Gift for Kanami_chan1547

Gift from ???

Title of the Gift: "Coco-yah!"

Pairing: Mark/Jackson [Markson]

Words: 2,705

Rating: G/PG

Warnings: A very, very small amount of language.


Note to Giftee: Happy Christmas, Minami!! Please enjoy what I call a bit of "slice of life" Markson! Very fluffy, I imagine it like a scene out of their everyday lives. ♥ I apologise if there isn't enough romance; my favourite part of Markson is how much they love each other's company that it felt right to write it. Thank you for reading, and it will be a pleasure to hear from you after this event is over!! ^ ^ I hope you have a very happy holiday!!

"Coco-yah!"

“Come on, you fuzzy teapot, do you want to play?”

Looking up from the game he was playing on his iPad, Mark Tuan had to blink and remove one earbud to make sure that he heard the sentence that he swore he heard correctly. He sat up a bit from his lax position snuggled into the blankets and cushions on his roommate’s bed, letting the sunlight infiltrate his day off through the open window, while he listened intently to the voice out in the living room for more clues that he hadn’t made up the weirdness himself.

Nothing came right away, no more words nor noises, so he shrugged his shoulders back into the feather pillows and contentedly extended his long legs out. Feeling suspicious that he hadn’t heard the end of it, he took his earbuds out completely and just unpaused the game.

He hadn’t gotten through even a quarter of the level until he heard, “Don’t look at me like that, you’re short and you’re stout, I didn’t make up the rules!”

Mark snorted under his breath and sat up completely, placing the iPad off to the side of the bed. He glanced around the well-lit space, thinking for a second. Realising there were two warm bodies missing that were normally present with him in his room, he put two and two together and knew immediately who was having the seemingly one-sided conversation: his eccentric roommate Jackson Wang, and his toy-sized Maltese puppy, Coco.

With this conclusion, everything became a lot less bizarre. In fact, it was per the norm, really.

Still, he found himself compelled to see why exactly Jackson was calling the puppy a household kitchen object, and why he was citing rules in the first place. He swung his feet over the side of the bed and shuffled into a pair of black slippers upon standing, stretching his sleeveless arms upward in an attempt to unravel from the comfortable position he’d been in for at least an hour. Momentarily mourning his broken, peaceful gaming world, he exitted out toward the main area, an image already composed in his mind of what he was about to find.

Knowing the both of them too well, he was correct: Jackson, clad in all black, a simple tank top and sweatpants, was sprawled out belly-down on the tile floor on top of an oversized Apeach mascot pillow. Next to him, curled up in her little circular bed and not paying her suitor a single ounce of attention, was baby Coco, peacefully gnawing on a small chew toy.

“I don’t appreciate the cold shoulder, princess. If I sing again, you’ll just glare at me. Why can’t I win with you? What is it that you want from me-e-e?” Drawing out the last word in a form of mock crying, Jackson continued to be absorbed in his attempts for her attention, kicking his legs in the air not unlike a teenaged girl casually conversing with her best friend at a slumber party. He sat his chin sadly on his crossed arms, looking woefully in the direction of the dog that seemed to be one of the few souls in existence that could ignore him.

Mark rubbed the back of his neck, trying to hold back the amused grin that was creeping across his face, and failing at it. He shook his head a little, an action full of affection, as he usually did when witnessing Jackson’s antics. With a quiet clearing of his throat, he asked, “Do I need to spend another late night trying to teach her to speak, or would you be satisfied with a bored look of mild contempt?”

Surprised by the sudden voice, Jackson looked toward the direction of the emerging Mark and immediately pouted at him. He leaned onto his side, propped up by his elbow, and ran one hand hastily through his blond hair, the droplets from a previous shower landing behind him. “Contempt?! Please don’t teach her that, my heart would break.” He rolled back onto his stomach and aimed the sullen look at Coco. “I just want the teapot to respond to me.”

Letting loose a snort-laugh again, Mark closed his eyes as he breathily chuckled and let the strange combination of words just uttered roll over him. Not a sentence he really ever thought he’d hear in his life. He sighed and stared over at the two of them again, lazily making his way to the footrest of the couch where he sat on the other side of the puppy’s bed, overlooking the scene. “Teapot?”

Jackson continued leaning his chin onto his arms, the crossed limbs serving as a pillow despite his already laying on an actual, real pillow. He let his eyes look up at Mark but didn’t move otherwise. “I was singing ‘The Teapot Song’ to her, because I’ve determined that’s her theme song,” he explained, his speech warped by the fact that his chin was firmly planted. It came out sounding a bit like a child trying to say why he made a necklace out of sticks, and why it was a perfectly normal thing to do.

