“Ah, !” Chanyeol swears as he yanks the drivers to the left. “Come on, come on,” he mutters underneath his breath.

Okay, so maybe ignoring the incoming asteroid was a bad idea. In Chanyeol’s defense, he didn’t think he’d smash into it. But then some ing maniac decided to swerve his craft right in front of Chanyeol and so the blunette had no choice but to take the space rock’s hit. Damage from a 20 ton floating rock was nothing compared to damage from a 600 ton space craft. A space craft with flame decals at that. What was this? 3045? Who even did that anymore???

But anyway. Regardless of the death Chanyeol narrowly managed to avoid, a 20 ton floating rock still left a sizable dent in a craft, and depending on where the rock hit was the difference between hiring a 100 dust repairman and crash-landing on some unknown planet.

Unfortunately for Chanyeol, it was the latter. Although he prides himself on being trained and licensed at Zimbo’s (“The greatest driving school on Zephyrus!”), his swerve was so sudden that the asteroid completely smashed his engines.

And so here he was now, attempting to regain control of a craft he knew was doomed. What a shame. He’d gotten it as a gift after graduating from school! He and Ellie had been through so much together! They’d undergone command board upgrades, replacement burner modules, er repairs, practically everything in the universe, and now -

“!” Chanyeol screams. He throws on the craft’s brakes as hard as he can. Everything around him heats up as he realizes he’s quickly taking a nosedive into another planet’s atmosphere.

******

Baekhyun is in a good mood. He’s hardly ever not stressed lately, what with all the bouquet deadlines coming up. Don’t take it the wrong way, he’s certainly happy that someone as esteemed as Mr. Kim would even consider ordering all his wedding flower arrangements from a shop as small as Baekhyun’s, it’s just a lot of pressure.

He continues to ponder color coordination and flower symbolism as he parts the curtains to the large window in his living room and dusts the windowsill. “Red roses for love, but isn’t that a bit cliche? Maybe I could change up the coloring?” And just as he decides that no, there won’t be roses at this wedding, he hears a frighteningly loud explosion coming from the back of his house.

Baekhyun quickly looks around for any convenient and heavy objects he could use as self-defense. His eyes land on a vase, and as he picks it up, he starts to make his way to the back door.

If he’s being honest, Baekhyun didn’t know what he was expecting. There was a loud explosion, and he had smelt something burning, but it seemed unlikely that anything remotely high stakes would have occurred in his quaint neighborhood - he runs a flower shop for ’s sake. But in the name of the Lord and everything that is good in the world, Baekhyun did not expect this.

Now, he isn’t one to get angry easily. He’s typically quite level-headed, if a little sassy. But nothing gets Baekhyun riled up like someone destroying his flowers. He worked hard to cultivate his garden, goddamnit! And if anyone though they could just waltz in and ing stomp all over his babies, they’d have another think coming. He hated it when people showed so little care for his flowers, crushing them with their stupidly large feet.

And crushed his flowers were. There, in the middle of his once impeccably maintained garden, where his beloved yellow daffodils used to reside, was a sizable toy spaceship. Baekhyun would have thought that the large, flat toy was chucked over into his garden by the neighbor’s kid if it wasn’t for the fact that there was a large crater surrounding it, and that the remaining un-crushed daffodils were quite literally on fire.

Baekhyun doesn’t know what to think. He gently puts his vase down on the wooden panels of the back patio - it was an expensive gift from his mother’s collection, bless her soul - and immediately proceeds to flail his arms wildly in the air, jaw dropped incredulously and angry panic building in his veins. “WHAT THE ???”

Just as he thinks the situation couldn’t get any worse (or hilariously absurd, depending on how you look at it), the toy expands like a balloon being filled and makes a pop! sound as it assumes its fully inflated size. Baekhyun cringes as the previously toy-sized craft scrapes along the sides of his new fencing, destroying all the paint he had layered on last Sunday. And then a 6 foot tall, blue-haired, shimmery, possibly male being in a one-piece suit made completely of spandex and which was entirely too tight staggers out of some hidden entrance in the ship.

