[Fic] Arms
Oct. 14th, 2009 10:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coley_merrinTitle: Arms
Author: Coley Merrin
Rating: PG
Pairings: Tablo/Girl!Eunhyuk
Genre: AU, Genderswitch (there is never a boy Eunhyuk)
Summary: Birthday gift for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wobaozhewo! Going out dancing on the whim of her friends, Eunhyuk stumbles into the man of her dreams... Literally, unfortunately for her.
***
Alcohol and heels were turning out to be not the combination she might have imagined. With one eye closed for stability, she pried at one of the straps. Barefoot seemed better than this wobble. She wasn’t drunk. She was just... Not...
Someone’s butt bumped her, and with an unsteady hop, and a sound that emulated the war cry of some ancient tribe, she tumbled heels and all into...
Someone’s arms? Someone who sat on a barstool, and whose head was somewhere beneath her chin. And as the hot exhale washed down the front of her shirt, that someone had just become intimately acquainted with her breasts. Such as they were.
It was a him, she realized, she could smell his cologne, and he was trying to get her upright as hard as she was, which resulted in some wobbling around that wouldn’t otherwise have happened. But suddenly a flat surface of a heel met the floor and then the other, and her hands found the edge of the bar, and his hands steadied her waist.
He stood with her, and she blinked down at her accidental savior. Who was a decent inch or two shorter than she was. Which was odd.
Until she remembered the heels. And the fact he was standing in the dip by the bar. His shoulder and her death grip on it allowed her to snatch the shoes from her feet, and suddenly they were nearly nose to nose, advantage him, and she realized she hadn’t even thanked him.
“Hi...” she blurted. “I’m so sorry. The shoes, and my friends, and...”
In a romance novel, he’d bend her back and kiss her senseless. They’d marry in six months, have 2.5 children, and die in each others arms at the age of 98.
So when his mouth opened, eyes dark and sweeping her face, she realized she didn’t even know how to kiss, and if he even tried she might faint or cry, and he’d be disgusted, and the club was hot. She was sweating. And that wasn’t how people were supposed to meet. Even in romance novels.
So she turned and ducked into the crowd instead.
***
She wore shorter heels the next week. Ryeowook, with a generous smile, pushed her toward the bar. The scene of the previous week’s disaster. It had probably been a mistake to tell everyone about the incident. Her face had flamed, and Sungmin in his infinite wisdom and class had laughed himself breathless. So even when she protested, they had pulled a skirt from the short Ryeowook’s closet, and cute solid shoes, and dragged her along.
Ryeowook, of all the people in the world, should have been the last person to enjoy loud, heated clubs. But she was a mess of contradictions. Small, sweet, talented. Able to drink men almost twice her size under the table, and desperately in love with one of the performers. Okay, so she guessed it wasn’t all the appeal of the club. Still, she tried to tug down the skirt. Last week it had been her chest, this week her thighs. Her friends were banned from dressing her ever again.
And she found her place in it easily enough. It was in the middle of the crowd that she was comfortable. The music was her partner and it guided her, steadied her. Heels or not, she moved with it. She breathed, rolling her shoulders. The hair that brushed her shoulders did so to the beat of the music. It was better than alcohol. Better, she was sure, than any drug she had never tried. It didn’t come with strings or attachments. It was the lover, the husband, the boyfriend, the dedicated one she never admitted she wanted. The dreams in her head didn’t translate, but the way her limbs moved... That was magic. And it was hers.
She never expected that she would see him again, the wide eyed man she had squashed. She laughed when she saw Ryeowook snugged tightly in the arms of a taller man. All she had to do was spin...
And come face to face with her own.
***
It was kind ridiculous, to meet twice in the same place. Did lightning strike twice? Did a criminal return to the scene? She was in her element, and he made her feel decidedly... Out of it. She always moved away from the inviting hands, and the “Hey baby’s,” moving toward some other goal. When he got a hand on her back, and stepped up close, she kept moving, didn’t know what else to do, but he moved with her.
“You ran away before I could ask if you were okay. But since you’re here, I’ll guess it would have been a yes.”
“Fine,” she replied. “Just stupid.”
“Stupid? I don’t think so.” The mischievous grin took her off guard. “You’d hate to see me in a pair of heels when I’ve been drinking. At least you looked good in them.”
Good in what? Heels? It was a compliment, she scolded herself, and she was staring like he’d accused her of having six eyes. It didn’t take knowing guys to know her intuition, and any closer, he’d have his hands on her, and they’d really, truly be dancing together. Her heart was pounding out of her chest as it was.
“I need...” She wet her lips and turned her head longingly toward the bar.
His hand slid the bare length of her arm, grabbing her hand with awkward fingers, and leading her out. His body was behind her as they stood at the bar and she contemplated what she wanted.
“Orange juice,” she blurted, and the bartender shrugged.
“I’m Daniel,” the man with her said, sounding a bit cocky and searching all at once. “What’s your name?”
His hand closed around the one she used to pick up the glass, and she answered on instinct. “Eunhyuk.”
His lips curved.
“Don’t you dare make a joke about a jewel, I’ve heard them all.”
“Damn, there went all my pick up lines. You go falling into people’s laps much?”
“A habit I’m trying to break.”
It was the orange juice talking. If that even made sense. She didn’t talk to guys. Sungmin didn’t qualify.
Another grin. “Too bad.”
He seemed to sense her nerves, squeezing in a bit so that he leaned beside her and not over her. That was only the smallest bit easier. Why was he talking to her at all? She’d fallen on him, bumped into him accidentally... She had a hard time meeting his eyes, her nail tracing the glass as her mind raced. She could say something witty. “Nice weather” didn’t qualify.
“I was hoping I’d find you here again,” he said, fingers edging toward her hand and the glass. “I guess I was looking for you, actually.”
Why? She wondered. And realized she asked it out loud when his head cocked as he thought.
He shrugged a bit, and if she wasn’t mistaken... He wasn’t quite sure how to answer. “I wanted to find out who you were. Do you have a boyfriend? Or something like that?”
That should have been blindingly obvious. “No.”
“Me either. Er. I don’t have a girlfriend.”
She tried so hard not to laugh, she really did. Her face was made of regrettably wobbly granite as she did her best, and it did no good. A bark of laughter was hidden, so gracefully, behind one hand, and he laughed out loud without shame.
“Sorry, I’m not usually this dumb. Only most of the time,” he said, forgetting himself and leaning in. So trapped was she by the person behind her, that allowed her a whiff of whatever he was drinking. Sweet and slightly alcoholic.
Carpe diem, seize the opportunity to escape.
“I should go... My friends...”
“Can I see you again?” he asked. “Somewhere not here. We could exchange numbers. Get coffee.”
Give him her number? He was clearly crazy. Clearly.
“Do you know the coffee shop, up on Fifth?” he asked, waiting for her nod. “I go there almost every day at noon... I’ll go every day this week. If you can, or want to... Stop by, okay?”
He seemed to be tempted by the idea of leaning into her, or trying to hold onto her, but he let her go. She left her mostly empty glass, and managed to mumble out a goodnight.
