Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had been a rather uneventful night for Thanos. He hadn’t managed to slither his way into getting any free drinks at the bar- at least not yet. He had already tried flirting with multiple of the bartenders, but none of them had been interested enough to do him any favors. (Trust him on this, it was unusual for ladies to turn him down.) He had been dangerously close to getting one of their numbers until some bitch trying to order had told him to ‘hurry up’. But that wasn’t his fault! Tonight’s club just had a bad selection, it’s not like he was losing his charm.

Now, he was sitting beside another girl, someone different from what he usually went for. Like a breath of fresh air. She was decently tall, and had short, black mullet-styled hair. Although Thanos thought her hair was nice enough to be noted, the choker and piercings she was showing off was definitely what had caught his attention. She had her ears pierced, but her lip and nose piercings were the most striking, at least in Thanos’s opinion. As he had considered earlier, she wasn’t normally the type Thanos would go for, but the way she would scowl at him whenever he would try to sweet-talk her made Thanos feel like he had won something.

She had also been sitting alone, which intrigued Thanos further. Who goes to the club alone? He likes his woman independent, anyway, so he didn’t mind much. It’ll be easier this way, too, he thinks silently. It would be much easier to get her attention when there was no one distracting her. He wraps an arm loosely around her shoulders, tilting his face in closer just enough for her to notice, but not too much to where he was crossing boundaries.

“What’s a pretty girl like you doing sitting all alone?” She lets out a barely muffled sigh and, to Thanos’s surprise, actually gives him an answer. She gestures towards a table near the back corner of the club, and Thanos has to squint to make out the general descriptions of the two people seated there.

Theres a man sitting there, his posture straight and slightly stiff, looking strangely uncomfortable. He’s holding onto a drink that’s nearly filled to the brim, and he keeps glancing over his shoulder at the slumped figure beside him, which Thanos has to squint even harder to see clearly. A woman, with black, shiny hair, that went to about a bob length at her shoulders. Her head’s down, so Thanos isn’t able to see much of her appearance, but she’s inching her fingers towards the other man’s drink as if she’s plotting to steal it.

Thanos tears his gaze away from the two of them and back at the girl beside him, who had started talking again. “My boyfriend,” she starts, with a light twitch in her lips, as if she’s testing out the words on her tongue. “And his friend are over there. Just wanted to get away for a little.” She continues, shrugging as she glances back at Thanos and sinks her teeth into her lip to suppress an amused grin.

She’s lying, isn’t she?

“ I wouldn’t want him getting the wrong idea. You should probably-” She flicks a singular finger outwards towards the exit door- “shoo before he notices.”

Thanos raises an eyebrow, glancing back and forth between the table and her. “That’s your boyfriend? The first one?” She nods timidly, sparing a look towards the man in question. “Yep, that’s the one.” He takes a closer look at her so-called ‘boyfriend’. He looks small, almost fragile. Kinda cute. Still, cuteness aside, he doesn’t look like the type of guy to like a girl like her. “What’s someone like you doing with someone like him?” He inwardly curses at himself for repeating the same line he used earlier.

“What’s a pretty girl like you doing sitting here all alone?” He winces. Maybe he really was losing his charm. Repeating the same lines when trying to flirt? The Legend Thanos doesn’t do that. When the girl doesn’t answer immediately, he can’t stop himself from prodding at the subject. “Is he really your boyfriend?” He isn’t about to slip up on bringing a senorita like her home because of some man she’s claiming to be dating. She gives him a sideways glance before turning towards that corner of the bar on her stool and calling out, “MIN-SU!”

The man at the table, which Thanos assumes to be Min-Su, jerks upwards at the sound of his name and swivels around, eyes darting around in an almost panicked manner. “Damn!” Thanos whispers under his breath in a hushed tone, having to stifle a laugh with his hand at Min-Su’s reaction. Jumpy little shit, he thought, and looks back at the girl to see her glaring at him for laughing. He holds his hands up in mock surrender. She turns her gaze back towards Min-Su and raises her arms in the air, waving them wildly and motioning for him to come over. Thanos swears he can see the relief on Min-Su’s face when he sees this girl. Maybe they really are dating. The relieved expression quickly melts into a frown, though, and he bites his lip as he glances behind him at that damn woman. What was he so scared of? The poor boy looks like he’s about to shit his pants just thinking about the idea of leaving her at the table alone.

The girl simply shrugs again at his worried expression, waving him off and gesturing more insistently for him to come over. Min-Su cautiously glances back one more time- to which Thanos is unable to suppress an impatient groan- before scooting over and rising from the table. The woman makes an attempt to grab at Min-Su’s wrist as he’s leaving, though, which Thanos takes note of for no reason in particular.

He slowly makes his way over to them, like a mouse scared to get caught in a trap. (That’s the first comparison Thanos can think of.) Now that he’s closer, Thanos is able to create a more accurate description of the man in his mind. He also has dark hair, with bangs that hung across his forehead. He looks indescribably nervous, like he’s getting ready to go to a job interview instead of the simple circumstance they were actually in, and can’t seem to hold eye contact with Thanos, though he makes a point to glance up at him as he walks.

“Se-Mi?” Thanos immediately shifts his attention back to the girl once Min-Su utters the name, smirking at her. “Your name’s Se-Mi? Could’ve just told me, girl.” Se-Mi pinches the bridge of her nose in response to Thanos but gives Min-Su a tight lipped smile. “Yeah. C’mere, Min-Su.” He does as he’s told and comes to stand beside her, leaning against the stool beside them. “You’re my boyfriend, right?” The flush is immediate. His eyes widen for a fraction of a second, looking over at Se-Mi like she had just admitted to first-degree murder.

Se-Mi’s eyes must’ve said something, though, because even though Thanos can’t see her face due to how she had positioned herself, realization seemed to dawn on Min-Su and he stutters out an awkward, “Uh, yeah.” Se-Mi tilts her head back to look at Thanos and drawls out, “Yeah, I’ve got a boyfriend right here.”

When Min-Su flushes an even brighter shade of red- if that’s even possible- Thanos has to stifle another laugh, literally bringing his hand up to his mouth to muffle it. It’s so blatantly obvious it’s laughable.

“Alright, Min-Su, why don’t we play a game of rock, paper, scissors. If you win, I’ll leave your girl alone. If I win, I get to take your girl out on a date.” Min-Su opens his mouth to respond, and then shut it right back, stealing a glance over at Se-Mi for reasons Thanos could only guess was to ask for permission. Se-Mi, thankfully, didn’t give any type of input. At least she wasn’t blowing him off completely… She’s actually giving him a solid chance!

“Uh.. yeah. Okay.” Min-Su responds clumsily.

Right when Thanos was getting his stance ready, he realizes he had spoken too soon about receiving no type of input from Se-Mi.

“OH! And- the loser gets to take home Nams!”

“What- Who-”

“ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS, SHOOT!”

Thanos was forced into a game of rock, paper, scissors with consequences for the loser he was completely clueless about. How was that fair?! But he isn’t about to take a blow to his pride over a game of rock, paper, scissors because he’s scared, so he shoots his hand out when Se-Mi yells, “SHOOT!” and glances down to see what Min-Su had thrown out.

Scissors.

His eyes travel to his own out-stretched hand.

Paper.

Thanos quite literally feels his heart drop to his stomach. So much for his pride. “Good luck!” Se-Mi exclaims, suddenly seeming overwhelmingly happy with the circumstances that Thanos was now taking home “Nams.” She gestures wildly back towards the table Min-Su was originally sitting at and gives Thanos a pat on the back. “Shouldn’t be too much trouble for you. Come on, Min-Su, let's go!” Oh. Se-Mi was out the door before Thanos could ask any questions, and he simply accepts his fate right there and then.

He slowly makes his way to the back of the club, peering down at the girl who was still sitting slumped there. This shouldn’t be too hard, right? She’s probably drunk, anyway. All Thanos has to do is figure out where she lives, and drive her home. Hell, maybe he could even charm her into exchanging numbers! He might as well get something out of this.

He carefully settles an arm on her shoulder, prodding a finger at the fabric of her hoodie. It’s soft. He should probably play nice, for now at least. “Hey, senorita. You got a place you’re staying at?”

She slumps further against the wall, and slowly lifts her head, revealing her entire face as she rests her chin on her arm, staring up at him with half-lidded eyes, tinged with red.

“I’m a guy.”

—

Not even an hour later, Thanos is still having flashbacks to that moment. He vividly remembers his mouth forming an O shape, and then, the man had the audacity to smirk at him. They had to of stared at each other for at least 20 seconds before Thanos finally said something. It seemed like this guy had been saving all his strength for that one sentence, though, because beyond that, he hadn’t responded to anything Thanos said. He was basically non-cohorant, and it was endlessly frustrating for Thanos.