The creature shakes its head a few times and struggles to regain its balance before turning around to inspect its destroyed aircraft. It sighs a sigh that seems to deflate its entire body, before it perks up to turn around and face Baekhyun. It smiles sheepishly, scratches the back of its neck, and extends a hand in a gesture of peace.

“Uh, hi. Sorry about that, I hope I didn’t cause too much damage. Aside from the ones that have been incinerated, you have some really nice flowers! I’m Chanyeol, Park Chanyeol.”

The look on Baekhyun’s face at this point must have resembled a strange mixture of fury, shock, and confusion, because the creature back pedals a little and grimaces. It opens and closes its mouth a few times before taking a nervous breath. “I’ll pay for the damages?”

Baekhyun’s vision fades to black.

******

The first thing Chanyeol does is scream. He isn’t sure if he’s committed murder or if the human is just sleeping, but he doesn’t know if he wants to stick around long enough to find out. He quickly looks around him in panic. What should he do with the human? Surely it would be a horrible idea to leave it here?

Chanyeol’s eyes land on the quaint house in the background and his breathing slows down a bit. It wouldn’t be too rude to go in if he was just bringing the human inside would it? Ah it.

He makes his way to the human on the grass, easily sliding his arms underneath his knees and shoulders to pick it up bridal style. He kicks open the ajar back door and begins to make his way in, careful not to bump into anything or hurt the human. “I hope you wake up soon, human. We’ve got a lot of talking to do.”

******

The first thing Baekhyun sees when he wakes up is the creature’s face staring very intently at him. The first thing he does when he wakes up is scream and slap the creature’s face. “Who the are you and what are you doing in my house?!”

The creature continues to sit at the edge of Baekhyun’s bed, unaffected by the slap and baffled at his questions. “I’m Chanyeol? Park Chanyeol? I crashed my craft into your garden, remember? I’m really sorry about that by the way.”

Baekhyun blinks, and slowly, the events of this morning come back to him. Oh. This Chanyeolguy is the one who crushed his poor yellow daffodils. As the memories come back to him, so do the emotions, and soon enough, anger is bubbling in his veins once more. He sits up, narrows his eyes, and moves forward to shove his pointer finger into Chanyeol’s chest.

“Listen here, Chanyeol, I don’t know where you come from, or what you do for a living, and I don’t care. But I worked incredibly hard to grow those daffodils and now they’re gone. Thank you for apologizing, but I’m still so angry at you right now. You better find a way to make it up to me, and quickly.”

Chanyeol laughs nervously. His blue hair bounces as he speaks. “Okay, well. Usually I would drive you somewhere out of orbit in my craft and then we could get you some different species of plants, but my aforementioned craft is uh….. how should I put this? Completely ing totaled. So…. are you willing to wait until I get it fixed? It shouldn’t take more than a month.”

Baekhyun scrunches his nose and grimaces. He runs a hand through his cotton candy pink hair and takes a long exhale through his mouth. “A month? That long? Where will you stay in the meantime? That thing better be taken out of my yard while it’s being fixed.”

Chanyeol laughs nervously again, and stands up this time, sheepishly scratching the back of his neck. He looks down and plays with his fingers, before murmuring. Baekhyun leans in, but when he’s unable to register what Chanyeol has just said, he urges the other to speak louder.

“Um, I was hoping you’d allow me to stay here? In the meantime? AndIcouldworkonmycraftinyourbackyard,too.” Chanyeol speaks quickly and timidly, afraid of the pinkette’s reaction. The rest of the sentence was smushed together, but Baekhyun doesn’t hear wrong. “You want what?!”

******

When the shock subsides, Baekhyun and Chanyeol have a sit-down and a chat about the upcoming rooming situation. “Okay,” Baekhyun sighs as he rubs his forehead, “If you’re going to be staying here, we need to set a few conditions.” Chanyeol nods eagerly and opens up his notes hologram.

Baekhyun begins to list each item on a finger. “You have one month to finish repairing your craft. After that, I’m no longer housing you here and you will be forced to leave. You must pay for any and all debts/damages you have incurred while staying here. You may not invite guests over or have pets over without permission. Do you have any questions?”

Chanyeol’s eyes shift away from his hologram to look directly at Baekhyun. “Are we going to be sleeping in the same bed?” Baekhyun sputters and blushes a faint red.

