My first ever fic on AFF, hope you enjoy! :)

-

He sighs as he stares at the textbook in front of him, the words swimming around in his head. He’s been trying to read the damn sentence over and over again but to no avail, because of course his mind is already filled to the brim with Luhan, Luhan, and everything Luhan. Sometimes Minseok really wants to punch the poor lad for messing around with his heart, but he had no right to.

Luhan wasn’t his to possess, and that was… well, that. That simple fact bothered Minseok so much that it had him tossing and turning around in his bed for several weeks already, and goddamn it, why did Luhan have to be so… so distinctly Luhan?

Distracting, handsome, adorable, playful, smiley Luhan.

Minseok sighs as he runs his fingers through his hair in utter frustration and gives up on reading his textbook. No offense, but who the hell cared about what William Shakespeare was thinking of when he wrote Romeo and Juliet?

A cup of coffee, he desperately needed a cup of piping hot cappuccino.

And sure enough, he’s familiar enough with the process that it literally takes him a few seconds before he’s grabbed his good old smiley face mug off of his tabletop and punching in the buttons as he grimaces at the near empty coffee machine resting on his kitchen counter. He wasn’t in the mood, ever, to go to the grocery store to deal with crowds and unhappy glares from the grocery store cashier.

Well, he’d have to leave that visit for next time, because right now, he held the warm mug filled with his favorite drink in the entire world and that’s all that matters.

Until Luhan comes bursting through the door with an aura that definitely doesn’t match the mopey and gloomy atmosphere in the room. Damn Luhan.

Minseok sighs as the root of all his troubles kicks his football around the room, laughing that goddamned adorable laughter of his until Minseok stands up from his chair and kicks the ball away from Luhan.

“How many times do I have to tell you that you can’t just come in without knocking, and you can’t play any ball games in the dormitory area?” And he mentally groans and facepalms as he realizes he’s starting to sound like the dorm-master. Well, .

“I’ll stop the day you stop giving me free cups of coffee.”

And Luhan wins.

“ you. And it’s not just any plain old coffee, it’s-!”

“-It’s cappuccino, I know. It’s the thousandth time you’ve told me.” Luhan smiles that -eating grin as he snatches the ball up from the floor and places it on Minseok’s study table.

“Don’t put that dirty-!”

“-ball on your precious work? I know. Now can you give me a cup of your precious golden coffee?”

God, sometimes Minseok just wants to punch Luhan’s face in and give him a good kick to the balls.

-

That night, Minseok lain in his bed, the same process from all the other previous nights repeating as thoughts of Luhan swirls around in his mind.

Why did Luhan have to exist? Why did Luhan choose to have him as a friend? Why did Luhan like his coffee slash cappuccino so much? Why did Luhan have to play football? Why did Luhan have to be so… so charming, so handsome, so playful and perfect? Why did he have to fall for Luhan? And why, why did Luhan have to be so Luhan?

God, his thoughts barely made any sense nowadays. He’d been having sleepless nights and early mornings moping around his dorm as he tries – but fails – to study, eat toast and scramble around the room trying to figure out where his tie was, and where his left sock had disappeared off to. Oh, and his annoying spectacles were always slipping off of his nose, which just pissed him off even more because he’s barely able to pay for college fees and textbooks, much less a new pair of ing expensive spectacles.

Great, now his mind had images of his old and tattered wallet and coins dropping out of the huge hole in the coin compartment. And he had to go grocery shopping soon, damn it.

And with that, another repetitive night filled with no sleep joined the cycle.

-

Oh, god.

Really, really now, why did he always procrastinate? Why couldn’t he just, for once, just do things on time so he wouldn’t run out of cappuccino and he wouldn’t have to go to Starbucks – the place that sells overly-priced coffee that surely must’ve been made of gold, and rush his homework at the café that was just stupidly chaotic and noisy and he couldn’t concentrate at all.

And suddenly, he’s all too aware of someone’s gaze on him. And the shadow that suddenly towers over him and blocked the overbearingly harsh bright light from the ceiling.

Minseok looks up with a sigh, expecting to see Luhan trying to piss him off again, but nah, of course the heavens decided that nothing right must ever happen in Kim Minseok’s life, ever.

Zhang Yi Xing, the new transfer student in his class. Right.

“Hey.” Minseok forces a smile at the guy that’s just honestly creeping him out because it seems that Yixing’s eyes were permanently glued to his work or something, as though he were expecting that scary girl from Ju On the Grudge to pop up from his textbooks and beat the out of Minseok himself.

“You’re blocking the light, you know…” Minseok sighs as he stares at the weird guy beside him who is still staring at his work, with furrowed brows and a look of utter concentration on his face as he starts muttering numbers under his breath.

