Prompt: Could you write a drabble where woohyun pesters sunggyu to buy a pet for their shared apartment and “not just another fish”? :) Thank you ♡

"Come here, little Mong-mong-ie,” Woohyun spoke softly as he sprinkled tiny fish flakes into the water and watched the red betta fish immediately swim out of it’s hovel and up to the surface. Woohyun sighed sadly. This wasn’t what he wanted. This was never what he wanted. He wanted a dog, and Sunggyu knew it. But still every year for his birthday, when Woohyun would only ask for a pet from the other, Sunggyu would come home with a cake and a damn plastic bag with a sad, little betta fish inside.

Woohyun thought that the other would get the hint, if he named every betta with a traditional dog name, which Sunggyu only found amusing. The elder had insisted that this was better for them. Sunggyu could be away from home for days, and sometimes Woohyun worked late nights when the magazine was about to go to print. Woohyun sighed again, more loudly and desperate this time as he looked around his empty apartment. Sunggyu was on trauma call again and had gotten called in for a case. Woohyun then turned his gaze down towards the fishbowl in front of him. He dipped his finger into the water, trying to pet the fish. It darted away from his finger and hid behind the fake, plastic seaweed. “It’s just not the same,” he murmured. He wanted something to pet, something to love, and something that would love him back. But most of all, he just wanted noise. The apartment was way to silent for his liking, without Sunggyu’s usual shouting, singing, and other various sounds to fill it.

“Ow!” Woohyun quickly withdrew his finger from the bowl. He had left it in there for too long and Mong-mong-ie thought it was food. “Bad fish,” Woohyun spat at the betta and tapped on the glass bowl. But it was useless. It always was. He’ll just get bit tomorrow when he’ll try to pet them again.

“Alright! Dinner time! Come out Nurung-ie, Coco-ah, and Dubu“ Woohyun called out to the other 3 fish, lined-up in their respective bowls. He then fed his pets in fish-pack order.

^^

“I want a pet for my birthday and not just another dang fish, okay? I want a real, furry pet, okay? I want a dog! A dog, hyung!”

“Aish!” Sunggyu cursed as he leaned away from the other. The both of them were on the couch, when Sunggyu asked him the question, and now he was regretting it. “I’m sitting right here. No need to shout.”

Woohyun fell back into the couch’s cushions and crossed his arms. “Well, there’d be no need to shout, if you’d actually listen to me one of these years.”

“You know, you could always buy yourself the dog,” Sunggyu suggested. “Or unless you’re really that cheap,” he teased, poking the other in the cheek hoping to wipe off that pout. But it only deepened.

Woohyun looked over at Sunggyu with a stern look. “Being cheap has nothing to do with it,” he admitted. “You buying me the pet means that you approve of it because in the end, it won’t just be my pet. It’ll be ours. We live together, hyung. We’re sharing our lives together, pets included.”

“So those fish are also mine?” Sunggyu nodded to the fishbowls lining their counter.

Woohyun shrugged. “You feed them more often then I do. Hell, you race me to the bowls some days to do it.”

Sunggyu looked away, embarrassed, and mumbled something like, “But it’s funny.”

“Anyways,” Woohyun began, and Sunggyu faced him again. “If you get me one more fish, we’re going to have a pond. And I don’t want to be fish people, hyung. I want to be dog people.”

Sunggyu chewed on his lip in thought as he put his arm behind the headrest. “I took the day off,” he spoke after a while of silence.

“Really?!” Woohyun exclaimed. The other had never done that before. He always at least had to go to the hospital that day, even during the weekends just to do rounds.

“Yea,” Sunggyu nodded. “So let’s go to the pet-store and pick something out…that’s not a fish,” he added as he saw Woohyun open his mouth to object.

Woohyun grinned widely. “Let me do some research,” he said excitedly and sprinted off the couch to grab his laptop. And Sunggyu remained there, rubbing his temples vigorously. What had he just agreed to?

^^

Saturday finally rolled around, and Woohyun was more excited than usual for his birthday, mostly because this year he was going to get exactly what he wanted and no nay-saying Sunggyu would stand in his way. He was determined. And he knew exactly how to trick the other.

He also had to literally push the elder out of the door after breakfast. Sunggyu was even still trying to cram his foot into his shoe as they were walking down the hallway of their floor.

“So you did your research?” he asked with a yawn, eyes barely opened afterwards.

“Yup,” Woohyun chirped in response. “And I have a couple of options for you to choose from.” He jogged up to the elevator to press the button. He pressed it several times. It wasn’t coming up fast enough.

Sunggyu cocked his head. “Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” he asked. The elevator then arrived, and the both of them stepped inside.

Woohyun chuckled mischievously. “Nope, today you’re just my wallet, buying me whatever I want.”

That woke Sunggyu up, the thought of the other maliciously draining his wallet. “Y-yah!”

