*This is not my story but from @ themarmalade on AO3*

-*-

The warm yellows and greens of Hoseok's apartment are a gentle relief after the loud fireworks and deeps and darks of night air and uncertainty and humid crowds. Yoongi sits on the edge of the sofa as Hoseok rounds the corner to change clothes out of sight.

"Shit, I forgot to bring back your duck shirt," Yoongi realizes suddenly.

Hoseok smiles and flops down on the sofa. He shrugs. "It's fine. You can bring it later, whenever."

As if to say there will be whenevers, laters that they'll be together again.

Yoongi stares around the little apartment, marveling at how much smaller it seems, now that he's so much bigger. There, the spot he'd nap on the windowsill when Hoseok went to work, or there, the big ceramic bowl on top of the bookshelf where he'd hide from Kookie. The spaces had been just right then, but seeing them now, they're so small. He had been so small, this apartment had been his whole world.

"You okay?" Hoseok asks at the look on his face, hand coming up to scratch through Yoongi's hair.

Yoongi nuzzles into it. They freeze and leap away from each other.

"Sorr-"

"-orry just hab-"

"-hab-habit. Yeah."

Yoongi pulls his knees up to his chest as an uncertain silence takes over.

"It's weird. I never for a second thought you were anything but a cat before, but now, I dunno you- you kinda feel the same," Hoseok chuckles nervously. "Your eyes are the same, somehow," he muses.

Yoongi blinks away and blushes. Again. He's accepted that he's just gonna humiliate himself by blushing constantly. It's fine.

"Where are you staying now?"

He shifts uncomfortably and shoves a cookie in his mouth. "There's aneighlangsfjshefsd." Unimpressed with his sad attempt to avoid answering, Hoseok stares, patiently waiting for him to repeat himself.

Yoongi sighs. "There's a neighbor who has a shed that doesn't lock. There's a couch inside I slept on a lot before. Before uh, you."

"You should stay here," Hoseok says firmly.

Yoongi opens his mouth to argue, but it's all over Hoseok's face that he's not gonna back off of this one. He nods.

"I'll get you blankets," Hoseok says, trotting over to the closet by his bed.

"Oh god," Hoseok suddenly barks, hiding his face in his hands. The blankets fall to the floor. "You saw me jerk off. Like every day, fuck."

He grins at his feet. "I looked away."

"You looked away? You looked away? That's the best you can do? I'm dying here, oh my god."

Yoongi shrugs, looking not at all sorry, and grins harder. "Still want me to stay here?"

"Yes," Hoseok hisses, launching a pillow at his head. He's beet red when he finally dares to look up at Yoongi. He's smiling happily, hair disheveled from the pillow attack. Hoseok tries to scowl but can't help but smile back.

-*-

Life goes on normal for a couple days, a different normal than they ever had but it feels good. Yoongi wakes up for work or Hoseok does. Both of them sit groggy and silent at the table, passing the milk and cereal box between them. Hoseok perks up after he eats and Yoongi perks up after sipping a second cup of coffee and watching Hoseok water all the plants in the apartment.

It's so domestic it makes Yoongi's heart race, the way Hoseok strains on tiptoes to water the plant on top of the bookshelf, exposing a little slip of tummy. Hoseok catches his eye occasionally and smiles, knowing, and Yoongi knows he knows, and Hoseok knows he knows.

Later the next day, Yoongi shuffles out of work, having a hell of a time unpinning his name tag.

"I got chicken!" he hears. There's Hoseok in his workout clothes, smiling and holding up a giant paper bag of food.

Yoongi blinks, wondering for the zillionth time in 48 hours if he's dreaming or not. A real human in a human body, with Hoseok picking him up from work for no reason.

They sit on Hoseok's bed eating fried chicken, Hoseok on his phone, Yoongi on Hoseok's laptop. He shows Hoseok his youtube channel, last updated a year ago, full of songs and raps he'd written and produced.

Hoseok is appreciative and amazed, more so when Yoongi explains this is why he moved, some follow your dreams, take a shot in the dark bullshit.

"Me too kinda, I- well, I guess you know already," Hoseok chuckles.

