5.3k of fluff and feelings. beta'd ʕ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°ʔ finally ʕ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°ʔ

terminology:
CS = counter strike. FPS game
master = high rank in LoL
✓ nightbot = auto mod in twitch

Chanyeol unofficially moves in on Friday. Baekhyun has already cleaned his place a thousand times, and even his viewers have commented that the place looks neater than usual. They say he looks happier too, but he doesn’t tell them anything.

When Chanyeol knocks on his door at 9am — a bit too early for Baekhyun’s liking — Baekhyun momentarily forgets that Chanyeol was supposed to be there. He opens the door with a frown on his face, bedhead and all, about to make a fuss, but he sees Chanyeol’s face and just blinks at him. Chanyeol seems sorry for waking Baekhyun up on his off-day, but Baekhyun rubs the sleep out of his eyes and happily welcomes Chanyeol in, his sour mood gone.

“This is your room,” Baekhyun says, showing Chanyeol around. He involuntarily yawns, and Chanyeol quietly apologises once again for waking him up so early in the morning. Baekhyun shakes his head, helping Chanyeol to put his stuff down by the bed. “I would’ve woken up at this time anyway,” Baekhyun easily lies through his teeth. He would have woken up at 2 in the afternoon and stayed in bed till 5pm.

“Have you had breakfast?” Baekhyun asks, walking to the kitchen. Chanyeol trails behind him like a lost puppy and shakes his head no. “Let’s have breakfast now then,” Baekhyun goes on, opening his fridge. “We can unpack your things later.”

Chanyeol peers into the fridge, and Baekhyun smiles sheepishly at him. There’s close to no food in it, save for snacks and energy drinks. How does anyone live like this? Chanyeol wonders to himself. “Toast?” Baekhyun suggests.

“Doesn’t seem like you have anything else. So much for ‘take all the food you want’,” Chanyeol jokes, earning a playful punch on the shoulder. “Why don’t you live in the dorms?”

“My uncle owns this place,” Baekhyun explains, “it’s a spare apartment. He says I can stay here for as long as I need to. I don’t really like living in the dorms anyway.”

“Ah,” Chanyeol says, not too sure how to continue the conversation. He was never one to make small talk and he usually doesn’t care much for it, but being around Baekhyun makes him want to talk more, even when he doesn’t know what to say. But thankfully, Baekhyun seems to notice his struggle. “Do you wanna go to the grocery store with me today?”

Chanyeol looks at him mid-chew and regrets it, because god damn how can someone look so good fresh out of bed? “The bread’s gonna fall out if you don’t shut your mouth,” Baekhyun muses, resting his chin on his palm as he watches Chanyeol with half-lidded eyes. Chanyeol gulps and nods his head.

“Yeah, sure,” he replies, looking away. Looking at Baekhyun does weird things to his heart. He remembers the first time he met Baekhyun in high school — Baekhyun was the one who approached him first — or approached his friend, rather. Baekhyun was asking his friend to go to the PC cafe, and his friend introduced the both of them.

“I can’t make it today. Chanyeolie can accompany you, he likes playing games too.” Chanyeol shot a look at his friend, but he only smiled and took his leave.

“Well,” Baekhyun started. “Guess I’m stuck with you. Let’s go.”

“I- I don’t play CS well,” Chanyeol said, “I’m more of a League person myself.”

“That’s good then,” Baekhyun chirped, dragging Chanyeol along with him. “We’re playing that today.” Chanyeol was confused, because wasn’t Baekhyun a CS player? He never knew Baekhyun played League of Legends just like him, but he kept quiet anyway.

“Hey, you’re quite good at this game, aren’t you?” Baekhyun asked, two hours into their gaming session. Chanyeol laughed, embarrassed. “I’m all right, I guess.”

Baekhyun huffed in disbelief. “I heard from Kyungsoo that you were nearly Master last season. That’s skill, man. You should totally start streaming!”

“That was once! I probably won’t reach that rank ever again,” Chanyeol replied. “No one would wanna watch me stream.”

