[FIC] Bedtime Story

Title: Bedtime Story
Characters: Heechul, Leeteuk
Rating: G
Wordcount: 1.802
Summary: A sleepless night calls for a bedtime story.
A/N: The first Super Junior shot I ever wrote and I keep thinking that this is probably the most accurate I have ever described Heechul or Jungsoo alike.

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Mhm..
Three days, two nights and I still didn’t do what I was planning on doing.
It must be the laziness kicking in again.
I tell myself so often to take up the practicing again, but I never do.
I also still have to get a haircut, before the hair grows to my butt..

With a deep sigh he closed the Cyworld entry without having posted it. There was nothing useful coming out of him lately. He barely managed to keep his Cyworld updates as happy and uncaring as they used to be. Life had become so strange. Days had become long and boring and he had begun suffering from the absence of his friends. The only one affected by it more than he was, was probably his leader. Leeteuk carried the responsibility for twelve other members and now had to miss three instead of just one like he did. Luckily hosting Sukira with Eunhyuk seemed to be a little help and support and Yesug was often found at Leeteuk’s side as well. The problem was that those two lived in the other dorm and Leeteuk was alone in the evenings. Another sigh left him as he got up from his chair, thereby picking up Heebum so that the gray cat wouldn’t fall on the ground.

“Ah, Heebum-ah..” he mumbled while walking to the kitchen. “There is amazingly little to do in the evenings without him. No one wants to share a drink with me or play a game now and then. And who will be making funny comments about me now?” The cat looked up at him with two uninterested, sleepy eyes. Of course there came no response from the animal, but he didn’t care and just continued talking as he opened the fridge. “I hope this thing gets resolved quickly, because I want him to come back. We can’t even talk on the phone that often now that he’s in China.”

“Are you talking to yourself again?” an all too familiar voice asked. He turned his head and smiled. “Oh, your cat is the victim this time? That poor animal can do nothing but listen to your constant nagging. Seriously, give the pitiable thing a break once.”

“Oh, Teukie, I always love it when you compliment me like that on a cosy evening.” he replied, turning back to the fridge to look for something edible. All he found were some outdated eggs, so he closed the fridge again. “What are you doing up anyway?” he then continued, leaning against the closed fridge while looking at his friend.

“Couldn’t sleep.” was the only answer.

“You should try reading. Sleepiness guaranteed in no time.”

“Believe me, being tired is not the problem. Falling asleep is.” Leeteuk mumbled as he slowly walked towards the sink and poured himself a glass of water. His moves were slow and his face showed great signs of tiredness. There was a certain feeling about him that made Heechul want to walk up to his friend and hug him, yet the fact that he was holding a cat stopped him from doing that. Besides, he hardly ever hugged his friend, so it would only be awkward if he did it now. However, he could not leave Leeteuk to be like that.

“Teukie..” he therefore said softly. Leeteuk put down the empty glass and looked back with a questioning expression. “Want to watch some TV together?” Wonderful. Just superb. With that offer he would of course make his friend feel SO much better. His tiredness would disappear immediately and he would smile like the seven year old kid again that he secretly still was deep down inside! Not.

“Oh.. Yah.. Sure.. Why not?” Leeteuk mumbled a reply. He shuffled out of the kitchen to go sit on the couch in front of the TV. Heechul watched his friend go, but didn’t follow at first. With a little sigh he looked down at the cat again.

“Heebum-ah. Why does he have to make me feel guilty looking like that? Aish. Nothing to do about it. You’ll have to move on your own a bit.” he said to his cat, putting the animal on the ground, before walking towards the TV as well. When he sat down in the couch next to Leeteuk, there was an awkward silence. He sighed before talking again. “What are we going to watch?”

“I don’t know. What’s on?”

“I don’t know.” Great conversational skills. Really wonderful. Another sigh left him as he turned his head to look at Leeteuk. “You worry too much, Teukie. I can see it in your face. You’re starting to get wrinkles.”

“What!?” Leeteuk jumped up and moved towards the TV to check his own face in the reflection of the still black screen. Heechul couldn’t help smiling because of the gullibility of his friend. He got up as well and slowly walked towards his friend to put a hand on Leeteuk’s shoulder.

