Luhan dangled his arm over the edge of the couch and kept an eye on the melting wax of the candles he had put on display on the table a few minutes ago. Around the same time, his phone had beeped. He had tugged it out of his back pocket, sliding his thumb over the screen simultaneously. The bright screen blinded him momentarily, but he soon found himself squinting at a picture of that treacherous kid, Sehun, planting a kiss on top of Xiumin's sweet head.

Luhan gaped at it in disbelief. Nothing moved but his thumbs over the keyboard as he tried to think of an appropriate response. After multiple attempts at writing the beginning of a sentence, deleting it, and starting all over again, Luhan finally gave up and tossed his phone onto the couch. He didn't care if it buried itself in-between the cushion cracks, because at that moment he wished he could do that too. Instead, he dove onto the couch, wincing when his phone dug into his side. He managed to stick his hand under his back and tug out the device, to then shove it deeper into the couch. He half hoped the couch would swallow it and he would never have to look at it again. 

After positioning himself comfortably, Luhan lied on the couch lifelessly, an unfocused gaze settled on the wavering flames of the red candles. He wanted to think about the hot chocolate and how he should be fixing it for Xiumin before he got back home, he wanted to think about how Xiumin had ditched him to hang out with Sehun and whoever had taken the picture, he wanted to obsess over how lazy he was being and how he should be doing something other than lying around, but Luhan couldn't really think. All he could do was let those thoughts skip insignificantly over his mind. He was incapable of locking in on one and analyzing it long enough to put it into action. Luhan was just sad, lonely, and dazed. He wanted his Xiumin back and in his arms.

A heavy-hearted sigh made its way from behind his lips.  "What to do..." he breathed to himself.  He scooted his hips over to the edge of the couch and his side. Luhan stretched out as far as he could and tried to grab the candles.  They were too far away and he was in danger of falling off of the couch.  After realizing the situation he was in and refusing to sit up and comfortably reach for the red candles, Luhan settled on blowing like a mad man in the direction of the twinkling lights, hoping his breath would blow them out and leave him in a somber darkness.  Except all the flames did were dance a little more.  It was as if they were putting on a private performance. Luhan only got annoyed. 

"Just go out already!" he groaned, swatting aimlessly at the air. The flames kept teasing him.

A yellow-white light hit the top corner of the wall adjacent to Luhan. It travelled across the wall and downwards towards the couch. It passed over Luhan's face and disappeared somewhere around the end of his feet. Luhan stopped glaring at the candles and fixed a solid stare on the front door. Xiumin was home.
The car lights shut off and so did the engine. A few seconds later, Luhan heard Xiumin shut the car door. The guy spread out on the couch finally began to react and flailed around frantically. How should he greet him? Should he even greet him? Should he go hide in the bathroom? What was he supposed to do? It was when he heard keys clicking in the lock of the front door that Luhan set his body into a messy sleeping position and shut his eyes.

He relaxed his breathing and perfectly imitated what Xiumin had told him his snoring sounds like.  Luhan was going to make Xiumin think that he fell asleep waiting for him.

With his eyes closed, Luhan couldn't see Xiumin walk through the front door. He couldn't see Xiumin's mouth form a little, surprised circle and his eyes widen a little bit. But he could hear Xiumin sigh his name and he could feel his partner's feet pad across the room.  He could also feel Xiumin's fingertips brush his cheek and the way they delicately swept away the hair from his brow. It was incredibly difficult to keep his eyes from lunging at Xiumin for a hug he so desperately wanted.

Xiumin leaned in close to Luhan's face, his lips hovering above Luhan's for a moment before they travelled up and landed on Luhan's forehead instead. Then Xiumin's warm and comforting presence was gone. Luhan dared to peep an eye open. He was just in time to see Xiumin walking down the hall to their bedroom. Before Xiumin returned, Luhan smiled to himself and rose his fingers to the spot on his forehead and pressed down lightly. But it was back to his sleeping position when he heard Xiumin coming back.

Xiumin had gathered up their pillows and a few blankets. Carefully, he set the pillows down at Luhan's feet and gracefully threw a blanket on top of him as well. Next, he reached out and took the candles off of the table and placed them on the floor at a farther distance. He quietly scooted the table over and picked up his blankets once more. Xiumin arranged the blankets nicely over the ground and plopped the pillows down next to each other at one end. 

Luhan heard all of the rustling and movement going on. He was so tempted to open an eye and peek, but he didn't want to risk revealing that he was actually awake. When a pair of hands slid under his back and began carrying him off of the couch, he was extremely surprised and almost yelped. But he remained quiet and continued to act as if he was sleeping. 

He was gently raised from the couch and laid softly onto the makeshift bed on the living room carpet. Luhan shuffled around believably and then settled down comfortably. He had an idea of what was going on, but he still wanted to see it so bad. He felt Xiumin lie down as well and he felt himself being covered with a blanket. Xiumin scooted closer to Luhan and draped an arm over his waist, fitting his face perfectly into the crook of Luhan's neck. Luhan smiled happily and finally decided to end his act. 

He turned to face Xiumin and opened his eyes to a beautiful sight. There he was. The guy he had been wishing to see the past few hours. Xiumin moved back a bit to give them space and smiled tenderly as well.

"It's good to see you," Luhan spoke softly, cupping his hands together under his cheek. And just like that all of his worries were gone. Whatever had happened that day could wait for the next, because at that moment Luhan didn't really care. The hot chocolate would be served early the next morning and the situation with Sehun would be thoroughly explained as they sipped contentedly, and the two of them would be perfectly fine with life.