When Mark’s reaction was to just barely raise his eyebrows, Jackson audibly sighed and lifted his head.

“I’m a little teapot, short and stout, here is my handle and here is my spout; when I get all steamed up, I just shout-- tip me over and pour me out~” He sang the song in one rushed breath, bobbing his head side-to-side with the rhythm, as if this made everything crystal clear. Still not getting the reaction out of his groupmate that he wanted, he let out another sigh, although his classic grin was beginning to appear as he continued, “She’s short, she’s stout, she’s got this cute little nose and cute little tail, and when she’s mad, she barks!”

Finally, Mark couldn’t help but giggle out loud, the high-pitched laugh echoing in the otherwise quiet room. “Okay, okay, I’m with you, but ‘tip me over and pour me out’? What are you doing to my dog?”

“I didn’t have an explanation for that part.” Jackson shrugged for added effect, climbing and sitting up straight, crossing his legs beneath him and setting the Apeach cushion in his lap. “I was hoping she would think it was a threat and pay attention to me!” He shouted the last part, each syllable dotted for emphasis, folding himself in half to lean forward across the pillow and look at Coco a little closer. He didn’t even get a twitch out of her, just a small snuffle noise as she switched to tugging the other side of her toy.

Tickled at the slightly pathetic way Jackson slumped over the enormous pink cushion in defeat, Mark pitched up his voice a bit and called out, “Coco-yah!”

Without a bit of hesitation, Coco’s floppy white ears perked and she turned her head around to look her owner excitedly, small tail thwip-ing against the soft material of her bed. She blinked at him as if expecting more, and Mark added on a soft “C’mere!”

Jackson’s face fell to a sulk when she dropped her forgotten chew toy to run enthusiastically over to Mark’s outstretched hands, where he made sure to fluff up her fur and play with her lovingly. He made little huffing noises at her as she ran between his hands, nipping softly at his fingertips each time she reached one side. While this new scene was one of pure glee, the other side of the puppy’s bed held Jackson and his puffed out cheeks, and, were he a cartoon character, there would be an unhappy raincloud hovering above his head.

“My hopes, dashed. My dreams, popped. My happiness, shattered,” he grumbled dramatically, continuing to remain flumped across Apeach as if it was his only support in the world. “Princess, Coco, baby, little one, I’m so good to you!” he loudly whined over at Coco, who was now on her back kicking her small legs in the air as Mark rubbed her belly, her tiny frame dwarfed by his large hands. “Why do you do this to me? How do I win your heart? What does he have that I don’t?” Amidst his speech, he shiftlessly grasped at her chew toy and flipped it in the air pointedly. “I am ignored and abandoned, just like this thing!”

Seemingly finding sympathy for the gloomy Jackson somewhere deep within his heart, Mark slid from the couch and sat with his legs tucked underneath him on the floor. He held his hand up in the air, having magically plucked another of Coco’s strewn toys from someplace nearby; she jumped at it, attempting to use his thighs as a kind of ramp. She focused on him and the new toy, a third-party mockery of the Toy Story alien, while he shuffled nonchalantly around the doggy bed and next to Jackson’s flopped-over form.

Even with his face buried into the pillow sitting in his lap, the little yips and snorts coming from Coco alerted him that the two of them were now at his side, and he lifted his gaze slowly. “Don’t try to comfort me now, I’m hurt,” he mumbled into the fabric, voice entirely muffled, as he stared even-eyed at the pair. “Did you just come over to rub it in or something? Just to remind me that I’m the third wheel here?” He only then lifted his head up to stick his tongue out playfully at Coco before smushing his face forcefully into the cushion once again.

“Coco, over here!” Ignoring the other’s poignant complaints, Mark switched the toy into his left hand and dangled it over Jackson’s head, which of course caused the hyperactive and unaware puppy to attempt to clamber up onto the pillow to reach her coveted prize. “You can do it, girl!”

“Ah!” Jackson cried, feeling tiny paws and thusly tiny claws scramble around his head. He lifted himself to sit up immediately, Mark reacting by then swaying the toy over his roommate’s lap. Coco took a moment to observe, calculating if she could reach with a good leap, and Mark took the presented moment to push the Apeach pillow off to the side out of the way-- just in time, too, for then Coco leapt right into Jackson’s lap and snatched the green alien toy from Mark’s passive grip.

