"The sound of your laughter"

Monday came and Jongdae sat in Biology at attention, scowling at everyone who entered that wasn't Baekhyun. As more and more students filed in who were not the person Jongdae was waiting for he grew more and more agitated.

If friggin Byun Baekhyun didn't show up after promising he would be there Jongdae swore he would find where he lived, take every last stick of eyeliner and shove it up that sassy little punks-

Just as Jongdae's thoughts reached a particularly violent peak, Baekhyun breezed through the door seconds before it was time for class to start. Jongdae's eyes bore holes into the side of Baekhyun's face, waiting for the other boy to look over and acknowledge his presence.  Yet no such acknowledgment happened. Baekhyun walked straight to his desk and promptly put his head down, totally oblivious to Jongdae's hard look.

“Hey.” Jongdae called back. Several people looked over but Baekhyun was not one of them.

“Baekhyun.” The students nearest looked over at Baekhyun, who still had his head tucked into his arms and completely ignoring Jongdae.

Jongdae smirked. Fine. If he wanted to pretend that nothing was weird then okay. It was probably better that way after the rather odd and awkward way they last met. He would let the guy keep his pride.  He didn't care one way or the other that the guy had been bawling his eyes out last time, it wasn't the first time he'd seen someone break down like that. Teenagehood could be hard sometimes; it happened.

Jongdae had a feeling though, that whatever was bothering Baekhyun wasn't as simple as raging hormones and school pressure. That was what made it so much more interesting.

When the bell rang signalling the end of class he had a plan. A not very well thought out, kind of made up in the last five minutes sort of plan but it was a plan.  Baekhyun was one of the last people to exit and that worked out fine for Jongdae. As the other boy passed him he casually stook his foot out causing Baekhyun to lurch forward and promptly face plant into the nearest table.

"Oh are you okay Baek?" Jongdae exclaimed rushing forward. Baekhyun had a hand pressed against his nose. Little droplets of scarlet dripped through his fingers.

Oh damn.

The teacher looked over in fake concern.

"Do you need to go to the nurse Baekhyun?" she asked, bored.

Baekhyun started to shake his head, muttering that he'd be fine but Jongdae leaned forward wrapping his arms around the other and hauling him to his feet.

"Yes! He's bleeding pretty bad, i think he broke it! Oh my god there's blood everywhere!" Jongdae wailed dramatically, putting on his best distraught face.

Baekhyun tried to pull away, looking at Jongdae like he had lost his mind. "No really i'm fi-"

"Shhhhh don't speak! We'll get you patched up real quick, just don't go towards the light!" Jongdae half dragged the other boy from the classroom, snagging the paper excuse from the teacher on the way out.

“Jongdae what the hell I’m fine it’s just a bloody nose!” Baekhyun managed to wiggle his way out of Jongdae’s grasp and he let him, already bringing his phone up to his ear.

“Oh I know,” he said to Baekhyun just as a groggy voice spoke into his ear. “Yo! What the crap dude where you sleeping?”

Jongdae cackled happily to whatever the person on the phone said as Baekhyun stared, suddenly fearing he was in the presence of a psychopath.

“Come out to the place…... Yeah i got a pass for my last class…... Psh like you were gonna go anyways…. Whatever man.” Smiling like a jester Jongdae hung up the phone and looked up to see Baekhyun trying to quietly sneak away.

“Okay! Lets go.” Looping his arm through Baekhyun’s he once again proceeded to drag the other in the opposite direction from which he had been trying to make a break for it.

“Go where? Let go!” Baekhyun screeched, trying to pry his arm from Jongdae’s grasp. Thankfully Jongdae had a good 30 pounds on him and continued undeterred as they made their way to the parking lot.

“Help! I’m being kidnapped! Whaaaa,” With one easy shove Baekhyun fell into the passenger seat of Jongdae’s car and before he could grab the door and run for it Jongdae slid into the driver’s seat and started pulling away.

After five minutes of grumpy silence Baekhyun said, “You’re seriously going to jail this time. Crazy person.”

Jongdae just threw a grin at him. “I don’t like people ignoring me.”

“Stalker.”

“Moody princess.”

“What! I am not a princess!” Baekhyun gasped.

“Whatever you say princess.” Jongdae said and received a smack on the arm. “Hey! No abusing the driver! Do you want us to die?”

“I’m allowed to attack my kidnapper! Self defence jerk!” Baekhyun said indignantly and proceeded to pinch Jongdae on the leg.

“Ow! If we crash I’m gonna make sure we hit on your side first!”

