It's Friday evening around seven o'clock when Baekhyun and Tao finally take a breather from moving around their living room furniture. The couch is shoved against a shelf along the wall, a few unimportant side tables are transferred into Baekhyun's room, and a whole mess of unidentified clutter is shoved into Tao's. They're having a party tonight, and if Baekhyun could have persuaded anyone else to hold it at their place, he and Tao wouldn't be in this position right now. Their apartment barely fits five comfortably, but eleven is not exactly a small gathering. Baekhyun almost thinks of uninviting a few people, but right now the most odd men out would be his friend and his friend's roommate, and Baekhyun really doesn't want to have to see Chanyeol's puppy dog sad face on his next visit. Baekhyun curses himself for being the one who wanted a party like this in the first place, a long long time ago. He just expected that if it ever happened, it would be somewhere else. Unfortunately, nobody's got a nicer place than his, and that's downright sad when he thinks about it.

“Is there anything else we have to do?” Tao collapses onto the sofa, over-acting with a wimpy flair. Baekhyun just saw him lift an arm chair weighing more than either of them nearly over his head, so he knows Tao's no fragile thing. 

“Yeah, let's knock out your bedroom wall and that'll solve a few more problems.”

“What? Why mine?!”

“There aren't enough chairs for people to sit,” says Baekhyun, changing the subject and perusing the room like his eyes will magically find more places to cram in people.

Tao smirks. “Don't worry. Probably half of them won't need more than somebody's lap. Including you,” he adds with an extra smarmy sneer. “Speaking of boyfriends, where's yours?”

Baekhyun deliberates about mentioning Kai, not because he doesn't know where his boyfriend is - he's supposed to be here anytime - but because things have been off with Tao still, and he can't get his roommate to really open up. The most Tao would say is that things didn't work out with Kris, and that Tao expected things wouldn't anyways, and Baekhyun needn't be bothered. Baekhyun had tried only a few more times to ask Tao how he was, even generally, and never got a real answer. He thinks to try it again, but a knock on the door interrupts him.

“That's probably Kai now,” Baekhyun says.

It isn't though. He opens the door to a bickering couple, Yixing chastising Suho for insisting on walking all the way up the stairs by himself. Suho's been notoriously obnoxious this week about using his crutches, or rather about not using them, and he doesn't have them now. Yixing has him by the elbow with another arm wrapped around his middle back and Suho yowls and tries to throw him off.

“Quit it, Yixing. I'm fine. I can walk just fine. It's been three weeks already. I'm nearly fine,” he stresses patiently.

“Exactly why you should be extra careful, unless you want to hurt it again before it's fully healed.”

“I'm taking it easy, okay? I am. Hi, Baekhyun.” He winces. “Uhm, is there a chair I can sit in? Now?” 

Baekhyun backs away and lets them in. Tao is already off the couch and pointing at the armchair, and Yixing helps to maneuver Suho over to it. “Do you have a stool or another chair? He should elevate it again. Now that's he's insisted on walking all the way up the stairs.”

Suho gives in to his fussing, and when Tao takes Yixing back to his room to help him pick out a footstool, Suho rolls his eyes and stares helplessly at Baekhyun. 

Baekhyun smiles in return. “He seems... like a good nurse?” 

Suho looks halfway between annoyed and grateful at the presentation of his and Yixing's unspoken relationship. “He is,” he half chuckles, and for once Baekhyun doesn't get a snarky follow-up statement, like he's used to Suho giving. Since the dancer's ankle injury, Suho has been grumpy, yes, but there has been a marked difference in how well he treats Baekhyun: less like his abhorred rival, and more like a person he tolerates well enough. Whether or not that has anything to do with Baekhyun staring him down that one time, or if it's all Yixing's fault, Baekhyun doesn't care to really ask. It's just a nice enough change, so much that when Sehun and Tao insisted on the guest list this for this totally not formal gathering, Baekhyun immediately assumed Suho would be invited. Sehun had grimaced, but 'for Yixing's sake, I guess we can invite him.'

Yixing returns with a footstool and Suho obliges him by using it. 

“Anything to drink around here yet?” Suho asks. 