He didn’t tell Thanos where he lived.

He didn’t tell Thanos if he had a car.

For fucks sake, Thanos didn’t even know his name other than “Nams.” He had quite literally had to make up a name for this guy in his head. He assumed the first part of his name was “Nam” so he added “Su” to the end of it simply because he was sitting with that guy named Min-Su.

So, when they were on the last flight of stairs to get to Thanos’s apartment, with their arms linked and Thanos holding up his full body weight (clingy little shit), it was a miracle when he uttered a word.

“Are you Thanos?”

The words come out slurred, but Thanos makes sense of them nonetheless.

“Yeah, you a fan?”

The man lets out a scoff before reciting, “illkillhalftheuniversewitharap..” he trails off, staring into space before finishing, “bam.” Thanos is ashamed of himself for having to suppress a laugh. “Oh, so now you can talk?”

“Fuck off..” He murmurs, but lets his head loll against Thanos’s shoulder anyway. Once the two of them finally stumble into Thanos’s apartment, Nam-Su seems to come to his senses. He pulls away from Thanos, stumbles a little, and then flops face first onto Thanos’s couch. Thanos lets out a loud, drawn out sigh as he watches him curl into a ball. “Yeah.. sure. Make yourself at home.” When Thanos said he wanted to bring someone home, he definitely hadn’t meant this.

Chapter Text

Thanos awoke to a pounding headache and an empty bed. His eyes wander the space in front of him as he tries to blink sleep from his eyes, fumbling with the blanket that’s tangled between his legs before rising to a sitting position with a blank stare. He’s groggy, and can only remember bits and pieces of last night, but his senses sharpen as soon as he sees the cross necklace hanging above his nightstand. Every night, Thanos hangs his necklace on one of the hooks sticking out of the wall beside his bed (you get what he means,) and this morning, it just so happens to be hanging on the 2nd hook instead of the 3rd. He knows he isn’t delirious, and he also knows for sure that someone had messed with his shit. Yeah, he certainly has trouble figuring out who took from his stash. He snatches the necklace from the hook, just for confirmation. Surely, there's one less colorful pill placed in the cross than there was last night.

That fucker had been driven home in Thanos’s car, crashed in Thanos’s apartment, and stolen one of Thanos’s pills. Talk about high maintenance. If he was gonna steal, he could've at least been a little stealthy with it, but no, there was clearly not even an attempt at hiding his thievery. Thanos runs a hand down his face and swings his legs over the bed. As little as he wanted to get up right then, he needs to see if anything else had been messed with.

Thanos’s apartment was already shitty, it wasn’t like his living space was entirely clean, but it would've been nice if he opened his bedroom door and saw a spotless kitchen and living room instead of what he actually laid his eyes upon.

The first thing he noticed was the couch. The goddamn couch cushion is flipped over, and pillows are strewn across the floor, along with a blanket lying there, too.

Thanos doesn’t even remember giving this dude a blanket! Or pillows! Those things were in his closet, meaning Nam-Su had to of snooped through there to find them. He had seemed so content with curling into a ball and sleeping the second they had entered the apartment, but apparently had gone on a journey to find a blanket and pillows the moment Thanos turned his back.

Then there was the kitchen. It isn’t as bad as the living room, but it’s still worth noting that there’s an empty glass sitting on the counter along-side a box of cereal. Left open. There’s also a bright yellow sticky note taped on the counter beside the items. Thanos plucks it off carefully, examining it like it could be a nuclear bomb. But no, it was just a note, scrawled in messy hand writing like it was an after thought:

“Thanks for the free shit, check your phone.”

Thanos frowns. What kind of guy crashes in someone's apartment, steals their food and drugs, and then says “thanks for the free shit?” It’s mortifying. Thanos tells himself he only gets his phone out and pulls up the text he had received because he wants this guy to pay him back, not because he was curious. The text in question had been sent at 7:37 in the morning:

“Hey, it’s the guy you thought was a girl at the club.”

Before responding, Thanos changes his name to “Nam-Su,” and smiles at the name in satisfaction.

Thanos: “Says the one that crashed in my apartment and stole my shit.”

Nam-Su: “Its not that big of a deal. relax. It was like an open invitation.”

Thanos blinks in surprise at the quick response. If he was being honest, he wasn’t actually expecting a response at all.

Thanos: “no it actually wasn’t.”

Nam-Su: “oh”

Nam-Su: “fuck”

Nam-Su: “I left my lighter at your place.”

Thanos: “you only have one?”

Nam-Su: “That's my fav one tho.”

Nam-Su: “meet me somewhere so i can pick it up? Or I can just come back to your place.”

Thanos: “fuck no. you aint coming back here”

Nam-Su: “jeez okay. Meet me at coffee shop.”

Thanos: “What time??”

Nam-Su: “2:30”

Nam-Su: “or something.”

Thanos pulls away from his phone and stares at their exchanged texts. He isn’t sure how he just got cooped up into meeting this guy at a coffee shop, but his cards are all laid out now. He takes a few quick glances around at his surroundings. Where is this guys lighter, anyways? Then his eyes fall on a bright pink object, sticking out in the otherwise bland room. A pink, rhinestoned lighter.

—

Nam-Gyu doesn’t do coffee shops. They’re cheesy, and everything about them is girly. He has a strange hatred for them that even Nam-Gyu himself doesn’t understand fully. Still, he finds himself standing at the entrance of one, tapping his foot against the ground and fiddling with his rings. He briefly wonders if maybe Thanos had gone to another coffee shop rather than the one Nam-Gyu was referring to. His thought process doesn’t make much sense, considering this was really the only coffee shop in their shitty town, but he still snickers at the thought of the purple haired rapper standing there and waiting for someone who wasn’t coming. It would be a nice blow to his ego, and it was endlessly funny to Nam-Gyu until he imagines himself standing here for another 30 minutes waiting for a man who wasn’t gonna show up in the first place. He knows Thanos. Well, not really, but believe it or not, Nam-Gyu has listened to a good amount of his music before. His purple hair represents him, and Nam-Gyu had recognized him almost instantly. He wasn’t exactly famous, but he was well known enough to get recognized in public. Nam-Gyu wasn’t even exactly sure how he had woken up in the rapper's apartment, but that was something for him to worry about later.

He inhales sharply, tucking his hair behind his ears as he pulls his sleeves over his hands. It’s cold, and he needs a cigarette. He steals a glance at his phone to check the time. 2:37. How much longer was this fucker gonna take to get he-

His thoughts are interrupted by a sharp jab to his side. To Nam-Gyu’s absolute horror, his entire body twitches like it had been electrocuted and his head jerks to the figure beside him. And, of course, Thanos is standing there. Nam-Gyu’s face flushes an angry shade of red and he reaches up a hand to rub absentmindedly at the back of his neck. “Damn, Nam-Su! Didn’t know you were so jumpy!” Nam-Gyu narrows his eyes, trying to regain his composure as quickly as possible. “It’s Nam-Gyu. Asshole.”

“Whatever, man.” Thanos dismisses his correction. “Didn’t get to hear your name last night, I'm doing my best here.”

Nam-Gyu averts his gaze, shifting his weight awkwardly as he weighs his options on what to say. “Last night.. We didn’t- uh-”

“No! What you did do, though, was trash my apartment and steal one of my pills.” Nam-Gyu crosses his arms. “I remember that part.”

“Oh, good. At least you know what you did. I expect to be paid back.”

“I’m not paying you anything.”

Thanos raises an eyebrow. “Or.. you could give me that girl’s number. From last night.” Nam-Gyu scowls, shaking his head rapidly. He guesses his look of disgust was enough to derive Thanos from the topic completely. “Do you wanna go inside, or…”

“My lighter, dude.”

“Oh shit- yeah!” Thanos fumbles through his pocket for a second before retrieving it, handing it to Nam-Gyu with a smirk. “Nice lighter you’ve got there, my boy.” Nam-Gyu immediately sticks up a middle finger at him in response, admiring the way the rhinestones on his beloved lighter glitter in the sun. Oh, he missed this thing. “Fuck off..” He murmurs to Thanos as he tucks it into the pocket of his hoodie. For a second, he thinks that this is the end of it. That Thanos is gonna wave goodbye and walk away now that Nam-Gyu has gotten what he wanted. But no, Thanos pulls the door to the coffee shop open and motions for Nam-Gyu to enter first. “Ladies first.” Nam-Gyu visibly shivers and shakes his head again. Thanos laughs. What was so funny about him being openly embarrassed?