Friends. She had them. Somewhere. She’d just been asked out on a date. A guy had tried to get her phone number. A guy who made stupid blunders and laughed about it, and looked at her with questioning eyes. Who made her squirm inside. She wanted to crawl into a hole and die. And stake out that coffee shop right now. Midnight. Saturday night.
She absolutely couldn’t go.
But how couldn’t she?
***
That was Saturday night. Monday morning she thought she might be dying. A gangrenous ear infection, a horrific ailment of the throat.
But it was wishful thinking because she was 100% healthy.
Ryeowook kicked her out of the apartment, and she sat frozen in indecision in the subway stop nearest her home. He would look weird in the daylight. He’d think she looked weird in the daylight. He was really hoping she didn’t show, and had just invited her to be nice. He was really a jerk, or...
She stood on the corner the second day, Tuesday, her phone pressed to her ear. She was a whole 200 feet from the door of the cafe and Sungmin was being equal parts cajoling and threatening in her ear.
“He sounds nice enough! It’s a public place, you don’t have to stay for long!”
And then a couple minutes later.
“You’ll hate yourself forever if you don’t go today, because tomorrow will be harder!”
She had dressed herself. The cutest, in her opinion, top that she owned...probably picked out by Sungmin. A skirt that was a human length, and thick tights, and a pair of functional yet still cute shoes. On a “Her” scale of one to ten the outfit probably hovered right around...6. She was not the girliest girl to ever girl, but some effort was required when meeting a man for the first time in the light of day.
She had that thought about 15 feet from the door, and nearly whimpered. She could see the windows of the shop, though couldn’t see in. If she walked in and he wasn’t there... If she walked in and he was there...
But to turn around and chicken out when she was this close, she really would hate herself. She got a tight grip on her slightly tattered book bag, and opened the door. It didn’t take more than a scan to find him, seeing as he looked up immediately when the door chimed. He was dressed in a suit jacket and open collared shirt, and she suddenly didn’t feel quite as overdressed.
Did she walk up to get a drink? Go to the table? She was frozen in indecision for a fraction of a second when he stood, indicating he wanted her to come over.
“Hey,” he said, sounding cool and breathless and retarded all at the same time.
“Hey...” Not that she sounded much better.
“Did you want something to drink?” he asked, waving at the counter.
“Oh, I can...”
He took her insisting hand and that shut her up quite effectively. “Just tell me what you want, and I’ll get it, okay? Please?”
She stuttered out “Vanilla latte,” to his smile, and then realized she had to sit at the table with his partially finished cup and his newspaper. And a briefcase under the table. She was so out of her element. He was older. Put together. Sort of dorky, but he was a guy. And she was, well... Still agonizing over clothes to wear on a date. Did someone grow out of that?
He slid into his seat. “They’ll bring it over in a minute,” he said. He reached for his cup, and then the paper as if thinking it’d be rude to drink when she had nothing, and folded the periodical until it was a slightly lumpen, wadded mess. “How has your day been?”
Every moment since the one she’d woken up in a state of panic that she’d overslept had been focused on this one. Just this one.
“It’s been good...” she said, shifting. “And yours?”
“Better now.”
She didn’t think that was entirely due to the fact that she was there, but she still cursed herself as heat flooded her cheeks. Luckily her drink arrived, and she thanked the server, gratefully curving her fingers around the bowl of the cup just to have something to do.
“We seem to meet a lot over drinks,” he said, seeming to realize the irony of it.
“I really am sorry for falling on you...”
“I’m not,” he said, his eyes and voice laughing. “It’s not every day a girl throws herself on me, even accidentally. And definitely not pretty ones. The guy to my right had muscles though. I think you got the short end of the deal.”
“You’re fine!” she said, horrified, embarrassed, elated, and wanting to die all at the same time.
He had the most peculiar ability to smile with his eyes, she realized. She wondered if that was the thing that she had noticed first. Or his smirk. Or the way his features softened when he realized he was being a bit too forward with her, as though he was trying to assure her that he was really an okay guy. She didn’t really have a lot of experience to go by, but what she did know...Seemed okay. She was reserving judgement. Just like she could put on special clothes, he could put on special manners, and you never knew what came after that.
But they did talk, him drawing her out a little, speaking of their backgrounds and families, what they did in their lives.
What had brought them to the dance club. He had been there with friends as well, it seemed.
“Crap!” That drew the attention of a few patrons, as he glanced at his watch. “I need to start heading back.”
She blinked at him, at the clock on the wall. They’d been talking for...over an hour? Her mug was empty. So was his. She might as well have been on springs, as quick as she stood, watching as he gathered his things. With a cheerful wave to the barista, he led her out to the street, pausing until she stepped up with him beside the door.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d come...” he mused as they stood together. “Though I’m really glad you did!”
“I almost didn’t...”
But it seemed they both knew that.
“Can we again? If this time of day doesn’t work, then at night? Or the weekend?”
He wanted to see her again? It seemed he did, from the way he was holding his briefcase like a shield. Her head was spinning and she couldn’t even form a rational thought. Yes, but...
“I’ll be here the rest of the week, and some of next week, like I said. So... If you want, you can just come again... You don’t have to make a decision now. Are you taking the subway from here?”
“Yes,” she told him. At least that she had an answer for.
“Me too. I’ll walk down with you.”
She could sense him beside her as they walked, sort of a sentinel position as they descended down the stairs and scanned their passes. It was really her leading him, because he really didn’t know what way she was going. She thought of sending him off, telling him she was okay from there, but she didn’t know what he had meant. He’d walk her to the train? To where they split to take different trains? Every time they had to slow she sent him a furtive glance in case he was wanting to break off and go. He just kept giving her reassuring looks and that lasted until she was at the platform with a train imminent.
“Have a safe trip...Wherever you’re going,” he said.
“Thanks.”
The train arrived in screeches of brakes and gusts of air, and she had a panicked thought as the doors slid open.
“Will you be there tomorrow?” she blurted.
“Yes!”
“Then, me too.”
The last thing she saw as the doors closed was his smile. Tomorrow was too soon. He’d think she was overeager, a complete bumpkin, a child.
But she only had to wait until tomorrow to see him again. She couldn’t see the smile on her face as she leaned back in the seat, but she knew it was big. And stupid.
***
Eunhyuk was excited about the next day right up until she realized she had no idea what she would wear. She had expended all of her creative dressing ideas on the day before, and was forced to reassess her closet...again. It had so far been partitioned into “clothes no one sees me in ever” and “clothes I’d wear to work out in” and “clothes I’d wear to classes if I have no other option” and “more or less okay clothes.” She really didn’t have the time or the funds, really, to go out and buy something fantastic and new.
There wasn’t really any point in lying to him about who she was. He would find out sooner or later. She had a feeling about that, because unless she really messed up today, he’d ask to see her again. And she wasn’t sure how she’d answer, but... He had to ask to see her again, or putting on her best jeans, and favorite drapey shirt was totally wasted time. She wasn’t high maintenance, she didn’t spent twelve hours deciding what to wear and half again that much time putting it on and making herself pretty. So maybe she took some of the shine off, and hid the worst of the, kindly, blemishes, and added some lip gloss... Which was about as much as she could be bothered to do when she had time on the best of days. And if that wasn’t enough... Then was he enough?
