LIFE WILL WRITE THE WORDS | CHANSOO FIC

LIFE WILL WRITE THE WORDS

It doesn't surprise him, even though it probably should. He lives in a sketchier part of LA, so it's unwise to leave his window unlocked at all times, especially on the ground floor. But it always is. It always has been.

He looks up from his homework, pads across the floor to pull open his blinds. Chanyeol stands on the other side, shoulders hunched, hands in his pockets, head bowed. As soon as the light from Kyungsoo's room hits his face, he looks up, grins crookedly.

Kyungsoo sighs, pulls the bottom half of the glass up. "What happened?"

Chanyeol's shoulders hunch even higher. There's a very obvious bruise on his cheek, blood drying under his nose, above his lip. "Nothing."

"Nothing," Kyungsoo scoffs, prying the screen loose from the window frame. "Get in here."

He steps away so that Chanyeol can climb in over the windowsill, folding his body to squeeze through the opening and cradling the bulge at the front of his huge jacket.

"Goddammit, Yeol, you brought your dog here?" Kyungsoo sighs.

Chanyeol finally makes it fully into his room and straightens out, chewing on his lip apprehensively. "He was with me, I had to," he says, unzipping his jacket halfway and carefully lifting a bundle of black fur out.

Kyungsoo doesn't say anything, just stares at Chanyeol's face as Toben zips around his room, his little collar jingling merrily.

Chanyeol fidgets under the scrutiny, running a hand through his thick hair. "What?"

Kyungsoo sighs, shakes his head. "What am I going to do with you?" he says, moving away to his desk, where he keeps bandaids and hydrogen peroxide in the bottom drawer.

"...Sorry," Chanyeol says, shuffling his feet restlessly.

"Sit down," is all Kyungsoo says, gesturing towards his bed. "Take off your shoes. And for fuck's sake, catch your dog before his tiny bell tells the whole neighbourhood you're in here."

"Sorry," Chanyeol says again, stumbling to toe off his ratty red converse and catch Toben at the same time.

Kyungsoo shakes his head, pulls a few tissues from the box by his bed to wet with disinfectant. "Hold still," he says, pushing Chanyeol down onto his bed and holding his shoulder steady with one hand. He presses the tissues to Chanyeol's nose, and is immediately rewarded with a hiss and an evasive jerk back. "I said hold still," he says, and moves his free hand to the back of Chanyeol's head, tipping his face up towards him and keeping it there.

Chanyeol stares up at him, silent and blinking, as Kyungsoo dabs at the scrapes and blood on his face.

"So," Kyungsoo says, fidgeting under Chanyeol's wide-eyed gaze. "What was it this time?"

Chanyeol starts chewing on his lip again immediately, petting Toben in his lap as the little dog squirms. "Nothing."

"Shoplifting?" Kyungsoo asks. "Pickpocketing? Something really stupid, like...tagging, or something?"

Chanyeol shakes his head.

"No to all, or just the last one?" Kyungsoo asks, scraping at dried blood with his fingernail.

"I don't...I don't want to tell you," Chanyeol says quietly.

Kyungsoo sighs harshly through his nose, moves to pluck a bandage out of his box. "If you know it's stupid, why do you keep doing it?"

Chanyeol hesitates, then twitches his shoulders up in a shrug, bowing his head again like a child.

"Look at me," Kyungsoo says, annoyed, pulling Chanyeol's face back up by the chin. Chanyeol averts his gaze, winces as Kyungsoo puts the bandaid over the cut on his cheek more aggressively than necessary. When Chanyeol still refuses to speak, Kyungsoo makes a frustrated sound, stalks away to his desk. "You're not a kid anymore, Yeol," he says. "You're eighteen now. Old enough to be tried as an adult. If you keep getting caught doing dumb shit, you're going to go to jail. Real, actual jail."