a/n: chenyeol, nonau, fluff, ~2000 words. 

this was written earlier this year when i wanted to get back on track with my writing but had zero ideas. so i based it on that one performance of unfair from 2015 where jongdae and chanyeol have matching red paint on their faces (lol). it's very much like my older fics i guess, chenyeol nonau fluff oneshot. my brand, lmao. enjoy!

The backstage area was busy that day. After having performed Sing for You, the members were getting ready for their last stage performance of Unfair, a song that had grown on them during the last few days of promotions. Despite the cheesiness of the song, the lyrics were fun in a self-aware kind of way, and the choreography was not too challenging and actually enjoyable. Usually their comeback concepts meant serious business, so it wasn’t often they could bounce around and look silly on stage. Maybe it was a bit forced this time around as well, but that didn’t make it less fun for a perpetually optimistic and fun-loving person like Jongdae.

The theme for today’s performance was (unsurprisingly) Christmas, and while that had been an underlying theme throughout all of their winter promotion cycles, they hadn’t gone all in like this before. They were all supposed to wear Santa-like outfits, Christmas themed accessories and dance around on a stage prettily decorated with Christmas trees, garlands, twinkling lights and a big fat sign that said “Merry Christmas”. Even their Christmas Day promotions hadn’t been as explicitly Christmassy as this.

Jongdae did not complain, though. The members were kinda cute, all wrapped up in big red coats like they were actual Christmas presents themselves. It was obvious some of them had bargained with the stylists to get the least obnoxious outfits, like Kyungsoo and Sehun, while others embraced the concept wholeheartedly. Junmyun had picked a red detachable nose to go with his beret, and Minseok was wearing glasses with little reindeer antlers on them. Baekhyun was going for the full on sleazy Santa look, with slicked back hair, sunglasses, and the fact that he was wearing nothing beneath the slightly opened coat.

The stylists had brought three sets of headbands with plush antlers and Jongdae, Jongin and Chanyeol played rock, paper, scissors to settle who would get to wear which ones. Chanyeol ended up winning and therefore snatched the cutest pair, complete with fluffy little ears, while Jongdae and Jongin had to wear matching, bright red ones. Obviously, the somewhat obnoxious rapper couldn’t stop himself from rubbing it in Jongdae’s face.

“Who’s the cutest reindeer?” he asked while putting his hands on his cheeks to force out some aegyo, seemingly not expecting Jongdae to reply. Jongdae didn’t, either, but just smiled exasperatedly and rolled his eyes. Chanyeol was in fact pretty cute, with his big, shiny eyes, plump lips, and ridiculous ears sticking out beneath his fluffy mop of hair. But Jongdae wasn’t going to feed his ego more than necessary.

Chanyeol chose not to leave Jongdae alone after that, and sat himself down on an empty chair next to him in the corner of the room. The makeup artists and stylists were busy fussing over some of the other members, so all they could do at this moment was to wait.

“Hey, Jongdae”, Chanyeol said, poking said man’s arm. Jongdae turned to face him and was met with a big, excited grin on the other’s pretty lips. “Y'know, if I’m a reindeer I want to be Rudolph. Can’t you do something about my nose?”

“Like what, Junmyun hyung stole the only Rudolph nose available”, Jongdae explained, pointing across the room at Junmyun who looked more like a classic clown than anything.

“No, no, I don’t need that”, Chanyeol said theatrically, waving one of his large hands. “Look.”

He then pointed to the counter beside them, where some makeup and hair items were scattered. Jongdae got the hint and searched it for something appropriate, and soon found a fitting cream blusher. He dipped his finger in it and smeared some bright red colour on Chanyeol’s nose, in all honesty enjoying being able to touch Chanyeol’s face without it seeming weird.

“How do I look?” Chanyeol asked after a few seconds, grinning widely, automatically making Jongdae smile in return.

“There’s a mirror right there, stupid”, Jongdae teased and pointed to the huge mirror behind the counter; seriously, was Chanyeol that dense or was he just pretending?

Chanyeol ignored his quip and turned towards said mirror, inspecting his newly improved makeup. His red nose was now matching the slight redness of his lips.

“Ooh, handsome”, he said, winking obnoxiously at himself. Jongdae couldn’t stop himself from giggling. Typical Chanyeol.

At that, Chanyeol turned towards him again, seemingly a bit too proud that he had managed to make him laugh.

“Hey, you’re a reindeer too now, right? We should be matching!” he exclaimed and pried the blusher from Jongdae’s hands, the latter too caught off guard to attempt to stop him.

“There can only be one Rudolph”, Jongdae then tried to argue, but Chanyeol had already swiped a long finger in the creamy substance.

“You won’t be Christmassy otherwise! You’ll just be a normal reindeer, from some other time of the year”, he explained, the jingle bells tied to his shirt ringing as he leaned a bit closer to Jongdae to cover his nose in the product. Jongdae almost instinctively flinched, but soon got used to Chanyeol’s finger patting his nose, the other’s face cutely scrunched in concentration while trying to distribute the colour evenly.

“Hm… your nose is a bit wider than mine so you might need some more of this”, Chanyeol said and waved the hand in which he was holding the blusher. Jongdae faked a gasp, actually not being very annoyed but deciding to go full on overdramatic just to make Chanyeol know better than to insult him.

“Are you calling my nose big? Haven’t you seen yourself, Mr Long Nose, probably longer than your-” Jongdae leaned forward to whisper the last word but Chanyeol, wisely enough, covered his mouth in the right moment.