But it was just the slightest bit easier to walk into the coffee shop. She only hesitated once, and that was really to catch her breath, since she had raced up the subway stairs.
He grinned when he saw her, standing while she tried not to dig her nails in to the strap of her bag.
“Hey,” he said, shaking his head slightly. “How are you?”
“Good,” she said, and felt she sounded mostly confident.
“Good. Good. Did you want something to drink? Same as yesterday?”
“Sure, that’s great.”
This time she watched him order, the way he smiled over the counter at the person there, confident and easy with the way he handed over the money.
The way he glanced back at her and caught her looking.
She was only half a tomato when he returned, sliding in opposite her. “So your day, pretty good then?”
She swallowed. “Yeah. You?”
“Good... Busy work, mostly. I was glad I had this to look forward to.”
If she could keep her mouth from pursing out of nerves, she’d appreciate it. They just needed a rhythm. And she needed that mug of coffee to have something to do with her hands like she needed her next breath.
She realized that she needed breath for a different reason... Because she was laughing too hard to do so evenly.
The last thing she had expected from him was that he would make her laugh. And laugh and laugh. So much so that she was afraid of what she looked like, as he described the antics of one of the men he worked with. His smile as she was trying to calm herself, was full of glee.
“If I’m that funny, maybe I should go on tour.”
“If you’re that funny,” she said, and he threw his napkin at her.
“I’ve got to get back earlier today...” he told her, reaching down for his briefcase after a quick glance at the clock. “They got all over me for being late yesterday.”
“Trouble?” she asked, standing with him.
“Not really. I’m friends with my boss. But they made me tell them all about you.”
“Oh...” she said. “Oh. I don’t know what you would’ve told them.”
“Probably lots of good things,” he said as he held the door to let her out. “Probably.”
He kept up with her as they descended into the underground.
“Is there something you like doing? Movies? Sports? Watching plays or...?”
She thought on that a minute. He surely would be asking to be able to plan something for them to do. Which meant that he wanted to see her again. Somewhere other than the coffee shop. Her voice almost shook with the giddy surge.
“I like watching dancing. And movies, too. I like a lot of things.”
“That’s good to know. Really good. Um. Could we...?” He handed her his phone a bit hesitantly.
It felt right, she thought. He didn’t seem like some crazy stalker. And he had told people about her... She focused on the screen, her thumb carefully typing in her name, her number. Wordlessly she handed it back to him. And it was his turn to smile stupidly at her, ringing the number right away so that his number flashed up on her screen.
“I’ll call you tomorrow, okay? Maybe we can make plans for this weekend or something.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“Talk to you then,” he said, and waved to her as she boarded the subway car. She was proud of herself when she smiled and waved back.
***
Eunhyuk’s cell phone became one with her hand over the next 24 hours. She kept it with her all that night, just in case he called early. Slept with it beside her. Checked to make sure she entered her number right in his phone. Noon came and went. Three o’clock. Closer to closing time.
Five o’clock.
The combination of the vibration of her phone and the ring tone had her jerking upright where she had fallen, face down and unbelievably wrung out. Not quite despondent. Her heart was still dancing quickly when she saw his name come up. He was calling. He was calling her, just like he said. On a giddy wave of panic she pushed the button.
“Hello?” she barely kept herself from croaking.
“Hey, this is Daniel. Well. It probably told you that. Hi! How’s it going?”
“Good here. For you?”
He chuckled, a slightly tinny laugh through the phone’s speakers. “Good, good. So, I was wondering... Did you want to get something to eat this weekend? Maybe meet for lunch on Saturday or something.”
“Sure,” she said a bit shyly. “Lunch would be fine.”
“Great. Awesome.” He mentioned a cafe that she knew well.
“That’s fine. I’ll meet you there. Noon?”
“Noon,” he confirmed. And lapsed into a silence that had her wavering between saying something or saying goodbye. “So, have a good couple of days, okay? I’ll look forward to seeing you, Eunhyuk.”
“Okay.” She felt a bit ridiculous. Did she say ‘me too?’ Maybe she should. Maybe she should...
He said a quiet goodbye, and she echoed it. Staring at her phone for a long moment before leaping to her feet and shouting for Ryeowook.
She had a date. A real date.
***
When she rounded the corner, she didn’t expect him to be standing outside. Leaning against the building in jeans and a jacket, kind of lanky and nonchalant in the weekend drone.
And she was there to have lunch with him.
He grinned when he spotted her, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. Why was he cute? There was something about him sometimes that made her feel less like Eunhyuk the Awkward, and more like Eunhyuk the Girl. He’d seen both sides of her. And he still wanted to spend time with her.
“Hey!” she said, actually beating him to it.
“Hey... Ready to go in?”
She nodded, and he opened the door for her, standing beside her until one of the waitresses noticed them to seat them. She could have sworn his hand touched the small of her back before darting away. He wore a rather awkward and yet still adorable smile. He was mischievous... For some reason, she liked that.
She liked that very much.
***
“So, it was good,” Eunhyuk said, finishing telling Ryeowook of the lunch date. “He was telling me about this cat that lives near him... He reads a lot. He said he’d bring a book he was telling me about next time...”
“When is next time?”
“He said he’d call me Monday. So I guess I’ll find out.”
“Hope he keeps doing what he says he will...”
“I know.”
“Do you need to borrow a shirt?” Ryeowook asked, looking at Eunhyuk’s outfit skeptically. They were nearly ready to leave for the dance club.
“I’m good,” Eunhyuk said, defending her clothes. Maybe the shirt had seen better days, but it was hers. And the pants... The pants were made for dancing.
***
As it was, she didn’t make it three people deep into the dance floor before she had a hand on her arm. She nearly shook it off without looking, but her heart flipped when she followed the arm to a familiar face.
Daniel.
He beckoned her to follow him, leaving the pulse of the music for the cooler, quieter outside.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt your night, I just...”
He was gathering himself for something, she though, hugging her elbows. “No, it’s okay. What’s up?”
He smiled at her familiarity, and drew a little envelope out of his coat. “I know I said I’d call, but I was able to get these tickets for tomorrow, this modern dance performance, and... Well. I could’ve called tomorrow, but I wanted to find out tonight. If you wanted to go with me, I mean.”
He pushed the tickets at her as though that would solidify his excuse.
“Yes!” she said, brushing the envelope and his hand. “That sounds like fun... Yes.”
Some of the worry had drained from him, and he smiled that sort of self-assured, amused smile she was used to.
“Could I come get you at your place, then? And we could go together.”
Like a proper date.
A proper date to someplace she had no idea what the dress code was.
“What should I wear?” she asked, before she could get a hold on herself.
Daniel let his fingers ring her wrist, glancing down her body. “You haven’t worn anything I haven’t liked so far. Just nice is fine. Nothing fancy.”
They agreed on a time, and he tried to send her back inside on her own.
She paused before she got to the door. “Did you come here just to ask me out?”