Okay, wait; did he mention muttering numbers under his breath? Jesus, this guy had serious issues.

Note to self, never go to Starbucks ever again.

“6x, and 30… 10y. It’s 10y!” He grins at Minseok as he points to the textbook.

“…Wait, what?”

“The answer, the answer’s 10y.”

Minseok bites his lip from blurting out whether or not he was mentally sane, and decided to just nod and take a sip from his now cold cappuccino before re-underlining the answer in his working and writes down the statement for his answer, because obviously someone needed spectacles, and it wasn’t him.

Yixing slides in the seat opposite him in the cramped booth, and Minseok raises an eyebrow as he drops his pen on the coffee table and decides that he wouldn’t be able to get any work done at all.

 “Why are you… here?”

“To get some chai green tea latte, of course.”

Okay, Minseok winced; this guy is both weird, crazy and has really bad taste in coffee.

“No, I mean, why are you here, in front of me? I didn’t invite you to sit down.”

“Because I felt like sitting down and helping you out with your math homework?”

“I don’t need help.”

And then Yixing mutters something under his breath that Minseok barely catches save for the word ‘obsession’.

Great, this guy was totally off his rocker or something.

All of a sudden, with a faint smile ghosting across his face, Yixing reaches forward with his Starbucks drink in hand and Minseok stares hard at it.

“Take a sip; you look like you need it.”

“I’m not interested in overly-sweetened tea mixed with coffee and whipped cream on top.” Minseok wrinkles his nose in blatant disgust as he tries to push the drink away from his face.

“Well, you’re interested in the wrong things.” Yixing replies as a forlorn expression falls over his face, and it seems so wrong on Yixing’s face, it somehow makes Minseok feel a little guilty for rejecting him like that. But what’s the big deal? It’s just tea and coffee, surely that wasn’t something to get upset about?

“Fine, fine, I’ll try the goddamn latte!” Minseok grumbles as he leans over the table and tilts Yixing’s hand so that he can take a sip. He tries to ignore the smile Yixing has on his face, tries to ignore the happiness swimming in his eyes, tries to ignore how Yixing’s breath hitches when their hands connected, and most definitely, tried to ignore how he enjoyed the pleasant sweetness.

“You know, it’s not just latte. It’s chai green tea latte.”

Oh.

“Anyway, the chai green tea latte .” Minseok sighs as he dares a look into Yixing’s eyes and finds the playful laughter hidden within as Yixing shakes his head and shrugs, and Minseok ignores how Yixing seems overly too happy when he sips from his straw again.

-

“Xiumin, please don’t cut me off of my coffee supply!” Luhan whines from outside Minseok’s door, and the familiar thumping of that annoying football against the carpet really didn’t help Luhan’s case.

“Don’t call me that. And I’ve told you, you choose between your goddamn football, or my cappuccino. You’re not going to kick that thing around in my room anymore.”

“No, please, come on Minseok! I want my coffee!”

“As long as you’re going to leave the football outside, you’re more than welcome to come in-”

“I can’t.”

Silence.

Minseok sighed as he rubbed his forehead, he could feel a headache coming on and Luhan’s whining was just getting really annoying now.

“Please, please, please, 哥, please, please, please-”

“Fine, come in, just shut up!”

Minseok groaned as Luhan came in with that damn ball and suddenly hugged him.

“Thank you Xiumin 哥! Love you!”

Minseok sighed as he felt his heart clenching painfully, having grown used to the pang in his heart whenever Luhan had his cuddly moments. He slowly and regretfully returns the action as Luhan tightens his hug, and rests his head on Minseok’s shoulder.

Minseok couldn’t help it, couldn’t help the glimmer of hope in his heart when Luhan did things like this. But he couldn’t deal with it too; he couldn’t deal with crying himself to sleep at night because he knew Luhan would never reciprocate his feelings.

-

Pathetic. He was absolutely pathetic, why couldn’t he just muster up the courage to just push Luhan away? Why did he always have to feel like this when it came to love, why did he always get rejected and treated as ‘just a friend’? Wasn’t there anyone in this world who would just… love him?

He doesn’t bother wiping away his tears.

Minseok clenches his fist in his hair as he lain in his bed, sobbing quietly.

And then he hears the hinges on his door squeaking, and footsteps that got louder as they neared him.

“You’re interested in the wrong things…” Minseok doesn’t dare look up, as he finally realizes what Yixing was talking about in the café.

“Are you okay?” Minseok feels his bed sink in the middle as Yixing sits down on his bed, leaving barely any room between the two.