“Hey, i’m the victim here. What is this, the 3rd time you’ve kidnapped me?”  Baekhyun said but relented in his attacks.

“Naw, only the 2nd time technically.” Jongdae said as he pulled into the drive way of a modest looking house with daisy’s growing along the windows. He spotted Chanyeol’s beat up truck parked on the road and smiled.

“We’re here!” he said happily.

Baekhyun looked out at the house in confusion.

“And where exactly is ‘here’?”

“A place of peace, love, and music.” Jongdae said seriously, earning him a look of utter mystification from Baekhyun.

“I can’t believe you just said that with a straight face. Wait no i can, you’re a crazy person.” Baekhyun put his face in his hand with a slow shake. “Why does this crazy person keep appearing in my life?”

Jongdae laughed and exited the car, waiting patiently for Baekhyun to do the same before striding away to the back of the house rather than the front door. The other boy had no choice but to follow along meekly, his hands tucked into the inside of his sleeves.

Not even bothering to knock anymore Jongdae walked into the side door, his feet taking him along the familiar path they had walked a million times in the past 5 years down the stairs and into Yixing’s basement. He had probably spent more time within these four walls than he had spent in his own bedroom. Ever since they had become friends Yixing’s basement was just the place they all went to for anything; good or bad. It was home to Jongdae.

Yixing was in the same place he usually was, sitting on the chair in the corner by the desk, his guitar balanced on his crossed legs and a pen scribbling out notes on a piece of sheet music. When they walked in he didn’t even bother to lift his head as he spoke,

“Seeing as how a sleepy giant invaded a few minutes ago I can safely assume both of you are ditching your last class again and plan on hiding here?”

“We could sense how lonely you were being home all alone and came to ease your bleeding heart.” Jongdae said cheesily earning a snort from the otherwise prone form of Chanyeol sprawled out on the couch with a hat covering his face. He had outgrown the couch years ago and now had to lay with his legs hanging over the armrest awkwardly.

Yixing finally looked up from his sheet of papers and noticed Baekhyun, standing awkwardly behind Jongdae looking like he was contemplating the distance from here to his house and if he could walk it before it got dark.

Just as he was opening his mouth to probably greet Baekhyun Chanyeol decided to blurt out in his excessively loud voice, “Jongdae probably wanted to come talk to you about how to get over his raging for that gay kid.”

Jongdae was gonna kill him.

“Raging eh?” Baekhyun raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, staring at the back of Jongdae’s head pointedly, which Jongdae was ignoring with extreme effort. Instead he strode over to where Chanyeol was still unmoving, obviously not hearing Baekhyun and proceeded to grab the back of the couch and dump the idiot onto the floor.

“Hey! What the hell Jongdae!” Chanyeol yelled, rubbing his elbow where it banged on the floor.

“Baekhyun let me introduce you to my idiot best friend Chanyeol, who was dropped on his  giant fat head as a child so please ignore 100% of the things he says.” Jongdae said dryly kicking his foot at his friend.

Chanyeol looked up in surprise, too startled to notice the foot digging into his leg.

“Oh, hey Baekhyun. . Dude.” He looked up at Jongdae with wide eyes and upon realizing that his life was probably in danger scurried away on the floor closer to Yixing for protection. Yixing just laughed and smiled at Baekhyun.

“Hello, my name is Yixing, are you a friend of Jongdae’s?”

Baekhyun was smiling, amused at the shananagins before him and jumped when he was suddenly brought into the conversation.

“Ah, hi, I’m Byun Baekhyun. And I don’t know if you could really call us friends per say…..” he said shooting a glare over in Jongdae’s direction.

Yixing nodded in understanding, but Chanyeol looked up in surprise and exclaimed,

“Don’t tell me you guys already started ing!?”

With 100% accuracy Jongdae launched a shoe at his friend's head.

Fatality.

As Chanyeol's soul drifted from his lifeless body Jongdae said loudly, “Baekhyun is in the drama club and really good at singing, i figured he could help us out with that song Yixing.”

“Oh! That would be awesome! I was trying to think of another person to sing with you Jongdae.” Yixing quickly got up, bringing his papers with him.

Baekhyun looked taken aback, taking the papers Yixing shoved at him out of reflex and allowing himself to be dragged over and placed on the couch. He shot a mournful glance at the door as his chance of escape dwindled.

“Song?” he asked, shooting a confused look at Jongdae as he plopped down on the couch beside him.