******

It turns out that Chanyeol is not as bad a roommate as Baekhyun originally thought. Sure, he set fire to his garden, and sure, he was crashing (aha, get it, Baekhyun swears his jokes are why his customers come back) at his house for a month, but hey! On the bright side, Chanyeol had agreed to pay for all the damage he had caused, and now Baekhyun’s guest room wasn’t so empty anymore. Now if Baekhyun could just get Chanyeol to stop inflicting more damage as he stayed over, that would be fantastic.

“Chanyeol, for the fifteenth time, don’t go near the ing stove!” the shorter male screeches as he stomps up to Chanyeol and forcefully shoves him away from the fire. “We’ve talked about this. Last time you were near it, you set fire to my countertop. Go sit at the dining table and think about your mistakes.”

Baekhyun gives the taller male his most intimidating glower. The blunette can only whimper in response, ducking his head and trudging out of the kitchen. “I just wanted to make you breakfast,” he mumbles. Baekhyun pinches his nose bridge in exasperation. “That’s very nice of you, Chanyeol, but I’d rather you just work on your craft and not set fire to more of my property.” Chanyeol sighs and nods in agreement, turning to head to the back garden.

******

Baekhyun hops back and forth on his feet. He pounds on the door once more. “Come on, Chanyeol! Get out! You’ve been in there for twenty minutes already!” The pinkette curses under his breath when he doesn’t hear a response. The has the nerve to lock Baekhyun’s ensuite bathroom door, because he “isn’t comfortable with someone else being near him while he showered”. Well tough ing luck! Baekhyun isn’t comfortable waiting right now while trying to not piss himself!

The shorter male decides he can’t stand it anymore. He feels around the top of the doorframe for the spare key, and pumps his fists in victory when he finds it. As if on cue, the water stops running. ing finally.

Baekhyun doesn’t hesitate as he unlocks the bathroom door. He’s greeted with the sight of a panicked, half- Chanyeol, but he has no time to ponder that right now, because holy , he feels like he’s about to explode and the toilet is right there. The florist proceeds to shove the taller male out and throw his clothes at him.

As soon as Chanyeol has left the premises and the door is closed, Baekhyun s his pants. The piss is delightful and he feels a weight lifted off of his entire body. He sighs in relief. Seconds later, whatever peace of mind Baekhyun had finally managed to gain from his peeing is interrupted by Chanyeol’s meek knock on the bathroom door and a whine of, “You forgot to give me my underwear, Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun chuckles loudly and rolls his eyes. “You can right off, Chanyeol! My bladder was almost destroyed because of you, so you can do me a ing favor and wait a while for me to finish my business.” Chanyeol doesn’t even try to protest and Baekhyun just cackles evilly.

******

After Baekhyun finally leaves the bathroom and Chanyeol finishes changing back into his clothes, the two decide to try and get to know each other a little better. They choose to bond over watching TV, but that soon proves to be a futile prospect. They can’t agree on what to watch.

“For the last time, Baek, I’m not watching your stupid cooking show. Give me the remote back.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes in irritation and hands the blunette the remote. “Well then, Chanyeol, what do you want to watch?” Chanyeol perks up at the question. He thinks for a little bit before hit eyes light up and he quickly changes the channel.

“Are you ing kidding me, Park Chanyeol?! You want to watch Keeping Up With the Kardashians? How on Earth is that better than the Great British Bake-Off?” Baekhyun screams in horror before turning to Chanyeol. “That’s it, give me the remote. We are not watching this fake trash.”

Chanyeol gasps in shock, dramatically placing a hand over his chest, and glaring down at the shorter male. “You take that back, Baekhyun. Keeping Up With the Kardashians is a fantastic show, and you’re wrong about it being fake. If anything’s scripted, it’s those goddamn cake decorating competitions of yours.” Baekhyun tightens his jaw, and grits out, “Oh, you’re on.”

The pinkette lunges for the remote, but Chanyeol pulls it away just as Baekhyun lands on the floor next to the couch. They chase and yell at each other around the living room, each vying for the remote and destroying Baekhyun’s couches along the way.