“I told the old people to bring stuff if they wanted it,” says Baekhyun, because he's still not of an age where he can purchase liquor. 

“Oh,” says Suho. “Well apparently we didn't get the memo.”

Yixing offers to go out and get some but Tao reassures him that it probably won't be necessary. “Luhan is coming, after all.” The four of them take a moment to smirk and agree that indeed, a trip to the store definitely won't be necessary. 

“Where is Kai?” Yixing is the second person to ask that. 

“On his way, I guess,” Baekhyun answers, while Suho gives him a strange look. “What? What is it?” He really isn't all that good at interpreting Suho's expressions.

“Nothing. Just curious how you guys are doing, that's all.”

“So... nothing else to add?” Baekhyun.

“No?” Suho says innocently.

Baekhyun his head, hands on his hips and stares him down. “Come on. Out with it. What were you going to say?”

“Nothing! Honest!” Suho throws up his hands. “Okay, I mean I was just commenting on you two. And curious how you managed to land him. He never showed an interest in anybody for all the years I knew him. Male or female.”

“You sound jealous,” Baekhyun teases, even though he doesn't think that's the case. “No offense, Yixing,” he adds for the benefit of the Chinese dancer. 

Suho snorts. “Huh. Yixing knows I'm not.” He looks smug for a moment, and then catches himself when he finds both Baekhyun and Tao staring gleefully between them and Yixing looking proud. 

“I knew it,” whispers Tao smartly.

“Knew what!?” Suho turns defensive, his cheeks blushing hot and red. 

Yixing smiles and ruffles Suho's hair, and then he leans over. He coos into Suho's ear, but in a voice audible enough for the rest to hear. “Give it up, baby. Everybody knows.” He kisses him on the cheek sweetly while Suho remains still as a statue, determined to uphold some sense of misguided dignity. Baekhyun laughs outright. 

Before anyone else arrives, however, Suho does something else surprising. Under Yixing's clueless eye and Tao's second-hand amusement, he warns him about Kai. Or rather, he warns Baekhyun to be good to Kai. 

Baekhyun grins. “You're kidding, right? I'm the best thing that's happened to him,” he boasts, half in jest because Suho's sudden grandfatherly tone is something Baekhyun can't handle with a serious voice. Suho glares at him. “Alright, I know. I know. I'll be good to him. But what got you sounding so brotherly all of a sudden? I've never heard you say anything so affectionate for Kai,” he continues to tease.

“I'm not-” Suho stutters. “I'm not being affectionate. I just know what he's been through. And in any case I'm warning you, as someone who's got a good thing right now, not to screw it up.”

“Aww, Suho,” Baekhyun coos. “I might actually think you care about me.” He stops his teasing for just a moment though to seriously consider Suho's advice, and with a solemn nod and a handshake he says, “Thank you, though. In another tale you'd be a good brother.” Then he winks.

That aggravates Suho again. He squirms while Yixing chuckles over his head. “What? I'm not your brother,” he says grumpily. 

“Oh, you're not? Well it sounded like it for a moment there.”

Yixing doesn't help anything when he confirms that indeed, with all their bickering he could easily picture Suho and Baekhyun as brothers. It takes Tao knocking a large box of plastic forks off the counter to quiet the trio down, but Baekhyun decides in that moment that he genuinely likes his 'former rival' and it's no longer just lip service. He thinks they really will get along in life now. 

Kai arrives shortly after, and not that far off schedule. He cites classes running late, and then Kyungsoo being uncharacteristically off-schedule (since it took his roommate a little persuading to actually come). Baekhyun wishes he could spend a few moments alone with his boyfriend ‘catching up’ but Chanyeol and Jongdae actually arrive early – and really Baekhyun doesn’t know how this trend evolved because Chanyeol is never early. If anything, he’s the late one, always. Jongdae explains it thus: “Sorry, he was complaining because his TA rejected him. I had to get him out as soon as possible so he’d stop moping.”

“I am not moping!” Chanyeol complains loudly. “And I wasn’t rejected. Outright. She just said she couldn’t do dinner tomorrow night…”

“And probably can’t for every dinner for the rest of her life,” Jongdae adds with an evil little trill in his voice.

