WHAM!
Wake Us Up Before You GoChanyeol lingered in the bedroom doorway, taking time he didn't really have to gaze lovingly at the two figures entwined on the bed. Their faces were awash in early morning light, their limbs entangled, their arms grasping each other tightly as if attempting to fill the large gap Chanyeol had left behind.
He was leaving that morning for a business trip. It was only supposed to be a few days--just a quick jaunt to Beijing and back--but that didn't lessen the fact that he'd miss Sehun and Minseok terribly.
Practically speaking, Chanyeol was ready to go. His bag was haphazardly packed, his blazer was draped carelessly over his arm, and his passport was literally in his hand because he knew from experience that if he put it anywhere else--even for safe keeping--he'd never be able to find it again. (He was clumsy that way.)
But as always happened when Luhan sent Chanyeol gallivanting around the world in search of priceless art, the gentle giant was reluctant to leave. Actually, if Chanyeol was being honest with himself, reluctant was really a euphemism for saying that every ounce of his being was unwilling to part with the two people still asleep under the rumpled sheets of a bed whose comforter had long been discarded in favor of body warmth and a constant undercurrent of smoldering heat.
Well, they were supposed to be asleep.
Chanyeol turned away from his slumbering lovers, steeling himself against the inevitable pain of separation which always accompanied these trips and seemed to cling to his heart like a shy child to its mother. He sighed forlornly before succumbing and glancing back over his shoulder for one last glimpse.
To his surprise, though, the bed was empty and Sehun and Minseok were no longer where he'd left them. Instead, Chanyeol felt a creeping warmth and a comforting heaviness as Minseok rested his head against the taller man's back and threaded his arms around Chanyeol's waist in a tight back hug. Sehun, who was never much one for overt displays of affection--even in the privacy of their own home--but was the most clingy as maknae of the three, stepped around Minseok and buried his face in the crook of Chanyeol's neck, hands moving almost subconsciously to brush gently at Minseok's hair as he did so.
"Don't go," Sehun croaked out in a whisper, the coarse deepness of his morning voice causing his taller lover to shudder.
Chanyeol could feel Minseok's accompanying nod of agreement digging at his back and closed his eyes at the sensation of Sehun's breath as it ghosted across his overly sensitive ears. He sighed again.
"Luhan is the reason we can afford all this," Chanyeol said, taking an arm from where both had come to rest comfortably around Sehun's slim waist and gesturing to the spacious apartment just visible from where their tired bodies filled the bedroom doorway.
Minseok harrumphed and Chanyeol could feel the vibrations as he did so. "Luhan's also the reason you're never around," Minseok complained quietly, chewing on the inside of one of his round cheeks. Sehun caught him and gently flicked the elder in the forehead, causing Minseok to transfer the worrying to his lip and Sehun to groan pleasurably at the sight when he did so.
Chanyeol was apologetic and so allowed himself to be dragged backwards by Minseok onto the bed, Sehun pushing helpfully from his place at the front. "I know, baby," Chanyeol said, using his pet name for Minseok in an attempt to appease. But Minseok only pouted, making his cheeks puff prettily in the way that Chanyeol could never ever seem to get enough of. (Sehun loved Minseok's facial structure too; he just thought his lover was most attractive with tousled hair, hollowed cheeks, and parted lips.)
"And I really really don't want to leave--you know that, right?" Chanyeol continued, turning to face Sehun. The youngest was beginning to fall back into sleep, too tired to argue over something he knew he wouldn't win--Luhan's hold over Chanyeol as longtime friend turned employer was simply too strong.
So Sehun laid down instead, placing his head in Minseok's lap and closing his eyes as Chanyeol spoke, thereby allowing Minseok to reciprocate the head rub Sehun had given him earlier. "Just go," Sehun whispered.
Chanyeol was instantly hurt by the maknae's words, but Minseok noticed the pain that Sehun, with his closed eyes and his youth, couldn't see. Minseok quickly clarified. "The sooner you go," he said, fingers still tangled in Sehun's hair, "the sooner we get you back. Right, Sehunnie?"
Sehun hummed noncommittally in response without opening his eyes, but made sure to reach out, grasping Chanyeol's hand and entwining their fingers. Chanyeol's hurt soon receded--words were his love language, but touch was Sehun's, and it was important that Chanyeol realized Sehun didn't actually want him gone the way it had sounded.