“Your nose scrunches up when you get flustered. It’s real cute, boy.”

“Are you- like- flirting with me?”

“Maybe.”

It wasn’t like a man hadn’t tried flirting with Nam-Gyu before, but it still feels strange. Plus, the only men that did try and flirt with him had been back at the club. Usually when they were trying to get a free drink or something. But with Thanos, it was different. He had known this guy for a day at the most, and he was already openly flirting with Nam-Gyu.

God, this guy.

Nam-Gyu turns towards the first available table near the door and plops down into the seat. There isn’t much else to do, anyways. It isn’t like he has enough money to actually buy coffee. Any type of coffee these days was expensive as fuck. Yeah, it was good if you ordered the right thing, but it isn’t worth 5-10 dollars for a small latte that he would finish in a minimum of a few minutes. He can barely afford to buy himself food, let alone indulge in something like this.

Thanos peers down at him from the entrance. “You coming?” he nods his head towards the counter at the front of the shop. “Nah, can’t afford any of that fancy shit. I didn’t think you actually wanted coffee.” He explains sheepishly.

“Whatever, man. I’ll pay.” Nam-Gyu raises his eyebrows, pointing a finger at his chest. “For me?”

“Yeah, man! I need me some fucking coffee. I’m not just gonna leave you hanging.” Damn. After last night, Nam-Gyu didn’t think Thanos would be the one paying for anything. When Nam-Gyu doesn’t say anything, Thanos waves him towards the ordering counter. “C’mon, my boy.” Nam-Gyu lets out a slow exhale before rising and following behind Thanos.

Nam-Gyu likes sweet things. He’s the kind of guy to get a frappuccino before getting something with loads of caffeine in it. Those kinds of drinks always taste so bitter, and he doesn’t really get how they’re enjoyable. So, after Thanos orders black coffee from the cashier, it isn’t a surprise that Nam-Gyu scrunches his face up in disgust. The cashier in question was a young girl that looks to be in her twenties, she has short, black hair that’s cut in a wolfcut with highlights and bangs, and her nametag reads, “Jun-Hee.” Thanos had already addressed her as “senorita” two times, and was now trying to get his coffee for free. “C’mon, dude.” Nam-Gyu finally cuts in, exasperated. He grabs onto Thanos’s arm and plans to drag him back to the table if he really has to. “Your total is $11.24.” The girl says slowly, clearly trying her best to give Thanos a polite smile.

Poor girl.

“Write down your number on the receipt for me, would ya?” Nam-Gyu pulls Thanos forcibly away from the cashier and back towards the table, huffing. Does this guy just flirt with any girls he laid his eyes upon? “She doesn’t want your fucking number.”

Thanos puts a hand to his heart and pulls a hurt expression over his face, gaping at Nam-Gyu like he had just insulted his mother. “It was obvious.” He finally lets go of Thanos’s arm and watches as the other man falls into the seat opposite of Nam-Gyu.

“I just paid for your coffee, boy. Watch your mouth.” Nam-Gyu, once again, doesn’t give a verbal response, just stares at him blankly. Thanos tilts his head down, staring at the floor as he mumbles, “so bitchy.” He looks back up at Nam-Gyu with his eyes narrowed, like he’s about to interview him. “Why’re you so broke, anyways?” Nam-Gyu frowns at how straight forward it is. “M’ not broke.” He defends himself weakly, even though he knows damn well that isn’t true. “Just can’t afford to spend my money on some fuckass coffee. That shit is expensive.”

“Do you even have a car?”

“Fuck- lay off me, man! Yes, I have a car!” After a few moments of silence Nam-Gyu huffs again and starts picking at the skin around his fingers. “M’ not that broke, alright? Just lost a lot of money from some crypto scam.”

Thanos raises his eyebrows. “Crypto scam?”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s stupid, man. This fucker on YouTube encouraged everyone to invest all their money in this coin,” He waves his hands around while he talks. “And then they vanished with all that money. Can’t believe I fell for that shit.”

When Nam-Gyu finally looks back up after his rant, he’s surprised to see Thanos staring at him with wide eyes. It nearly makes Nam-Gyu jump out of his skin.

“Jesus, man! What?”

“Me too.”

“Huh?”

“Holy shit, dude.” Thanos murmurs. “I fell for the same scam.”

Nam-Gyu shakes his head, unable to hold back the giggle that racks him. “How much did you lose from it?”

Thanos drums his fingers on the table, thinking for a second. “A few hundred million, maybe?” Nam-Gyu’s full on laughing, now. “Me too, man. I hate that fucker so much. MG Coin, right?”

“Holy fuck! Dude, I’ve been wanting to get back at him for, like, a year. We’ve got to fucking do something.”

Nam-Gyu snorts. “And what do you suppose we do, hm? I don’t even know where he is. For god's sake, he could be across the world right now.” Even though the chances of finding him are low, the thought of getting revenge on Myung-Gi makes him giddy. Maybe Thanos isn’t so bad after all, if he could help Nam-Gyu get some revenge. If he’s being honest, they sound like two mean girls in high-school plotting how to get back at someone.

“I don’t know. We could do some research. Talk to some people. There's gotta be a way to find him.”

“You’re actually serious about this?”

“Yeah, Nam-Su! This was like divine intervention! I lost that game of rock, paper, scissors for a reason!”

Nam-Gyu furrows his brow. Rock, paper, scissors?

“It’s Nam-Gyu, dude. What does rock, paper, scissors have to do with any of this?”

“Oh- yeah. Uh, me and that boy you were with were playing and I lost, so that girl forced me to bring you home.”

“That bitch.”

“Uh, yeah. That was a pretty ‘bitch’ move, bro.”

“Your couch was pretty comfortable, though.”

“Obviously.”

Nam-Gyu hesitates for a second. He really, really doubts that he would be accepted, but it was at least worth a shot. They’re technically friends now, right? “Can I stay at your place again?”

“Oh fuck. You really are broke. Are you homeless?”

“No!” Nam-Gyu blurts immediately. He was usually good at lying, so he hated how it came out so forced. “I have an apartment. It’s just.. My neighbors are loud as fuck and it’s all trashy and-”

“Relax, boy.” Thanos cuts him off, shrugging. “Yeah, yeah. You can stay at my place. Just please don’t make a huge fucking mess this time.”

Nam-Gyu blinks at him, surprised. “Really?”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”

Nam-Gyu gives him a lopsided smile. “Maybe I’ll consider giving you that bitch’s number from last night.”

Thanos grins, triumphant. “How’d you get my number, anyways?”

“Looked through your phone to find it.”

“You snooped through my phone, too?!”

Chapter Text

By the time Thanos was finally getting back to his apartment, it was around 8:30 at night. He had messed around doing a bunch of random shit before finally deciding on going to this tiny store near his apartment complex to get some hair dye. He had been considering redying his hair for weeks now, but never acted on it because it was a pain in the ass to do by yourself and he had no one to do it for him. He was guessing Nam-Gyu had headed back to Thanos’s apartment after their trip to the coffee shop. And since Nam-Gyu was there, he hoped he would dye Thanos’s hair for him. (It wasn’t really an option, this was his way of making Nam-Gyu pay him back for the Coffee and the nights he was letting him stay at his apartment.) Thanos had gotten a text from him though, about an hour earlier. It simply read, “When’s your birthday?”

Thanos was skeptical, for obvious reasons, but gave it to Nam-Gyu anyway because he figured that his sneaky ass would probably find his answer another way if Thanos didn’t give him one. Thinking back on it now, it probably wasn’t one of his best decisions giving Nam-Gyu his birthday.

So, when he stumbled into his apartment with a box of hair dye, he wasn’t exactly shocked to see Nam-Gyu sitting on his couch, on Thanos’s computer. Nam-Gyu glances up from where his eyes are glued on the laptop and gives Thanos a halfhearted wave. “Why’re you on my computer, boy?” Nam-Gyu sinks deeper into his spot at the edge of the couch, looking smug as ever. “It’s for educational purposes.”

Thanos raises an eyebrow. “Educational purposes?”

Nam-Gyu shrugs. “Yeah, it’s about Myung-Gi.”

 “That’s what you’ve been doing this whole time? Stalking him?”

 “I wouldn’t say stalking…” Nam-Gyu trails off, his eyes straying away from him to look back at the screen. Thanos looks away for a second, taking off his jacket and hanging it on one of the hooks near his front door. “Well, I’ve got hair dye. How about you tell me about MG Coin while you dye my hair?”

