congratulations || jeongchan

- 36 - Sleep -

Because even if you break up with him

With Jeongin and Minho to back him up they managed to get Felix to turn off his video game and put a movie on and the four of them sat there in barely awkward silence for the better part of an hour.

Eventually the entire two litre bottle of lemonade caught up with Chan and he quietly got up to go to the toilet.

"Chan?" Dammit.

He turned round and was surprised he hadn't heard Minho follow him down the corridor.

Cham nodded, leaning on the nearest doorframe.

"You know I'm all for a movie, but we do have to go to sleep. And I'm not sharing the couch with Felix." Minho's voice dropped to a whisper, "I'm not giving up my room and it would be weird for me to share with you so Jeongin can have the spare room when it's Jeongin who is here."

"Yeah?"

"So you're okay with him sleeping in your room?"

"Yeah?"

Minho raised an eyebrow, "considering you came home in the dark I doubt you saw the state your room is in huh?"

"Did you mess with my room as well as the rest of my house?"

"No!"

Chan sighed. When he snapped out of his dazed, tired state Chan was going to have a word with Minho.

Well, he probably would if he could be angry at Minho, for anything, ever.

But he couldn't. It was Minho.

"Is it that messy?"

"Yeah. It is. Just thought you'd like a reminder to clean it, now, before you have to barricade Jeongin out whilst you desperately shove everything into the closest boxes, which is what you do whenever anyone comes over."

For a moment Chan believed it, his best friend was just looking out for him. But then he took a long look at Minho. Minho.

"Hang on. There is no way that's the reason you came to talk to me. You would have happily filmed me trying to barricade Jeongin out of my room to do some last minute cleaning."

Minho pretended to look affronted, but the pretence was lost on Chan. He noticed how tired Minho looked. His eyes were red rimmed and he kept looking down at the floor and fidgeting. Minho never fidgeted unless something was really bothering him.

"1 - me filming you is only partially true. And 2 - I..."

Chan could barely believe his own eyes when he saw the tears start to fall.

"Minho-..."

"It's- it's not this." Minho waved his hand aimlessly and sniffed. "It's just. Never mind. Anyway, Jeongin keeps looking at me like he wants to talk. I know what it's about, and, I don't think I can have that conversation right now. I think he's noticed. But. just in case..."

"Yeah of course. I'll... I'll make sure you're given some space."

Minho smiled at Chan gratefully.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Minho shook his head softly, "I think I'll just go to sleep."

Before Minho managed to escape to his room, Chan gave him a tight hug, trying not to let his heart constrict too much at the tension he could feel in Minho's body, he was shaking ever so slightly, but Chan let Minho go, hoping it was the right thing to do.

"It'll be okay Min."

"I know Chan." He waved and made his way into the spare room.

Taking Minho's advice Chan quickly went to the toilet and then cleaned his room.

As the seconds ticked by he was more and more grateful for Minho's tip, because it was a complete mess.

Somehow even worse than the living room, which was difficult for him to say.

When he thought it looked at least presentable Chan made his way back into the living room.

Felix was very much about to fall asleep, but it looked like he was desperately trying to stay awake to spare Jeongin the awkwardness of sitting there on his own with Felix sleeping on the couch behind him.

Seeing that Chan was back, Felix groaned in relief and let his head fall back onto the couch. He was asleep before he even closed his eyes.

Chan held a hand out for Jeongin, who took it with only the slightest hesitation.

He tripped twice on the legs of his trousers on their journey down the corridor and Chan mentally facepalmed for not thinking his clothing choices for Jeongin through, not that he was awake enough to coherently put together 'an outfit', but he could have at least chosen clothes that fit.

When they entered Chan's room, he was very proud of the results of his quick clean. You could see both the surfaces of bed and floor, his desk was almost organised, and all the cupboard doors were closed.

"You cleaned up when you went to the toilet didn't you?" Jeongin looked at Chan, the teasing clear in his eyes.

Chan purposely ignored him and went off in search of his spare pair of pyjamas which he had no idea where he had put.

He heard rustling sounds as Jeongin lay back on the bed, and soft breaths that indicated he was already asleep.

So much for pyjamas.

Chan fetched a towel from the bathroom for Jeongin's wet hair and put it on the pillow by Jeongin's head, then pulled the covers up over Jeongin and got in himself.

He lay there for a while. Afraid to sleep. Afraid to have nightmares again.

But the sounds of Jeongin's gentle breathing by his side eased his heart and eventually, hand intertwined with Jeongin's, he allowed himself to close his eyes.

The rain had lulled outside his window and it was still dark enough that it felt like the middle of the night even though it was about 6:30 am.

For the first time in a while things felt like they made sense again.

And though Chan slept peacefully, the last thought before he drifted off was of the red rims around Minho's eyes and the hushed sniffles he could faintly hear coming from down the corridor.

A/N - it is late. I wanted to write. I have not proofread. I am sorry. But this is here. Content!

Gn lovely readers
I shall try and sleep now as well -Kz xx