A/N: okay so this chapter went basically NOWHERE where i had planned it to and i accidentally turned it all into some angsty fluff. im so sorry xD More plot action next chapter! Who am i gonna introduce next hmmmm??? c;

The next morning, Yixing woke up a lot earlier than normal due to the sun filtering in through his window and directly into his eyes. Grumbling, he stood up and walked the couple of steps to the window to close the curtains he had neglected the night before.

The night before. When he came home to find Mari curled up in Minseok’s lap. His stomach flipped a bit and he turned to look towards her bed. Upon seeing her form under the covers, he walked closer, and eventually slowly up the small steps to the platform on the floor her bed was on.

There she laid, curled up on her side, her face towards Yixing. Her cheeks were slightly flushed with sleep, and her brown curls splayed out behind her on her pillow. Yixing couldn’t help but stare. He gulped at the familiar feeling in his stomach. He knew from the moment he saw her that it would happen, but he wasn’t sure it would happen so quickly. Somewhere in the past week between taking care of her, their talks, and dinners together, Yixing had started to develop feelings for the small girl he now shared a room with.

Frankly, this scared him. He knew Mari was a bit skittish around people, and from what he gathered, her previous boyfriend wasn’t the best of people. He was afraid to show his feeling towards her and scare her off. The last thing he wanted was Mari out of his life all because he was a bit too forward.

She looked so at ease in her sleep, Yixing thought, rather than how guarded she looked most of the time when she was awake. Part of Mari’s bangs had fallen into her eyes, and Yixing bent down slightly to brush them out of the way, sliding his hand down to her cheek and letting it linger there.

A smile fell upon Yixing’s lips as Mari let out a quiet hum at the touch of his fingers. Mari’s eyelids fluttered open slowly and she blinked rapidly adjusting to the lightness of the room. Yixing stood frozen in fear. Much to Yixing’s surprise, she pressed her cheek further into his hand.

“Good morning.” Yixing said quietly, still not moving his hand. His heart was beating too hard for him to think to remove it. Besides, Mari still had her cheek nestled into it.

“You’re warm.” She whispered, her eyes closing and opening again slowly.

Yixing just chuckled lightly. “Are you cold? I can get you another blanket.” He became a bit more brave and slowly grazed his thumb against the apple of Mari’s cheek, causing her to blush and fully open her eyes.

As soon as her vision focused, she placed her head face down in the pillow and began to laugh at the man in front of her. Yixing was in nothing but boxers, and his hair was rather messy from his sleep last night.

Had her laughter not been such a sweet sound to his ears, Yixing would have been a lot more confused. “What are you laughing at?” he asked chucking himself.

“You. I’ve never seen you in the morning with your hair all messy. And you’re half .” She stopped laughing and peeked a single gray eye up at Yixing who she now saw was blushing.

Yixing completely forgot he hadn’t put pajamas on the night before. And he always woke up before Mari so he was always showered before she woke up.

Mari sat up slowly, her shoulders still shaking slightly and a wide grin plastered on her face causing her cheeks to appear big and round. Yixing removed his hand from the bed and began to turn around to walk off. Mari caught him by the wrist. “Don’t be embarrassed.” She said running the fingers of her other hand through her own hair, which looked just as neat and in place as it did yesterday. “I think it’s…it’s cute.”

Yixing took a step back towards her bed and smiled, gesturing down to his boxer clad frame. “What? Are my Christmas tree underwear amusing to you?” Mari’s shoulders began to shake again as she laughed through her teeth that were now formed into a smile.

“Yixing it’s August.” Yixing placed a hand to his heart and pretended to be shocked and offended. This only made Mari laugh harder and she drew her hand up to to hide it. Yixing took his hand and moved Mari’s away from her face. He held her hand in place with his own, Mari’s other hand still grabbing a hold of his wrist.

“Don’t hide your smile. I think it’s beautiful.” He said quietly cocking his head to the side a bit.