His grin was quick. “Not really. We’ve been here an hour... I was going to call you tomorrow, but... I guess I couldn’t wait.”
She smiled back at him, struck suddenly by his sort of masculine insecurity and poor impulse control. In her head she told him she was glad he couldn’t wait, but in reality, she swung around and went back inside.
All her joy, her anxiety, the blossom of passion she hadn’t even expected... She let all of it out to the beat of the music.
***
Daniel wore a sport jacket over a t-shirt, nice as he said, but not fancy. It went well with the only dress she owned, something she’d bought for a wedding once. Simple, dark sheath. Nothing fancy. Her face done up also, nothing fancy. Though Ryeowook had caught her with some lip gloss before she went for the door.
They took a taxi, not the subway, resting easily in their respective seats. He’d brought her a program on what they were going to see, and it was something to do, to discuss.
And in the dark of the theater, with the lights bright on the stage, and the music, the dancing... She didn’t even find it partially abnormal that their fingers slid together at one point, tangling before parting again.
It felt like a loss, when she glanced at him to find out why the contact had gone. And he curled their hands back together with a smile.
She flamed the world’s brightest shade of red. It seemed he was watching her more than the stage. But...as they leaned shoulder to shoulder, that was okay.
He drew her close outside of the theater, off to the side as people milled and filed out. She didn’t acknowledge those people, entangled as she was in his eyes. Her skin seemed to tingle as his hands caught her face. He glanced down at her lips, lingering, thumbs stroking her cheeks.
“I don’t know if I can...” she protested.
He waited until her eyes lifted hesitantly to his. “Just pretend you fell, okay?”
And she might as well have.
His lips, like his hands, were warm, and tasted faintly of mint. She had more instinct than experience, because even kissing her hand didn’t tell her what to do. Her hand didn’t have a nose or a chin. It didn’t moan so that the sound vibrated through the fingers she didn’t even realized she’d lifted to his neck.
She felt the shape of her name against her mouth, and sighed.
If this was kissing... Maybe she could see why people liked it.
But her self-consciousness got the better of her, his mouth catching her cheekbone as her head dropped. And that... That was nice as well. But he didn’t let her go, holding her against his body so that where he was warm, so was she. First kiss. First cuddle. A momentous day indeed.
She felt gentle lips brush her neck, and it shuddered through her, her breath catching at the involuntary heat that caused. All because of him. He petted her back, thinking she was in some kind of distress.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t really mean... You really put me off balance, you know.”
Her laugh seemed to startle him, and she didn’t really know what came over her. Maybe it was shedding some of the anxiety of the week, maybe it was because he had broken the invisible barrier between them, but their mouths met in an awkward kiss. He adjusted, kissing her back, kissing her again and again, until the difference between her lips and his blurred.
He was gentle. Even when he nibbled at her lips, he was, not demanding anything but that she be willing to let him hold her. It sounded kind of dumb to say, but she felt cherished. Like she was precious, something for him to protect. And she had never felt that way before. And when he said her name, again she felt the movement of his lips.
She cursed herself but still blushed when the kiss came quite naturally to an end. But he made her laugh, scrubbing at her pink cheeks with his thumbs. He adjusted the umbrella he carried and looked to her.
“Ready?” he asked, offering her a hand to hold. She let him wrap hers in it.
Ready? She thought she was.
***
The next time they met, he had fumbled his way around saying goodnight to her before meeting her eyes.
“I was hoping... When we go out, I was hoping maybe I could introduce you as my girlfriend.”
She stared at him, as though he spoke in riddles. She, Lee Eunhyuk, with a boyfriend? She checked the color of the sky. No, it really was still her world.
“Yes,” she told him. “Duh.”
And he laughed against her cheek.
***
If someone had asked her months ago if she thought she’d end up comfortable around a man, she’d probably have goggled. And when she had told Daniel that, he had more or less laughed with her and kissed her until they were pretty positive she was far from uncomfortable with him. They spent almost more time together than they did not, cuddled on her couch, or in her bed, going on dates... Even returning to the club where they had met. He’d tugged her into his lap on one of the bar stools.
“This is how that night should have gone,” he had said, patting her backside proprietarily.
“I’d have died on the spot,” she had argued, a steadying arm around his neck.
But it was the time alone that she really understood how far they had come. And how glad she was.
She all but howled with laughter as they rolled on the carpet of her bedroom.
“You win! You win!” she gasped, swatting at him where he crouched over her. Well, he’d won at least until she caught her breath, and then all bets were off.
“Did I?” he asked, being rather snide about it she thought, one arm braced beside her head, and the other rather complimentarily running along her side, along the soft cloth of her shirt from her ribs to hip.
“I suppose,” she conceded.
So it was only natural that he leaned in to kiss and claim his prize. She certainly wasn't going to complain.
And it was a different sort of triumph entirely, when they decided that their life together could be something quite extraordinary.
She wasn’t slow to catch on, she determined. He was just very subtle. When he rested his chin on her shoulder and watched as she rather deliberately chopped up vegetables for her dinner, talking to her abstractly about their parents and their marriages. She really didn’t know he was being anything but curious.
Or the next night, when he teased her she needed to find a husband and she joked back that she’d have no idea what do with one.
Or the time after that, after dinner in the nicest restaurant she had ever seen, when he knelt beside her, and rather akwardly placed a ring in her palm.
“Eunhyuk...” he said, sort of stopping and starting in the middle. “Will you marry me?”
Well, no, okay, that time she really understood, but it took a while, because she was too busy rediscovering how to breathe, how to send rational thoughts from point a to point b, and possibly how to see, since her eyes were wide and teary, and she didn’t even know what.
“Marry you?” she repeated stupidly.
Daniel grinned a bit nervously. “I hope so?”
She nodded, she thought anyway, and would have haphazardly slid out of her chair and right onto him had he not surged upright, and drew her to her feet. Then she had a man clutching at her, and whispering that he loved her, and the ring was warming in her clutched hand...And she kind of realized it was hers... And so was he.
As the attention around them for their celebration waned, he let her go, reaching for her hand.
“So that was a yes, right?” he asked, his thumb brushing the ring.
“Yes... Yes, absolutely yes. Why didn’t you put it on my finger?”
“I didn’t want to put it on until you said yes, and I didn’t know... I probably should have given you the box.”
“Well... I said yes,” she said, feeling kind of itchy between her shoulder blades as they continued to stand, all conspicuous.
“I took one of your rings to the store for a size...”
She stared at him. “That’s why you kept pushing my rings onto different fingers?”
He chuckled, and slid the gold band, with the little diamond, onto her fourth finger.
“There...” he said, and bent to brush his lips over hers.
“I have to call my mom,” she blurted.
“We can go see your parents after dessert,” he told her. “I think... I asked your father already.”
She didn’t even bother gaping in shock at that point, and audience or not, squeezed him tight.
Her hands trembled, but his were warm around hers. Steadying, calming. His touch gave her no option to wonder if what they did was right, because she knew it was. So in front of their friends, their family, she looked into his eyes and said, “I do.”
