"Grandson Extraordinaire" Minseok/Luhan

Every now and then Minseok liked the trace the wood grain patterns of the stressed wood dining table. He liked to pick out shapes and variations, trails for his finger to follow along and such little things tended to make mealtimes go by in a fun, albeit for others boring fashion. Conversation was not his speciality. Or rather, conversation with Luhan was not his speciality. Both tended to spend a lot of time in the drafty old kitchen on cold autumn evenings while they waited for Luhan’s grandmother to need them. 

“Here, heft this pot over there.”

“Dearie, would you mind pulling that tray out of the oven.”

“There, love, put it over there, and oh thank you! What would an old woman like me ever do without two sweetie pies like you boys.”

It was Luhan’s grandmother, Minseok’s next door neighbor. Minseok liked to say the woman had adopted him over the summer during her grandson’s absence. He tried not to think of the alternative, that she was quite deliberately in the business of matchmaking, or that in any normal situation, Minseok would approve of her taste.

Luhan was, is, will forever be probably, a dream boat. Good looking, tall, handsome, blonde and cute, and it was Minseok’s firm agreement that any boy whose grandmother still thought the world of must be a wonderful guy. No, Luhan was not the problem, nor was his grandmother, wretched[ly lovely] woman that she was, always calling Minseok over for tea or lunch or breakfast or dinner, or midnight snacks, or to unclog her toilet whenever Luhan so happened to be around. The problem was Minseok. Boring, unnoticeable Minseok. He felt quite embarrassed by his own existence, was absolutely sure that Luhan must be so too. Why would Luhan ever look twice at someone whose best skill was stomping cockroaches and sweeping them away to the delight of little old ladies?

Hence why Minseok made a habit out of appreciating tables, appreciating plates and china with hand-painted flowers, even teacups (what beautiful, dainty, elegant, totally unpractical… things). Anything to get out of awkward eye gazing with the great and wonderful Luhan, grandson extraordinaire. 

“Minseok, don’t you need a spoon?”

“Huh?” Minseok gaped. What, was, happening? Luhan? Talking to him? Asking him questions? What are questions? More importantly: what are answers? What are spoons!?

He blinked his eyes rapidly, accidentally caught Luhan’s even more confused expression, and choked. “What?” he managed to ask again.

“You… you’ve been staring at your soup, or somewhere around your soup bowl for several minutes. Do you need another spoon?”

As it so happened, Luhan had already picked up another one for him, guessing that Minseok had lost his, instead of Minseok just (repeatedly) losing his marbles when in the presence of gorgeous, spoon-deliverers. 

“Uhm, sure.” He took the proffered utensil and stared at it, as if inspecting for water stains or anything else. Luhan’s grandmother, the old devil, had conveniently disappeared as soon as the food went on the table. She often feigned important tasks whenever Minseok and Luhan sat down beside each other. 

“Is it okay?” Luhan squinted his eyes, concerned.

“It’s fine!” said Minseok quickly. He immediately strove to place it in his bowl of warm, cozy, soup. Eating, eating was also a good standby. If he was eating, then his mouth was occupied, and talking would cease, and then the only thing he need worry about was making sure Luhan ate too. He didn’t need Luhan to be worried over him and try to do something like smalltalk, ew. Of course, checking on Luhan’s mouth drove home thoughts of other things and… Minseok’s spoon hit the side of the bowl with a loud clank and flipped several times over, broth spewing and pees flying everywhere. It landed with a loud rattle on the tile floor and Minseok froze, stunned, embarrassed, mortified, wishing he could dive head first into his 4’’ by 4’’ bowl and disappear forever.

He didn’t look, he couldn’t look… at Luhan.

But then, something crazy happened. 

Luhan, laughed. 

Not a mean laugh, not a patronizing laugh. 

He was amused, tickled pink, probably.

Minseok blushed, something approaching a hesitant smile inching across his face.

“Cute,” said Luhan, and Minseok’s smile was replaced in an instant with shock. Did Luhan just…?!

“I’ll get you another one, don’t worry.” Luhan darted out of his seat, retrieved the fallen spoon and quickly fetched a new, clean one. Then, all the while Minseok stayed rooted to his chair, Luhan smiled. His even appeared to gleam, just for a moment, the only moment in which Minseok dared to look. 

His hand stretched out, spoon between his fingertips, and Minseok started to take it. He was stunned however when a second later, Luhan laughed again and pulled it back to himself. Horrified, crazed-surely, Minseok watched as Luhan blushed, and then he twirled the spoon, Minseok’s spoon, close to his mouth and kissed it—actually kissed it!— before handing it back. 

“For luck,” he said, while Minseok’s soul departed.

He had no words, no other emotions, no expression except fear and—, did Luhan just incite an indirect kiss?!—when he slowly lowered the spoon into his spoon and—Luhan’s eyes watching his disconcertedly the whole time—took a spoonful and brought it to his mouth. Maybe he only imagined Luhan’s soft, little sigh. Maybe he only imagined that Luhan looked a tad bit overjoyed. Maybe it was possible that Minseok wasn’t a complete failure of a love-interest and—

“Was that a spoon I heard dropping?” came the old grandma’s voice as she hobbled back into the kitchen, cane knocking against every counter she came across.

“Yes, Grandma Yixing,” Luhan explained indulgently. “Minseok and I were just playing at spoons—”

“Spooning? Oh! I used to love spooning.”

Minseok then proceeded to spew his entire mouthful of soup back into the bowl. 

**This is a fill for a tumblr prompt. To request drabbles, look for the 'Ask Open Sign' on the drop-down menu at Exo-MastersoftheNoonaverse.