Nam-Gyu frowns. “I don’t know how to do that shit, man.” Thanos holds up the box and waves it around like it has the answer to all Nam-Gyu’s problems. “Just read the directions, dumb boy.” The way Thanos said it in such a straight forward manner must have made Nam-Gyu crack up, cause he lets out a small laugh that’s close to a goddamn giggle and runs a hand through his hair. Thanos's eyes follows the way the strands fall into his face, framing his features almost perfectly. He hadn’t realized how long Nam-Gyu’s hair was before. It was greasy as fuck, but shiny, too. His features were a little cat-like, his jawline and eyes in particular.

He was like an angry, stray cat.

If he was being honest with himself, Nam-Gyu was decently attractive. He didn’t know why he didn’t take time to really look over his features when they had first met.

“Directions on shit like that never make sense.”

“Uh-yeah, they do. C’mon.” Thanos doesn’t give Nam-Gyu a chance to respond before he strolls into his small bathroom and plops down onto his toilet. Just as he expected, it doesn’t take long for Nam-Gyu to follow behind quickly enough. Thanos sets the box of hair dye on the counter beside the sink before taking his shirt off and discarding it somewhere in the room. When he turns back to look at the other man, Nam-gyu is staring at the box with his brows furrowed. “I’m only doing this cause I owe you.” He grumbles, setting it down and turning back to Thanos. “You need to section your hair into 4 sections.” Thanos reaches up and distributes his hair into 3 uneven sections instead of 4. Nam-Gyu huffs, reaching forward tentatively and slowly parting his hair into the necessary amount of sections. “God, that was awful. How’d you even think that was even?” Nam-Gyu laughs quietly. “Why’d you dye your hair in the first place, anyway?”

Thanos shrugs. There was more behind it than what he usually explained when people asked about it, but that was for him to know and him to know only. “Wanted to really rebrand myself, ya know?” He mumbles sheepishly. “Also, I kinda wanted to be known for something.” He gestures vaguely towards his hair. “Thought this would be recognizable.”

“Oh, it sure is.” Nam-Gyu muses, tilting his head. “Makes you look like a bright purple grape.”

“You don’t like this, boy?”

“You look really fucking stupid, Thanos. Is that even your real name?”

Thanos casts his eyes downwards, avoiding Nam-Gyu’s gaze. “No, dumb boy. Who would name their kid fucking Thanos?”

“You tell me.”

Thanos scowls, but decides theres nothing he can lose from it, so he mumbles out, “my real name’s Su-Bong. But he’s long gone. I’m not him anymore, and that’s the whole reason why I wanted to turn my life around. Give myself a whole new identity as a rapper. Make my mom proud.”

He shakes his head, dismissing the topic completely. He doesn’t like to talk about his younger self. He’s not Su-Bong anymore, and he hates when he’s confronted with these types of questions. But it’s not like Nam-Gyu’s being particularly bitchy right now, so he decides telling him the truth is better than telling him to fuck off about it.

“What did you find out about MG Coin?” He asks, trying to change the subject as smoothly as possible.

Nam-Gyu gives his hair one last glance before snatching the hair dye out of the box, peering into the small package to see the rest of its remains. “It comes with a bowl, too?” He blurts out, pulling a small, circular bowl out of it. “That’s what it looks like, my boy.” Thanos nearly laughs, finding it amusing how fast Nam-Gyu can get derived from a topic.

“Cool as fuck,” Nam-Gyu hums, as he starts to mix some of the hair dye with the developer. Thanos actually laughs out loud this time. “It’s just a bowl.”

Nam-Gyu shrugs, smiling a little. “Anyways. Like I said, I wasn’t stalking him. I was just on his TikTok. Do you remember that girl from the coffee shop earlier? What was her name?”

“Uhm- Fuck, I dunno man. Jun-Ho, maybe?”

Nam-Gyu’s eyes light the fuck up, and he hops a little in what seems to be excitement. “Dude, that's his girlfriend.” Thanos’s eyes widen, for obvious reasons, and he raises his eyebrows. “How do you know that? Why does he even have a TikTok after everything went down?”

“I dunno. He’s stupid as fuck, so he probably just forgot about it.”

Thanos sighs, shaking his head. “Ya know, this all feels like a crazy coincidence. I meet a guy who fell for the same scam as me, and then we meet Myung-Gi’s girlfriend at a coffee shop.”

Nam-Gyu snorts, stealing a glance at Thanos. “That’s corny as hell, dude.” He sighs, stifling another giggle with his hand. “There's one more thing I forgot to mention earlier. She’s kinda- uh.. Pregnant.” He slides his hand underneath his hoodie and sticks his hand out, mimicking it. Thanos blinks at him. “Did you just pretend to be pregnant?”

Nam-Gyu bites down on his lip, lifting up the applier to put in the dye. “That’s some crazy shit, man! Did he leave his pregnant girlfriend?”

“Knowing him, probably.”

“I could just steal his girl. That would piss him off real bad.”

“Thanos. She’s literally pregnant!” Nam-Gyu exclaims, exasperated. He goes in with the dye before continuing, “What, are you gonna be the father, too?” Thanos lets out a low hiss at how cold the dye is. Nam-Gyu didn’t even give him a warning! “I could be a better father than he ever could.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Nam-Gyu murmurs, and they fall into a brief lapse of silence as Nam-Gyu focuses on applying the dye. When he moves to the other side of Thanos, he finally mumbles, “We could use her to our advantage, though. If they seriously have a thing, we could set him up or something.”

“What, you wanna ruin their relationship?”

Nam-Gyu nods silently. “Seems like an easy way to get revenge without getting violent.” Nam-Gyu muses. “Hmm,” Thanos hums quietly, tilting his head when Nam-Gyu orders him to. Thanos had never intentionally tried to ruin someone's relationship before, but he figured it wouldn’t be all that hard to do. It would be as easy as throwing scrunchies or lipstick in someone's car. He thinks briefly that maybe, if he framed the two of them to where they would meet in the same place, him and Nam-Gyu could call him from a random number (Thanos still has his number from when he used to follow him on YouTube,) and make it seem like he was cheating. But, the chances of this girl and Myung-Gi being in the same place were very low. It would be like a whole other level of luck if Thanos and Nam-Gyu were able to spot them like this. He expresses it anyway, though, because it's the best thing he's got at the moment.

“If we see them together, we could, like, call him from a random number or send him a text. Frame him for cheating.”

Nam-Gyu finishes the last patch of hair and pulls back, staring down at Thanos’s head in satisfaction. “Good thinking, hyung.”

Thanos raises an eyebrow. “Hyung? I’ve never been called that one before. Was that really a good idea, though?”

“Yeah, it seems like the best option we’ve got. What are the chances we actually see them together, though?”

“That’s what I was thinking. Think about it like this: If we see them together in public, we act on it, if we don’t, we let it go.” Thanos isn’t religious or anything, but if that actually manages to happen, he thinks god might actually be blessing him. Nam-Gyu shrugs. “Yeah, yeah. Divine intervention or whatever you were talking about earlier.” He moves from beside Thanos to the sink and runs his hands underneath the water. “You’re done.”

“Thanks, my boy,” Thanos says before reaching into one of the drawers to get a shower cap. Nam-Gyu’s hands shake a little as he dries his hands on the towel hanging next to the sink and grabs onto the door handle, taking one last look at Thanos before muttering, “M’ gonna go watch stuff on your computer.” He was out the door before Thanos could ask any questions.

—

        Nam-Gyu hates feeling like this. More specifically, he hates having to think. He gets into his head too much, and it makes him nervous, jittery. That explains why his leg is bouncing like crazy right now and he has picked at enough of the skin on his fingers to make it bleed. He tries to resort to playing with his rings instead, but that only succeeds in making him more restless. The only sound in the small apartment is the shower running in the background, and it is far too little for Nam-Gyu to feel grounded.

He hasn’t had anything since this morning. Sure, he had smoked a cigarette or two, but there was no remaining buzz from the pill he had stolen from Thanos in his system anymore. He didn’t want to ask for one, but he also isn’t sure he would be able to steal from that cross again. He knows he won’t be able to sleep if he doesn’t though, and he also knows that he’ll probably be like this for the rest of the night if he doesn’t do something about it. So he tries to distract himself. He goes on Myung-Gi’s TikTok and scrolls through the videos.

There’s not really anything worth watching, but it’s something to occupy his mind, so he scrolls anyway. But, as always, his thoughts stray away from the screen like they always do. Nam-Gyu is homeless. Well, in a way. He’s mostly been staying at apartments that belong to his friends or sleeping in his car. The last person's place he was staying at was Gyeong-Su’s, and all his clothes are currently over at his place. He probably should've told Gyeong-Su before staying at Thanos’s, but he would probably go get his clothes from there tomorrow.