His hands palms-forward in the air as if there was something volatile sitting on him, Jackson stared incredulously down at Coco, who was now shaking the toy in but otherwise staying put. She slumped against the side of one of his crossed legs and laid down, apparently content with her conquest.

At this, Mark’s signature giggle rang out in the room again, both with happiness at his successful maneuver and amusement over the many different expressions that were shifting over Jackson’s face. He pulled his legs out from beneath him and sat more comfortably on the tile floor, leaning back onto his hands and watching the scene unfold. “You’re acting like she’s never played with you before,” he commented, observing how dramatically Jackson was reacting.

“It’s not that!” Jackson exclaimed, slowly lowering his hands and petting her, moving so slowly as if she was going to turn monstrous and attack. Really, he just hoped her presence would continue. He finally relaxed and her back, smoothing out her haphazard white fur, and ran his other hand through his hair. “I’ve been out here for nearly an hour trying to pry her from that bed without picking her up, and you just did it in like four seconds flat!”

Mark laughed again, softer this time. “Youngjae and I are with her the most, of course she’ll respond to us the fastest. That’s what loyal dogs do.”

“I know,” Jackson grumbled in return, “but I just wish animals would love me like I love them.”

“I’m not sure any living being has the capacity to love as much as you do,” Mark said gently with a smile, scooting closer to the other in order to delicately lay an arm across his shoulders. “That’s both your curse and your blessing.”

Jackson pouted to himself and laid his head sideways on Mark’s now-available shoulder, looking down at Coco while he continued to pet her. She’d ceased the violence on her toy and now sat cozily on her side with her paws out in front of her, leaned up against Jackson’s inner leg and looking out idly toward something elsewhere in the room that only she seemed able to notice. They found a moment or two of enjoyment in the silence until Jackson murmured, “I think I get nervous that if I can’t win over a happy-go-lucky puppy, then I can’t win over people.”

The corners of Mark’s mouth tugged into an affectionate half-smile, and he gingerly began to massage just above Jackson’s shoulder blade in an effort to comfort him. “I’d like to call you out on your bull only because you’re the only person I do know that wins over every single person without fail … but I know what you’re saying.” He moved his hand to lovingly rub up and down Jackson’s upper arm, leaning the side of his cheek against his roommate’s still-damp hair. “Coco likes to be in her own little world, a lot like me and Youngjae, so don’t take it personally. You know how much we love you, and she does too.”

“Do you love me, princess? Do you?” Jackson cooed toward the calm and collected puppy. At the sound of his voice pulling her from her distant gaze, she glanced up at him with her big brown eyes as if to question what he was saying. “Aw!” he whisper-exclaimed when she looked at him, “I’m going to take that as a good sign.”

Mark grinned, mostly to himself, and moved his hand up to tangle his fingers into the other side of Jackson’s hair as they sat close. “Just like me, right? I never have to tell you, I can just look and you already know how I feel.”

“Usually,” Jackson affirmed, dangling his fingers over Coco’s little nose and letting her sniff at him before petting the top of her head and ears dotingly. “Sometimes I can’t tell if you’re pissed because of something I did or because your score got beat in Infinite Stairs.”

“Just assume it’s the game. Jaebum keeps messing with my iPad and I swear ….”

Jackson lifted his head from Mark’s shoulder and beamed at him, his mood placated thanks to the pup in his hands and the man by his side. “So last time it wasn't because I accidentally pushed you off the bed in my sleep?”

“No way, you know I don’t get pissed at that.” Mark winked at him while he reached over to scratch Coco’s ears. “I just get revenge.”

As if in reply, Jackson barked out a laugh; he reached into his lap and gathered Coco up in his hands, lifting her up in the air facing him. “Are you sure you chose the right owner, princess? This guy? See how rude he is? You can always come to me if he’s being mean.” He pulled her in toward him to go nose-to-nose with her until she turned her head at the last minute to look over at Mark, and he instead buried his face in her fur. “I don’t mind! Cute, so cute!”

As their relaxing day off alone in the dorm living room continued on, Mark began to contemplate how he wouldn’t have experienced these sweet moments if not for the fact that Jackson’s weirdness pulled him from his quiet alone time and gave him a sense of warmth he couldn’t have even gotten while stretched out like a cat in the sunlight-strewn bed.

And that, in a nutshell, was what life with Jackson was like.