To Chanyeol, there was no sight more endearing than a sleepy Sehun and he felt his resolve crumble just by looking at his younger lover's face nestled in his other lover's lap. Minseok caught Chanyeol's gaze as it moved upward and smiled tiredly. With one hand still coaxing Sehun back to sleep, Minseok took his other and with it cupped Chanyeol's face.
"Go," the eldest said lovingly, his calloused thumb rubbing rough circles across Chanyeol's jaw. Chanyeol nodded slowly but still looked unsure. "We'll be here when you get back, Chanyeol," Minseok comforted.
"Always," Sehun mumbled groggily--though no less sincere because of it.
Chanyeol felt like his heart was about to burst with love just looking at the two people he loved most in the world. "I love you," he told them, grabbing Minseok's hand and using it to pull him--and a still resting Sehun--closer.
Chanyeol kissed Minseok firmly. "So," he said.
"Much," he finished, leaning down to kiss Sehun as well.
"And now," Chanyeol said, attempting to convince himself as much as his lovers, "I'm leaving." He kissed them both again. "For real this time," he stated strongly against a smirking Sehun's lips as he kissed both once more.
Minseok didn't believe him--for obvious reasons--and gave Chanyeol a push off the bed. The clumsy giant would have landed on the carpet were it not for Sehun's years of dancing and lightning reflexes even when exhausted at close to five in the morning. Chanyeol teetered precariously when Sehun removed his grip and the three of them laughed at the absurdity of the situation in a way that spoke to contentment and familiarity as if that was not the first time something similar had happened. (Which it wasn't.)
After regaining a semblance of balance, Chanyeol brushed at the wrinkles in his khakis and tugged his jacket out from where it had somehow ended up under Sehun.
"We love you too," Minseok shared, grinning warmly at his taller lover as Chanyeol searched desperately for the passport that had also been under the maknae but was now held securely in Minseok's outstretched hand.
Drained of all residual energy by his quick save and the following moment of mirth, Sehun could do no more than grunt in agreement at Minseok's words. (Sometimes the youngest regretted his inability to express personal emotions through any medium other than dance. But he did love the other two desperately and somehow Minseok and Chanyeol always seemed to know it. Really, that's what mattered.)
Chanyeol lingered in the bedroom doorway, taking time he definitely didn't have to gaze lovingly at the two figures now sitting snugly against one another on the bed. Their faces remained awash in early morning light--though some time had passed since Chanyeol's first stolen glances. He still didn't want to leave. But he still had to.
"Goodbye," Chanyeol said with a wave that was probably meant to be small and subdued but only ended up looking awkward and gangly--much like Chanyeol, actually. "I love you," he reiterated to the two.
Later, as he sat in Luhan's plane waiting for the all-clear to take off, Chanyeol imagined Minseok and Sehun cuddling without him, and hoped they were currently missing him as much as he was them. He'd tried being with only one person--they all had at some point--but this relationship had been Chanyeol, Sehun, and Minseok from the very beginning. Chanyeol knew they all loved each other, but each person who loves, loves each person differently, so Chanyeol also knew it just wasn't the same when one of them was gone.
He decided to text a plaintive "I miss you already" for Sehun and Minseok to each receive when they actually woke for the day, but before he could, Chanyeol received a few texts of his own.
From Sehun: Oh! By the way...
From Minseok: Next time...
From Sehun: Wake us up...
From Minseok: Before you go...
Chanyeol laughed under his breath; he could see where this was going.
From Sehun: Go
Chanyeol's quiet laugh became a boisterous chuckle and he was glad the very nature of private planes meant that the overly curious fellow passengers one often encountered while flying commercial coach were not there to witness his humored flailing.
From Chanyeol: Does that mean I'm dating the duo that is WHAM!...??
As soon as Chanyeol sent this sarcastically ecstatic response to his lovers' messages, the pilot announced the plane was taking off. Chanyeol lamented the hours between right then and whenever he could communicate with Sehun and Minseok again--though he went to his phone settings anyway. He pouted as he moved to put his phone into airplane mode, but before he could, Chanyeol received two final text messages that made him smile.
From Minseok: Shut up, pabo. But be safe too, okay?
From Sehun: Come back quickly to us, alright Yeollie? (P.S. Who is WHAM!? Minnie won't tell me...?)
Chanyeol might not have been the biggest fan of 80s dance pop, but he spent the two hours of the flight's duration alternating between paperwork for Luhan and daydreams about his own duo; and it wasn't until he disembarked in Beijing that Chanyeol realized that song had stuck in his head throughout it all.
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