Word Count: 1,500 (expect this number a lot)
Warning: I tried thinking of a genre but the closest I got was slice-of-life. ALSO, this is actually set in the middle of the story. So, I'm going to take you way, way back to the beginning and work our way to this part. I had a change of plans while writing this.

From: Zhang Yixing | 2:07 A.M.

It's raining.

From underneath an awning of a San Franciscan deli, a drenched man with pronounced cheekbone and a cat's smile stares at his phone. The weight of the rain on his clothes drags his shirt down, highlighting an assortment of bite marks and scratches leading lower along his torso.

"Jongdae?"

"Good of you to text Yixing," Jongdae leans back against the glass, "and here I thought that you were fast asleep after I left through your window?"

"I woke up because of the rain. If I'd known it was pouring that bad, I wouldn't have let you walk home."

A smile creeps along his face, "You know," a mocking tone resonates, "you've been getting a lot more sentimental lately." He pauses for a moment, waiting for a response but doesn't get it, "What happened to "no-strings attached" or " the only act of kindness is using a "? Is our little friends-with-benefits relationship developing into- dare I say- a relationship?"

"Weren't those were your rules that you set up," Yixing's voice remains hard to read, "if you're not too far, just come back to my apartment. You can stay the night."

"To have ?"

A barely audible sigh is heard. "Is that your perception of me? I'm not that bad of a person."

Jongdae's lips curl into a slight frown, "I know that. It's just-" he begins to rack through his mind for the right words, "it's just that we've been doing this for almost two years now. I don't know what changed, but something did. It doesn't feel like we're just buddies anymore."

"Just come on over. The offer still stands even if all you want to do is wait out the rain. I'll leave the front door unlocked."

Without waiting for a reply, Yixing hangs up. Jongdae mentally kicks himself before slinking his bum to the ground. He looks down the street leading back to the apartment- not even a block away- and frowns. There isn't much that these two men have in common. They met at a bar, they liked how each other looked, and then they hooked up; this was their extent of commonality. For Jongdae, Yixing's go-with-the-flow attitude is what kept their ual relationship going but he could never figure out what was going on in his head. This was fine at the beginning, now not so much. It wasn't really in his nature to lie, but he knew exactly what had changed.

Jongdae fell in love.

Acting like a sarcastic brat just to coerce a reaction out of Yixing, was honestly unintentional at first; it was just part of his personality. It was the fact that Yixing never once appeared turned off nor amused that confused Jongdae enough to develop feelings.They were already having , passionate, consistent , so him coming home one day and realizing that he may like Yixing was, at minimum, understandable.

As if on cue, the wind wailed and pushed the rain harder, waking Jongdae from his pity party. He takes out his phone, hoping for a text from Yixing, but sadly stuffs it back into his pocket. There's a certain amount of pride that every person has that shouldn't be compromised. Sometimes obligation or, in his case, emotion, persuades you to act out of conduct. Although, drenched from the rain and with love marks all over his body, there isn't much pride left in Jongdae. Whatever the case may be, he gets up and begins the shameful walk back to the apartment.

Alamo Square during the dead of night isn't as intimidating as the other districts, both Jongdae and Yixing live here. Usually the streets at this time would be lit with salacious walkers and other young vibrants coming and going from the bars, again something both he and Yixing are familiar with. With all of that gone, it built up a bit of anxiety within Jongdae as he stood outside the all too familiar building.

'Why does this feel weird?' he thinks to himself then forces his legs inside. His heartbeat staggers the closer he gets to Yixing's apartment unit. Jongdae takes note of things he never bothered to care about before, like the slight discoloration in the wallpaper, or the intricate details in the woodwork that's usual in Victorian buildings, or, and most importantly, how he doesn't give two s about any of these things. Eventually, he finds himself standing outside his part-time lover's front door.

Taking a rather long breath, he tries for the doorknob and winces when he realizes it actually was unlocked.

"Hey," Yixing's voice is the first thing that Jongdae hears when he enters the living room.

"H-hey."

From the couch, a basically man with resting-calm-face stands up, towels in both hands, and walks toward his guest. "You're soaking wet," he remarks in his usual relaxed tone, "take your clothes off and dry yourself. You can leave your laundry in the bathroom."

"Alright, thanks," Jongdae graciously accepts the towels and begins to strip down. As he does, he can feel Yixing's gaze fixed onto him so he turns his eyes onto him as well. Much like his own body, there's bite marks, hickeys, and scratches sprinkled around the Chinese man's back and front side. Admittedly, this is the first time either of them seen the after effects of their capades, but it seems that Jongdae is the only one getting flustered by it. "I'll be right back," he scuffles away to the, hiding his reddening face.

"Some the clothes you left are on the counter, if you don't want to sleep in it you can just grab a boxer in the room." Yixing speaks a little louder so that Jongdae can hear him from the bathroom.

"Okay," Jongdae answers back. He lets out a big sigh and quickly dries himself off. The clothes he found weren't anything that he could sleep in: two heavily ornate jackets and a pair of jeans that he's been looking for. Letting out another sigh, he just steps out of the bathroom .

Almost immediately, Yixing's gaze fixes onto Jongdae and their eyes are locked into one another yet again. He doesn't say anything to him but merely watches him enter his room and after a minute, exits wearing one of his boxers.

"Thanks, again," Jongdae puts on a warm smile and sits down next to Yixing on the couch.

"No problem," his voice warms up considerably as he wraps a nearby blanket over the two of them. "We should talk, huh?"

A look of surprise shows on Jongdae's face, "Well," he begins unsurely, "what do you mean by talk?"

"You seem troubled by our current arrangement."

The surprise multiplies slightly, "I- uh.. wow you're acting strange." This wasn't the answer that he meant to come out, but, it came out. "I mean.. yeah, I know I'm acting strange too. Don't get me wrong, I love the , your , that's why I stayed this long and I haven't done this with anyone other than you." Jongdae is mentally kicking himself for rambling, but he's just unable to get his thoughts together. "D-don't you feel that something has changed between us?"

Yixing ponders for a bit, "Honestly," his gaze slowly meets with Jongdae's, "no." 

Disappointment immediately sets in, "Oh.. never mind that I said anything."

Unnerved, Yixing begins to Jongdae's , "This is the parameter that you set for us when we met. Do you like me?"

"Yeah," a solemn look shows in his face, "I don't know when or how, but I really do like you now."

"Well," Yixing pulls Jongdae a little closer, "you should have told me. I never knew I was allowed to look at you as someone that I could date. I always thought that you just wanted ." This odd, affectionate side of him is offset by the aloofness in his gaze and tone; it makes him hard to gauge. "Why don't we just call off our arrangement and start over?"

Jongdae's eyes flicker with a warm light, "Like.. start all over again? From square one?"

"Why not?

"Yeah.. I can agree to that." A wide smile spreads across his face and he leans in towards Yixing for a kiss, but stops abruptly. 

Confused, Yixing backs away slightly, "What?"

"What about ?"

"What about it?"

"Can we still have it?" The correct answer, that both men undoubtedly know, is that the key to a longstanding relationship is no before commitment. Albeit they would both have to override the fact that collectively, in the span of two years, they have had over a hundred times.

"I don't think we should." As much as Yixing wants to say yes, he is a man of tradition. "Starting tomorrow."

Soon after, they both disappeared into the bedroom kissing and biting. The rain still went on outside and roared against the windows, but happily enough, Jongdae found a much better way of getting wet.

Thank you for reading and making it this far! I hope you enjoyed my little drabble and comments and critics alike are welcome! I got something in the works already so the next update won't be too far off.