***
Author: Coley Merrin
Rating: PG
Pairings: Tablo/Girl!Eunhyuk
Genre: AU, Genderswitch (there is never a boy Eunhyuk)
Summary: Birthday gift for
wobaozhewo! Going out dancing on the whim of her friends, Eunhyuk stumbles into the man of her dreams... Literally, unfortunately for her.***
Alcohol and heels were turning out to be not the combination she might have imagined. With one eye closed for stability, she pried at one of the straps. Barefoot seemed better than this wobble. She wasn’t drunk. She was just... Not...
Someone’s butt bumped her, and with an unsteady hop, and a sound that emulated the war cry of some ancient tribe, she tumbled heels and all into...
Someone’s arms? Someone who sat on a barstool, and whose head was somewhere beneath her chin. And as the hot exhale washed down the front of her shirt, that someone had just become intimately acquainted with her breasts. Such as they were.
It was a him, she realized, she could smell his cologne, and he was trying to get her upright as hard as she was, which resulted in some wobbling around that wouldn’t otherwise have happened. But suddenly a flat surface of a heel met the floor and then the other, and her hands found the edge of the bar, and his hands steadied her waist.
He stood with her, and she blinked down at her accidental savior. Who was a decent inch or two shorter than she was. Which was odd.
Until she remembered the heels. And the fact he was standing in the dip by the bar. His shoulder and her death grip on it allowed her to snatch the shoes from her feet, and suddenly they were nearly nose to nose, advantage him, and she realized she hadn’t even thanked him.
“Hi...” she blurted. “I’m so sorry. The shoes, and my friends, and...”
In a romance novel, he’d bend her back and kiss her senseless. They’d marry in six months, have 2.5 children, and die in each others arms at the age of 98.
So when his mouth opened, eyes dark and sweeping her face, she realized she didn’t even know how to kiss, and if he even tried she might faint or cry, and he’d be disgusted, and the club was hot. She was sweating. And that wasn’t how people were supposed to meet. Even in romance novels.
So she turned and ducked into the crowd instead.
***
She wore shorter heels the next week. Ryeowook, with a generous smile, pushed her toward the bar. The scene of the previous week’s disaster. It had probably been a mistake to tell everyone about the incident. Her face had flamed, and Sungmin in his infinite wisdom and class had laughed himself breathless. So even when she protested, they had pulled a skirt from the short Ryeowook’s closet, and cute solid shoes, and dragged her along.
Ryeowook, of all the people in the world, should have been the last person to enjoy loud, heated clubs. But she was a mess of contradictions. Small, sweet, talented. Able to drink men almost twice her size under the table, and desperately in love with one of the performers. Okay, so she guessed it wasn’t all the appeal of the club. Still, she tried to tug down the skirt. Last week it had been her chest, this week her thighs. Her friends were banned from dressing her ever again.
And she found her place in it easily enough. It was in the middle of the crowd that she was comfortable. The music was her partner and it guided her, steadied her. Heels or not, she moved with it. She breathed, rolling her shoulders. The hair that brushed her shoulders did so to the beat of the music. It was better than alcohol. Better, she was sure, than any drug she had never tried. It didn’t come with strings or attachments. It was the lover, the husband, the boyfriend, the dedicated one she never admitted she wanted. The dreams in her head didn’t translate, but the way her limbs moved... That was magic. And it was hers.
She never expected that she would see him again, the wide eyed man she had squashed. She laughed when she saw Ryeowook snugged tightly in the arms of a taller man. All she had to do was spin...
And come face to face with her own.
***
It was kind ridiculous, to meet twice in the same place. Did lightning strike twice? Did a criminal return to the scene? She was in her element, and he made her feel decidedly... Out of it. She always moved away from the inviting hands, and the “Hey baby’s,” moving toward some other goal. When he got a hand on her back, and stepped up close, she kept moving, didn’t know what else to do, but he moved with her.
“You ran away before I could ask if you were okay. But since you’re here, I’ll guess it would have been a yes.”
“Fine,” she replied. “Just stupid.”
“Stupid? I don’t think so.” The mischievous grin took her off guard. “You’d hate to see me in a pair of heels when I’ve been drinking. At least you looked good in them.”
Good in what? Heels? It was a compliment, she scolded herself, and she was staring like he’d accused her of having six eyes. It didn’t take knowing guys to know her intuition, and any closer, he’d have his hands on her, and they’d really, truly be dancing together. Her heart was pounding out of her chest as it was.
“I need...” She wet her lips and turned her head longingly toward the bar.
His hand slid the bare length of her arm, grabbing her hand with awkward fingers, and leading her out. His body was behind her as they stood at the bar and she contemplated what she wanted.
“Orange juice,” she blurted, and the bartender shrugged.
“I’m Daniel,” the man with her said, sounding a bit cocky and searching all at once. “What’s your name?”
His hand closed around the one she used to pick up the glass, and she answered on instinct. “Eunhyuk.”
His lips curved.
“Don’t you dare make a joke about a jewel, I’ve heard them all.”
“Damn, there went all my pick up lines. You go falling into people’s laps much?”
“A habit I’m trying to break.”
It was the orange juice talking. If that even made sense. She didn’t talk to guys. Sungmin didn’t qualify.
Another grin. “Too bad.”
He seemed to sense her nerves, squeezing in a bit so that he leaned beside her and not over her. That was only the smallest bit easier. Why was he talking to her at all? She’d fallen on him, bumped into him accidentally... She had a hard time meeting his eyes, her nail tracing the glass as her mind raced. She could say something witty. “Nice weather” didn’t qualify.
“I was hoping I’d find you here again,” he said, fingers edging toward her hand and the glass. “I guess I was looking for you, actually.”
Why? She wondered. And realized she asked it out loud when his head cocked as he thought.
He shrugged a bit, and if she wasn’t mistaken... He wasn’t quite sure how to answer. “I wanted to find out who you were. Do you have a boyfriend? Or something like that?”
That should have been blindingly obvious. “No.”
“Me either. Er. I don’t have a girlfriend.”
She tried so hard not to laugh, she really did. Her face was made of regrettably wobbly granite as she did her best, and it did no good. A bark of laughter was hidden, so gracefully, behind one hand, and he laughed out loud without shame.
“Sorry, I’m not usually this dumb. Only most of the time,” he said, forgetting himself and leaning in. So trapped was she by the person behind her, that allowed her a whiff of whatever he was drinking. Sweet and slightly alcoholic.
Carpe diem, seize the opportunity to escape.
“I should go... My friends...”
“Can I see you again?” he asked. “Somewhere not here. We could exchange numbers. Get coffee.”
Give him her number? He was clearly crazy. Clearly.
“Do you know the coffee shop, up on Fifth?” he asked, waiting for her nod. “I go there almost every day at noon... I’ll go every day this week. If you can, or want to... Stop by, okay?”
He seemed to be tempted by the idea of leaning into her, or trying to hold onto her, but he let her go. She left her mostly empty glass, and managed to mumble out a goodnight.
Friends. She had them. Somewhere. She’d just been asked out on a date. A guy had tried to get her phone number. A guy who made stupid blunders and laughed about it, and looked at her with questioning eyes. Who made her squirm inside. She wanted to crawl into a hole and die. And stake out that coffee shop right now. Midnight. Saturday night.