Thanos doesn’t know that Nam-Gyu is homeless, though, and he guesses that he’s gonna have to tell him at some point. Thanos doesn’t seem too worked up about Nam-Gyu staying here, though. At first, Nam-Gyu told himself he only wanted to stay here so bad because it was a warm place to sleep, but now, he’s realizing that he doesn’t hate Thanos all that much. For someone he had just met, Nam-Gyu took a strange liking to the rapper. Thanos also doesn’t know Nam-Gyu is unemployed. He’s unemployed and homeless, a deadly combo. Well, to be fair, he did have a job, but he got fired from club pentagon. He sucks in a sharp inhale as he goes back to picking at the skin on his fingers. He hadn’t realized just how fucked up his life was before now.

The shower stops running completely, dipping Nam-Gyu into deafening silence. He sinks further into the comforter of the couch, as if it could swallow him whole. He hoped it could. Thanos exits the bathroom soon after the water stops running, with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. The sight strangely makes him think about what type of clothes Thanos had. Maybe Nam-Gyu would look through those tonight.

He gives Nam-Gyu a nod before walking into his bedroom, which Nam-Gyu assumes is to put on some clothes. And then there was silence again, save for Thanos fumbling around with stuff in his room. His hair feels overly greasy, too heavy on his head, and his fingers are too twitchy. He’s unable to stop them from shaking even when they’re lying flat on his lap. He needs something to ground him. So, when Thanos gets back and sits down on the couch, Nam-Gyu moves closer. It was just enough to where Thanos hopefully wouldn’t notice, but enough to where Nam-Gyu’s mind registers that Thanos is here. He’s talking his goddamn head off about something, but Nam-Gyu can barely hear him over the ringing in his ears. He shifts closer, closer, every time Thanos seems to be hyperfocused on a different topic.

It isn’t long until Nam-Gyu is practically right beside him, with only a little distance in between. It still isn’t enough. Every time he looks at Thanos, his eyes keep dropping to the cross around his neck.

“You good, boy?” Nam-Gyu physically jumps, his eyes flicking back up to meet Thanos’s. “Yeah,” He mumbles, but the words come out raspy. “M’ fine.”

“I highly doubt that.”

Nam-Gyu lets his eyes fall shut for a moment. He shifts onto his hands and knees and crawls the rest of the way to Thanos’s side. His eyes fall to the cross and then back up to meet Thanos’s gaze, and he settles on his knees in front of the rapper for extra effect. “Hyung.. Can I have one?” Thanos's eyes light up like he had just won something, and he tilts back from Nam-Gyu a little. He raises a finger and taunts,“Ooohh. So this is what you want?” Nam-Gyu feels like a fucking dog being given a treat, but he nods anyway.

“Hmm. You did a good job dying my hair.” Nam-Gyu’s face flushes a little against his will. He isn’t used to being praised, but it always makes his face heat up and his mouth go all dumb. It was almost as if his brain short circuits.

 “Open up, Nam-Su.”

Nam-Gyu blinks, not taking the risk of correcting him.

“What?”

“Open your mouth.”

Nam-Gyu swallows thickly, but lets his mouth hang open anyway, staring at Thanos expectantly. Thanos plucks a singular pill out of the cross and brings it to Nam-Gyu’s mouth, placing it onto his tongue, finger resting there for longer than necessary. Nam-Gyu closes his eyes as Thanos finally removes his finger, savoring the bitter taste as he swallows the pill. When he opens his eyes again, Thanos is fucking smiling, seemingly amused at the whole thing. Nam-Gyu feels his face go hot again, and he tilts away from Thanos, searching for words that won’t come to him. The whole thing feels strangely intimate, and Nam-Gyu finds himself not wanting to say anything to Thanos at all. He knows, in a sense, that all Thanos had done was given him what he wanted, but it feels like Nam-Gyu had just earned far more than a small, bitter pill.

Chapter Text

“Can I borrow your shirt?” Nam-Gyu’s voice carries across the hallway from Thanos’s room, and Thanos scoffs at the question. “Didn’t you just go get your clothes from your friend?”

“Yeah, but I like your shit better.”

Thanos is getting tired of screaming his head off trying to talk to Nam-Gyu, so he stumbles into his bedroom and watches as the other man holds up a loose white shirt that was completely plain save for a few symbols.

“C’mon boy. If you’re gonna steal some of my clothes you should at least pick something good.” He plucks a yellow spongebob shirt out of the drawer and waves it around in Nam-Gyu’s face. He stares at it for a second before bursting out laughing. Not just laughing, full body laughs that has him leaning against the dresser as he cackles. Thanos looks at the shirt and back at Nam-Gyu who must be making fun of his fucking shirt. “What’s so funny, boy? This is fire, real fashion right here.”

Nam-Gyu leans over, his giggles subsiding a little as he glances back up at Thanos. “I’m not wearing a fucking spongebob shirt.”

“What’s wrong with my spongebob shirt?”

Nam-Gyu sighs and snatches up the shirt he had previously been looking at. “I’m gonna go put this on. Turn on that reality tv show or whatever you were talking about last night.”

He turns to watch Nam-Gyu exit the room. “Really? You’re actually gonna watch it with me?” Nam-Gyu shoots him a thumbs up as he walks into the living room, and Thanos is left standing in the doorway. He had been talking about some reality tv show he wanted to watch last night, but he didn’t think Nam-Gyu was even listening.

Thanos hadn’t done much of anything that day. While Nam-Gyu had to go out to his friend's place to get his clothes that he had left over there, Thanos had worked on polishing his lyrics for his upcoming show. Trust him, he knew how it felt to forget on stage, and he wasn’t planning on making that mistake again. He had been trying to get his rapping career back on track ever since he had fallen for that crypto scam, and it seemed like this upcoming show would be a good way to earn some money and get his name back out there. There were only 2 days left for him to prepare, but he deemed himself mostly ready.

He walks into his living room, following behind Nam-Gyu and grabs the remote off of the coffee table, falling onto the couch with a sigh. He watches as Nam-Gyu tugs the shirt over his head and observes the way it hangs loosely on his thin frame. His eyes fall to the other man’s arms, and he quickly perks up at the sight of tattoos covering the length of them. “Woah, you got tattoos?” Nam-Gyu glances down at his own arms and shrugs. “Yeah. It’s nothing special.” Thanos opens his mouth to say something, but Nam-Gyu is changing the subject before he can speak. “I got nail polish.”

Thanos raises his eyebrows. “You’re gonna paint my nails, too? You’re outdoing yourself.” Nam-Gyu rolls his eyes and leans down to shove his hands into his bag to search for something. “M’ not doing it to pay you back for anything. They’re just-” He pauses, pulling a small pack of nail polish out of his bag. “-really chipped. And, I’m gonna paint mine, too.” Thanos’s eyes fall to Nam-Guy's nails, and sees that he has nothing on at the moment. He rips open the pack of nail polish and dumps the colors out on the couch. Green, blue, orange, red, purple, pink and black. Thanos smirks, picking up the green from the pile. “How do you know what colors I use? Were you admiring my hands that much?”

For once, Nam-Gyu doesn’t say anything. No comeback, no remark, just silence. It was only a further confirmation for Thanos. “You wanna see what they can-”

 “Thanos.” Nam-Gyu says flatly, glaring up at him with his eyes narrowed. The death glare had less effect when Nam-Gyu’s face was flushed red down to his neck. “No. Fucking pervert.”

Thanos gives him a sweet smile. “Was just joking, Nam-Su. Only if you’re interested.” “Nam-Gyu,” Nam-Gyu corrects quickly. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Same thing.” Nam-Gyu sorts the colors that Thanos needs to paint his nails on one side of the couch and crawls back towards Thanos, leaning over to try and snatch the remote from his hands. “Feisty today..” Thanos murmurs as he dodges Nam-Gyu and finally goes onto Netflix to find the TV show.

Nam-Gyu gathers up the nail polish in his hands and leans across Thanos’s torso to place the colors on the small table beside the couch. He grabs Thanos’s other hand suddenly and splays it out on the arm of the couch, picking up the green.

“Are you painting my nails on the couch?”

“Sure, why not..?” Nam-Gyu mumbles, untwisting the cap. He sounds more pissed than usual. Probably not a good sign. As Thanos finally hits play on the first episode, Nam-Gyu zones in on Thanos’s thumb and holds up the applier with shaky hands.

“Goddamn, your hands are shaky as fuck.”

“Can’t help it, dude.” He squints down at Thanos’s nail. “I can’t see shit.”

