#can't believe i've been so consistent with these prompts goddamn

[gureishi]

day 12: you are mine to keep warm

Here’s day 12 of the Human Again prompts. For the master list of all the ficlets, click here.

SaeyoungXReader, T, words: 1847.

・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・

There’s something wrong with you.

Saeyoung notices it right away when he wakes up in the morning (afternoon, really). You’ve already gotten out of bed, which makes sense—he was awake till very late working on a new robot design and you were asleep by the time he came to bed. When he comes into the living room, you’re dressed for work, staring at your phone with a blank expression on your face. When he kisses you on the forehead, you mumble a halfhearted greeting.

You leave for work late even though you’ve been dressed and ready to go for hours, and your kiss goodbye is cursory; you look almost annoyed to be kissing him at all.

He watches you pull out of the garage on the security cameras and wonders if he’s done something to make you sad.

He continues to dwell on it throughout the day. He goes back to his new design (it’s a little robot hippo that reminds you to drink water; Yoosung suggested he market it as the “hydration hippo,” which is one of the reasons he loves Yoosung). He’s unfocused, though; he keeps making silly mistakes and eventually he lays the hippo prototype aside.

Saeyoung thinks back to the night before, tries to remember if he did or said anything that could have hurt you. You had cooked dinner together; he’s sure he annoyed you while trying to help, but that’s not out of the ordinary, and you’d reassured him that his “help” was adorable if not actually useful. Then you’d gone out to the garden together; it’s early fall now, and snow-white buckwheat flowers are blooming all over, glittering among the darker pinks and purples of the other blossoms. You’d laid in his lap and read a book and he’d stroked your hair. Later you’d taken a bath and come to his office to kiss his goodnight.

Of course, there were little things—did it bother you that he stayed up so late working? He thought you didn’t mind it so much now that he was doing work he really loved (and that wasn’t likely to get him killed). Were you upset that you hadn’t gone anywhere or done anything particularly exciting that day? No, that wasn’t like you—you liked going out more than he did, but you liked to stay in, too—and you’d been going out so much more than before over the last few months. Was it the way he said goodnight—was there something in his voice that had made you anxious?

Saeran drifts into the office at one point, dirt on his face and gardening tools in his hand.

“Why are you staring into space? You look kind of dumb,” Saeran says.

Saeyoung smiles because, coming from Saeran, this is a term of endearment.

“Do you think she’s mad at me?” he asks, spinning around in his chair to face his brother. Saeran, of course, doesn’t have to ask who “she” is.

He shrugs. “I don’t know. Ask her.”

“Did she seem sad to you this morning?”

Saeran leans against the door frame. “She seemed a little down, I guess. She made her coffee really slowly.”

“Ugghhhh!” Saeyoung groans, spinning himself all the way around in his chair. “I can’t remember what I did to make her upset!”

Saeran chuckles. “Did it ever occur to you that she could just be having a bad day and it might have nothing to do with you?”

Saeyoung has, in fact, never thought of this.

“Really?” Suddenly, he feels a little bit better. Right. The whole world doesn’t revolve around you, Choi Saeyoung.

“Sometimes people just don’t feel good,” Saeran says slowly, as if speaking to a child. “There doesn’t have to be a reason.”

“Right!!” Saeyoung jumps out of his chair. Okay. This is something he can fix.

“Where are you going?” asks Saeran, sighing as Saeyoung sprints past him.

“I have an idea!” Saeyoung yells over his shoulder, running to the garage.

。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

When you get home from work several hours later, he is waiting for you there.

You roll down the window of your car as you park it in its designated spot. “Saeyoung? What...are you doing?”

Saeyoung, perched on the hood of your favorite of his cars, beams at you. The inside of the car is lit up, glowing rainbow with fairy lights that he seems to have strung up on every available service.

“Babe, why is your car rainbow?” You put your own car in park and jump out, your bag over your shoulder. You still have that empty, weary look on your face that he noticed in the morning.

“You told me your dream car would look like a unicorn threw up in it. Hop in.”

You walk over a little apprehensively.

“Are we going somewhere...? I’m honestly just hungry and thirsty and I kind of want to lay under a blanket...”

“Done, done, and done.” He throws open the passenger door for you, and he’s relieved to hear you giggle when you see the inside. Not only is the car literally pulsing with every possible color of light, he’s also draped every seat and even the floor with fuzzy blankets. There are thermoses in the cup holder and an array of different kinds of snacks stacked up on the passenger seat.