^^

They finally arrived at the pet-store, and Woohyun was miraculously still in one piece, even though Sunggyu had him in a headlock earlier for the comment in the elevator. But the elder never denied that it wasn’t true.

When they opened the door to the store, a bell rang happily to welcome them in. Woohyun was happy; the look on Sunggyu’s face was anything but. He was anxious, sad, sleepy, and afraid of what this place had in store for him.

“Alright,” Woohyun announced, grabbing onto Sunggyu’s hand and leading him towards some cages along the side. “This is option number one.”

Sunggyu looked at the creature in the cage, back at Woohyun, then to the creature again. “It’s a rat,” was all he could say.

“It’s a fancy rat,” Woohyun corrected. “They’re actually supposed to make decent pets.”

Sunggyu brought his face closer to the glass. The rat bounded up to the glass as well and opened its mouth, exposing it’s large yellow teeth. Sunggyu grimaced and pulled away. “It’s kind of creepy,” he added.

“Yea,” Woohyun agreed with an uneasy smile. “And you’d have to buy two of them so they don’t get lonely.”

“Two?!” Sunggyu exclaimed with his eyes slightly bulging.

Woohyun nodded. “Eung…so rats are out! Let’s go see the next one! Come on,” he urged, grabbing the elder’s hand and pulling him to the other side of the store. “Here’s option number two!”

“This is much better,” Sunggyu said as he walked up and the glass, trying to pet the furry ball behind it. “I always thought that a cat would suit our lifestyle.”

“Yea,” Woohyun agreed again but this time, reluctantly. And Sunggyu knew why he was hesitating. The kitten was interested in them for one second, but then the walked over to the other side of the cage and laid down, not wanting to be disturbed.

“It seems kind of indifferent,” Sunggyu admitted. He glanced at the other and saw him nod. This wasn’t what Woohyun really wanted either. This was the middle ground, something between a fish and what he really wanted. Sunggyu sighed. He knew it. He was wrapped around the other’s finger. “What do you really want?”

Woohyun’s eyes lit up. “Hyung, I did my research, and I found it!” he announced. He then began to walk backwards towards the back of the store. His hands were in his pockets, and a grin stuck on his face.

“Found what?” Sunggyu asked apprehensively as he followed the other.

“The perfect pet!” Woohyun exclaimed. “It’s pretty easy to train because they get used to routines very quickly, they’re lazy just like you,” he said with a slight chuckle. Sunggyu just disregarded it and nodded, eager to know where this all was leading. “They’re sweet, they’re cuddly, and I can play with it. Heck, they’re so chill that I could do whatever I want with it and it’ll let me. But…”

Sunggyu knew that this was coming. “But?” he repeated with a raised eyebrow.

Woohyun looked down sheepishly at his feet. “But they eat a lot,” he confessed.

Sunggyu sputtered into a slight laugh. “Well, if that’s the only downside, I don’t see what the problem is. We make enough money to probably feed it nothing but steak if we wanted to,” he joked.

Woohyun lifted up his head. “True,” he admitted. “Let me go tell Dongwoo that we’re here to pick it up then,” he just let that bomb drop and scurried off into the back room.

“Wait…What? Pick it up? We didn’t even pick it out yet?” Sunggyu shouted fruitlessly at Woohyun’s back. The door shut behind the younger, and all Sunggyu could do was wait to see what the other had in store for him.

“Alright,” Woohyun called as he exited the backroom. Sunggyu could hear heavy breathing and claws clacking against the tile floor. And once he was in sight, Sunggyu could see Woohyun with a grey, shaggy dog that came almost up to his knee. “Hyung. Meet Neukdae!”

Sunggyu laughed nervously as he bent down to pet the beast, cautiously of course. “It does look like a wolf, but it doesn’t bite like one, right?” he asked.

Woohyun patted the dog’s side roughly. “Nope, it’s really sweet. They call them the ‘gentle giants,’” he replied. “Go on and pet him. He’s ours now.”

Sunggyu brought a shaky hand up to the dog, and the dog flinched a little, more afraid of Sunggyu. That seemed to calm his nerves. He finally placed his hand on the dog’s head and began petting it. “It’s a bit bigger than I thought, it’d be, but if it’s really easy to take care of, it shouldn’t be a problem. Especially since it’s already fully grown. We don’t have to potty train it like we would have to with a puppy.”

Woohyun bent down to their level. He chuckled in a way that made Sunggyu all nervous again. “But, hyung, it is a puppy.”

“W-what? How big is it going to be?”

Woohyun looked up at the ceiling as he thought. “Irish wolfhounds grow to up to 120 pounds,” he answered. Then he quickly bounced back up when Sunggyu was still in a daze. “Come on, Neukdae, let’s go home! Hyung, you can pay Dongwoo now!” And ran out of the store with a large puppy in tow.

Sunggyu grumbled as he got up, pulled his wallet out, and walked up to the register to pay. “I should’ve gotten him another damn fish.”