In His Arms - Wonheon ( Wonho x Jooheon )

Chapter 23 : Lightning Storm

He can’t sleep.

It’s the dead of night and he’s laying flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling like it has personally offended him.

Truthfully, he hasn’t had a good night’s rest for a good week now, but it isn’t like he can do much and really, he may be tired but it’s not the type of tiredness that sleep can cure. Physically, yeah, he’s lacking on a few days worth of sleep but emotionally, he’s an entirely different story.

It has nothing to do with him. Instead, it has everything to do with the brunet at his side.

The house is dead quiet as always apart from the soft sounds of Jooheon’s breathing as he sleeps. He’s been out for a few hours now and part of Wonho envies how easy it is that he falls asleep. Then again… it’s because of him that Jooheon sleeps so heavily. Unlike Wonho, Jooheon is drugged up on high quality sleeping aids. Jooheon doesn’t know, of course, because that would only bring up another shit storm ready to blow over. But what else was Wonho supposed to do? Slipping sleeping aids into Jooheon’s drink every night was the only way that the younger man would actually fall asleep and stay asleep deeply enough that Wonho could hoist him up to the bed.

Wonho hadn’t automatically fallen on depending on more medications but there was only so much of accidentally waking Jooheon up during the night and having to fight or watch him run to the bathroom and lock himself in it that Wonho could take. Ever since he had taken Jooheon off of the stronger meds that kept him fully knocked out, it wasn’t as easy to get his arms around him and pull him close during the night hours. The sleep aids helped but there were still nights when the faintest feeling of contact would jolt Jooheon awake and he’d push himself as far away from Wonho as he could, out of it just enough that his first instinct wasn’t to lock himself down the hall. But sometimes, when the aids had hours to go into effect, Jooheon’s body allowed itself to be touched without waking him up. Wonho hasn’t actually moved past the faint touches to actually build the courage to pull Jooheon close though, not like how they used to sleep.

The lack of warmth has been unsettling. The feeling of skin on skin not being there anymore has made him restless. Somehow, Wonho had gotten used to holding Jooheon through the night and now, with his arms empty and cold, it just feels… wrong.

Too wrong.

Wonho takes a deep breath and turns his head to the left, eyeing his partner in bed. Jooheon is laying face down and he has his arms shoved under his head and pillow, with the sheets pulled up to his chin. With the weeks that have passed, Wonho has spent a lot of time watching Jooheon sleep and even since that first night, Wonho watched every little twitch that he did in his sleep, every little movement and sleepy sound that left Jooheon’s pretty lips.

Jooheon’s absolutely adorable, really-- with the way he clings to his pillow or when he had wrapped his limbs around Wonho on those earlier nights, and how his messy hair fans out around his head like a ethereal halo. He’s always scrunched up too, with his legs bent and his limbs tangled in the warmth of the blanket when Wonho isn’t there to provide it for him.

Wonho let’s his gaze rake over Jooheon’s face. When the brunet is asleep, he looks so peaceful and young, and it makes Wonho’s chest swell with so much affection that he feels as if he’s on the brink of crying his fucking heart out with how lucky he is to have him there. Wonho brings his arms out from under the covers and he scoots himself further up on the bed to prop himself up slightly to get a better look. Wonho reaches over and slowly let’s his hand inch closer to Jooheon’s face. His hand hovers inches away from the brunet’s face

Jooheon’s beautiful.

So, fucking beautiful that it makes Wonho want to cry.

Instead of crying, however, he decides upon something else. Wonho twists at the waist and reaches under his pillow to unplug his phone from the charger. He’s quick to unlock the device and open the camera app, angling his body to face Jooheon.

He snaps his first picture and holds his breath as the flash of his camera shines over Jooheon. He stills instantly, waiting for Jooheon to jump to life but after one moment, then two, Jooheon stays asleep, not even twitching at the disturbance. Wonho exhales softly, changes the angle of his phone and takes another picture. Then another, and another, until the room looks like a lightning storm with the amount of flashes popping through.

But when Wonho looks down into his phone and sees the pictures, he remembers the framed photographs on Shownu’s desk with him and Kihyun smiling together, wrapped up in each other’s arms, and it’s what Wonho wants for himself too-- him and Jooheon, together.

Wonho lays back down on his side of the bed and props himself up on the pillows that will give him an easy angle to snap the pictures as well as hold Jooheon. He gets a thrill in the process, knowing how silly he’s being yet also knowing that he’s about to have pictures of him and Jooheon together in bed and that does enticing things to him.  

He carefully reaches over and gathers Jooheon into his arms before he pulls him over, onto his chest. Wonho tucks Jooheon underneath his arm and pulls Jooheon’s left arm across his chest. The bruises around Jooheon’s wrists have become almost nonexistent and to the naked eye, they would look like a happy couple tucked away in their bed. To a camera lens, they would be perfect .

Wonho extends the arm that isn’t holding Jooheon and smiles as he takes the first picture.

Half an hour later, Wonho is swiping through the gallery of his phone, looking through the photos he’s taken. There’s over two dozen and he loves all of them but his favorite ends up being the one with his lips against Jooheon’s forehead.

He sets it as the wallpaper of his lockscreen and stares at it until his eyelids start to droop. Wonho clicks the phone off and shoves it back underneath his pillow before he settles down and tightens his arms around Jooheon.

It’s the best sleep he’s had in weeks.