“Mhm, me and Yixing think it’ll sound better with two voices instead of just one, but i don’t know anyone else who sings.” Jongdae said watching as Yixing hovered over the corpse known as Chanyeol and ordering him to go get his guitar already.

“How did you know I could sing?” Baekhyun asked, completely lost as to how he had even ended up in this situation. Why couldn’t anything involving Jongdae be normal?

“Talent show last year, you and your short friend, what's his name? Do something, sang a song together.” Jongdae replied as if this was the most normal thing in the world.

Baekhyun stared at him. “You really are a stalker.”

Jongdae laughed loudly. “Maybe. But really, I just pay attention to things.”

“Okay Baekhyun we’re gonna play the song through once and you follow along okay? You can join if you feel like it whenever.” Yixing smiled from his place behind his keyboard, excitement sparkling in his eyes. Yixing was a pretty mellow person, in contrast to his two loud best friends but when it came to music his whole personality changed. Music was his whole life.

From their respective places around the room the three friends shared a glance, acknowledging that they were ready to begin. Chanyeol counted down lowly, drumming a soft beat on his guitar. The melody started slowly, Yixing’s hands moving with ease across the keyboard. Jongdae closed his eyes, inhaling as the words began.

I may seem strong, I may be smiling

But there are many times when I’m alone

I may seem like I don’t have any worries

But I have a lot to say

The moment I first saw you, I was so attracted to you

I didn’t weigh out my thoughts and just talked

Baekhyun inhaled sharply, amazed, forgetting completely to follow along with the lyrics and instead just watched Jongdae’s face. He hadn’t known the boy could sing, let alone this well. Actually he hadn’t thought much about the other at all except that he was a crazy alien or something who had a tendency of always magically appearing at the most awkward times possible for Baekhyun.

He would never admit it, but his emotions towards the other softened after hearing Jongdae sing.

The song slowly ended yet Baekhyun was still lost in thought, completely not realizing that this whole time he had been staring at the side of Jongdae's face even after the boy had turned to look back at him. He   didn't notice Jongdae's super cocky smirk, or Yixing's quiet giggle but there was no ignoring the low baritone of Chanyeol's voice saying.

"I think he just fell in love with you dude."

This brought Baekhyun to his senses as Yixing shushed Chanyeol and Jongdae wiggled his eyebrows.

"I'm a y beast right?"

Instead of being embarrassed Baekhyun dead panned. "More like I was momentarily amazed that someone taught a crazy pterodactyl how to sing," he said even though there was a tint of red spreading over his cheeks.

Chanyeol cracked up, folding over his guitar as Jongdae lifted his arms to his chest and let out a high pitched screeching sound..

"Oh god you did not just do that," Baekhyun laughed, joining in with the others.

Jongdae smiled, at ease with the others laughing at him. He currently felt pretty satisfied with himself. His random made up plan had worked out pretty well. Baekhyun seemed to have returned to his old self, the shadow of the other night leaving his eyes as he laughed. Maybe he would even forgive Jongdae for giving him a bloody nose and kidnapping him. Again.

It felt kind of nice having Baekhyun here, in this place that was almost sacred for him and his friends. It was a safe place, where outside things didn't matter anymore. If something bad happened Jongdae had always found happiness here.

"Damn its hot down here," Chanyeol suddenly declared pulling at his T-shirt.

The small space had heated up quite a bit with so many bodies filling it. Being a basement it was usually cooler but the scorching heat of  the day was relentless in its pursuit of fresh meat to prey upon.

The others muttered agreement that it was getting a bit stuffy in there. Jongdae glanced at Baekhyun trying  gauge how close the other may or may not be  to heatstroke by this point. Today's particular sweater was dark blue instead of black and maybe slightly less insulated than some previous so maybe he wouldn't pass out today.

Might want be safe though.

Quietly he walked to the mini fridge Yixing always had stocked with an assortment of goodies and grabbed a few water bottles. He walked over and handed one to Yixing, threw another at Chanyeol and returned to where Baekhyun was reading over the sheet music. Instead of simply handing the bottle over he  pressed the near frozen bottle against the heated skin of the boys neck, a wicked smile twisting his lips. The high  pitched squeal that followed was probably one of the most satisfying sounds Jongdae had ever heard.

Baekhyun cringed away, cowering against the cushions as Jongdae giggled gleefully trying to place the bottle against any skin he could find. After a few minutes of cursing, wrestling, and more evil laughter Jongdae succeeded in shoving the entire bottle down the oversized collar of Baekhyun's sweatshirt and getting the best scream of outrage in return for his efforts.