“You don’t have to show your face,” Baekhyun retorted. “I don’t stream with a face cam. People like it anyway. Faces are just a bonus.”

“You should,” Chanyeol shot back quickly, deflecting the attention from himself. “You’re handsome. Could rake in a lot more viewers with that kind of good looks.”

Chanyeol will never forget the way Baekhyun’s cheeks seemed to redden as he denied it, and he wonders why they even stopped talking in the first place. Was Baekhyun uncomfortable around him? Or did he find Chanyeol boring then?

“Baekhyun,” Chanyeol begins, and Baekhyun perks up. “Yeah?”

“Why weren’t we closer in high school?”

Baekhyun seems to be deep in thought as he doesn’t say a word for a minute or two, sipping on his drink. “Maybe because we never really had anything in common. You were good at League, I wasn’t. I only played CS, and it wasn’t your kind of game.”

But some of your friends weren’t into CS either, Chanyeol wants to say, but “oh,” is all he can muster.

“But we’re friends now, right?” Baekhyun asks cheerfully, as if he’s unsure of their relationship. Baekhyun doesn’t want to tell him that it’s because 17 year old him was afraid Chanyeol might’ve found him weird and that he didn’t want to ruin the cool image Chanyeol had of him. Now that he thinks about it, it’s kind of a stupid reason.

“Of course,” Chanyeol doesn’t miss a beat. He gets up from his seat, sighing loudly. “I have to unpack now, otherwise I’ll never get it done.”

“I’ll help you,” Baekhyun says as he quickly finishes up his drink, getting up as well. Chanyeol doesn’t stop him, and instead directs him on how to arranging his belongings.

“You don’t seem to have a lot of stuff with you,” Baekhyun observes as he gently throws the contents of the luggage on the floor. He feels like he’s intruding on Chanyeol’s privacy as he sorts through the man’s clothing, but he keeps a straight face as he does anyway. He’s just helping a friend.

“I’m here for a holiday, not here to stay. I only brought my necessities,” Chanyeol replies, standing up. “Do you have spare hangers I could use? I’m not a fan of folding my clothes…”

“Yeah I do, they’re actually right outside on the couch. I wanted to put them into the room for you, but I forgot. Sorry.”

“Don’t worry,” Chanyeol chuckles, leaving the room. Baekhyun continues to sort Chanyeol’s things — the man didn’t even bother folding his clothes nicely, Baekhyun realises. He was probably too lazy to repack everything when he already unpacked at his previous host’s home. Baekhyun feels slightly guilty even though he didn’t know Chanyeol was coming to America. He just wishes Chanyeol told him to avoid all the trouble. He looks tired as hell.

Baekhyun stops in his tracks when he feels something hard and lumpy underneath the clothes. His immediate thought is that it’s a hairdryer or something, but why would Chanyeol bring a hairdryer overseas? Lifting up the shorts that is covering the item, Baekhyun freezes, his cheeks burning.

That isn’t a hairdryer. It’s… a . He’s sure of it, even though he’s never actually seen one in front of him before. He wants to pick it up out of sheer curiosity, but isn’t that unsanitary? Before he can react, the cream-coloured object is swiped off the floor by an embarrassed Chanyeol, and Baekhyun just wants to coo at him for being so adorable. “I think I can finish packing on my own now,” Chanyeol dismisses him, refusing to meet Baekhyun’s eyes. Baekhyun panics, because Chanyeol looks like he’s about to cry.

“Don’t… I’m sorry- I shouldn’t have seen that,” Baekhyun fumbles with his words. He doesn’t know if he did anything wrong but he feels the need to say sorry. “I won’t judge you, you know?”

“Please just go,” Chanyeol’s voice wavers, and Baekhyun’s mood is dampened. He didn’t know Chanyeol would react so strongly to something like that. Something must’ve happened before and he wants to know, but he excuses himself from the room. Was Chanyeol ever bullied for his uality?

