"Babe, you're not the boss here, alright?" Kai's words were soothing but they did nothing, apparently, because Kyungsoo's eyebrows furrowed even more when his gaze caught sight of the last of their three couples sitting together, but on opposite sides of the couch.

 

"I wish those two would actually act like they're dating." Kyungsoo didn't try to contain his volume as he spoke, and Baekhyun, who was already annoyed at his friend for being grumpy anyway, hit Kyungsoo hard on the chest with a throw pillow.

 

That action prompted a pillow fight between Baekhyun and Kyungsoo that caught a helpless Kai in the middle while a much wiser Luhan snuck around them to sink down between Jongdae and Yixing, in their empty space.

 

"This is why you sleep on the couch!" Luhan shouted into the foray. Jongdae laughed and Yixing's legs came up to fold under him before Luhan added, "You're so compulsively violent!"

 

"He started it!" Baekhyun defended himself against his boyfriend's accusations, but his excuse was childish and only made things worse.

 

"Our friends are all immature," Jongdae declared under his breath, though he'd specified the plural "our" because he'd wanted to talk to his own boyfriend, even if he didn't seem to want to.

 

Yixing's laughter was quietly subdued, a lot like he was, but Jongdae heard it nevertheless; that's how they operated, actually. Kyungsoo and Kai were the annoying PDA couple; Luhan and Baekhyun were lovers and fighters who broke up as much as they made up; and Jongdae and Yixing weren't any of those things at all. Instead, they were boyfriends, almost of convenience, really, who'd had a somewhat rocky start but stayed together for as long as they had because neither one saw any reason not to. The feelings were still there, obviously, strengthened over time, even, but they'd gotten together as young and awkward teenagers who still didn't know how to communicate, despite now being in college.

 

And so they did things like this instead. Talked in sarcastic asides from Jongdae and short bursts of quiet but genuine laughter from Yixing. Supported each other as silent fans when Jongdae went to Yixing's dance recitals but never stayed after, and Yixing listened  almost religiously to Jongdae's show on the campus radio station but never commented on it. Spent time together by virtue of having all the same friends, who, though not entirely understanding their relationship, invited Jongdae and Yixing both to everything, as a pair.

 

The rest of their friends, though, were often so caught up in personal relationship drama, that they didn't notice these aspects of Yixing and Jongdae's relationship, so when Jongdae smiled at Yixing's laugh over his comment, the entire rest of the room froze.

 

"Did Jongdae just make Yixing laugh?" Baekhyun asked this to his boyfriend because Luhan was sitting in between them and would know for sure.

 

Luhan, though, was surprisingly defensive. "How would I know? I was focusing on you! Did you get a haircut?"

 

"Uh oh." Kyungsoo knew exactly what it was that had Baekhyun looking different that night, and he knew that the fact Luhan didn't was going to create trouble real fast.

 

"Ugh!" Baekhyun nearly shouted before he threw the pillow at Luhan in annoyance. "You're so unobservant! First of all, you're sitting right there! Secondly, I'm not wearing eyeliner; it was for you, too, you idiot."

 

Baekhyun sniffled and all the others knew exactly what came next at this point in their arguments. Before Baekhyun could dump Luhan yet again, though, Kai raised a hand like a grade school student and cried, "Let's play a game!"

 

Kyungsoo got the hint of as Kai's elbow purposefully met his rib, so he added enthusiastically, "Seven Minutes in Heaven!"

 

It was unexpectedly Jongdae who shut that idea down. "Not gonna happen." All eyes were on him as he continued, and he shivered, not from their stares, but from the curl of Yixing's fingers hidden behind the couch as they brushed softly at his nape. "What? Pretty sure that's a game for single people who need to get laid, anyway."

 

"I feel like you need to get laid," Baekhyun quipped, now snuggled comfortably against his boyfriend's side, previous anger completely forgotten.

 

"He's not single, though," Kai pointed out helpfully.

 

Kyungsoo decided to contribute to, making Jongdae roll his eyes because he thought at least Satan Soo would be above such things. "He might as well be, though."

 

"Actually," Luhan threw in, thereby making the circle of friendly meddling complete, "Yixing, too. They might as well both be."

 

With that, Jongdae had had enough. "Yah!" He yelled at his friends, standing up to better express himself. "What Yixing and I do with our relationship is our business, alright?"

 

"And we've been dating since practically before you were born," Yixing continued his boyfriend's rebuke with a sarcastically irate remark of his own, though the age insult was particularly pointed at Kai, the youngest in their group of six.

 

"So don't try to tell us what's up." Jongdae's face as he finished was smug, to say the least, and when Yixing put up a hand, Jongdae high-fived it automatically, not even needing to look.