******

Around two weeks into the month-long rooming situation, Baekhyun begins to realize that he and Chanyeol have gotten significantly closer. It’s almost as if they’re friends. He shudders at the thought and immediately calls up his two confidants, Kyungsoo and Luhan, when Chanyeol heads to the back garden to work on his craft.

They arrive around fifteen minutes later and quickly drag Baekhyun into his bedroom for a gossip session. Luhan sits them all down on the carpeted floor and adjusts his blond bangs. “So, what’s the news, Baek?”

Baekhyun doesn’t hesitate to spill the whole story. When he’s done, Kyungsoo confusedly pipes up, “So what’s the problem here?” The florist looks catiously between Kyungsoo and Luhan, before whispering, “I think I might be becoming friends with him.”

Kyungsoo laughs loudly at this, his heart-shaped mouth and pearly white teeth on full display. “That’s not a problem, Baek. Not unless you’re starting to think of him as more than a friend.” Luhan tilts his head to the side and studies the pinkette’s expression carefully. “Do you think of him as more than a friend?”

Baekhyun immediately blushes. What should he say? Chanyeol was funny, yes, and he was nice enough. He decided to be honest. “I’m not sure, Lu. I don’t think I know him well enough yet. He’s nice, though, and I wouldn’t mind dating him.” Luhan nods, his blonde hair bouncing up and down with the movement of his head.

******

When the trio finally come out of Baekhyun’s bedroom, they are faced with Chanyeol’s back as he bends over in front of the fridge to look for something. “Hey, Baekhyun!” Chanyeol calls over his shoulder, “Do we have any milk left?” Kyungsoo nudges Luhan and points at Chanyeol in amusement. They share a giggle over the blunette’s compromising position.

Baekhyun walks over to Chanyeol and slaps the back of his head. “Ow! Chanyeol grimaces, looking up to scowl at Baekhyun, “What was that for, Baek…hyun?” He trails off as he notices two other people in his peripheral vision. He quickly straightens himself up and turns to face them, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Sorry you had to see me like that,” he says as he bows politely to the both of them, “Baekhyun didn’t tell me he would be having friends over.”

Luhan and Kyungsoo giggle and wave off Chanyeol’s apology. “No harm, no foul,” Kyungsoo says, fixing his red undercut and smiling warmly. “I take it you are Chanyeol?” The taller male nods at this, before tilting his head to study the both of them. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I caught your guys’ names. And you are?”

Luhan nods and introduces them, “I’m Luhan, and he’s Kyungsoo. We’ve been friends with Baek since high school. So what is that now, ten years?” Chanyeol mouths the nickname. He whistles lowly and extends his hand for a shake. “That’s quite a long time. Well, it was a pleasure to meet you two, Luhan and Kyungsoo. I’m going to head back into the garden now. I guess I’ll catch you guys around sometime?” The duo nod and smile politely, taking Chanyeol’s outstretched hand. “The pleasure was all ours.”

After Chanyeol leaves, Luhan nudges Kyungsoo and Baekhyun. “He’s pretty cute, Baek.” He whispers, winking at the pinkette. Kyungsoo nudges Baekhyun as well. “He’s funny and polite, too! You found yourself a good one.” Baekhyun’s face flushes and he scowls at his friends. “Shut up, guys, I don’t even know if I like him yet.”

******

The thunder booms, rolling right over the florist’s house as lightning flashes a brilliant gold and lights up the darkening sky. Baekhyun tosses and turns in bed, staring out the window and starting in surprise when another monstrous boom rolls overhead. He shakes his head and gets out of bed, making his way down the hallway to the kitchen. He needs a glass of water.

The hallway is pitch black, only lighting up with the occasional flash of lightning. It isn’t a surprise when he bumps into Chanyeol, screaming at the shock. He puts a hand up to his chest and glares at the taller. “Jesus, Chanyeol, give a man a break, will you? You scared the out of me.”

Chanyeol chuckles lowly, his voice thick with sleep. “Why are you still up, Baek? It’s pretty late.” Baekhyun blushes at the nickname, but doesn’t comment. “I couldn’t sleep because of the storm. You?” The blunette nods in agreement. “Me too. I was just about to go to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Wanna join me?” Baekhyun mumbles an, “Okay,” and follows Chanyeol further down the hallway.