 “What, are you half blind or something?” Thanos asks as a joke, and blinks in surprise when Nam-Gyu answers, “something like that.” He places down the nail polish and scrambles off of Thanos and back to his bag, fumbling through it again. When he finally rises from the floor, he's holding a case. He pops it open and plucks the glasses out of the compartment. Thanos stares at him as he tucks the hair behind his ears and slides the glasses on. Nam-Gyu seems to purposely avoid his gaze as he climbs back onto the couch and positions himself back to laying across Thanos’s torso. “They make me look like a fucking dork, I know.” When Nam-Gyu finally meets his gaze, he murmurs, “God, what is it?” Thanos thinks his brain is short circuiting. Listen, he’s not gay or anything, but he can appreciate a good looking man when he sees one. And, to put it simply, Nam-Gyu looks hot as fuck right now. He’s not sure what it is about the glasses, but they have made him 10 times more attractive than he had been about a minute ago. So he says exactly that. “You look hot as fuck, my boy.” He enjoys the way Nam-Gyu’s face heats up again (He is always blushing,) and then tries to play it off. He sits himself up on Thanos’s lap for a second as he tries to will the redness in his face to fade and looks down almost thoughtfully. “Yeah, well, I’ve always had bad sight, and my mom never got me glasses. Never gave a shit about most of what I did. I’ve gotten used to it. It’s whatever. Just give me your hand.”

Thanos lets Nam-Gyu grab his hand without a fight, and after a moment of silence Thanos murmurs, “my parents were the same way. They never cared.” He tilts his head to look at Nam-Gyu as he begins to paint his nails. “You got any siblings?”Nam-Gyu nods half heartedly. “Yeah. I’ve got a sister. Let me guess, you’re an only child?” Thanos rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I am. You want a golden medal for guessing?”Thanos watches for his reaction, and takes note of the way his lips twitch upwards like he’s trying to hide a grin. They dip into a comfortable silence then, as Thanos watches the way Nam-Gyu’s tongue flicks out every once in a while when he's focused, and how a small amount of freckles dance across his nose. He stares at his tattoos for longer than necessary, and watches the way Nam-Gyu’s hair falls in front of his face when he grabs Thanos’s other hand. He suddenly has the urge to tie it back for him.

How would Nam-Gyu look in a ponytail?

He notices how he’s also oddly pale. His neck most of all. His hands are bony and his fingers are slender, and he’s probably skinnier than he should be. He hadn’t realized he was admiring and overanalyzing the other man in his head until Nam-Gyu was dropping his hand and placing down the last color of nail polish. He lets his head fall against the arm of the couch, letting out a slow, drawn out sigh. “M’ tired.” He mumbles quietly.

He wants to pat Nam-Gyu’s head, but he obviously can’t due to the drying nail polish on his fingers, so he slides further down on the couch and lets Nam-Gyu wrap an arm loosely around his waist as he shifts on Thanos’s lap, trying to get comfortable. Eventually he settles on laying on his side with his face pressed against the side of Thanos’s stomach. If there was one thing Thanos was learning about this whole interaction, it was that sleepiness makes Nam-Gyu far more affectionate than usual.

It was only when Nam-Gyu was probably fast asleep and Thanos was half-asleep listening to the sound of the TV show in the background that he realized that Nam-Gyu hadn’t even painted his own nails.

Chapter Text

Nam-Gyu wakes up to warmth. So much that it could be suffocating, trapped in a clingy embrace with his legs all tangled with someone else’s. His first instinct is to go back to sleep, but he’s sweating like crazy and hot as hell, so he cracks his eyes open. The first thing that he sees is the side of Thanos’s neck, covering all of his vision. Fuck, did he fall asleep? He shifts, letting out a soft groan of frustration when he feels arms tighten around his waist. He looks down, and surely, Thanos’s arm is slung around him and holding him in place. He can’t really judge him, though, because his own arm is wrapped around Thanos’s neck. He shifts for a few moments longer before giving up and burying his face back in the crook of Thanos’s neck. It was weird, being this warm. Nam-Gyu was almost always freezing.

        “Good morning,” a voice mumbles from above him, and Thanos loosenes his grip on Nam-Gyu a little. He doesn’t get up, even though he notices that he’s dangerously close to falling off the couch if he moves any farther away from Thanos.

“What time is it?” He mumbles, clinging to Thanos a little tighter when he tries to move. “I can’t breathe, Nams.”

Nams. That was new.

“Don’t care.”

“C’mon, please?” Thanos downright whines. Nam-Gyu scoffs, rolling his eyes, before rolling off of Thanos and into the floor. “Stop whining.” Thanos frowns at him, but rises from the couch and tries to kick at Nam-Gyu as he walks past. Nam-Gyu rolls farther across the floor, before settling in the dead center of the room, laying on his stomach and closing his eyes. Once Thanos gets to the kitchen, he turns around and gives Nam-Gyu a quizzical glance. “Why are you sleeping on the floor?”

“It’s better than sleeping with you.”

“It didn’t seem like that a minute ago.”

“Fuck off,” he grumbles.

Thanos turns away from him for about 10 seconds in total, flinging the door to the refrigerator open, taking a few quick looks up and down the shelves, before turning back to Nam-Gyu and stating flatly, “We’ve gotta go to the grocery store.”

“You can go.”

Thanos shakes his head. “You practically live here now, too. So you’ve gotta come with me. You’re lucky I don’t make you pay rent.”

“I barely eat any of your food. How is it my responsibility?”

“Do you remember when you crashed in my apartment and ate half of my cereal, or is that just-”

“Fine! Whatever, man.”

Nam-Gyu makes his way to his feet and walks over to Thanos, glaring at the refrigerator like it had insulted him. Sure, most of the shelves were empty, but Nam-Gyu could make that work any day. Thanos smirks down at him, victorious. Nam-Gyu runs a hand through his hair, to hopefully fluff it up enough to where it doesn’t look like he rolled around in the grass. He probably needs to brush it, too, but he doesn’t have enough energy for that. His mind still feels slightly hazy from sleep, and he barely has enough energy to stand up, let alone go to the fucking grocery store. He follows Thanos out the door anyways.

Thanos’s apartment complex isn’t huge. It’s an average size, at the best, and the only thing Nam-Gyu actually likes about it is the grocery store that is practically right beside it. The walk isn’t long at all, and he guesses that’s why Thanos makes them walk instead of wasting gas by driving. He doesn’t mind all that much, though. He spends most of his time smoking a cigarette until Thanos asks, “You ever tried a vape?”

Nam-Gyu gives him a sideways glance. “Duh.” He puts out his cigarette and tilts his head to look at Thanos. “I don’t get how you like that stuff.”

“I don’t get why you smoke cigarettes so much.”

They fall into another lapse of silence, mostly because there's nothing else to talk about. It feels like most of their bickering back and forth is useless, so Nam-Gyu stays silent for the rest of their walk. He feels on edge. It’s weird, considering there’s nothing wrong at the moment. He actually feels oddly happy. Not with his life in general, but being with Thanos seems to have made him slightly more pleased with his situation. Maybe it’s because he genuinely enjoys hanging out with the rapper. He’s stayed at Se-Mi’s place, Min-Su’s place, and Gyeong-Su’s place all before. They’re all his friends, but it felt like he was ripping his skin off when he had to be with them all day everyday. He doesn’t hate them, they just piss him off a lot. No matter how many times he tries to convince himself he really doesn’t like them, he knows that it isn’t true. He loves them, no matter how many times they manage to piss him off in one day.

It isn’t long until they arrive at the entrance of the grocery store, and Thanos is rushing in there all excited like he’s a starved man. “C’mon Nam-Su!”

He lets Thanos drag him around and down the aisles, dropping random things in the cart that Nam-Gyu doesn’t understand how they would need. He also doesn’t understand why he was even forced to come here when he didn’t even contribute to anything put in the cart. He doesn’t get anything, although it’s kinda funny to watch Thanos get hyped up over the vapes they have. He holds each flavor up to Nam-Gyu’s face, and some of the titles are almost laughable. God, why does he like this stuff?

He actually looks at some of them, simply because he’s genuinely interested in some of these flavors, before his eyes fall on a pink, cotton candy one. He picks it up, examining it before shoving it into Thanos’s hands. “You should get this one.”

Thanos narrows his eyes at Nam-Gyu, and then looks down to see what flavor he had picked out. “Ooooh,” he brings up a hand and tries to pinch Nam-Gyu’s cheek. “You like cotton candy, boy?” Nam-Gyu swats Thanos’s hand away from his face. “I thought you didn’t like these?”