 

Baekhyun exchanged a pointed look with his boyfriend, who then turned to Kyungsoo because they might have been having this grown-up slumber party at Luhan's place, but Kyungsoo was still undisputedly the man in charge. Kyungsoo nodded almost imperceptibly before raising an eyebrow at his own boyfriend; Kai was the fast speaker of them four, so they were out the door and locking it by the time he finished his explanatory, "We still think you two should talk, though. We'll be outside!"

 

Jongdae gaped open-mouthed while Yixing just unfurled his legs to place them back onto the floor. It wasn't until Baekhyun yelled through the door, "Have fun kids!" and Luhan added an amused, "But don't make kids!" that Yixing even seemed to register what had just happened to the two of them. The Chinese junior's gaze came to rest on Jongdae who, in turn, knew what his boyfriend wanted and explained to his what was going on.

 

"They think we need to talk." Jongdae's voice was incredulous.

 

Yixing looked confused. "Aren't we doing that right now?"

 

Jongdae laughed and stretched a little so his body inched a little closer to where Yixing's still say against the far end of Luhan's couch. "I think they meant more deeply. Like why aren't we more like other couples kind of deep."

 

"Oh." Yixing's words expressed surprise but Jongdae could tell by the absence of his boyfriend's dimples that he wasn't really surprised at all. "I can be deep, if you want."

 

"Oh I'm aware," Jongdae joked, trying anxiously to lighten the mood that had suddenly gotten so heavy between them.

 

"That too," Yixing agreed, though he looked quite solemn when he added, "But can you?"

 

Jongdae recognized the change in his boyfriend's demeanor instantly—their relationship was years in the making, after all—and lowered his own playfulness to match in a way that was almost automatic. "I can, actually. Not like that, I don't think." He'd never tried it, though, so he wasn't entirely sure about that. "But definitely like this. I just don't understand though, you know? I like you and you like me, we're boyfriends and this works for us, why make it overly complicated?"

 

"Dae," Yixing's voice was gentle, "sometimes adding a little spark of romance doesn't complicate; sometimes it actually improves, okay? And honestly, I feel like our friends are just trying to help."

 

They paused at a muffled, "We are!" from Kai through the door, and Jongdae threw a pillow at the handle before gesturing for Yixing to finish.

 

"And before you get upset or think I think you're not enough, you are; I've felt that way for almost ten years and I don't think it's gonna change anytime soon. But do I think that stuff like holding hands, and more than some kisses here or there but ones that actually lead places, and spending time together one on one, I think that—" Yixing paused abruptly and the look he sent Jongdae was appalled. "You know we've never actually been on a date? Just the two of us, I mean."

 

"Never?" Jongdae was dubious at best.

 

"Pretty sure," Yixing confirmed, sounding sad.

 

"Well, then," Jongdae perked up, suddenly inspired by an idea. "They left is in here, so why shouldn't we do the same to them?" He turned to Yixing expectantly as he got up off the couch and held out a hand. "What do you say, Xing-ah? Wanna go out on a first date?"

 

Yixing took Jongdae's proffered hand and interlocked their fingers in the effortless way that only couples who've been together for many years can seem to master. "I wouldn't miss it for the world, Dae." He smiled and his dimples nearly knocked Jongdae's breath completely out of him.

 

They strolled, hand in hand, the few steps from Luhan's couch to the front door, not bothering to get their friends from where Kyungsoo, Kai, Baekhyun, and Luhan had barricaded themselves in the only bedroom and locked the door. In fact, it wasn't until they were pulling on their shoes and slipping into their fall jackets that either one even thought to let the others know.

 

"Bye!" Jongdae called out into what now looked like a completely empty apartment. "We're going out on a date."

 

"It's our first!" Yixing added, sounding gleeful as he finished tying his second shoe.

 

"Come on, babe," Jongdae said, holding his hand out once more to pull his boyfriend to his feet.

 

Yixing looked at the couch, then at his boyfriend since middle school, before planting an impromptu peck onto Jongdae's crooked smile and shouting in excited abandon, "Let's blow this Popsicle joint!"

 

To the buildings other tenants, Luhan's friends were delinquents who'd probably been partying too hard to tell the difference between inside and outside voices.

 

To their friends that they left behind in the apartment as they closed the door with a definitely click behind them, Jongdae and Yixing were an enigma, but that particular outburst of Yixing's was so out of character and strange.

 

To Jongdae, though, the other man's exhilarated shout wasn't weird or delinquent or unexpected at all. It was merely Yixing at his best, his most comfortable, his only-for-Jongdae level. To Jongdae, that Yixing was only ever his; and they could talk about romance and their relationship until they were both blue in the face, but until the day that Yixing stopped being his Yixing, Jongdae wasn't going anywhere.