“Shut up. You don’t know that.”

Sehun shows up fifteen minutes later and drags Tao out with him to pick up the pizza from somewhere down the street. Baekhyun, already attached to Kai at the hip, watches as Kyungsoo offers to go with them. Sehun rejects the offer with a huff and a roll of his eyes (“No, Kyungsoo, we don't need a chaperone.”) and Kyungsoo gleefully lets them go alone.

The tiny little room is already building up in volume as more and more voices are added to the mix. Baekhyun’s curious if his neighbors will complain before the night is out, but even if they do it’ll probably be worth it. He likes people, likes seeing everybody around and most of all he likes how Kai seems relaxed and happy and in no way feeling awkward among the crowd of dancers and non-dancers alike.

Even better, he likes how the various groups of friends seem to intermingle flawlessly because that takes the stress off Baekhyun, not having to integrate two sets of people or mediate more than a minor scuffle. Jongdae, after verifying brashly that Yixing is already taken and therefore no threat to his manhood, loosens up and engages the man in a heated discussion about adjusting to life in the big city; Suho manages to deal well enough with a slightly chatty Chanyeol about the perils of liking women, of which Suho only nods and shakes his head and grimaces because he has nothing to add to the subject at all, not having any girls to worry about other than the ones he dances with, and with his current condition not even that.

There’s one slight hitch in the evening’s progression that happens when Sehun and Tao return. Chanyeol, in his rush to shove food into his mouth, jumps off the couch and practically bowls over Kyungsoo on his way to the counter. The shorter man howls and suddenly Chanyeol is all frowns, upturned eyebrows and apologies, and unfortunately much too dramatic about it. “Oh! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I really didn’t see you there. You’re so short I didn't even notice!”

Baekhyun and Kai have to keep them segregated on opposite ends of the room for the rest of the night since Kyungsoo seems quite taken with the idea of murdering Chanyeol for the offense.

The two eldest dancers arrive last. Luhan and Minseok show up with bags full of beer and alcohol and they trade them out for the last box of pizza.

“What took you guys so long?” Sehun complains.

“Huh?” says Luhan. “Oh, uhm. Busy with some stuff. You know.”

“No, I don’t know.”

Luhan glances once at Minseok, and a tiny hint of mischief flickers in his eyes. To Sehun he just says, “Well if you can’t figure out what, then you’re a whole lot younger than I thought you were.” He winks and Sehun stands still with a blank face trying to figure it out.

Minseok rolls his eyes and pushes past the two, shoving two rolled up pieces of pizza into his mouth as he greets the other dancers. Behind his back Luhan mimics one violent hip , and suddenly Sehun gets it.

“Ohhhhhhhh.” Which quickly turns into, “Ewwwwww. Luhan, really. You don’t have to talk about this kind of stuff in public, okay?”

“What? I didn’t say anything. Anyways, that was a joke.”

“Really?” Sehun looks relieved.

“No. Actually he did the—” Another hip .

Sehun looks disgusted again.

Kai and Baekhyun watch the whole thing incidentally seated together with Kai lying nearly all the way across Baekhyun’s lap, feet up off the ground and perched on Suho’s stool just so he can torment the elder. It’s an odd twist for Kai, and Baekhyun thinks he should probably make him sit up, but at the angle he’s in, this means Baekhyun gets to hold Kai around the middle and whisper into his ear if need be.

“Missed you,” he says once, when everyone is otherwise distracted. Minseok is digging around the fridge for a bucket of salad stuff he’d instructed Tao to get earlier. Chanyeol is still being loudmouthed and accidentally obnoxious, especially when he gives up the discussion about girls and tries once again to apologize to Kyungsoo. After a minute of that and a few unnecessary hisses from Kyungsoo, he gives up, and he’s back across the room again and back on the subject of his gorgeous TA.

Baekhyun only earns a happy grunt from Kai for his comment. They’re not situated well enough to hold a proper conversation, snuggly though the whole position is.  Baekhyun’s been extra chilly ever since people started coming in and out of the door. The chill wind gusts that come through make him shiver, but Kai is just the blanket he needs. 