She absolutely couldn’t go.
But how couldn’t she?
***
That was Saturday night. Monday morning she thought she might be dying. A gangrenous ear infection, a horrific ailment of the throat.
But it was wishful thinking because she was 100% healthy.
Ryeowook kicked her out of the apartment, and she sat frozen in indecision in the subway stop nearest her home. He would look weird in the daylight. He’d think she looked weird in the daylight. He was really hoping she didn’t show, and had just invited her to be nice. He was really a jerk, or...
She stood on the corner the second day, Tuesday, her phone pressed to her ear. She was a whole 200 feet from the door of the cafe and Sungmin was being equal parts cajoling and threatening in her ear.
“He sounds nice enough! It’s a public place, you don’t have to stay for long!”
And then a couple minutes later.
“You’ll hate yourself forever if you don’t go today, because tomorrow will be harder!”
She had dressed herself. The cutest, in her opinion, top that she owned...probably picked out by Sungmin. A skirt that was a human length, and thick tights, and a pair of functional yet still cute shoes. On a “Her” scale of one to ten the outfit probably hovered right around...6. She was not the girliest girl to ever girl, but some effort was required when meeting a man for the first time in the light of day.
She had that thought about 15 feet from the door, and nearly whimpered. She could see the windows of the shop, though couldn’t see in. If she walked in and he wasn’t there... If she walked in and he was there...
But to turn around and chicken out when she was this close, she really would hate herself. She got a tight grip on her slightly tattered book bag, and opened the door. It didn’t take more than a scan to find him, seeing as he looked up immediately when the door chimed. He was dressed in a suit jacket and open collared shirt, and she suddenly didn’t feel quite as overdressed.
Did she walk up to get a drink? Go to the table? She was frozen in indecision for a fraction of a second when he stood, indicating he wanted her to come over.
“Hey,” he said, sounding cool and breathless and retarded all at the same time.
“Hey...” Not that she sounded much better.
“Did you want something to drink?” he asked, waving at the counter.
“Oh, I can...”
He took her insisting hand and that shut her up quite effectively. “Just tell me what you want, and I’ll get it, okay? Please?”
She stuttered out “Vanilla latte,” to his smile, and then realized she had to sit at the table with his partially finished cup and his newspaper. And a briefcase under the table. She was so out of her element. He was older. Put together. Sort of dorky, but he was a guy. And she was, well... Still agonizing over clothes to wear on a date. Did someone grow out of that?
He slid into his seat. “They’ll bring it over in a minute,” he said. He reached for his cup, and then the paper as if thinking it’d be rude to drink when she had nothing, and folded the periodical until it was a slightly lumpen, wadded mess. “How has your day been?”
Every moment since the one she’d woken up in a state of panic that she’d overslept had been focused on this one. Just this one.
“It’s been good...” she said, shifting. “And yours?”
“Better now.”
She didn’t think that was entirely due to the fact that she was there, but she still cursed herself as heat flooded her cheeks. Luckily her drink arrived, and she thanked the server, gratefully curving her fingers around the bowl of the cup just to have something to do.
“We seem to meet a lot over drinks,” he said, seeming to realize the irony of it.
“I really am sorry for falling on you...”
“I’m not,” he said, his eyes and voice laughing. “It’s not every day a girl throws herself on me, even accidentally. And definitely not pretty ones. The guy to my right had muscles though. I think you got the short end of the deal.”
“You’re fine!” she said, horrified, embarrassed, elated, and wanting to die all at the same time.
He had the most peculiar ability to smile with his eyes, she realized. She wondered if that was the thing that she had noticed first. Or his smirk. Or the way his features softened when he realized he was being a bit too forward with her, as though he was trying to assure her that he was really an okay guy. She didn’t really have a lot of experience to go by, but what she did know...Seemed okay. She was reserving judgement. Just like she could put on special clothes, he could put on special manners, and you never knew what came after that.
But they did talk, him drawing her out a little, speaking of their backgrounds and families, what they did in their lives.
What had brought them to the dance club. He had been there with friends as well, it seemed.
“Crap!” That drew the attention of a few patrons, as he glanced at his watch. “I need to start heading back.”
She blinked at him, at the clock on the wall. They’d been talking for...over an hour? Her mug was empty. So was his. She might as well have been on springs, as quick as she stood, watching as he gathered his things. With a cheerful wave to the barista, he led her out to the street, pausing until she stepped up with him beside the door.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d come...” he mused as they stood together. “Though I’m really glad you did!”
“I almost didn’t...”
But it seemed they both knew that.
“Can we again? If this time of day doesn’t work, then at night? Or the weekend?”
He wanted to see her again? It seemed he did, from the way he was holding his briefcase like a shield. Her head was spinning and she couldn’t even form a rational thought. Yes, but...
“I’ll be here the rest of the week, and some of next week, like I said. So... If you want, you can just come again... You don’t have to make a decision now. Are you taking the subway from here?”
“Yes,” she told him. At least that she had an answer for.
“Me too. I’ll walk down with you.”
She could sense him beside her as they walked, sort of a sentinel position as they descended down the stairs and scanned their passes. It was really her leading him, because he really didn’t know what way she was going. She thought of sending him off, telling him she was okay from there, but she didn’t know what he had meant. He’d walk her to the train? To where they split to take different trains? Every time they had to slow she sent him a furtive glance in case he was wanting to break off and go. He just kept giving her reassuring looks and that lasted until she was at the platform with a train imminent.
“Have a safe trip...Wherever you’re going,” he said.
“Thanks.”
The train arrived in screeches of brakes and gusts of air, and she had a panicked thought as the doors slid open.
“Will you be there tomorrow?” she blurted.
“Yes!”
“Then, me too.”
The last thing she saw as the doors closed was his smile. Tomorrow was too soon. He’d think she was overeager, a complete bumpkin, a child.
But she only had to wait until tomorrow to see him again. She couldn’t see the smile on her face as she leaned back in the seat, but she knew it was big. And stupid.
***
Eunhyuk was excited about the next day right up until she realized she had no idea what she would wear. She had expended all of her creative dressing ideas on the day before, and was forced to reassess her closet...again. It had so far been partitioned into “clothes no one sees me in ever” and “clothes I’d wear to work out in” and “clothes I’d wear to classes if I have no other option” and “more or less okay clothes.” She really didn’t have the time or the funds, really, to go out and buy something fantastic and new.
There wasn’t really any point in lying to him about who she was. He would find out sooner or later. She had a feeling about that, because unless she really messed up today, he’d ask to see her again. And she wasn’t sure how she’d answer, but... He had to ask to see her again, or putting on her best jeans, and favorite drapey shirt was totally wasted time. She wasn’t high maintenance, she didn’t spent twelve hours deciding what to wear and half again that much time putting it on and making herself pretty. So maybe she took some of the shine off, and hid the worst of the, kindly, blemishes, and added some lip gloss... Which was about as much as she could be bothered to do when she had time on the best of days. And if that wasn’t enough... Then was he enough?
