Prompt Fill #6 

Name: Solo 

Pairing: platonic!ontae  

Genre: fluff 

Rating: PG

Word Count: 731

Unbetaed

anon this probably isn’t what you wanted AT ALL.  I was planning funny stuff about jinki being into drunk wrestling and tickle fights and but… this came out instead.  I hope you like it anyway~

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Taemin dragged himself through the door after a long day of schedules, ready to just crash into his bed.  Who knew promoting solo was so tough?  He was exhausted all the time and even worse, he had to be ‘on’ all the time.  There was no one else to take over a bit of the talking, to distract the press long enough for him to so much as catch his breath. 

It made for long days and a backlog of stress that not amount of yoga or deep-tissue massages would ever relieve.  He just wanted to crawl under the covers and sleep. 

Today however, he had no such luck. 

He came home to the tv blaring; snack wrappers and crushed beer cans littering the floor near the trashcan.  He half expected to find all four of the members passed out drunk in the living room.  Instead, he found Jinki, sitting alone, knocking back another can with ease. 

“Hyung?”

“Taemin-ah!  You’re home!” Jinki greeted him, bright and welcoming. 

“Yeah.  Are you drinking by yourself?” Taemin asked, eyebrow raised.

“Well the others went… somewhere… I don’t remember now,” Jinki’s lopsided smile rather sheepish.  

Taemin softened, “You didn’t want to go with them?”

“Nah,” Jinki shrugged, trying to act nonchalant, but Taemin knew better.  Jinki was still supposed to be “taking it easy” and consequently had to miss out on a lot.  Taemin knew it bothered the elder more than he let on. 

“It’s really late, maybe you should go to sleep hyung.  Besides, I’m pretty sure you’ve had too much already,” Taemin chide gently. 

“No!  You just got home, sit.  Let’s have a beer together,” Jinki suggested.

“Hyung I’m kinda tired…”

“Please?” Jinki pleaded, turning on the full force of his thick, pouty lips and Taemin could only sigh. 

“Okay, but only one,” he relented and Jinki smiled so bright Taemin wanted to kick himself for ever trying to deny the elder anything.  Jinki stumbled to the kitchen, his shoulder ping-ponging lightly off the wall in his drunken state.  Taemin knew he should go help… he really should because it was only a matter of time before Jinki broke something but… the couch just looked socomfortable.  He gave in to his selfish desires, sinking down onto the sofa in a puddle, eyes slipping closed as soon as his feet settled on the coffee table. 

He jumped in surprised when an ice-cold can was dropped into his chest, effectively jolting him from his doze.  Jinki’s smile was playful, popping the tab on his beer and holding out, waiting for Taemin to clink cans with him.  Taemin rolled his eyes at Jinki’s childishness but humoring the elder, tapping their cans together with a dull ‘thud’ before they both took a drink.

“So how’s solo life?” Jinki muttered, settling himself flush against Taemin’s side, his hand resting comfortably on the younger’s thigh.  That was expected though, Jinki always got a little touchy whenever he drank.

“Hard,” Taemin groaned, taking another swig of his drink and resting his head against Jinki’s shoulder, the stress of his day slowly chipping away. 

Jinki hummed, “You’re doing really well though.  I was checking all the music charts today.”

Taemin chuckled, “Don’t you have more important things to do?”

“More important than you?  Not a chance,” Jinki replied, his smile so genuine Taemin couldn’t help how his heart swelled in his chest. 

Leave it to Jinki to always know what to say to make everything okay. 

It was nice, knowing that no matter what happened, no matter if his solo soared in the charts or if it absolutely bombed, s, his family would be there for him.  He knew Jinki would be there, cheering for him and supporting him without an ounce of bitterness or jealousy.  It made all the stress and the long days worth it. 

Even though he was tired to his very bones and even though he had to be awake in a few short hours, he didn’t care.  He was going to steal a few precious minutes with his hyung to just… relax.  A few precious minutes to kick back, drink too much beer and let go of all that stress, because none of it really mattered anyway.

Taemin snuggled a little deeper into Jinki’s side, sighing in contentment.  Sleep could wait because this right here, this is what he had really needed after all.