“Fine,” Nam-Gyu retorts, grabbing it out of Thanos’s hand and going to put it back on the shelf. Thanos grabs his wrist, though, and pries the vape right back out of his hands. “Don’t be like that. Anything for you, Nams.” He blinks at Thanos as he turns and starts walking towards the cash register. Why does he like to tease him so damn much?

He reluctantly follows Thanos to pay for their stuff, even though he really doesn’t want to, and watches as he gets their things checked out by some old lady. Nam-Gyu’s honestly surprised Thanos didn’t try flirting with her. After everything is put into a bag, Thanos is grabbing onto Nam-Gyu’s wrist and tugging him out the door like he’s a goddamn dog on a leash. He doesn’t know why he doesn’t pull away.

He tilts his head down after they walk a few steps down the sidewalk and finally pulls his wrist away from Thanos’s grip. He looks out at the parking lot for a few seconds, his eyes wandering the small amount of cars that litter the area. It’s less crowded than Nam-Gyu would’ve expected. He hears distant voices in the background, but he can’t bring himself to pinpoint where they’re coming from. And then, he spots them. He swears he feels his heart stop for a second, and his legs stop moving forward, forcing him to stop automatically in place. His memory is hazy, and it’s been at least a year since he’s seen Myung-Gi’s face, but he’s almost 100% sure that he’s looking at that fucker right now. It’s almost a valid confirmation for Nam-Gyu when he sees the girl he seems to be trying to reason with. He tears his gaze away for a singular moment, and he grabs onto Thanos’s arm before he can get too far ahead. “Hyung, hyung!” He tries to keep his voice hushed, but he feels like he’s vibrating with anticipation. Thanos turns back towards him, staring at him. He nods his head towards the direction, hesitating, as if maybe when he turns back around they’ll be completely gone. But no, when Nam-Gyu looks back, they’re still standing there at the edge of the parking lot. Myung-Gi was holding her hands now, and he looks almost distressed. He feels Thanos go stiff beside him, and when he turns to look at him, his jaw is quite literally hanging open. Nam-Gyu is unable to stifle his laughter. They hadn’t even really planned this. It’s not like either of them actually expected to see them out in public.

“Fuck, Nam-Su!”

Nam-Gyu’s chest heaved with the effort of trying to hold back the giggles that were threatening to leak through, his shoulders shaking.

“Do something! They’re gonna leave if you don’t do something!”

“Me?” Thanos exclaims, backing up against the wall with a hand over his mouth. “God, will you shut up?” He was being insanely loud, and if they even wanted to have a chance at this, they needed to make sure they weren't noticed. He backs Thanos up into the alleyway beside the grocery store and pulls out his phone, putting in the code with shaky hands that were even twitchier than usual.

“I have an app for this. Just-” He cuts himself off as he goes onto some stupid fucking app he downloaded the night that he had dyed Thanos’s hair. It was like an anonymous texting app, and you could quite literally just text someone from a completely different number.

“Damn, boy! You came prepared!”

“Yeah, yeah.” He waves Thanos off as he goes to the app's interface to try and send a message to Myung-Gi. He guesses he kinda is prepared, considering he had already made a fake number. “Pull up his number! Try to be useful!”

Thanos curses but starts scrambling to get his phone out, anyways. It makes Nam-Gyu feel strange, being in control for once. For the first time since they’ve met, Nam-Gyu is the one giving orders. He steals a quick glance around the corner, letting out a sigh of relief when he sees that they’re still there. The girl looks like she’s disinterested… Maybe even pissed off. Myung-Gi’s mouth is running like crazy, but Nam-Gyu can’t make out anything he’s saying. It’s clear to Nam-Gyu now that the girl, Jun-Hee, if he’s remembering correctly, is most definitely pregnant. She’s holding her stomach, and Nam-Gyu can almost tell just by the way she’s standing.

He feels a hand nudging insistently at his shoulder, and he turns around to see Thanos holding up a picture of a phone number. Nam-Gyu grins, before bringing his own phone back up to his face and typing in the number Thanos is showing him. He takes in a sharp exhale as he stares at the screen, his thumbs hovering there.

“Just give it to me, boy.” Thanos doesn’t give Nam-Gyu a chance to answer before the phone is being snatched out of his hand. He doesn’t understand how Thanos does it, but his thumbs are flying across the keys and he’s already hit send on the message before even showing Nam-Gyu. He grabs his phone back, staring at the text.

“Last night was fun, baby. Can I call you?”

Nam-Gyu is unable to hold his laughter back any longer. He doubles over, nearly dropping his phone in the process and starts flat out giggling. He himself doesn’t even understand what was so funny about it, but he can’t really help it. He doesn’t realize Thanos is laughing as well until he feels a body slump against him and hands trying to grab at his phone again. “It’s not even that funny, boy!” Thanos snorts out through giggles. He retrieves the phone back without much struggle, as Nam-Gyu can barely stay up right through his laughing fit. And then, Thanos hits the fucking call button. “Hyung!” Nam-Gyu practically chokes out, and quickly realizes that he can’t do anything about it now that he hears the ringing from across the parking lot. He slides down the wall and onto the floor, choking on his own laughter. He doesn’t really care if this whole attempt at revenge works or not, he’ll probably remember this moment forever, anyways. It feels even more real when he turns around and peers around the corner, watching as now, as expected, the girl is fucking yelling at him. And, oh, she is furious. Jun-Hee is getting all up in his face and everything, gesturing towards Myung-Gi’s phone that he’s now holding loosely in his hand, which is still ringing by the way, and even goes as far to rip his hand off of her when he tries to touch her shoulder.

Nam-Gyu is staring at the whole interaction with wide eyes, because, frankly, he can’t believe that they actually succeeded. And then, Jun-Hee’s walking away, leaving Myung-Gi to stand there alone, staring out at the parking lot with a blank expression. He turns around and tries to yell something at her, but she’s already storming down the sidewalk.

He glances over at Thanos, who is gawking at it just as he is. He lets himself laugh again, leaning his full weight onto Thanos as his head falls back. They sit there in almost complete silence save for their labored breathing before Myung-Gi wipes at his eyes and starts to walk in the opposite direction.

“Awh, look, hyung! We made the amazing Myung-Gi cry!” Nam-Gyu taunts, pointing a finger at him as he walks away.

Thanos is unable to respond, as he is almost laughing harder than Nam-Gyu now. Even though the whole point of this was to get back at Myung-Gi, when he tilts his head back to look at Thanos’s wide grin, Nam-Gyu feels like he had succeeded in winning something far more valuable than revenge. Something that might last. Something that matters.

Chapter Text

Nam-Gyu finds himself standing in front of the mirror in Thanos’s bathroom, his hair still slightly damp from the shower. He hadn’t taken one in at least a week, so it was nice to feel the hot water on his skin. Even though he had the choice to choose one of his own, fancier shirts, (he wouldn’t call any of his shirts fancy,) he had put on another one of Thanos’s t-shirts along with a jacket of his own. The only reason he didn’t just throw on a hoodie was because they were going to the club. It’s not like he cared all that much about how presentable he looks in public, he wants to put a little effort into his looks for the occasion. Okay, maybe it’s also because he wonders what Thanos would say when he sees him like this, but he’s not ready to admit that yet. It feels weird, tying his hair up. He rarely does it, and he thinks the hairstyle looks strange on him, but he wants to try it anyway. So he ties his hair into a low ponytail and lets some strands fall loose in front of his face.

For a full grown man, he has some girly tendencies. He’s always fixing his hair in the mirror or tucking it behind his ears, and he also pulls his sleeves over his hands a lot.

He’s noticed the habits before, and he can’t really help it. He guesses others might find it cute or endearing, but he doesn’t see it that way. So, as he stares at his reflection in the mirror, he can’t help but think that he looks an awful lot like a girl. He lets out a small sigh and twirls some of the black strands of hair around his fingers before swinging the door to the bathroom open and walking into the living room.

As expected, Thanos is sitting on the couch, waiting for him. Nam-Gyu doesn’t hate going to the club, it just gets old after a while. Thanos had insisted they go in celebration of getting back at Myung-Gi, and he didn’t argue. Maybe he needed this. Thanos raises his head to meet Nam-Gyu’s eyes, and Nam-Gyu swears the other man nearly gasps. And just like that, the familiar feeling is back. The feeling when all he wants to do is sink into the ground and hide the heat crawling up his neck. Thanos makes him feel like he’s worth something, he’s not sure if it’s intentional, but Nam-Gyu hates it. Thanos is up off of the couch in a matter of seconds, and then he’s running his hand along his tied up hair. He tucks a strand of hair behind Nam-Gyu’s ear and chuckles. “Pretty..” He murmurs.