You don’t even know if he’s gay, Baekhyun’s conscience mocks, and he rolls his eyes. Why else would Chanyeol react that way? The must’ve been his. Baekhyun can’t help but think of Chanyeol. Chanyeol on his bed. Chanyeol touching himself. Chanyeol inserting- “Stop it,” he chides himself, shaking his head. “Chanyeol is just a friend.” He sniffs himself, making a face when he notices the stench. Time to take a shower.

+

Baekhyun spends the rest of the morning giving Chanyeol his space. After his shower, he starts streaming and his viewers are amazed because Baekhyun always streams at night.

Now, three hours into Overwatch, he feels lethargic and he can’t stop thinking about Chanyeol. He knows Chanyeol is still in his room, probably procrastinating because he’s lazy, but Baekhyun doesn’t want to disturb him. He looks through his chat and replies to some people.

OrisaMain
Omg, my Friday is instantly blessed

OrisaMain
I RUSHED HOME FOR THIS

qkfthals
@orisamain same. School work? What’s school????

CATPAW_OW
!uptime

✓ Nightbot
BAEKKAJI has been live for 3 hours 12 minutes 9 seconds!

“School work is important, kids,” Baekhyun reminds his chat. It’s going slow today, since most people are busy in the afternoons, but it’s still a sizeable audience. He’s on YouTube, watching videos that his viewers are linking him as he waits for the game to put him into a match. Just then, Chanyeol knocks on his door and pokes his head through a tiny gap. “Um…”

Baekhyun is startled, and he instinctively mutes his mic and shuts his face cam off. He turns to look at Chanyeol as he takes off his headset. “Do you wanna… the groceries?” Chanyeol asks hesitantly, looking everywhere except at Baekhyun.

“...Now?” Baekhyun questions, glancing at his screen. He switches back to Overwatch and sees that a match hasn’t been found, so he stops queuing for one. “Yeah, sure, I was about to ask you anyway.”

“Were you streaming?” Chanyeol guesses, furrowing his eyebrows. He doesn’t give Baekhyun a chance to deny it before he rambles on. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have barged in. We can go later! It’s not a big deal. Sorry.”

Baekhyun doesn’t answer him. Instead, he unmutes his mic and turns his camera back on, putting on his best puppy face. “Sorry guys, I have to end the stream here. I’ll see you soon. Bye!” He hastily shuts down his computer and pats his shirt down, smiling brightly at Chanyeol. “Let’s go.”

Everyone in the chat is going crazy over the silhouette of a man at Baekhyun’s door and they’re wondering since when Baekhyun started bringing friends over when he streamed.

The supermarket is a short distance from Baekhyun’s apartment, so they decide to take a nice stroll through the park on the way there. Chanyeol is mostly quiet, but Baekhyun knows he wants to say something. He lets Chanyeol gather his thoughts as he tries not to say anything to the man. “Um…”

Baekhyun looks hopefully at Chanyeol, expecting him to finally say something, anything, but he is left frustrated when Chanyeol purses his lips once more and doesn’t say a word. He figures that Chanyeol is probably still upset over the incident, and he doesn’t know how to comfort the man.

“If it makes you feel better, I’m bi. I mean sure, I like men and women, but I’m more of person, you know?” Baekhyun casually discloses the information to Chanyeol as if he was talking about the weather. “You don’t have to worry so much about it around me. You probably thought I was going to make fun of you or hate you for it, but we’re basically the same, so don’t sweat it,” he adds softly. “No one will judge you for it here either. I’ll make sure of it. Just enjoy your stay. That’s what you’re here for.”

Chanyeol looks surprised, but he remains silent anyway as he takes in the information. How could Baekhyun be so nonchalant about something that Chanyeol spent his life worrying over? It isn’t like his parents forbid him from dating men — he just… why did he do it? Try so desperately to hide it? He doesn’t know. “Thank you,” Chanyeol manages to say, relieved that Baekhyun isn’t asking any questions. He just wants to go home now, back to Baekhyun’s apartment.

“There’s nothing to thank me for,” Baekhyun replies. “Hey, you like dogs don’t you?” Chanyeol n