"No, tell me. It's different, telling someone or just talking to your cat."

Somehow Hoseok has ended up with his head on Yoongi's lap. Maybe always touchy and physical, maybe only with him. Yoongi doesn't have anything to compare it to.

Hoseok tells him how all he really wants to do is dance, and doesn't mind doing things on the side to get by, and doesn't mind if he's always just getting by. He tells him about his parents, who mean too well and push him to pursue security instead of passion. He tells him about the engagement he broke off. A nice girl, a comfortable relationship. Everyone was happy for them. It had felt like walking to his death.

He'd gathered bits of the aftermath of all this through the months with Hoseok, but it all weaves together now. It's nice though, the difference from then, the way he's choosing words for Yoongi now.

The neighborhood is quiet when Yoongi wakes hours later, carefully sliding his leg out from under Hoseok's head and replacing it with a pillow before he shuffles over to the sofa.

-*-

The next few days are blanketed in a miserable heatwave, a sticky heat that makes it hard to breathe and harder to think. Hoseok convinces him to go to the planetarium for an afternoon, for free air conditioning and an escape from the stifling sun.

Beneath the dome of glittering fake stars, Hoseok twines his warm fingers through his and sighs in wonder. Yoongi gives him the rest of his candy and tries not to stare at the universe reflecting in Hoseok's eyes.

Too hot to sleep the next night, they lay awake in the darkness wondering if the other was awake too. They've both stripped down to boxers and kicked off everything but their sheets, skin radiating heat into the air that refuses to cool down.

Moonlight paints a faint path across Hoseok's bed toward the sofa where Yoongi listens to the slow drip in the kitchen sink, just as he used to, waiting for it to lull him to sleep. One leg and arm hang off the side of the couch, skin burning like coals where it touches any other skin.

The blankets rustle. He twists around to look at Hoseok, just a lump in the darkness across the room.

"Yoongi?"

"Yeah?"

Hoseok props himself up on an elbow, moonlight gleaming off the curve of bare shoulder. "Why did you want to make me happy?"

He's quiet a moment, staring in the shadow as if he could divine what Hoseok's getting at. Hoseok knows why, he knows Hoseok knows why. "Because. Be-because,"

A soft laugh. Hoseok sits up on the bed now, sheet falling completely from his body. He stares blind in Yoongi's direction. "Because why?"

Yoongi sits up on the couch, staring back at the silhouette of Hoseok. "Because, you were sad and-, and I hated seeing you sad."

"Why?" Hoseok pads silently toward him, bare torso illuminated by the sliver of moonlight like quartz flashing in a creek bed. He sits beside Yoongi in the middle of the sofa and faces him.

Yoongi's throat goes dry. Hoseok is so close, the familiar amber woodsy scent filling his nose. "Why did I hate seeing you sad?"

"Yeah." Hoseok is close, too close for Yoongi to breath steady. He wants to reach out, just inches away and touch every inch of Hoseok's overheated skin.

"I-I guess that's probably because I love you," he stammers, trying to state the obvious as if it doesn't matter much, as if it doesn't matter the most.

"Yeah?" Hoseok asks, velvet smile in his voice that's invisible in the dark.

"Yeah," he shudders, Hoseok's fingers suddenly sliding across his arm.

All he can hear is blood whooshing behind his ears, eyes massive in the dark as the shape and scent of Hoseok is leaning closer.

Hoseok's nose brushes across his, an affectionate question that doesn't need to be asked.

Yoongi doesn't hesitate. He kisses him once, lips pulling away honey-drip slow.

He pauses as if to check that nothing was inexplicably shattered between them, but Hoseok is nosing gently at his cheek.

He kisses Hoseok again, falls into it this time. Their lips move together, shy and slow and deep at first. A wave of heat rolls from his gut all the way to the tips of his fingers and the crest of his scalp, and for a moment, he's too lost to the heat to move his arms.

But then Hoseok wiggles closer and Yoongi fulfills every dream his hungry hands had, running them over Hoseok's warm skin, brushing through his hair and over the planes of his face, kneading into the firm flesh of his sides and thighs. Desperately, slowly, still trying to memorize every inch of him.