“Did I miss something?” you ask hesitantly, eyeing the inside of the car (even Saeyoung admits that it looks a little insane). “Is it a holiday of some kind?”

“Nope!” Saeyoung chirps elusively. He waits for you to get in, but you just look at him. For a moment, he wonders if he’s gotten it all wrong. What if you do just want to be left alone? He swiftly decides that he knows you better than that.

He sweeps the pile of snacks onto the floor, takes one of the three blankets that are stacked on the seat, and gently drapes it over your shoulders. “Get in, princess.”

Still with some trepidation—but with a softer look in your eyes, too—you clamber into the extra-cushy seat. Saeyoung skips around to the other side and gets in; as he starts the engine, soft music filters out of the car’s (extremely good, if he does say so himself) speakers.

“This is...”

“It is a playlist I made today based on the music you’ve listened to the most in the past month, and no, I didn’t have to hack your phone to do it!”

He pulls out of the garage and feels your eyes on him.

“Is this car even legal?”

“Babe, is my existence even legal?” He winks at you and you roll your eyes—but he also sees your shoulders relax just a little bit. “It’s fine. There’s not going to be anybody out on the roads we’re taking.”

He’s relieved to see you tuck your legs up under you on the seat; he knows that the more comfortable you’re feeling in a situation, the more weirdly you’ll sit.

He passes the turnoff for the highway and pulls onto a dirt road. You sit quietly, but you do tear open one of the bags of chips he’s set out for you.

“Why are we doing this?” you ask again. He rolls down the windows a little and you perk up; he knows you love the feeling of cool night air on your face.

Saeyoung isn’t sure how to explain this part. Because I want to make you happy every minute of every day? Because I can’t bear seeing you sad?

“You seemed down this morning,” he says finally. “It’s okay if you don’t wanna tell me why. I just thought maybe I could help.”

You exhale loudly. “You noticed that?”

“Of course.” He notices everything about you.

“...sorry,” you say, after a moment. “I feel like I was kind of shitty to you this morning. There wasn’t a good reason for it.”

“You weren’t shitty,” he says quietly.

“No, I kinda was! Listen, it’s not like—there’s nothing wrong. I just. Do you ever wake up in the morning and feel like you want to curl up in a hole for the rest of your life?”

Saeyoung hums. “Yeah.”

“I can’t explain it. I just woke up today feeling like a slug.”

So Saeran was right after all. He usually is.

“You are the most beautiful slug in the universe,” he says. You crack a little smile at that.

“I’m a slug in a super weird car, that’s for sure.”

Saeyoung makes a turn onto a long, winding path, leading into the woods that surround the bunker (he picked it, originally, for this very reason.)

“Check the glove compartment,” he says, and you open it up and then burst out laughing for the first time that day.

“You put a bottle of wine in the glove compartment?”

“For you.” He winks. “There is also tea in these thermoses and I think there’s some juice boxes under the seat.

You’re still giggling. “This is so silly,” you say, through your laughter. “This is the lightest I’ve felt all day.”

Saeyoung turns the car onto an unmarked road and then pulls over.

“Hang on, princess.” He runs to the other side and opens the door for you. Between the two of you, you gather up an armful of snacks and drinks, and he drapes a few more blankets over his shoulder.

“I don’t know why I’m even asking, but where are we?” You curiously peer around at what seems to be a dark, deserted road.

“We’re here!” he says, pointlessly. He leads the way through the trees and it’s only a few minutes before you arrive at a little clearing. The trees are thinner here, and you can see the stars.

“Wow,” you gasp. Saeyoung lays out one of the blankets and unceremoniously deposits a pile of snacks on it.

“Sit,” he says. You do, and he wraps another of the blankets around your shoulders.

“This is so beautiful,” you say. “How did I never know this was here?”

Saeyoung stretches, marveling at the way the starlight catches your hair and eyes. He always thinks your eyes are beautiful, but right now they are positively glowing.

“I found this place one time when I was testing out some of the cars’...features,” he admits to you. “I was waiting to bring you here till the right moment.”

You lay down on the blanket and he lays down beside you; you readjust so your head is on his chest, tucked under his chin.

“Thanks,” you murmur. Your hair tickles his face, but he doesn’t mind. “You made my crappy day into a really good night.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” he says. You look at the stars and he watches the rising and falling of your chest as you breathe. “I would quite literally go to the ends of the universe for you. This is just some snacks and a field on the side of the road.”

You wriggle against him, getting more comfortable. “It’s everything I want,” you say.