kibum hurries through the halls of the samsung building, his phone clutched in his hand still displaying the text that has him so worried and frantic in the first place. it’s from dongmin, and is uncharacteristically simple -- just a request for kibum to come to a practice room in the building. there isn’t any punctuation and dongmin didn’t use any sort of face or emoji -- this is the first time kibum’s ever gotten a text from him without those things, and somehow he just knows that it means something is wrong.
he enters the requested room and finds the lights on and dongmin curled up in a corner, hiding his face in his hands. as soon as kibum sees him his heart lurhces, because he knows that position. he’s been in it himself too many times before not to recognize it.
he crosses the room in a few strides, letting the door swing gently closed behind him as he does. he squats in front of dongmin when he reaches him and lays a gentle hand on his arm. “hey, kid,” he says, using the pet name he’s had for dongmin practically since the day they met. “i’m here now. what’s wrong?”
the barbecue gives kibum a chance to see a lot of people training and debut prep has kept him from for months, and he knows that with his limited time at the party, he needs to start making his rounds quickly if he wants to see everyone and try to catch up, make sure that all of his friends ( and all of their friends ) have seen his pre-debut teaser. logically, he knows he can’t spend the whole party with just one or two people, or he’ll never get to see everyone he wants to.
but he can’t help himself from going to see dongmin right away, even though he knows the teenager will probably latch onto him and not let go until sphere forces kibum to leave. that’s fine with him -- he’ll just drag dongmin along to say hello to everyone he wants to.
he doesn’t actually see dongmin at first, and while he waits he chats with sungho, a kt trainee who he knows has given taemin quite a bit of trouble, but he and kibum have always gotten along strangely well. it’s a strange sort of camaraderie, their dry senses of humor lining up well and leading to fun conversations, even if they do seem a bit dark sometimes.
kibum spots dongmin after he finishes his first plate of food, and he excuses himself from sungho to make his way across the crowded lawn and sneak up behind the teen. as he approaches from behind dongmin, he taps the other’s left shoulder as kibum continues to move toward his right, and he waits for dongmin to fall for the trick and turn around the wrong way. even as he just stands there near him, there’s a wide grin already on kibum’s lips, and he finds he can’t wait for dongmin to see him just so they can actually hug for the first time in three months.
@rkleedongminie // avengers au - dongmin is peter parker, kibum is tony stark
captain america: civil war and spiderman: homecoming spoilers under the cut!
he never should have involved a kid.
barely sixteen years old, swinging around the city with webs made in chemistry class wearing a red hoodie with makeshift eye holes and covers, and kibum gave him a fully equipped suit and let him run in the big leagues so maybe he could have a chance to solve the whole cap issue.
which, speaking of, he’s still not over, but he’s an expert at bottling things up, so every time the thought of a cold bunker, a shield pushed into his chest in what feels too much like a final blow comes through his mind, he’s able to block it out, lock it away. just like he’s always done. and if all thoughts of his former best friend have to be locked away too, then so be it.
but he excuses himself for bringing the kid into this. he was going to keep swinging around stopping crime no matter what, right? kibum figures that he should take the logic of a cool parent, one of the ones who lets teenagers drink at family functions: as long as it’s controlled and supervised, it shouldn’t be too bad. that’s better than the alternative.
but somehow, because the universe apparently hates him, the alternative happened anyway. dongmin threatened dozens of lives today with his own inexperience, after apparently hacking past the software kibum put in place to protect him.
( kibum has to admit, though, it is what he would have done. but that only makes him hate it more. )
kibum touches down in front of the kid where he left him waiting as he cleaned up the mess -- all the while with thoughts running on a loop through his head. what was he thinking, doing this alone? what was i thinking, giving him the means? what the hell am i supposed to do now that i’ve got this kid under my wing, now that i’m responsible for him? what if he had died today?
the last thought plants itself at the front of kibum’s mind, and it’s what circles over and over through his head as he glares through his mask at the kid, this high schooler who thinks that because he held cap’s shield, because he’s been given a suit from kibum, he’s an adult, that he’s ready for everything that comes along with saving lives, with potentially dooming them.
“what the hell were you thinking?” he demands, anger lacing every syllable. “what happened to staying on the ground, to being a friendly neighborhood spiderman?”
it isn’t an impulse buy — not really. he’s been keeping an eye out for something like this ever since before he moved into the convex dorms. he’s wanted to have something to tie him to his newly formed and unique little family, something they can each hold on to when times get hard, as they’re always sure to. he gets something for everyone, including himself, because he knows he’ll need the reminder sometimes too.
for rachel he gets a necklace — it’s a gold chain with a small pendant of the sun. the stars hold more symbolism for the two of them personally, but the sun is more suited to their little makeshift family, with the way the three of them bring so much light into kibum’s life, and with how easy it is to fall back into the old darkness when they’re not around.
for jaehyun he gets a pocketknife. he’s watched jaehyun grow up, from the time he was just a kid trying to save a stranger to now, when he’s part of the glue that holds them all together. it’s the same knife he handed jaehyun on his first day in royal to carve his name into the tree, and the same one he himself used to mark his own with a crown on the day he left. he wants it to show jaehyun that he’s grown up, and that it’s time for him to lead dongmin into the world, as kibum tried so hard to do for both of them.
for dongmin, he got a fuzzy keychain shaped like simba from the lion king when he was a cub. he knows dongmin has more stuffed lions than he can count, and kibum wanted to get him something he could carry around with him. not that dongmin wouldn’t carry around a full size stuffed lion, but that’s beside the point. for himself, kibum got the matching keychain that’s either adult simba or mufasa — he can’t really tell, so he’ll let dongmin figure it out.
for now he enters the younger’s bedroom in his and rachel’s apartment — he’s come back this evening for dinner and to give them all their gifts, though he knows dongmin doesn’t know he’s here, so it’s with a playful grin that he knocks on the door and pushes it open. “knock knock, can i come in?” he calls, poking his head around the door to see the teen lounging on his bed.
it was especially easy to give kibum his treats. Thought he could have given them to him at the apartment, dongmin had been on a mission. This is why he waited until he saw kibum in their group, all but tackling the older male once he was close enough. A wide grin already breaking across his cheeks. “Hyung~!” He couldn’t contain how happy he is to see kibum despite the fact they live together and he seems him daily. “Happy Halloween!” A goodie bag with a handful of sadly shaped pumpkin and ghost cookies was held out towards the older male, such a proud look on his face too. “I made hem myself, thought some of them got a lil burnt..”
kibum isn’t surprised by dongmin’s energetic greeting, but he is surprised by the small bag thrust towards him. “what--” he stutters, before glancing inside and seeing what are clearly some halloween-themed cookies inside. “oh, is this why there was such a mess in the kitchen yesterday?” he asks with a crooked grin as he ties the bag closed once again. “and isn’t it ironic to give someone a bag of sweets when we’re both about to take a fitness exam?” he asks, reaching out to ruffle dongmin’s hair playfully. the gesture is friendly and familiar, and kibum is grinning as he unzips his gym bag and sets the cookies inside, to be eaten later. “i’m sure they’ll be great,” he says as he re-closes the bag, wrapping an arm around the younger and beginning to walk with him towards their first exercise area.