“I love you,” he tries again, and this time he gets a ridiculously happy grin out of his boyfriend. Baekhyun sneaks one cold palm under Kai's sweater, seeking body heat to thaw it out. Kai hitches his breath, but doesn't dislodge it, and so Baekhyun sneaks the other one in too. He interlocks his fingers out of eyesight along the front of Kai's belly, content with the position, and when Kai doesn't react he nibbles ever so gently at the skin behind his ear. 

Kai's twitchy jump and accompanying hiss draw the attention of a few others.

"Hey, Baekhyun!" Sehun calls. "Stop manhandling your boyfriend. Or do it somewhere else, please!"

"What? I'm not doing anything?" Baekhyun genuinely whines. Kai giggles silently in front of him.

Luhan whistles. "You call that doing nothing? Where are your hands, Baekhyun? Show us your hands!"

At this Kai starts to panic, but he's too slow to stop Baekhyun's left hand rising up to reveal the skin along his stomach, and his other hand resting innocently across his belly button. Kai squirms and tries to pull his shirt down, succeeding only after everyone's seen the show, and Baekhyun is no help even with his hands around the outside of the sweater. He smoothes down the material proprietarily while Kai seethes and tries to pull away. Suho gives them a look then, and Baekhyun finally lets him go. 

Kai doesn't go far though. He sits upright this time next to Baekhyun and as if they were mere friends, links their arms innocently together. 

"I always said we needed to protect Kai from him," Sehun mutters from across the room. 

Baekhyun and Kai ignore them, and honestly Baekhyun's more amused when he glances over at his best friend, who's valiantly trying to cover up Jongdae's eyes with his hand in case anything gay happens. Jongdae swats his arm away, bored more than anything else and he walks over to the counter to help himself to Minseok's salad. 

"When did we get so many healthy vegetarians around here anyway?" Luhan starts to complain. 

"Aren't you a dancer?" Kyungsoo remarks. "Don't you have to eat healthy most of the time?"

"Yeah," says Luhan, "but not on a Friday night! Hey, who wants a beer!?"

Baekhyun doesn't know how they do it, but they manage to spend the rest of the evening and night playing a mixture of video games and internet videos. Nobody kills anyone for real, although there are a few scuffles to get into the bathroom, as scuffles there must be with eleven guys and only one toilet.

At one point, Sehun even manages to lock Suho in the bathroom, Suho is too drunk to figure out how to unlock it and ends up stuck, and then locked in Tao's room instead (also courtesy of Sehun probably although nobody saw him do it). Tao tries desperately to pick the lock on the outside of his bedroom door with a straightened paper clip, and Yixing surprises everybody by banging on the door and telling Suho very calmly to unlock it from the inside. Suho emerges limping but victorious, and everybody cheers.

It's an eventful evening, one Baekhyun doesn't want to have to clean up tomorrow, but he'll cross that bridge when he gets there. 

"I need a break," he whispers to Kai around midnight. The two sneak outside since Baekhyun's room - as the gateway to the loo - affords them no privacy. They end up back down the street outside the convenience store where Kai first told Baekhyun he loved him. This time, however, they waste very few words. Neither of them give a damn if any passers-by pay attention to their heated make-out session in front of the same bench where they'd sat a few days before. After all the touches and all the teasing, and all the very real witnesses inside the apartment who wouldn't let them catch a break, both of them need this. 

They collapse, near breathless onto the bench just a few minutes later. Kai pants and his lips are swollen, and Baekhyun breathes heavy but presses immediately into Kai's side, still looking for warmth as they gather their wits. Baekhyun won't admit it, but he's just a little bit too tipsy, and that turns him clingy. 

His phone buzzes, and Baekhyun, who doesn't even remember putting it into his pocket pulls it out to read the text. He groans when he sees who's it from and Kai instinctly peers over to watch Baekhyun read and then reply.

Luhan: Hey Baek. Whose room can I use? Yours or Tao's?

Baekhyun: Neither. get the hell out of my apartment if you can't contain yourself

Luhan: okay I'll try Tao's

Baekhyun whines and drops the phone back into his pocket.

Kai prods him gently. "Do we need to go back and save your apartment?"

