just wait ‘til I get my hands on him.”

“That sounds ual.”

“Fine. Just wait ‘til I get to use my sword on him!”

Chanyeol paused for a moment before sending a sideways smirk to the boy seated beside him. “That sounds even worse. Besides, you have to go through Zant first.”

Baekhyun remained still as a statue for a good minute before whirling around with an incredulous expression on his face.

“No.” He breathed, sounding overwhelmingly horrified. “He’s so annoying, Channie, I don’t wanna fight him!”

“Well, you better man up, Baekhyun, cuz I’m not gonna do it for you.” Almost as if to prove his point, Chanyeol lifted his laptop from where it rested on the side table and flipped it open, powering it up in an aloof manner.

“You’re not even gonna watch me?”

Chanyeol barely deigned his best friend a glance, appearing disinterested as he almost immediately returned to surfing the web.

“Why? You yourself said it was annoying.”

“Jerk,” Baekhyun muttered, diverting his attention