“What are you even saying?!” he tried to whisper, but it was just as loud as he normally talked. Jongdae rolled his eyes. Had Chanyeol ever been able to speak quietly for the entirety of his life?

“I didn’t know you thought about me like that”, Chanyeol added, with a big, -eating grin, and Jongdae felt his face heat up slightly. He’d really dug his own grave with that comment. Besides, while Chanyeol’s nose wasn’t the typical button nose, it wasn’t awfully long.

“I don’t”, he huffed, “I try not to think of you at all, actually.”

“Aw, come on baby, you know I’m the hottest member of the group”, Chanyeol continued to , and Jongdae really felt like covering his mouth instead. That way he would get to touch Chanyeol’s soft-looking lips as well. Shut off those teasing words coming from those teasing lips. Killing two birds with one stone.

“I didn’t know you were blind”, he snapped, “anyway, that would explain the horrible job you did painting my nose.”

Jongdae gestured to the mirror. In reality, Chanyeol hadn’t painted it too badly, but Jongdae just wanted to rile him up a bit after those comments he had made. It was fun, and he knew Chanyeol wouldn’t take real offence.

“Woah, really?! I did a bad job? Maybe I should fix it, then”, Chanyeol exclaimed and before Jongdae knew it Chanyeol’s fingers were in contact with his face again, but this time not only smearing makeup on his nose; Chanyeol was applying colour on his cheeks as well, which in theory wouldn’t have been a problem as that was where blushers were usually used. However, he spread such a thick layer of red that it definitely looked unnatural, as if Jongdae was trying to look like Pikachu, or some other cartoon character with immensely red cartoon cheeks.

“W-what are you doing?!” Jongdae exclaimed once he caught up with what was happening, this time shocked for real. He grabbed Chanyeol’s wrists to force the large hands away from his face, but it was already too late. The latter only chuckled.

“Look at me! Do I seriously have to perform like this now?!” Jongdae whined, gesturing wildly at the mirror. It was not terrible, but it looked like a child had applied his makeup today. He was sure the stylists weren’t going to be amused.

“Aww, poor widdle Jongdae”, Chanyeol said, clearly trying to make fun of Jongdae’s tone of voice. “I was only trying to give you that cute blushy frost-bitten look! You know, like you’ve been outside building snowmen, or sledding, or snowboarding, or having a snowball fight…”

Jongdae couldn’t help but smile slightly at that. Why could he never stay mad at Chanyeol for long? Besides, it wasn’t that bad. A bit cute, actually. Perhaps it could fit their just as silly-looking styling and concept.

“Ah, why”, he finally replied, “I was already looking cute…”

Chanyeol pouted disapprovingly in reply, and Jongdae’s eyes once again directed themselves towards his lips. Maybe he had a thing for them… it was obvious, wasn’t it?

“And you said I was blind?” Chanyeol then argued, but Jongdae couldn’t even bring himself to feel annoyed anymore.

“You don’t think I’m cute?” he asked, still gazing at the way Chanyeol moved his round, slightly red lips. An idea planted itself in his head, and before he could properly think it through Jongdae acted on it.

“Well-” Chanyeol started, but was almost immediately interrupted by Jongdae.

“What about now?” the latter said, moving his gaze around the room quickly to check if anyone was watching them, before leaning forward to place a brief kiss on Chanyeol’s lips.

It was purely a spur of the moment; he almost surprised himself by the action, but Jongdae knew he wanted to get back at Chanyeol for all the times he’d played him, all the times he’d teased him. Hell, maybe Chanyeol had been right after all, Jongdae had always thought he was pretty hot. Maybe not enough to risk anything, but still enough to make Jongdae stop to admire his various… features from time to time. And it was nice. It was fast, but Chanyeol’s lips were as soft as Jongdae had expected, not completely satisfying his curiosity, but… perhaps that could wait for another time. Hopefully.

Wait, what was he thinking?

Jongdae eyed Chanyeol just after he’d… done the deed, snickering in delight when he saw how apparently flustered the other was. Was he being selfish? Maybe.

“Wh- what, what did- did you”, Chanyeol stammered, the jingle bells attached to his shirt ringing again as he leaned a bit away from Jongdae; he slowly raised an arm to touch his lips, blushing profusely. Jongdae could feel his heart beat a tiny bit faster at that, a reaction like that was exciting, no need to deny it. Had Chanyeol liked it? What if he didn’t? In that case the kiss didn’t have to mean anything, Jongdae was usually very touchy with the other members, it was only a question of time before he kissed one of them. Or at least, that could be an explanation.

“Um”, Chanyeol tried again, but failing to make himself properly understood this time as well. Jongdae delighted in seeing how his cheeks were also tinged a red colour, therefore he couldn’t keep himself from leaning forward and commenting,

“We’re finally matching.”

Chanyeol did not seem to know how to reply to that, and instead visibly swallowed while still directing his wide eyes towards Jongdae as if the latter were out of his mind. Maybe he was.

Suddenly, a voice came through the speakers installed in the room, announcing that their turn to perform was in five minutes, meaning that they had to get ready to enter the stage.

“Chanyeol?” Jongdae called once the announcement was over.

“Y-yes?” answered the other, a little breathlessly.

“Now you have to explain this to the stylists”, Jongdae said with a big grin, gesturing towards his own face another time.

Chanyeol sighed, finally defeated.

a/n: the title is a line from unfair. much better than the first title that came to mind when writing this, "rudolph the red faced popstar" (i'm dying). hope you liked this!