Hoseok's lips pull away, shaky breath against Yoongi's cheek before he presses a kiss to the side of Yoongi's nose.

"Can I tell you something?" he breathes between kisses.

Yoongi hums and manages to stop kissing him. Mostly. But then he sees the moonlight catch on the top of his shoulder and has to kiss it, and then the curve of Hoseok's neck calls for his attention.

Hoseok sighs and arches into his warm mouth. "I used to tell you everything before, you know? Every pitiful thought."

Yoongi hums agreement against his skin. Hoseok's eyes flutter shut. "Is it... selfish if I still want to do that? Tell you every...great or not so great thing?"

Cupping Hoseok's face in his hands, his eyes dance all over the shadows of his face. "That's what I want. Whole Hoseok."

Hoseok cups his hands over Yoongi's. "Because you-you love me," he clarifies.

"Yeah," he whispers.

A long inhale, no exhale. "I don't love you, yet."

Yoongi freezes and nods like that's reasonable, like it isn't a dull shovel stab to the heart.

"Wait-there's more," Hoseok pleads, clinging to the hands trying to escape him. "I like you a lot. And you're so pretty and...there's so much about you and what you did for me that I love you for and-, some times you only know someone for like, a week, and want to kiss the hell out of them, you know?" He looks desperately like he wants Yoongi to know.

He rubs his thumbs over Yoongi's wrist. "You said you loved me, and I don't wanna make that seem cheap by saying it too, when I've only known you for a week. I'm telling you this because I, I take you seriously."

Yoongi is quiet for a minute before he shrugs. Nearly nothing is visible in the darkness but he stares down at their interlaced fingers anyway. "Honestly, if you said you loved me I wouldn't even believe you, probably."

"Sorry I kissed you," Hoseok says, looking a little ashamed.

He jerks his head up. "What, why? You can- I mean if you want- people kiss each other all the time when they just like each other," he rushes to say. "That's the normal route, isn't it?" Kiss until you're in love.

Hoseok bites his lip, looking conflicted. The kitchen sink drips, drips. "I want to kiss you again. Is that unfair?" he says simply.

He grabs Yoongi's face as if he can extract the truth from Yoongi's eyes instead of the "no, totally okay, super fair," he gets from his mouth.

So, he does. He kisses him again, deep and slow, learning the taste and curve of the small, rose petal lips.

His fingers snake up to the nape of Yoongi's neck, damp with sweat. He presses him closer, kisses him impossibly deeper, forcing Yoongi's mouth open for his tongue to press in.

Yoongi groans. He can't help it really, delirious from layers and layers of heat, Hoseok touching him like he wants to tear him apart and put him back together.

It's five minutes or five hours later before he can even catch his breath, senses filled with Hoseok and craving more. The room is lightening with hushed pre-dawn blue and he's in Hoseok's lap, arms wrapped tight around his shoulders.

They're both dripping sweat, unbearably hot even at this coolest hour of day, but that doesn't stop Hoseok from rubbing his wide palms up and down Yoongi's back or squeezing his hips. As the room lightens, he can see the shift from serious arousal to lazy satisfaction on Hoseok's delicate face as they kiss, sweat sticking locks of hair to his forehead. He looks more composed than Yoongi, and that fact has Yoongi clinging to him a little closer for reasons he can't quite explain.

A delivery truck barrels down the little side street below, loud clack-a-clack pulling their lips apart. Hoseok chuckles at the rising sun and pecks a kiss to Yoongi's nose. "We should sleep."

"What for? We both have tomorrow off," he pouts in Hoseok's lap, making him laugh more.

"Come on," he hefts Yoongi up and tosses him on his bed before he falls in himself, smiling when Yoongi bounces a little on the mattress.

They don't even bother with the sheet, curled up on the bed in their boxers as the sky blossoms orange. "Go to sleep," Hoseok whispers, pulling Yoongi closer and kissing his forehead.

"You go to sleep," he protests, watching Hoseok's drowsy eyes fall shut. How many countless times had he already laid in this bed, unable to take his eyes off of Hoseok? Different now, so different.

---------------------------

*This is not my story but from @ themarmalade on AO3*