Frost

leaving the nest

"Hey..." Yeonjun knocked on his cousin's door frame, oddly subdued for the first time in a while.

"Summer boy." Soobin slid his tablet aside, scanning the elder's face. "Did you fuck up again? You have that face again, like you just stole something out of the cookie jar and need me to be your alibi."

Yeonjun sighed, his shoulders still tense, but cracked a smile, nerves coiling into a ball in his stomach. "I didn't do anything."

"Uh-uh." Still unconvinced, Soobin slid out of bed, and Yeonjun began to regret doing this alone. Where was his sunny boyfriend when he needed him most? If only Kai was here, the clouds over Soobin's head would clear, and he'd be so much easier to talk to.

But no, Yeonjun was for some reason convinced he could do this alone.

Sighing, Yeonjun tried another approach. "So... we haven't bonded in a while...."

"We literally spent 3 hours yesterday on one of your dumb Legos."

"They're not dumb! You're dumb!"

"Oh, I'm dumb, am I? I'm not the one who decided that it was oh so smart to fucking ghost the love of my fucking life—"

Clapping a hand over his cousin's mouth, Yeonjun dragged Soobin to the living room, letting him go only when the struggles have ceased.

"Are you ever gonna let that go?"

"Nope." Soobin grinned, fixing his hair as he plopped onto the couch, grabbing an unopened bag of chips from the coffee table. "You've given me the perfect blackmail material that I'll hold over you for the rest of your life."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Soobin grinned even wider, which made him look slightly more evil than usual.

"You look like a gremlin." Yeonjun told him, sitting down on the couch beside him.

"Takes one to know one."

"What the hell Bin-ah!"

But Soobin merely dangled the last bag of chips in front of his cousin's face before eating it, gloating.

It was so easy to fall into the easy bickering between them, forgetting that there had been an actual reason for his visit today.

Soobin seemed to realize this too, because after he crunched obnoxiously on his Doritos, he finally turned to face Yeonjun, looking somewhat serious. "So. What's up?"

And that set free another kind of butterflies in Yeonjun's stomach, because as he looked around the apartment, looked at all the pictures Soobin had hung up, all the plushies that had migrated onto the couch and Soobin's wide eyes, Yeonjun thought for sure that there was no crueler thing he could possibly say.

"Kai's moving in with me." He said, like ripping the bandaid off. His eyes closed for a second, before he opened them again, checking for a reaction.

There was none. Soobin crunched another chip, unbothered. "No he's not." He said easily, as if it were a question.

"No, you don't understand, we bought a–"

"Kai's not going anywhere."

"Soobin."

"Yeonjun."

They stared at each other, and there was a beat of silence, before Yeonjun sighed. "Don't be difficult, Bin-ah."

"I'm not." The same unapologetic tone, the same innocent eyes and another crunch of an orange chip. "Kai's staying here. End of story."

"Bin-ah..."

"What?"

"You're making this harder on purpose."

The boy just shrugged, turning to the blank TV as if there was an investing show playing. "Kai's staying with me. He's always stayed with me. You're already taking up all of his time."

"Bin-ah..." Yeonjun moved closer, and Soobin scooched back. "Kai's not leaving you."

"I know he's not. Because he is staying right here."

Throwing his hands in the air, Yeonjun lost his patience. "You're so– Ugh!"

Soobin shrugged, his hand reaching for the remote. "I am the backbone of this family." He said, and as much as he tried to sound strong and defiant, Yeonjun could hear the tiny edge of insecurity lacing the words. The small wobble, the light sadness.

It was that small crack that made him sit back down on that damn Ikea couch, taking the remote out of his cousin's shaky hands, and wrap him in a tight hug. "I know. You're the best, Bin-ah."

Soobin struggled against him for a second or two, before he gave in, melting in Yeonjun's arms. "He can't move out." He said petulantly. "He can't."

"We'll still hang out here all the time." Yeonjun soothed, patting him on the back. "You'll see us just as often, Binnie. You'll see us so much you'll get sick of it."

"I'm already sick of you." Soobin grumbled, but it fell flat, because it was accompanied with a sniffle.

"You're like a mama bird, Soobin." Yeonjun said, still patting his cousin's back. "You've got to let your little Kai out of your nest, okay?"

Soobin punched him then, and none too lightly. "Shut up. I'm not a mother bird."

"No, you're big bird." Yeonjun agreed, and was served another punch. And then, softer, "He'll be alright. We'll show you the apartment. You'll shit on me for a while, and huff and puff a little, and then cry when Hyuka officially moves out–"

It was Soobin, this time, clapping a hand over Yeonjun's mouth and tackling him down to the floor with threats to beat him as laughter convulsed both their bodies.

When Huening Kai came home later that evening, he caught the two men sprawled on the couch again, sharing a near-empty bag of Doritos and bickering over some kdrama that was playing on the TV, both as invested as if it were a matter of life and death.

"I'll talk to you later." Soobin shook his fist at his favorite (and only) roommate, accompanying the words with a scowl that dissolved a little too soon, replaced with a pout.

Snorting, Yeonjun stood up, taking it upon himself to order dinner, kissing his boyfriend's cheek and chuckling as he left the two roommates to sort their differences.

He had a feeling that when he came back, they would be as inseparable as ever, their shining eyes looking up at him silently as he felt like a villain.