"No. I'd like to see him try and get past Tao. He had a fit when he thought it was just Suho alone in there. There's no way he'll allow an actual couple through," Baekhyun chuckles.

"Alright, I'm glad," Kai sighs. "Because I don't want to go back just yet."

"Me neither."

They snuggle up for a few more minutes, side by side with Baekhyun's hand in Kai's, and his head resting gently on his shoulder. Kai leans his head back on the side of the building and pretends to look for stars in the overcast sky. Baekhyun lifts his head up when he hears Kai clear his throat as if he wants to say something. 

"Hmm? What is it?" Baekhyun beats him to the question.

Kai focuses, as if to prepare his words. "Speaking of Luhan and Minseok..."

"Oh god, no I don't want to speak about them," says Baekhyun.

"Okay, well not speaking about them, I guess. But since they were... well earlier..." His words trail off.

"Yeah?" Baekhyun senses wherever this is going may actually be something important to Kai.

"It's just... well, they're very open about some things. And it occurs to me that... we aren't... that we don't..."

"Don't what?"

Kai chews on his lower lip, ruminating over his words before saying them, very slowly. "Well, we haven't really talked about it, so I don't know exactly what you expect, or what I'm supposed to expect."

Baekhyun sits up suddenly with an inkling of what this is about. "Are you talking about ?"

Kai meets his eyes and nods solemnly. "Yes." 

"So... we haven't really gotten all the way there..." Baekhyun pries.

"Uh huh. And..."

"And what?"

If there was anymore light on the street, Baekhyun may be staring at a blushing Kai. However with the shadows working against them, he can't really tell. He does know that Kai is extremely concerned with whatever he's getting at though. First time potential nerves, possibly.

Kai steels himself. "I mean I don't know... who does... what. Or how that... gets decided." 

Baekhyun stares at him, torn between laughing outright or making this a whole lot more solemn than it has any right to be. He settles for right down the middle. "Oh. You mean you don't know who tops or bottoms?" 

Kai stares back, refusing to actually repeat the words to confirm his concern.

"Oh, well Kai. It's pretty simple actually. Every time you get ready for it, you just play a game."

"A game??" 

"Yeah. Want to play right now?" He pulls his and Kai's hands up between them. "It's called Kai Bai Bo. Ready to play? One two three go!" he shrieks, and it's only sheer panic and instinct that has Kai following his instructions right on the dot. In a flash, their hands lay out the luck of the throw.

Baekhyun stares at the result, both of them frozen in time, and then a smile forms from his lips as he stares at Paper. "Ha ha. Looks like I win top!" He jumps up and does a little dance, laughing uproariously at the stunned look on his boyfriend's face. Kai doesn't even register it. He's still staring at his fist, wondering how on earth a little thing like this could dictate the entire direction of his ual life. 

He snaps after ten more seconds of Baekhyun's taunts and tackles him back to the bench. Baekhyun squeals and twists away and Kai won't let him go. "You're sick, Baekhyun! Sick! Kai Bai Bo?? Baekhyun, really?!?" 

"Really!" Baekhyun shrieks again. 

"But I chose rock, Baekhyun! And you're going to do what now??"

He nearly suffocates the smaller boy within his arms, still rocking and squirming away, and Baekhyun squeaks out one more appeal of, "Top!" before Kai pins him down for good.

"But I chose rock!" he complains for the final time.

3,838 words

Okay guys - time to do some work: What are your 3 favorite moments from this chapter??

Seriously though. I spent 1 1/2 hours a few days ago creating an outline for the remaining chapters, and when I looked at this chapter I wondered how on earth I'd find enough material to make it long enough... I'm kind of hoping I succeeded here. :P Sorry it took so long. I've got about 5 ongoing fics right now of various lengths, plus last week was stressful, plus I'm nearing the end of Spotlights (about 4 chapters more) and I don't want to rush it, or leave any loose ends. That takes planning. And planning is work. 

Anyways, if you just rushed through this A/N because you're curious whether or not the game results will hold for Kaibaek's first time, well... stick around... for a later chapter :D

Oh, and Byberry - sorry but you know I had to include Suho as a 'brother' figure somewhere in the fic hehehehe

<3 Rosie

I'll leave you with this for now: