5,125 words

There’s a cat on his head. That’s the first thing Tao realizes when he comes to. A soft, fuzzy cat suffocating him with her tail, and a pale streak of morning light through the mini blinds above the kitchen sink. He fell asleep on the couch again, watching TV probably, and if it was any other time of the year and not summer break, he’d be alarmed by this.

As it is though, it doesn’t matter if Tao sleeps in. He can sleep in as long as he wants to. He can stay up as late as he wants to, and he can blast the TV almost as much as he wants to - at least not loud enough to bother the neighbors into calling their landlord. But primarily it’s because the company is off for a month, plus Tao has the run of the apartment because Baekhyun is gone to Texas with his boyfriend, and Tao can finally relax and just be himself. 

He remembers throwing a sleeping bag over the couch and cozying up with a bag of chips and a couple sodas. He doesn’t remember turning the TV off though. And currently, it’s firmly set in the off position.

“Morning,” says a lazy voice from behind Tao’s head.

Tao startles and looks frantically about, his cat Velvet goes flying off in a fit of indignation.

“Sehun?” he says, and then yawns, because as long as it’s not a burglar, then Tao doesn’t really care.

“Yep.”

“What are you… doing here?” He yawns again.

“I came because I thought you said you wanted to do something today. Instead I got here and found you passed out like a drunkard. It’s noon! I’m bored. And hungry.”

Sehun has had a spare key ever since Tao gave him one at the beginning of the summer, specifically for days like this because with both of their friends gone, and everyone else in the company scattered about, there’s no one else for the two of them to hang out with.

“Did you turn off the TV?” Tao asks, as he starts to untangle himself from the zipped-up sleeping bag and not make a fool of himself by falling to the ground still inside. He did that last week, but fortunately nobody but his cat saw it. 

“After I watched a couple hours of morning talk shows.”

“You’ve been here that long?!”

Sehun laughs and tosses the remote across the room. He’s been lounging in a recliner, his feet up and relaxed and he looks completely cozy. “Nah, not that long. Just half an hour. Long enough to hear you talking in your sleep.” Sehun puts up a haughty come at me, bro face.

Tao hums disinterestedly, still playing with the zipper before he finally gets it lined up just right. He slides it halfway down, paying almost no attention to Sehun’s claim.

“I don’t talk in my sleep.”

“Ohh, someone’s grumpy.” 

“It’s called waking up,” Tao yawns, acting halfway annoyed but not really. That is until he sits up properly on the couch, tosses his legs off and goes to stand up. He suddenly remembers he’s barely dressed. Just a thin cotton shirt and one of his oldest boxers. And Sehun is still staring at him, although playfully.

It could be worse, Tao thinks. He could have been in briefs. Instead, his underwear is just a faded shade of blue, a little ragged but the elastic is still holding up. He pretends Sehun is just a nobody, as he gets up and walks by his friend and pointedly doesn’t make eye contact with the face that really seems like it’s staring at his . 

“I thought you always wore designer drawers. What’s the matter? No clean laundry?”

So Sehun was staring at his after all. 

“Something like that!” he calls from inside his room, frantically looking for the latest pair of not-filthy jeans to cover himself up. “You know I only called you over so I had someone to talk to when I go to the laundry mat!” he teases. 

Sehun scoffs, loudly so that even Tao can hear it when enters his bathroom to throw water over his face. 

“Date at the laundry mat! Woo hoo!” 

At some point, Tao will learn not to let every little thing Sehun does or say get to him. He knows Sehun says things like that just to joke; Tao’s known him for long enough to know. They became friends out of necessity because of Baekhyun and Kai, eventually became friends on their own right, and Tao’s not going to lie when he says it’s fun to pretend and joke about the two of them when it’s in front of their acquaintances. Baekhyun gives him so much grief over it already, and Sehun’s reactions are always priceless. A little too overdone, but that’s all part of the fun.

If ever they end up sitting closer than might be considered normal, the others tease. If they end up going out alone for whatever reason, the others tease them. It fuels their friendship really, even to such lengths that Sehun will playfully hold his hand if he thinks it will make Baekhyun laugh. Sometimes it’s Tao who initiates just a hint of skinship because over time it becomes less of a source for Sehun to be uncomfortable, and now it’s just a shared joke. 

When nobody is around though… that’s when it makes Tao uncomfortable. Because they still joke around but now there’s no audience, and Tao doesn’t know what they’re even playing at. It’s like his friend has an off switch that conveniently forgets Tao is gay and Sehun is actually not.  And ever since it’s been only them, two weeks now and counting, their relationship is only growing more tense. Although perhaps it’s only Tao who notices it. 

He has a tendency to overthink things, and then to pretend that he’s not. Ever since he was burned by Kris, and probably even for years before that, he’s learned to be wary. Straight men can be the worst, especially those who were actually used to being around guys like Tao. They overplay their confidence, work extra hard to not come across homophobic, and so the atmosphere becomes light. Too light. Sometimes too fake. And sometimes the lines between fake and play become blurred by… something else. 

“I’m starving. Don’t you have anything to eat in this place?”