They both take seats at the dining table, not touching the full glasses in front of them. Baekhyun clears his throat. “How’s the ship going? Will it take much longer?” Chanyeol in a breath and looks off to the side, thinking. “It should be done in another week and a half or so. And then after that, I’ll be out of your hair and off to my home planet.”

The pinkette nods and scrunches his nose. “I don’t think we’ve ever talked about your home planet. Which is it? Is it in a neighboring galaxy?” The taller shakes his head. “It’s actually pretty far. It’s about… 4 million lightyears away? I’m from Zephyrus.” Baekhyun chuckles. “Isn’t Zephyrus known for their abundance of good drivers? And yet you end up crashing on a planet in the Milky Way? Something’s not quite right here.”

Chanyeol chuckles along good-naturedly. “You’re right. But actually, I’m a great driver. It’s just that that’s canceled out by how much other people .” Baekhyun laughs at the diss. “Well, Park Chanyeol, Mr. I’m-So-Good-At-Driving, what brought you to Earth?” The blunette pauses a moment, before speaking up. “Hold on, before I answer that question, I don’t think I ever asked anything about you. I don’t know your last name, your phone number, your address, I don’t know anything about you.”

Baekhyun tilts his head in thought. Now that Chanyeol mentions it… “Well, my last name is Byun. Byun Baekhyun. I put my number in your call system already in case you ever got lost in the neighborhood or I was out and you needed help. And, you don’t need to know my address. You have my number.” Chanyeol scrunches his brows together. When did Baek’s number get in his system? He’d need to check up on that later.

The blunette shakes his head to clear his mind. “Well anyway, Byun Baek, to answer your question, I was doing a little tour of the universe. You know, making new friends, visiting old ones, exploring. I haven’t been home in a long time, and I really miss it.” Baekhyun nods. The conversation continues. While the two continue to fire questions back and forth, they migrate to the couch. They forget about the storm, and are only occasionally reminded of its presence by the light flashing through the windows, too invested in details of each other they’d previously overlooked. They spend the whole night like that, sitting close together and comfortable on Baekhyun’s old couch. They fall asleep when the sun rises, cuddled up together, Chanyeol’s arm slung over Baekhyun’s waist and the shorter male’s nose digging into the blunette’s neck.

******

It’s towards the end of week three, while Chanyeol is shuffling boxes of equipment in and out of the house, that he notices the calendar on Baekhyun’s wall. Baekhyun has changed the months, as it has flowed accordingly, from April to May. The blunette would have walked right by had it not been for the huge red circle on May 6th, eight days from now, that caught his attention. Baekhyun has written “MY BIRTHDAY” in big bold letters within the circle. Chanyeol comes up with a plan.

******

It’s completely silent when Baekhyun enters his house. Work had been difficult. It was getting stressful, what with all these wedding deadlines. Mr. Kim had ended up not liking the colors and bouquets Baekhyun suggested, so he had to start all over again. The pinkette sighs as he sits down at his dining table. Today is his birthday. He hadn’t told anyone, and no now had approached him about it, but he figures that’s okay. Baekhyun bought himself a small cupcake as a self pat-on-the-back. Here’s to another year lived.

Just as the florist begins to unpack the cupcake from the baggie he’d brought it in, however, all the lights in the house switch on, and there was Chanyeol, standing in a suit and holding out a bouquet of gardenias, jasmine, asters, and speckled here and there with blue and red salvias. Baekhyun’s mouth drops open in shock.

“Happy Birthday, Baek!” Chanyeol beams, his blue hair bouncing on his head as he strides towards Baekhyun. Suddenly, Kyungsoo and Luhan, along with neighbors and acquaintances from around Baekhyun’s neighborhood all jump out of their hiding places and scream, “Surprise!”

The pinkette is paralyzed by shock. He repeatedly looks between the blunette and his friends, and his gaze softens when his eyes settle on the gorgeous bouquet Chanyeol had gotten him. “This is all for me?” Baekhyun whispers, tears coming to his eyes, threatening to spill over onto his blushing cheeks.