“Why do you care?” He blurts out in dizzying anger as he wipes the tear tracks on his face, sitting up to face Yixing.

“Why do you care what happens between me and Luhan? How do you even know I like him? Who… are you? Who do you think you are! You can’t just burst into my room without knocking as though you know me so well! You can’t always sit down without permission! Y-You shouldn’t bother with… with someone like me.” Minseok trails off because, no, he couldn’t allow himself to cry in front of someone, he wouldn’t.

Yixing sighs as he leans forward, and envelopes Minseok in a soft, gentle and warm hug. And Minseok’s definitely going to cry. The difference between Luhan and Yixing’s hug is blatantly obvious, and he feels like he’s going to melt into Yixing’s protecting arms.

“Cry, don’t hold on to the pain inside.”

And Minseok does just that. He cries for what feels like hours, even though it was probably just a few minutes to Yixing. He doesn’t care that Yixing’s practically a stranger, doesn’t care that Yixing is weird, doesn’t care that Yixing is way too caring for his own good, doesn’t care about Yixing’s horrible choices in coffee, and doesn’t care about anything but the love and safeness that Yixing’s pouring out to someone like him. Someone unworthy of love, someone who’s never honestly cried in front of someone before, someone filled with so much pain and anger within, someone who just wants some love.

And when Minseok pulls back from Yixing’s arms, he notices the sad twinkle in those warm brown eyes but doesn’t say anything.

“You need a cup of warm milk tea.”

Minseok doesn’t object, even though he wants to ask why Yixing carries around tea packets in his back pocket and doesn’t ask Yixing why he knows which mug is his own coffee mug.

When Yixing finishes brewing the tea, he hands the mug over to Minseok with expectation in his eyes, but not before he takes a sip from the mug first. Minseok doesn’t even flinch at Yixing’s weirdness, of course.

“Well?”

“It smells different. And weird.”

And Yixing’s face brightens up as he grins in front of Minseok for the first time, and Minseok resists the urge to poke at his dimples and just smiles as he realizes that… That he could live with this, that he hadn’t felt so happy and slightly in love for a very long time. But he couldn’t be in love with Yixing, he couldn’t, right?

-

Minseok groans when Luhan decides to walk him back after his class ends, which results in Luhan kicking his with a huff.

“Come on, I’m your friend! Don’t act like I’m some kind of burden to you!”

“Well I’m not your only friend.” Minseok rolls his eyes in frustration because he really couldn’t help it, Luhan’s presence just caused his heart so much pain, and honestly he wanted to rip his heart out of his chest and throw it on the floor and stomp on it until the pain went away.

“You’re right, I do have more friends, but you’re the one who’s the dullest and most boring, which is why you need me in your life.” Minseok opens his door with a sigh.

“Whoa, wait, what the heck happened here?” Luhan frowns as he sniffs the air tentatively.

“What, what’s wrong?” Minseok stares in bewilderment as Luhan walks all the way to his kitchen and grabs Minseok’s smiley faced coffee mug.

“Isn’t this green tea? Since when do you ever drink tea?” Luhan shudders as Minseok snatches the mug over, and sure enough, his coffee mug is filled with still warm green tea that he knows Yixing must’ve been here a few minutes before they reached.

“Why, what’s wrong with tea?” Minseok frowns as he takes a sip of the tea, feeling a strange wave of calmness wash over him.

“It’s… tea. You don’t even drink tea, you told me that before! You love your cappuccino to bits, when did you start drinking this icky thing?”

The elder doesn’t reply as he continues drinking the tea and plonked down on his chair, inhaling the warm and sweet aroma that swirls in the air.

“God, Minseok, your room smells like old lady perfume!” Luhan whines; as usual, as he collapses on Minseok’s tiny bed and Minseok thinks he distinctly hears a groan.

“Well, it’s my room and I like it the way it smells like.”

“No, no, no, no, there’s no way a man can stand sleeping with a smell like this. I’ll help you out here for free.” And with that, Luhan pulls out a cologne bottle from his bag and sprays it all over the room, and within seconds, the room is filled with unbearably strong musky cologne that leaves Minseok wheezing and coughing because he thinks he can taste the disgusting cologne on his tongue.

“Stop it! Luhan, get out of my goddamn room; I need to concentrate on my work! Out, out, out!” Minseok croaked as he pushed Luhan out of his dorm and slams the door close with a resounding ‘bang!’.

It was unbearable; the room was filled with the scent distinctly of Luhanluhanluhan and its ridiculous how fast Minseok was hunched over into a ball on the floor as his eyes watered up.

Stupid Luhan and his stupidly expensive cologne that made Minseok feel all weird inside.