“As I said, you worry too much.” he said, smiling a little, but feeling sad inside. Leeteuk looked up at him. He suddenly looked very old and very, very tired. There was nothing left of the hyperactive image he showed when outside of the dorm. “Things will be alright. Kangin will soon be showed on air again and Kibum will return when we release our fourth album.” Heechul felt like he had to say something to cheer up his friend and leader. The reaction, on the other hand, was unexpected.

“Ah, but you didn’t mention Hangeng, did you? I worry most because of him. When he wins the lawsuit, he probably won’t return to us. That is something I fear most. I hope he wins, because the situation was really terrible, but what will we do? What will the fans do? How will it affect our group? The M-group will have lost their leader and then what? Where will it leave us, Heechul? What of the group when we have to go do our army duty? Will we still be able to be Super Junior after such a long time, or will we all break up and never sing together again?”

Heechul let it all come over him, not knowing how to respond to the outburst of his friend’s true doubts and worries. He stood there with that slightly arrogant smile still on his face, staring at Leeteuk in surprise. Thoughts of Hangeng popped up in his mind and the feeling of being lonely suddenly took hold of him. He felt his energy being drained away, yet refused to give in to depression. He had been fighting it off for a while now, he could keep on going a while longer. Life was not made to run around with a sad face. There should be no regrets. When Leeteuk seemed to want to say more, he suddenly regained control over his body and quickly took a step closer to his friend, putting a finger on his lips.

“Teukie, didn’t you hear me? You worry too much. Life is not made for worries. As my only hyung, you cannot say such things to me. Come sit with me and we’ll watch some TV.” he said, taking Leeteuk’s hand and dragging him back to the couch. He had to make a little detour to avoid the playing Heebum and Baengsin, but in the end he was able to fall down on the sofa, pulling his friend down with him. Even though he didn’t protest, Leeteuk didn’t seem to really agree either, he simply moved along without caring.

Heechul knew his friend was still thinking over all the things he had just blurted out. Without even touching the remote control, he reached out a hand and softly brushed his fingers over Leeteuk’s hair. The 9 days older guy turned to look at him. He smiled and repeated his action, slowly caressing the other one’s hair with the tips of his fingers. It probably was the most affectionate he had ever been towards his friend in the past months. Oh how he wished he had been closer to this friend so that he wouldn’t feel so awkward now.

“Shall I tell you a story?” he mumbled, not taking his eyes off his own fingers as to not have to look at the desperate expression of his friend. He didn’t wait for an answer before continuing. “I’ll tell you a story. It’s about two brothers who went out to find a treasure..” Leeteuk slowly moved into a more comfortable position. Afraid to lose his attention, Heechul kept stroking his hair with the tips of his fingers as he invented the story while talking.

When he had just reached the point where the two brothers found a treasure map and went to look for a treasure, Leeteuk suddenly moved again, pulling his legs up on the couch and resting his head on his friend’s shoulder. When he also hugged Heechul’s arm, the latter looked down a little surprised. Upon seeing Leeteuk’s closed eyes and his more relaxed expression, however, he continued the story without making any comment. As to finish the whole picture, the lazy Heebum, who finally had enough of playing with Baengsin, jumped on the couch as well and made himself comfortable on the little left space in front of Leeteuk on the edge of the couch.

Thinking the whole situation a little weird, but not wanting to make his friend fall back into depression, Heechul simply kept on talking. As he went from finding a treasure to spending all the money and going home as poor as they had left home, he gradually felt how more and more weight was put on his shoulder. That meant Leeteuk was falling asleep and didn’t think about not discomforting his friend too much. Heechul couldn’t help smiling a little when he thought about Leeteuk’s never changing care for others. He drove it too far sometimes.

About half an hour after starting the story, Heechul suddenly stopped talking and looked down on the sleeping young man. He finally stopped stroking the dark blonde hair as well, but didn’t move away. His eyes turned from the sleeping young man to the sleeping gray cat and wandered around the room until they found the sleeping kitten as well. He made an upset sound as he looked from the kitten at the cat and back.

“Aish. Great. No one even stays up to listen to my wonderful storytelling abilities.” he huffed, running a hand through his long hair. It was really becoming long. He should get a haircut. With that thought a smile broke through on his face again and he resumed stroking Leeteuk’s hair, mumbling some more words. “Ah well, I had no idea how to end the thing anyway. At least now I don’t have to.”