But it was just the slightest bit easier to walk into the coffee shop. She only hesitated once, and that was really to catch her breath, since she had raced up the subway stairs.
He grinned when he saw her, standing while she tried not to dig her nails in to the strap of her bag.
“Hey,” he said, shaking his head slightly. “How are you?”
“Good,” she said, and felt she sounded mostly confident.
“Good. Good. Did you want something to drink? Same as yesterday?”
“Sure, that’s great.”
This time she watched him order, the way he smiled over the counter at the person there, confident and easy with the way he handed over the money.
The way he glanced back at her and caught her looking.
She was only half a tomato when he returned, sliding in opposite her. “So your day, pretty good then?”
She swallowed. “Yeah. You?”
“Good... Busy work, mostly. I was glad I had this to look forward to.”
If she could keep her mouth from pursing out of nerves, she’d appreciate it. They just needed a rhythm. And she needed that mug of coffee to have something to do with her hands like she needed her next breath.
She realized that she needed breath for a different reason... Because she was laughing too hard to do so evenly.
The last thing she had expected from him was that he would make her laugh. And laugh and laugh. So much so that she was afraid of what she looked like, as he described the antics of one of the men he worked with. His smile as she was trying to calm herself, was full of glee.
“If I’m that funny, maybe I should go on tour.”
“If you’re that funny,” she said, and he threw his napkin at her.
“I’ve got to get back earlier today...” he told her, reaching down for his briefcase after a quick glance at the clock. “They got all over me for being late yesterday.”
“Trouble?” she asked, standing with him.
“Not really. I’m friends with my boss. But they made me tell them all about you.”
“Oh...” she said. “Oh. I don’t know what you would’ve told them.”
“Probably lots of good things,” he said as he held the door to let her out. “Probably.”
He kept up with her as they descended into the underground.
“Is there something you like doing? Movies? Sports? Watching plays or...?”
She thought on that a minute. He surely would be asking to be able to plan something for them to do. Which meant that he wanted to see her again. Somewhere other than the coffee shop. Her voice almost shook with the giddy surge.
“I like watching dancing. And movies, too. I like a lot of things.”
“That’s good to know. Really good. Um. Could we...?” He handed her his phone a bit hesitantly.
It felt right, she thought. He didn’t seem like some crazy stalker. And he had told people about her... She focused on the screen, her thumb carefully typing in her name, her number. Wordlessly she handed it back to him. And it was his turn to smile stupidly at her, ringing the number right away so that his number flashed up on her screen.
“I’ll call you tomorrow, okay? Maybe we can make plans for this weekend or something.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“Talk to you then,” he said, and waved to her as she boarded the subway car. She was proud of herself when she smiled and waved back.
***
Eunhyuk’s cell phone became one with her hand over the next 24 hours. She kept it with her all that night, just in case he called early. Slept with it beside her. Checked to make sure she entered her number right in his phone. Noon came and went. Three o’clock. Closer to closing time.
Five o’clock.
The combination of the vibration of her phone and the ring tone had her jerking upright where she had fallen, face down and unbelievably wrung out. Not quite despondent. Her heart was still dancing quickly when she saw his name come up. He was calling. He was calling her, just like he said. On a giddy wave of panic she pushed the button.
“Hello?” she barely kept herself from croaking.
“Hey, this is Daniel. Well. It probably told you that. Hi! How’s it going?”
“Good here. For you?”
He chuckled, a slightly tinny laugh through the phone’s speakers. “Good, good. So, I was wondering... Did you want to get something to eat this weekend? Maybe meet for lunch on Saturday or something.”
“Sure,” she said a bit shyly. “Lunch would be fine.”
“Great. Awesome.” He mentioned a cafe that she knew well.
“That’s fine. I’ll meet you there. Noon?”
“Noon,” he confirmed. And lapsed into a silence that had her wavering between saying something or saying goodbye. “So, have a good couple of days, okay? I’ll look forward to seeing you, Eunhyuk.”
“Okay.” She felt a bit ridiculous. Did she say ‘me too?’ Maybe she should. Maybe she should...
He said a quiet goodbye, and she echoed it. Staring at her phone for a long moment before leaping to her feet and shouting for Ryeowook.
She had a date. A real date.
***
When she rounded the corner, she didn’t expect him to be standing outside. Leaning against the building in jeans and a jacket, kind of lanky and nonchalant in the weekend drone.
And she was there to have lunch with him.
He grinned when he spotted her, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. Why was he cute? There was something about him sometimes that made her feel less like Eunhyuk the Awkward, and more like Eunhyuk the Girl. He’d seen both sides of her. And he still wanted to spend time with her.
“Hey!” she said, actually beating him to it.
“Hey... Ready to go in?”
She nodded, and he opened the door for her, standing beside her until one of the waitresses noticed them to seat them. She could have sworn his hand touched the small of her back before darting away. He wore a rather awkward and yet still adorable smile. He was mischievous... For some reason, she liked that.
She liked that very much.
***
“So, it was good,” Eunhyuk said, finishing telling Ryeowook of the lunch date. “He was telling me about this cat that lives near him... He reads a lot. He said he’d bring a book he was telling me about next time...”
“When is next time?”
“He said he’d call me Monday. So I guess I’ll find out.”
“Hope he keeps doing what he says he will...”
“I know.”
“Do you need to borrow a shirt?” Ryeowook asked, looking at Eunhyuk’s outfit skeptically. They were nearly ready to leave for the dance club.
“I’m good,” Eunhyuk said, defending her clothes. Maybe the shirt had seen better days, but it was hers. And the pants... The pants were made for dancing.
***
As it was, she didn’t make it three people deep into the dance floor before she had a hand on her arm. She nearly shook it off without looking, but her heart flipped when she followed the arm to a familiar face.
Daniel.
He beckoned her to follow him, leaving the pulse of the music for the cooler, quieter outside.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt your night, I just...”
He was gathering himself for something, she though, hugging her elbows. “No, it’s okay. What’s up?”
He smiled at her familiarity, and drew a little envelope out of his coat. “I know I said I’d call, but I was able to get these tickets for tomorrow, this modern dance performance, and... Well. I could’ve called tomorrow, but I wanted to find out tonight. If you wanted to go with me, I mean.”
He pushed the tickets at her as though that would solidify his excuse.
“Yes!” she said, brushing the envelope and his hand. “That sounds like fun... Yes.”
Some of the worry had drained from him, and he smiled that sort of self-assured, amused smile she was used to.
“Could I come get you at your place, then? And we could go together.”
Like a proper date.
A proper date to someplace she had no idea what the dress code was.
“What should I wear?” she asked, before she could get a hold on herself.
Daniel let his fingers ring her wrist, glancing down her body. “You haven’t worn anything I haven’t liked so far. Just nice is fine. Nothing fancy.”
They agreed on a time, and he tried to send her back inside on her own.
She paused before she got to the door. “Did you come here just to ask me out?”
His grin was quick. “Not really. We’ve been here an hour... I was going to call you tomorrow, but... I guess I couldn’t wait.”
She smiled back at him, struck suddenly by his sort of masculine insecurity and poor impulse control. In her head she told him she was glad he couldn’t wait, but in reality, she swung around and went back inside.
