Slopes

t w e n t y f o u r

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"You're a stubborn fuck, you know that Mark?" Donghyuck said with a huff, stuffing his snowboarding shoes into his duffle bag as Mark stood by the door with a cocky smile.

He shrugged and held the door open as Donghyuck walked by. "It's a practiced skill."

With a roll of his eyes, Donghyuck muttered, "Oh I'm sure." Mark laughed and hurried to catch up to the high schooler who was quickly walking down towards the bus stop.

The two of them had begun a regular routine of heading to the bus and catching a ride together, Mark tended to get off first but occasionally he would accompany Donghyuck to his stop, where he would make sure the boy got home safe. They didn't talk much, and more than half the time Mark would end up with Donghyuck asleep on his shoulder, thus forcing the older to stay until the high schooler's stop. He didn't mind it, not really, it was nice and quiet and the soft breaths of Donghyuck tended to slow his own heartbeat so that by the time he got into his apartment, Mark was dead tired and felt he could sleep for weeks. Occasionally he would have to wake the boy up from a nightmare or two, in which Donghyuck would go quiet after muttering an apology and Mark would just put an arm around his shoulder and reassure him that he was okay and that everything was fine. Mostly, Donghyuck would just fall back asleep and wouldn't bring it up, but Mark could wait until the boy was ready to open up.

Were the nightmares worrying? Yes. But there wasn't much Mark could do but wake him up before things got too bad. Sometimes he was late and Donghyuck would wake up on his own, tears on his cheeks as the memories flashed through his mind, and Mark would need to shake him out of it just for the boy to quickly slump forward with a sigh. It was concerning but Mark figured he was doing his best and was gaining Donghyuck's trust, considering their rocky start.

Tonight was one such night.

"Hey, Hyuck, wake up. Donghyuck," Mark whispered, shaking his shoulder roughly. Donghyuck was whimpering and flinching, a sure sign of a nightmare and Mark once again had to remind himself that it wasn't Donghyuck's fault he was such a heavy sleeper. "Donghyuck, wake up!"

The boy's eyes opened hastily and he sat up straight, wiping his cheeks and panting hard. "Wh- thanks. I, uh–"

Mark shook his head and brought the boy into a hug. "No, don't worry about it, you're fine."

"Right, yeah, uhm..." Donghyuck swallowed thickly and tentatively put his arms back around Mark and rested his head on his hyung's shoulder. "Thanks."

"Of course. You want me to stay till your stop?"

Donghyuck slowly pulled away and readjusted his bag. "You should really stop that, your stop is before mine and it just wastes your time." He gave Mark a cold stare and the older had the audacity to crack a smile.

"So that's a yes?"

"Do what you want. You're a stubborn fuck."

"Second time you've said that tonight."

This time, it was Donghyuck's turn to smile. "I'll say it as much as I need to until you learn to stop babying me."

"How am I babying you?" Mark asked, knocking their shoulders together.

"You treat me like a kid. Asshole."