Mari stopped laughing and a look of shock and disbelief spread across her face, her lips parting a bit. “You think so?”

Yixing just nodded in assurance. Mari dropped her face down so she was looking in her lap. A strong yet gentle hand was grabbing the bottom of her chin and forcing her to look up. She was met face to face with Yixing who had sat down on the side of her bed.

His deep brown eyes were staring directly into her own, and she found herself unable to look away for a few seconds before stealing a glance down to his lips, and over to that damn adorable dimple of his before back up to his eyes.

It took all of Yixing’s strength not to place kisses all over Mari’s adorable and wide eyed face, but he knew it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to do so. She didn’t look worried now, and she wasn’t trying to pull away, so he took that as a good sign.

“I tell you not to hide your smile, so you hide your whole face hmm?” Yixing spoke softly and gave a small laugh. “Don’t hide that either. It’s just a beautiful.”

Before Mari could even protest, Yixing stood up, removing his hand from her face. He grabbed some clothes out of a dresser and turned back towards her. “I’m going to go shower now, and change into more seasonal appropriate underwear.  I’ll be out quickly so you can shower too.” Yixing threw her a smirk before walking out of their room, nice toned back on full display.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Mari’s face flushed into full heat and she flopped around on her bed landing face first into the blankets and groaned. “Why does he have to be damn perfect and handsome?”

A bit later Yixing sauntered back into the room, hair still wet. Mari just tsked at him.

“Yixing-ah, you make sure my hair is dry, why don’t you ever do the same for yourself? Come here.” She gestured towards the spot at her feet beside her bed. Yixing walked over and plopped down, Mari grabbing the towel he had around his shoulders.

She draped the towel over his head and ruffled it, drying off all the excess water. Yixing hummed in content below her.

“This feels really nice. Had I would have known, I would have not dried my hair at all this past week.” Mari just gave his shoulder a playful smack.

“All you have to do is ask me to do something. I’ll probably very likely do it for you.” She placed the towel on the floor when Yixing’s hair was dry and he turned around to face her.

“Is that so?” Mari nodded. “Well, in that case, would it be too much to ask for a shoulder massage? I didn’t sleep well last night.” Yixing asked jokingly. But when Mari placed her small hands on his shoulders and squeezed, he was certainly glad he had joked around.

“You don’t have to do that, I was just playing around.” He said obviously enjoying it. Mari just smiled behind him even though he couldn’t see it.

“Well I want to. You took care of me all week-”

“And I plan to keep on doing so.” Yixing stated while cutting her off. Mari’s hands stood still for half a second before continuing.

“You don’t have to do that.” She said saying what Yixing had just said maybe not two minutes ago.

“Well I want to.” He replied quietly.

A small “Thank you.” Was the last thing they said to each other for a few minutes before Yixing took in a deep breath.

“Mari. Can I ask you something?”

“You can ask. But I might not answer. Depends on what you want to know.”

“Why were you curled up on Minseoks lap last night?” Yixing tried to hide the jealousy and disappointment in his voice.

“He offered me comfort in my time of need. Kinda like you did the other night when you hugged me. That’s all.”

Yixing hummed. “So he didn’t make a move on you or anything? Or he didn’t confess to you and draw you in with his baozi charm?”

“Baozi charm? I’m not even going to ask about that right now. But no, he didn’t. He was just being a friend is all.”

Yixing felt a lot of weight come off his chest. So Minseok wasn’t in love with Mari. He was just being Minseok. “I’m glad he was there for you when I wasn’t. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay Yixing. You were at work. And I got caught up in some stupid emotions.” Mari’s strong massage turned into more of just rubbing and drawing soothing patterns into Yixing skin. She hated how much she was falling for him. A simple smile, every little thing he does for her, it all had her as complete putty on the inside. She could never ever let him know that though. They were from completely different walks of life. There was no way he could ever accept her as more than a friend.