All her joy, her anxiety, the blossom of passion she hadn’t even expected... She let all of it out to the beat of the music.
***
Daniel wore a sport jacket over a t-shirt, nice as he said, but not fancy. It went well with the only dress she owned, something she’d bought for a wedding once. Simple, dark sheath. Nothing fancy. Her face done up also, nothing fancy. Though Ryeowook had caught her with some lip gloss before she went for the door.
They took a taxi, not the subway, resting easily in their respective seats. He’d brought her a program on what they were going to see, and it was something to do, to discuss.
And in the dark of the theater, with the lights bright on the stage, and the music, the dancing... She didn’t even find it partially abnormal that their fingers slid together at one point, tangling before parting again.
It felt like a loss, when she glanced at him to find out why the contact had gone. And he curled their hands back together with a smile.
She flamed the world’s brightest shade of red. It seemed he was watching her more than the stage. But...as they leaned shoulder to shoulder, that was okay.
He drew her close outside of the theater, off to the side as people milled and filed out. She didn’t acknowledge those people, entangled as she was in his eyes. Her skin seemed to tingle as his hands caught her face. He glanced down at her lips, lingering, thumbs stroking her cheeks.
“I don’t know if I can...” she protested.
He waited until her eyes lifted hesitantly to his. “Just pretend you fell, okay?”
And she might as well have.
His lips, like his hands, were warm, and tasted faintly of mint. She had more instinct than experience, because even kissing her hand didn’t tell her what to do. Her hand didn’t have a nose or a chin. It didn’t moan so that the sound vibrated through the fingers she didn’t even realized she’d lifted to his neck.
She felt the shape of her name against her mouth, and sighed.
If this was kissing... Maybe she could see why people liked it.
But her self-consciousness got the better of her, his mouth catching her cheekbone as her head dropped. And that... That was nice as well. But he didn’t let her go, holding her against his body so that where he was warm, so was she. First kiss. First cuddle. A momentous day indeed.
She felt gentle lips brush her neck, and it shuddered through her, her breath catching at the involuntary heat that caused. All because of him. He petted her back, thinking she was in some kind of distress.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t really mean... You really put me off balance, you know.”
Her laugh seemed to startle him, and she didn’t really know what came over her. Maybe it was shedding some of the anxiety of the week, maybe it was because he had broken the invisible barrier between them, but their mouths met in an awkward kiss. He adjusted, kissing her back, kissing her again and again, until the difference between her lips and his blurred.
He was gentle. Even when he nibbled at her lips, he was, not demanding anything but that she be willing to let him hold her. It sounded kind of dumb to say, but she felt cherished. Like she was precious, something for him to protect. And she had never felt that way before. And when he said her name, again she felt the movement of his lips.
She cursed herself but still blushed when the kiss came quite naturally to an end. But he made her laugh, scrubbing at her pink cheeks with his thumbs. He adjusted the umbrella he carried and looked to her.
“Ready?” he asked, offering her a hand to hold. She let him wrap hers in it.
Ready? She thought she was.
***
The next time they met, he had fumbled his way around saying goodnight to her before meeting her eyes.
“I was hoping... When we go out, I was hoping maybe I could introduce you as my girlfriend.”
She stared at him, as though he spoke in riddles. She, Lee Eunhyuk, with a boyfriend? She checked the color of the sky. No, it really was still her world.
“Yes,” she told him. “Duh.”
And he laughed against her cheek.
***
If someone had asked her months ago if she thought she’d end up comfortable around a man, she’d probably have goggled. And when she had told Daniel that, he had more or less laughed with her and kissed her until they were pretty positive she was far from uncomfortable with him. They spent almost more time together than they did not, cuddled on her couch, or in her bed, going on dates... Even returning to the club where they had met. He’d tugged her into his lap on one of the bar stools.
“This is how that night should have gone,” he had said, patting her backside proprietarily.
“I’d have died on the spot,” she had argued, a steadying arm around his neck.
But it was the time alone that she really understood how far they had come. And how glad she was.
She all but howled with laughter as they rolled on the carpet of her bedroom.
“You win! You win!” she gasped, swatting at him where he crouched over her. Well, he’d won at least until she caught her breath, and then all bets were off.
“Did I?” he asked, being rather snide about it she thought, one arm braced beside her head, and the other rather complimentarily running along her side, along the soft cloth of her shirt from her ribs to hip.
“I suppose,” she conceded.
So it was only natural that he leaned in to kiss and claim his prize. She certainly wasn't going to complain.
And it was a different sort of triumph entirely, when they decided that their life together could be something quite extraordinary.
She wasn’t slow to catch on, she determined. He was just very subtle. When he rested his chin on her shoulder and watched as she rather deliberately chopped up vegetables for her dinner, talking to her abstractly about their parents and their marriages. She really didn’t know he was being anything but curious.
Or the next night, when he teased her she needed to find a husband and she joked back that she’d have no idea what do with one.
Or the time after that, after dinner in the nicest restaurant she had ever seen, when he knelt beside her, and rather akwardly placed a ring in her palm.
“Eunhyuk...” he said, sort of stopping and starting in the middle. “Will you marry me?”
Well, no, okay, that time she really understood, but it took a while, because she was too busy rediscovering how to breathe, how to send rational thoughts from point a to point b, and possibly how to see, since her eyes were wide and teary, and she didn’t even know what.
“Marry you?” she repeated stupidly.
Daniel grinned a bit nervously. “I hope so?”
She nodded, she thought anyway, and would have haphazardly slid out of her chair and right onto him had he not surged upright, and drew her to her feet. Then she had a man clutching at her, and whispering that he loved her, and the ring was warming in her clutched hand...And she kind of realized it was hers... And so was he.
As the attention around them for their celebration waned, he let her go, reaching for her hand.
“So that was a yes, right?” he asked, his thumb brushing the ring.
“Yes... Yes, absolutely yes. Why didn’t you put it on my finger?”
“I didn’t want to put it on until you said yes, and I didn’t know... I probably should have given you the box.”
“Well... I said yes,” she said, feeling kind of itchy between her shoulder blades as they continued to stand, all conspicuous.
“I took one of your rings to the store for a size...”
She stared at him. “That’s why you kept pushing my rings onto different fingers?”
He chuckled, and slid the gold band, with the little diamond, onto her fourth finger.
“There...” he said, and bent to brush his lips over hers.
“I have to call my mom,” she blurted.
“We can go see your parents after dessert,” he told her. “I think... I asked your father already.”
She didn’t even bother gaping in shock at that point, and audience or not, squeezed him tight.
Her hands trembled, but his were warm around hers. Steadying, calming. His touch gave her no option to wonder if what they did was right, because she knew it was. So in front of their friends, their family, she looked into his eyes and said, “I do.”
***
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-10-15 06:29 pm (UTC)They were just so comfortable around each other and she could be her and he'd still love her and they had their awkward moments but they were beautiful.
I want a love like that... one that can make me be comfortable enough to make me want to even think of taking the step towards becoming someone's girlfriend. ♥
no subject
Date: 2009-10-15 06:31 pm (UTC)