take me home ; nct johnten

05

"I brought tea and headache medicine. Drink up." Johnny said, handing the mug over to Ten and dropping two pills into his palm.

Ten rolled the pills around in his hand. "You won't drug me, will you?"

"Of course not. It's to help your hangover, stupid."

"Hey, you're in no place to call me stupid."

Johnny suddenly turned serious and stared him in the eye to intimidate him. It worked. "Oh? Why is that?"

Ten brought the cup up to his lips and mumbled under his breath. "Nevermind..."

He took the pills and finished off a majority of the warm tea. Setting it on the bedside table, he awkwardly looked up at Johnny.

"Hungry?" Johnny asked.

Ten hesitantly nodded, letting Johnny help him up and stretch his limbs. He managed to get in a solid six steps alone before he needed Johnny to help him again.

It was evident that Johnny wasn't the richest of the bunch; his pantry and refrigerator had about four things altogether. Luckily, among those four things were milk and cereal, so the both of them could have a somewhat decent breakfast.

Ten happily ate his slowly, since he apparently had nowhere else to go. Johnny, however, only ate a few bites before he stood up and fumbled through things in the kitchen counter.

"What are you doing?" Ten asked softly.

He watched Johnny's face light up as he shoved a cigarette between his lips. Ten became aware of the situation and simply backed off. Johnny pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit the cigarette, inhaling before needing to pull it out of his mouth.

Ten was mesmerized by the sight, so much so that he watched for a while before eating again.

"Have you never seen someone smoke before?" Johnny asked sarcastically, putting the cigarette back.

"Of course I have, it's just...sad, I guess?"

Johnny raised a brow.

"Well, you overall seem pretty happy. Don't you feel sad knowing something like that dominates your life?"

Johnny shrugged. "I'm not as addicted as I could be. Two a day, maybe three. It's not horrible, trust me."

Ten nodded. "Why did you start?" He asked, eating another spoonful of cereal.

"Woah, that's a pretty personal question—" Johnny paused to cough to the side, "don't you think?"

"Oh, s-sorry..."

Johnny hit him on the shoulder. "I'm just kidding, it's fine. I moved out, things got stressful, so I turned to nicotine. Not too complicated."

"That's all it takes?" Ten asked.

The taller male hummed.

They were quiet for a majority of the time that it took for Ten to finish his breakfast. When he was done, Johnny stood up and walked over to the windowsill. There, he took the cigarette out of his mouth and pressed it down into the ashtray.

Ten smiled softly when Johnny came back over and gave him a pat on the head.

"Go on over to the couch. You can watch TV while I clean up, okay?" Johnny said, pulling the chair out for Ten.

Ten was flustered by the kindness and didn't exactly know how to react, so he just slowly made his way over to the couch, careful not to fall over his wobbly legs.

He could hear the clinking of bowls in the sink as he settled himself down. His headache was slowly fading, but the abnormal, post-drinking warmth was still settling in the bottom of his stomach.

Soon, Johnny came into sight again and stood in front of him. "Could you not figure out how to work it? Here," he said, taking the remote from the coffee table and switching on the TV. "You probably don't want to wear those clothes for any longer either. I'll go get you some you can wear for now."

Ten went to protest, but Johnny was already gone. He returned with a pile of clothing in his hand, which he held out to Ten.

"Bathroom is right there," Johnny pointed to a door by the bedroom.

The younger boy sighed and took them, making his way to the bathroom to change.

He came out with an oversized t-shirt and basketball shorts that went down to his calves. Johnny couldn't help but think of how adorable he looked in his clothes.

Why are you thinking like that? He asked himself.

He shrugged it off as Ten sat on the couch, although his distanced himself quite a bit.

They didn't say much else to each other, it was more of just them sitting in the completely silence not even looking over at the other.

Johnny eventually leaned forward and grabbed the remote, clicking through the channel guide on the TV in front of them. He stopped on a channel with a movie that had only started minutes before.

"Have you seen this?" Johnny asked.

"What is it?"

"Guess not then," he said more to himself than anyone else.

Ten pouted at Johnny's reaction, folding his arms across his chest and leaning back on the couch.

Johnny was intently watching the movie, whatever it was, when he noticed Ten bashfully trying to move next to him.

He chuckled, lightly grabbing Ten by the arm. "Don't be shy, come here."

Ten obeyed and scooted closer, leaving a few inches of space between their bodies.

For a while, Johnny's hand lingered on Ten. Of course, the younger questioned why it was still there, but he got used to it after a while.

Whatever movie was playing was eventful but long; an hour and a half had already gone by and he hardly realized. Thankfully, nothing happened to be boring, so he never got impatient.

After another half hour, Johnny's hand went limp. Ten wondered why and went to turn to him, but stopped himself once he felt something heavy again.

He looked down.

It was Johnny, fast asleep and resting his head on his shoulder.

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ha

It's likely that no one noticed but this is like 50 words less than what I usually do what a shame

I reorganized my bookshelf and I'm h a p p y

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Have a nice day/night!❤️💕💓