Ships Passing In The Night ｜Markhyuck (OT21 AU)

Chapter 60

A/N: If you have any burning questions or if there are any gaping plot holes you think I've not addressed so far in the fic, please let me know in the comments of this chapter. It's a very long fic and most of you will have read it in full much more recently than I have, so I know I have forgotten a lot of things. We're getting pretty close to the point of no return now, with only 10 chapters left and some big plot points happening very soon, so I want to make sure I tie up all the loose ends. Thanks! <3

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It was funny, Donghyuck thought as he watched the bustle of activity around him from his cocoon on the sofa, how the world could just go right on turning after something utterly life-altering happened. Moments ago, he'd witnessed one of his closest friends meeting the man of his dreams—literally, in this case—for the very first time, and had watched on in dumbstruck silence as Ten's entire universe had shifted course in a single heartbeat.

Now he was watching his brother and Dongyoung arguing loudly about whose turn it was to clean the communal parts of the house this week, while Jisung and Chenle heckled them enthusiastically from front row seats just a coffee table away from the action. Jaehyun looked to be winning too, judging by the way a solitary muscle in Dongyoung's jaw now ticked rapidly with every word the younger man said to him.

It was a far cry from the stunned silence that had preceded it, and it would have given Donghyuck whiplash were it not the kind of thing he was more than used to at this point—having lived in a dorm full of rowdy teenagers for several long years as a trainee. Silence was made to be broken, or that was the belief held by the majority of his predominantly extroverted family, and right now he was glad for the distraction.

Ten and Johnny had retreated to the kitchen together just before the war had broken out, the former looking noticeably more tense than the latter as the door had swung shut behind them. Donghyuck strongly suspected that Jaehyun had started the shouting match—at least in part—to cover up anything that might have otherwise been audible from that conversation, which was probably best for everyone in the building at this point. However, it had still been a jarring change of pace.

"It'll be okay, hyung," he'd told Ten, as the older man clung to him for dear life. Johnny's gaze hadn't left Ten's face since they'd first made eye contact, and the American seemed to have temporarily forgotten that the rest of the world existed before he'd broken free of his paralysis, but Ten had been significantly more hesitant about the whole thing.

"I don't know what to say; how to begin..." Ten had muttered lowly, turning in his seat a little so that none of the new arrivals would be able to lip-read their interaction easily. "I—"

"Just talk to him," Donghyuck had told him simply, leaning in to squeeze Ten's shoulder in a gesture he hoped came across as more reassuring than it felt. "It'll be fine."

"You're right," Ten had said after a long pause, steeling himself for what was to come. "And if he doesn't ever like me the way I like him, that's okay." He spoke so softly that Donghyuck could barely make out the words but, as he opened his mouth to protest, Ten hurried on. "Really, it is. I just want to be in his life, to get to know this him, you know? My version of him, and not the untouchable fantasy that I created inside my head. I only hope that, after I explain everything to him, he'll understand."

"He will." Donghyuck had no doubt of that. While he couldn't guarantee a happily ever after, he knew that this Johnny and the Johnny who'd helped Ten practically raise him and his younger brothers were one and the same. The same in every way that mattered, anyway. Ten would talk, Johnny would listen, and then everything would be okay. He couldn't imagine a universe in which the pair weren't thick as thieves, always up to some crazy project or another just to make the other person laugh, and he definitely didn't think it would start with this one.