"God damnit Kim Jongdae!" Baekhyun screeched, fishing around his clothes to retrieve the object, "you are so dead."

Jongdae dodged the first attack easily, jumping off the couch and running to hide behind Yixing, who had been watching the whole ordeal with amused eyes. As Baekhyun approached menacingly Yixing’s eyes went wide.

"Hey hey don’t bring me into this!" he yelled trying to move away from Jongdae.

"Yixing protect me!" Jongdae whined, clutching on to the elder to prevent him from running.

"Protect yourself! You got yourself into this." Yixing ducked as Baekhyun tried  to reach around him to grab at Jongdae.

"Fight your own battles you dino baby!" Baekhyun growled, struggling to get to Jongdae. He was so damn wiggly!

The three of  did a   sort of dance, with Baekhyun trying to get around Yixing and Jongdae squirming and dragging the older boy around as a human shield. Suddenly there were long arms twining around Jongdae's waist and he was being hauled away from Yixing.

"SACRIFICE THE NON BELIEVER!" Chanyeol roared and practically threw Jongdae at a very startled Baekhyun. The two collided with a loud series of squeaks and grunts as they both crashed to the floor.

After the initial shock of having  a 150lb body thrown at him Baekhyun came to his senses and promptly straddled Jongdae's chest, erasing all chances of escape and poured the entire contents of the bottle over his head.

Victory!

Jongdae sputtered as Baekhyun cackled victoriously above him throwing his hands in the air in triumph. The other two boys laughed loudly, clapping their hands as Baekhyun climbed off Jongdae to stand over him proudly.

“Today marks the day that I have slain a baby dinosaur!” he crowed, striking a pose.

“A baby dinosaur!” Chanyeol gasped out between giggles, “He’s a baby! A baby!”

Yixing looked at his friend in amusement as the other was obviously having difficulties breathing at this point.

“I’ll let you off this time Byun Baekhyun,” Jongdae said, purposely shaking his wet hair next to the other. “But next time, victory will be mine!”

“Come at me bro,” Baekhyun scoffed, stepping away to avoid the flying water.

They stood grinning at each other a moment, like friends who had been together for eternity and not two people who barely started talking to each other a month ago.

Yixing cleared his throat, “Not to interrupt but, now whos gonna clean the water up off my floor?”

They both looked down at the puddle on the carpet and said in perfect unison, “Not It!”

All eyes turned towards Chanyeol, who had been too preoccupied with humor to pay attention. He looked up in confusion.

“What?”

“All yours bro!” Jongdae said happily backing away towards the door. “I should probably get home and change or…  something.”

“Yeah, I gotta go.” Baekhyun agreed moving along with Jongdae. “It was nice meeting you!” And they both slipped out the door ignoring the shouts that followed after them.

“Jeez, what did they even come over for if they were just gonna dip like that?” Chanyeol griped as he searched around for something to clean the floor with. “We didn’t even work on the song at all!”

Yixing just shrugged, staring after the two persons in question, an odd smile ghosting his lips. Thoughts rolled around in his head as he pondered the last 30 minutes or so. It had definitely been a surprise seeing Baekhyun, Jongdae never brought people over. He had placed some sort of sanctity to this place, even though it wasn’t even his house and Yixing had no idea as to why it was so special to the other boy. Meaning there had to have been a special reason for the action. Yixing didn’t think it was anything like what Chanyeol was saying earlier, but there was definitely something odd there.

Shaking his head at himself for thinking too much Yixing decided to just wait it out. If Jongdae wanted to talk to him about it then he would help however he could. There was just one thing that bothered him. Earlier as they sang, he had looked over at Baekhyun’s face a few times. He had been staring at Jongdae but Yixing could tell his thoughts weren’t on the other boy, they had been somewhere else, and where ever it was that place must be very dark because Yixing hadn’t seen such sadness in a long time. Knowing Jongdae, which Yixing prided himself in doing, if he had seen even a glimmer of that sadness in Baekhyun, then maybe it wasn’t so odd that they had ended up here. After all, this was a place of peace, music, and love.

A/N: Okay so i adore this chapter. For two reasons: 1. Random silly Jongdae is one of my favorite things ever and 2. I think this shows the relationship between Jongdae and Baekhyun a lot. About how they just naturally get along without really having to try to, obviously they were made for eachother ;). Also we have Yixing! Yixing is going to be important to help these two little spunky boys a lot ;3

Oh and I know Chanyeol comes off as super obnoxious and dumb in this chapter but he has his reasons! Don't worry.

Thank you so much for the new subcribers and the comments!!!! <33333333333