Luhan breaks the silence, and runs up to hug Baekhyun. “We got you a cake, too, Baek! And a few presents!” The blonde continues to babble as he releases Baekhyun and motions for everyone to get ready for the party. The florist is still in a state of shock, and he doesn’t respond to Luhan. “That’s really great, Lu. But who planned this? Who do I thank?”

The pinkette hears a throat clearing behind him, and he swiftly turns around to be faced with… a sheepish Chanyeol. The taller male waves at Baekhyun, and bashfully states, “I planned this.” Baekhyun smiles warmly at the giant’s timidity. He feels his face flushing red, and he steels himself before throwing himself at the blunette, hugging him with all his might. “Thanks, Yeol. This is the best gift ever.” All Chanyeol can do is chuckle, blush hard, and hug the tiny florist back even harder.

******

It’s the day they’ve both been waiting for. Move-out day. For the past month, they had lived together, worked together, and played together. But now it was time for Chanyeol to go. Baekhyun is cleaning the house, doing the remaining chores, and helping Chanyeol load all of his remaining possessions onto his craft, but he’s doing everything extremely slowly, as he doesn’t want the tall blunette to go yet. He’s stalling for time.

The sun begins to set as they load the last few boxes onto Chanyeol’s craft. The moment Baekhyun has been dreading the entire day is creeping ever closer, and there’s nothing he can do to stop it. They turn to each other when they are done, and the taller male scoops Baekhyun up in one last hug.

“Thanks a lot, Baek. This was great fun,” Chanyeol whispers into Baekhyun’s hair, squeezing him tighter, sad and unwilling to let go. Baekhyun nods and buries his face further into Chanyeol’s shoulder. He doesn’t want him to go yet. “You’ll call me sometime, right? And you’ll let me know when you get back to Zephyrus?”

Chanyeol squeezes Baekhyun one last time before putting space between them. “Yeah. Yeah, I will, Baek. Don’t worry.” The blunette smiles down at the shorter male, eyes soft and tender. “I guess this is goodbye, huh?” Baekhyun nods, but doesn’t say a word. As Chanyeol turns to go, Baekhyun almost reaches out to grab his arm, his hand, his shoulder, anything. He wants another goodbye. He wants Chanyeol to stay. He doesn’t want him to go yet. But he loses courage, faced with Chanyeol’s back, and he instead keeps his words to himself. He watches silently as Chanyeol boards his ship and begins to take off. He slowly turns around to head back into his house.

******

Baekhyun is drinking tea, sitting at his dining table, as he recalls what he and Chanyeol had shared over the course of a month. If he was unsure a few weeks ago, he was sure now. He liked Chanyeol. At least a little bit. He takes a sip of the tea in front of him. It had only been an hour after Chanyeol had left, and yet, the house was already so quiet, so still. It felt a little empty. He felt a little empty. He put his cup of tea down. Maybe it was time to go to sleep now.

As the pinkette got up and walked down the hall to his bedroom, he hears a familiar pop! sound coming from his back garden. There is no ing way. It can’t be. But those thoughts don’t stop Baekhyun from running, sprinting, to his back garden, and yanking the back door open.

And there, in the middle of his garden, is Chanyeol, with his craft behind him and a bouquet of daffodils in hand. Baekhyun quickly runs toward him and tackles the taller male in a bear hug. “You idiot, what are you even doing?” Baekhyun whispers as tears stream down his face. Chanyeol only laughs happily and hugs him back with his free arm. “I decided that Zephyrus could wait a little longer and went to the nearest flower shop instead.”

Baekhyun cries harder at that and lets go of Chanyeol. He punches him lightly in the chest multiple times. “You ing idiot. You motherer. You just had to get me going there, didn’t you?” Tears race down his cheeks in rivers. Chanyeol only smiles affectionately before presenting him with the bouquet. Baekhyun accepts, sobs wracking his throat and snot running down his chin. He tries to wipe away his tears with his sleeve.

“You ing idiot. Do you even know what daffodils mean?”

Chanyeol chuckles and nods, hugging Baekhyun once more. “New beginnings and unrequited love. So will you be mine?”

Baekhyun nods and hugs Chanyeol back. “Yes. Yes, I will.”