Sehun is judging the contents of his empty refrigerator when Tao comes back into the living room, now properly dressed. 

“I wasn’t kidding when I said I haven’t done much recently. No laundry, no groceries.”

“Yeah, this is pretty lame. Want to get breakfast at the diner?”

Tao hesitates, namely because that place still makes him feel a little uncomfortable. On the other hand though it’s cheap, fast, and right around the corner, and Tao is good at pretending a lot of things are alright. Like how attractive he thinks Sehun truly is, and how that never makes his head spin a little. Not at all. 

Several hours later as they sit side-by-side on top of a swirling washing machine, Tao wishes again that Sehun had learned to keep up some boundaries. The part of life where Tao actually has a friend who will follow him around and keep him company during even the boring, mundane tasks of life is alright. Eating food, complaining about cold coffee, carrying a bag and a basket of laundry a few blocks away - Sehun is good companion material. They’re both bored and have nothing better to do, and as Tao’s laundry cycles and rinses and dries, they both have their phones to occupy themselves. Sehun is deep into a game for which it’s very important that he doesn’t lose focus, else his home base will be destroyed, while Tao laughs over texts from Baekhyun about the blistering Texas heat and how Kai is a horrible patient and refuses to do what Baekhyun tells him to.

And all the while they sit next to each other, a laundry basket crowding Tao’s left hip, and absolutely nothing except the floor on Sehun’s right. He keeps the hand not holding his phone low around Tao’s waist so he doesn’t fall off, torsos practically glued together, and Tao thinks it’s rather nice. If it meant something.

Ten minutes of chatting with Baekhyun in between checking online sports scores and entertainment news though, and Sehun doesn’t seem like he’s ever going to detach himself. Not even when he starts cursing and yelling about enemy giants, fuming in huffs and sighing and groaning. 

“Ugh, they got so much of my gold,” he complains finally, as he shuts down his phone’s light-up screen with a furious punch of his thumb. 

“Are you sure that’s a stress relieving game?” Tao asks him, confused.

“Huh? Oh well, sometimes.” 

Sehun sighs again, asks how long the dryer has to go and tips his head so that he’s resting on Tao’s shoulder, fingers still digging into Tao’s belt loop as an anchor. 

Tao doesn’t make a face out of long, natural habit, even though his right side is overheating; the ventilation in this room is already pretty bad, and then life has to go and add Sehun. He goes about checking his phone, noticing that Sehun has his eyes closed like he’s setting in for a long nap.

“Hey. Wake up.” Tao juts his shoulder up, knocking off Sehun’s head. 

“Why?” his friend asks disgruntled. 

“Because your head is heavy, your breath stinks, and your face is ugly.”

Sehun snorts. “My whole face is light as air, and beautiful. What’s your problem?” 

“I notice you don’t have a retort for your breath.” Tao smiles and Sehun bumps him with his still attached shoulder. Tao gulps, because the movement has his weight shifting on the slick surface of the machine. He knocks the laundry basket over a few inches, and to compensate falls closer to Sehun, who also holds on tighter so that he doesn’t fall off the edge either. 

The whole thing just makes them laugh, the comfortable sort of atmosphere that Tao enjoys most about being friends with Sehun. 

“Hey, smile,” Tao tells him, lifting his phone camera up over their heads and already starting to pose. 

Sehun obeys even before asking, “Who’s this for?” He holds up two fingers into the frame and grins cheekily. 

“Baekhyun,” says Tao. 

They lean even closer towards each other, like they haven’t been like this already,  Tao takes the picture, checks it, and then whips it off to his roommate in another part of the country.

“When are they coming back?” Sehun asks, as they both stare down at Tao’s phone waiting for the response.

“Dunno. I know Baekhyun has be be back before September, but I don’t know if Kai will be able to travel before then. You ought to know. Hasn’t he told you?”

“The only things Kai tells me about over the phone is how cute his puppy is. I don’t know if he means the dog or Baekhyun, and honestly I’m too scared to ask.” Sehun laughs. 

Tao’s phone lights up with Baekhyun’s reply, and it has both of them suddenly giggling, Sehun slightly more so than Tao.

Baekhyun: You’re so gay. When’s the wedding?

Sehun slaps his own thigh, oblivious to the fact that his other hand is now lodged between the hem of Tao’s jeans and inching upon skin. 

“Tell him, I saw that, and I’m not amused!”

Tao laughs. “Yeah but you are amused. What, you want me to lie?” 

Tao: Sehun says thanks, he knows he’s cute, and we should probably be asking you that

Baekhyun: Don’t look at me. I’ve got an invalid over here. Ask Luhan first. I swear I caught him once looking at bridal magazines! hehehehe

“Now that’s a disturbing thought,” says Sehun truthfully. “Luhan in a bridal gown.”

“I’m suddenly picturing him in a ball gown and tiara and a creepy smile and it’s making my teeth hurt.”

“Could be worse,” Sehun confesses. “I imagined a mermaid dress with a stuffed push-up bra.”

“What?! What is this brain of yours and why you do even know what that stuff is?”

Sehun looks offended at the attack on his imagination, actually duck