She found herself staring lovingly at his broad shoulders, wanting nothing more than to lean down and kiss them. She shivered from being out from under the blankets so long, the cool of the morning still lingering, and Yixing turned around.

“Mari you said, all I have to do is ask right?”

Mari hummed in response, trying to not stare too hard at the gorgeous man in front of her.

“Can I come comfort you under the covers and keep you warm? To make up for not being here to do it last night?”

Mari scooted over to one side of the bed and pat the empty space next to her. Yixing crawled up into the bed and swung the blankets over the both of them. There was space between them.

“Can…can I come in closer to you and put my arm around you?” Yixing’s words were cautious.

“Please.” Mari replied softly and began to move in closer as Yixing did too. He placed an arm around her waist and pulled her in just a tiny bit more.

Mari could feel every ounce of worry and self doubt she had begin to lift itself from her heart. Something about Yixing’s embrace was doing that to her. Her worries and issues were suddenly being replaced with trust and feelings of genuinely being cared for. She felt herself wanting to spill everything to Yixing. About where she came from, her tragic past, and most importantly how she felt about him.

“Yixing…” she started nervously.

Yixing darted his tongue out moistening his lips before answering her. “Yes, Mari?”

“I…uh…want to tell you something.” Was she really going to go through with this?

“You can tell me anything Mari. You know that.” Yixing tightened his embrace just a bit as reassurance.

“Uhm…” There was no way she could do this. Not now. She was too afraid to ruin this moment. “Uhm, just…thank you. For this. I never got cuddles of the sorts.” That was about as much confessing as she was going to do at the moment. The rest could wait for some other time.

Yixing perked his head up a bit. “You didn’t? What a shame. You’re a great cuddle partner. Though I wouldn’t call this cuddling persay.” He smirked that smirk that drove Mari insane.

“Oh…this isn’t cuddling?” Mari asked sounding a little hurt.

Yixing shook his head. “I just have my arm around you, and we’re not touching elsewhere. This is basically just me invading your space. I can show you real cuddling If you’d like?”

Mari shook her head. “I’d like that. Show me.”

Yixing rolled over on to his back and pulled Mari closer and  placed her so her head was placed on his chest. And before he could move her arm around his waist, she was already doing it herself. He tangled their legs together and threw one arm around Mari’s shoulders lightly trailing his fingers up and down her back. “And this is one of the many ways you can cuddle.” Yixing said with a soft voice.

“I like this. It’s very soothing. You’re very nice to hold.” Mari said snuggling her head into his chest.

“How are you feeling? Talk to me. Are you uncomfortable?” Yixing wanted to make sure none of this was too much on Mari. And he certainly hoped not because this was just heaven to him.

“I’m feeling better than I have in my entire life I think. I’ve never had this. I’m very comfortable. Both physically and here…with you…I’m comfortable with…you.” She propped her chin up on his chest so she could see Yixing’s face better. His eyes were half lidded, and he had a look of relief on his face.

“I’m glad.” He whispered. They were silent for a few more moments. Mari was listening to Yixing’s strong and steady heart beat, and Yixing was alternating between Mari’s hair or rubbing her back.

“Hey Mari. It’s still pretty early. How about we sleep for a bit more?”

“Does this mean you’re going to get up and go to your bed?” Mari looked up a little worried. They had only been laying there for a few minutes.

“Not a chance in the world I would get up from here right now and sleep in my own bed. But I would if you wanted me to.”

Yixing felt Mari’s arm tighten around him almost possessively. “Please don’t go.” She muttered into his chest.

Yixing pressed his nose into her forehead, wanting so desperately to kiss the top of her head, but again he refrained.

“I will stay here as long as you’d like me to, Mari.” Yixing brought her in closer slightly more, never stopping the soothing motions on her back. He could tell they were making her sleepy.

“Just close your eyes and go back to sleep for a bit. I promise I’ll stay.”

Forever.