He wants to wave off the compliment, but he can’t before Thanos is speaking again, “Don’t try and deny it, Nam-Gyu. You dressed up all pretty for me.” For me. The words are enough to make Nam-Gyu’s head spin with a feeling he can’t explain, and the correct pronunciation of his name makes him almost dizzier.

He hadn’t even had time to really examine Thanos when he first walked out of the bathroom. Surprisingly, they were dressed almost the same, but Thanos was wearing a brown jacket unlike Nam-Gyu’s black one. “It’s not for you.” He tries to snap back, but it’s weaker than it was meant to be. Thanos only laughs, but he spins Nam-Gyu around towards the direction of the door and places a hand on the small of his back. Nam-Gyu doesn’t even understand what’s going on. He feels like one of those couples from cheesy rom-com movies. It’s funny, because he and Thanos aren’t even dating.

—

It isn’t long before Nam-Gyu’s completely wasted. He always surprises himself with how fast he can get drunk, and he always denies having more than he could handle when confronted, but he knows he probably shouldn’t have drunk this much. But everything feels fuzzy around the edges, so he doesn’t really regret it. He never regrets anything when he feels like this, even when he knows he won’t feel so good after. He wishes he could feel like this all the time. He knows that he’s already lost full control on his health, ever since his teenage years, so he doesn’t really worry much about the pills and alcohol in his system. It’s like a pleasant buzz that keeps him feeling light and floaty, so he doesn’t care, as long as he feels good.

He knows, he knows, he knows, but he still can’t bring himself to care. For gods sake, he doesn’t even know where Thanos is. He’s been looking for that fucker for like, 10 minutes. Nam-Gyu went out to the center of the room for a few minutes, and when he came back, Thanos was gone.

So, instead of worrying about it, he goes back out onto the dance floor and this guy starts fucking flirting with him. He feels slightly wrong about the whole thing, but he shrugs it off because now that he thinks about it, Thanos probably went off to flirt with some random girl to try and bring her home. Nam-Gyu doesn’t really wanna deal with that shit later when he’s trying to sleep, but right now he thinks,  fuck it, if he wants to bag random girls then I can flirt with a random guy. It’s very stupid logic, because Nam-Gyu isn’t even gay, and he doesn’t even know if he wants this. But his thoughts feel all jumbled and he doesn’t know what he wants so when the other man slides a hand around his neck and starts leaning forward, Nam-Gyu doesn’t stop him.

Then, he feels a sharp tug at his wrist, ripping him forcefully away from the other man’s grasp. Nam-Gyu has to hold back a yelp when he slams back into another body. “What the fuck are you doing?” Nam-Gyu’s lips curl upwards, and he tilts his head back to look up at Thanos through half lidded eyes. “Having fun,” he slurs out. Thanos doesn’t give a response, but he looks pissed. Like, Nam-Gyu has never seen Thanos look so angry before, and it’s weird seeing him like this.

He’s already tugging Nam-Gyu off of the dance floor and towards the direction of the bathrooms before the other man that was flirting with him has a chance to ask what’s going on. “What?” He manages out when Thanos flings open the door to the bathroom with more force than necessary and practically shoves Nam-Gyu inside. Thanos lets out a low, drawn out sigh as he opens a stall door and pushes Nam-Gyu up against the wall beside the door. Nam-Gyu swallows thickly. “Don’t do something you’ll regret later. What the fuck was happening back there?” Nam-Gyu stares up at him with eyes that are barely open. He feels dizzy. He can’t even understand what Thanos is saying to him. “I told you already,” He mumbles. “Was having fun.” Thanos shakes his head, sighing. He slides a hand down into his pocket and fumbles a cigarette out. Nam-Gyu furrows his brows.

“Thought you hated those.”

Thanos doesn’t give him an answer, which makes Nam-Gyu frown. He wants to touch him, to pull on his arm until he responds to him again. He feels too restless to stand here and watch Thanos smoke a cigarette when he feels like he needs one as well, so he slurs out, “shot gun?” Thanos’s eyebrows shoot up, and he takes a long drag before pulling it away from his mouth and staring at Nam-Gyu. It makes him feel far worse that Thanos still isn’t answering him. He’s too far gone to feel embarrassed about it, but he doesn’t even know what he did wrong and he wants Thanos’s attention.

“We’re not doing that.”

“I want it.” Nam-Gyu blurts out.

“You don’t know what you want.”

“C’mon. Please.”

Thanos’s eyes narrow further, raking over him like he’s something that needs to be thoroughly examined to be understood. Thanos sighs, before taking another long drag, holding the smoke in his lungs for a little too long. Then, he leans in. Only a little, but Nam-Gyu feels his muscles tighten. He lets his mouth hang open, waiting. Thanos exhales the smoke into his mouth and Nam-Gyu takes it, the smoke passing between them. It isn’t long until he feels the familiar feeling of smoke in his lungs, but that’s the least important thing to Nam-Gyu at the moment.

Their faces are close, merely inches apart, and it makes it even worse that their mouths are nearly brushing. He swallows, his throat bobbing up and down as he stares at Thanos. He’s not sure how it happens, mostly because it happens in the matter of a few seconds, but suddenly Thanos’s face is moving even closer and his lips are on Nam-Gyu’s before anything can be done about it.

He doesn’t know if it was an accident or not, but he can’t bring himself to care when all he wants is for it to continue. The sound that leaves his mouth when Thanos finally kisses him is somewhere between a whimper and a groan, and for once, Nam-Gyu doesn’t feel all that embarrassed about it. Thanos’s hand slides into his hair and tugs on his ponytail, causing Nam-Gyu to tilt his head back with another yelp. It hurts, but strangely, he wishes Thanos would’ve tugged harder. “See?” Thanos breaks the kiss suddenly, murmuring the word against his mouth. “This is all for me. Not for some other fucker.” He kisses Nam-Gyu again, and his eyes nearly fall shut from the force of it. “Yeah, Nam-Gyu?”

        Nam-Gyu bites down on his lip to hold back the moan that has now lodged itself in his throat due to Thanos saying his name correctly. “Yeah,” he slurs out, because that’s all he can manage at the moment. His mind is all hazy and his mouth isn’t cooperating. Then Thanos pulls away, and Nam-Gyu has to resist the urge to lean in again. He probably would have gone in for another kiss if it weren't for Thanos pressing kiss after kiss down his neck and nipping at the sensitive skin there. “Hyung,” he whines. His hands are around Thanos’s neck, and his legs feel like they’re about to give out.

And then, Thanos is sucking on the skin on his neck and it takes everything in him to hold back a whimper. He wants to tell Thanos that he’s sensitive, but he also doesn’t want it to stop. It feels good. Thanos feels good. Nam-Gyu’s never been the type of guy to let women mark him up and do whatever they want with him, but with Thanos it’s different. At that moment all Nam-Gyu wants is for Thanos to give him so many hickeys that everyone knows he belongs to-

His thoughts are cut off by a particularly harsh bite to his ear lobe, and Nam-Gyu is unable to hold back his whimper this time. It’s high-pitched and pathetic, but he can’t bring himself to care.

His whining seems to bring Thanos back to his senses, because he’s pulling away from Nam-Gyu’s neck just as suddenly as he had pressed his lips to the skin and he releases his hair. The contact is missed by Nam-Gyu almost immediately.

He reaches for Thanos again, and Thanos lets him, but when Nam-Gyu goes in for another kiss, he presses a hand against his chest and shakes his head. “We’re not doing that.” The frustration of being denied grips at the sides of Nam-Gyu’s mind, and he bites down on his lip. “Why?” He whines out. “You’re drunk.” Thanos grits his teeth.

“But I want it.”

“You don’t know what you want.” Thanos repeats.

But Nam-Gyu knows exactly what he wants. He just doesn’t know how to put it into words. He wants Thanos to touch him, he wants Thanos to kiss him, he wants all of it. He just doesn’t know how to say that outloud. “Please,” He says instead. “Tell me what you want.” Thanos insists. Nam-Gyu resists the urge to cry with frustration, as he literally feels tears pricking at the corners of his eyes because he can’t do what Thanos is asking him. He can’t think, let alone try and tell Thanos all he wants at that moment.

He wants to say, “You.” But he feels like he can’t say that either.

Thanos stares at him before cupping a side of his face with his hand. “We’ll wait until you can, then.”

“Wanna go home,” Nam-Gyu blurts out.

“Now that,” he tucks some more strands of hair behind Nam-Gyu’s ears in an attempt to fix up the damage he had done. “We can do.”