And to make things worse, his door suddenly slams open and loud footsteps echoed through the room as Tao plonked down beside Minseok and sighs.

“Luhan came to me whining about me ‘having’ to buy him some new cologne, which I bought for him just last ing week. That idiot.”

Minseok doesn’t reply as he hugs his legs even tighter.

Tao seems to realize this and pats Minseok’s back awkwardly as he stands up.

“You know… You know you need to stop crushing on Luhan, right?”

Silence.

“He… I’m- No, he told me the other day… Things about you. Mean things. Do you want me to tell you what he said, or do you want me to leave?”

Silence.

“No offense, of course, but he… He said you were… Uh, fat. Round like a potato. Said you didn’t matter in his eyes. You were a… broke and stingy flirt. A mopey and emo loser that just wanted his attention. I’m sorry.” Tao grimaces as he runs his fingers through his hair in frustration as Minseok buries his head further between his legs.

“I’m not expecting you to forget him that easily. When you feel better, we can go out for bowling, okay? My treat.” Tao smiles comfortingly as he messes up Minseok’s hair, and leaves the dorm.

Tears prick at Minseok’s eyes as Tao’s word swim around in his head.

Fat. Broke. Stingy. Flirt. Mopey. Emo. Loser.

So that was all Minseok seemed like in Luhan’s eyes. That was it. Two years of friendship and that’s what he thought of him.

But then again… Did Minseok really expect Luhan to like someone like him? Nobody liked him. Nobody that Minseok loved would ever love him back, which was the sad fate he was cursed with, right?

Minseok stands up and tilts his head to the ceiling, blinking and hoping his tears wouldn’t leak out.

“You can come out now.”

A shuffle, a loud thump and a groan later, Yixing came crawling out from under Minseok’s bed.

“I hate his cologne. And he sat down on my head.”

“Why are you… here?”

“I’m not leaving, Minseok. Not now, and not ever. Well, as long as you want me to stay around.” Yixing stares at Minseok with pleading eyes as Minseok’s vision goes fuzzy with tears. “You don’t need to put up a front for me. Please. Cry, don’t hold on to the pain inside.”

Minseok stubbornly shakes his head as his whole body trembles from all the pain that fills his veins, and he slides down onto the floor as Yixing makes his way to Minseok to wrap his arms tightly around the shivering lad.

That moment was bittersweet, as Yixing held Minseok quietly with all the love he could express, his own eyes tearing up because it seemed that Minseok at that moment really was going to let all his pain and tears and anger out, his whole body shaking with sobs and loud sniffles as he clenched his fists.

“I’ll treasure you, Minseok. I’ll stay by your side.”

-

A few hours later, Minseok jolted awake in surprise from his bed, rubbing the sleepiness away in his eyes as he stared at his surroundings, confused.

There was a familiar scent coming from his kitchen.

Minseok scrambles out of bed, not before tripping over his bed sheets like the klutz he was, and stares dazed at the coffee mug on the counter.

A green post-it stuck onto the mug.

First time ever brewing cappuccino :) I know you need a cup of it.

I love you.

-Yixing

And sure enough, there was a faint stain of coffee at the side where Yixing must’ve drunk from.

-

Fin.

-

A/N: So this marks the end of my first XiuLay oneshot! And here's where I'm going to explain a few things because this fic is confusing even for myself sigh.

I don't hate Luhan btw, in case anyone is going to wonder. I love him (and Starbucks)!

So when XiuLay met at Starbucks, Xiumin had said he didn't need any help, which in turn Lay responded by muttering under his breath 'Well you need help with your Luhan obsession.'

Also I made Lay a math genius. Don't question my authority. :D

And for the last sentence of the fic, which is where it writes, 'And sure enough, there was a faint stain of coffee at the side where Yixing must’ve drunk from.' I was actually referring to how throughout the fic, Lay kept drinking from the same spot from where Xiumin drank (indirect kiss hah). I thought it was pretty cute to end the fic like that. 

-Lay drank from the straw happily after Xiumin drank the chai green tea latte

-He drank before Xiumin for the milk tea because indirect kiss again 

-Cappuccino full of love where he drank before Xiumin again for indirect coffee kiss

Okay, I think this was actually pretty good-average (it's not a word) for my first ever XiuLay fic. I tried to concentrate on characterization here (hence the smiley face coffee mug and footballs) so I'm sorry if there are no fancy-shmancy words D:

Also this is the second time I'm doing this writing style so it's kinda awkward in a few places. And this fic is loosely based off of my actual life except that I don't have a Lay (yet). Hoping my Lay will come soon after I'm ready for a relationship and fulfilled all my dreams. 

Take care!

-AdoruZiall x