✫ mundane--

Jeongmin looked at his gege. “I can’t sleep either.” he said quietly. He knew Lu Han would be able to read his mind and hear his thoughts but he also knew that often Lu Han would help him open up and talk about it.   Something that Jeongmin appreciated. 

He often wondered if Lu Han minded looking after him the way he did, if he minded that Jeongmin was a siren who thought too much about love, his life, his sexuality, normal teenage things, but he thought that his thoughts might irritate his roommate as Lu Han had already gone through the phase Jeongmin was in and had come out the other end unscathed. 

For some reason, the waves were starting to get riled up. It was probably close to high tide, but what Lu Han noticed instead was the silver gleam that every object on the beach seemed to take under the moon's gaze.

He was faintly aware of Jeongmin slipping onto his bed, the light sagging of the mattress as it sank to accommodate Jeongmin's weight.

He blinked when Jeongmin asked the question.

"You can pour it in a glass," Lu Han said with a non-committal shrug. "Or you can just drink from it. I prefer to drink from it, to be honest," Lu Han smirked.

Relatively warm for the current season, Saturday immediately had seemed like a good day to Henry. After all, he liked to be outdoor and loved temperatures that allowed him to stay seated in one spot for some time. That way he could easily gain some inspiration from nature’s elements all around him, be it the wind whistling as it snaked between the nearby forest’s trees, the waves crashing against the shore, or even the still sand of said shore.

In fact, he had found a big rock on the East side of the island that faced the ocean just the day before, so he was looking forward going back there. This time around, however, he had dressed more warmly with the hope he wouldn’t get cold as fast. Heck, he even had brought a blanket along with him, which he wrapped around his crossed legs once he was  comfortably settled on the rock.

He had cleared out its surface from the snow that had fallen there the previous day, so the only thing he had to do was wait for the spot he was sitting on to warm up. It quickly did, thankfully, and Henry’s shivering came to a halt. “Nice,” he mumbled to himself, then pulling his violin case onto his lap so that he could extract the precious instrument from it.

Which he did: he squeezed the wider end between his jaw and his shoulder and flexed the fingers of his left hand to warm them up before he would begin to drag them across the fingerboard. Frozen fingers were stiff and would create stiff sounds and never would he want that. Then, eager to hear the perfectly tuned sound of his violin, Henry took the light wooden bow in his free hand and made its hair rub against the chords.

Practicing his quaver and high notes with closed eyes, he also began to improvise a short but repetitive melody that sounded good to him. In fact, his ears enjoyed the chain of notes so much that he had the urge to put it down on paper in order not to forget it; perhaps he could insert it in a composition one of these days.

He closed his eyes, as he walked along the East side of the Island, and barely seemed to notice it when a soft strain of music infiltrated his thoughts. He pushed it away into the background of the camp - he was getting nearer to the main hub of activity, but...

That's when he realized the music wasn't somebody's thoughts, but somebody's playing. It felt...uplifting, as Lu Han turned to follow the music. The notes led him through the trees until he reached a large rock - and someone sitting on top of the rock.

Lu Han stepped back to take the view in full, shielding his eyes from the sun. The other's thoughts crashed down on him, as Lu Han squinted upwards.

Unfamiliar music terms greeted Lu Han's mind, before he let out a slight smile. He half considered simply stepping backwards and enjoying the music, when he realized he didn't actually want that. There was something about the stranger and the violin, the music and the thoughts, that formed a beautiful harmony in Lu Han's mind.

He knew there were beaches, considering it was an island, but he never got a glimpse of them because he always went into the woods to practice controlling his ability or ran into someone he’s never met before. Out of all the places he explored, the beaches were not on the list. Feeling adventurous, he decided that he’d just tie his shoes extra tight and walk down the dirt road that lead to the sandy beach.

He was dressed warm, aside from any gloves, which were unnecessary in his case. Finally, he left his house to make his way to the ‘new’ place.

When he got there, the scene left him in a slight trance. The ocean extended as far out as he could see, which made him feel like the island was the only thing that existed. He took a few more steps toward the water, and knelt down just before the tide could reach his feet. His index finger traced along the wet sand as he watched the tide flow up and down with a perfect rhythm. He wondered why he hadn’t come to this place before, since it was so calming from the beginning.

Jiyong imagined the summer, and how the beach was like during that time when they were on break. He could only assume it’d be full of people most of the time. But for now, it was far too cold for anyone to want to dip into the water now. Hell, he doubted that even the hot acid could survive in the cold water. 

"I'm so sorry!" he rattled out, eyes widening. "I didn't see you there."

It was a small game Lu Han liked to play sometimes. See how many people actually knew about his mindreading ability. Most of them did, he supposed, except for the newbies. The new circus members wouldn't know about Lu Han's telepathy, which was what made this game somewhat fun.

Because Lu Han could only guess if they were in fact, newbies. If they weren't, well, then the situation could turn awkward extremely quickly. But if they were, the game would turn into a game of, "how long until they find out?"

Jeongmin was lying facing the ceiling counting in his head, he didn’t know whether repetition would get the fears out of his mind because he didn’t want to dream of the sea again. As if the sea had it’s own siren call and was calling him. Though he was pretty sure that as a siren he was going to be drawn to the sea, to sing sailors to their deaths.

Jeongmin sensed that his roommate wasn’t exactly sleeping, but he didn’t say anything it wasn’t his place, he didn’t even have anything to say particularly. He knew that Lu han struggled at night time when everyone’s dreams were flooding in, and in some ways Jeongmin felt bad for the boy, always knowing thoughts. 

He let his mind wander of to whether he and Lu han would have the same problem - aka struggling to find love - because mind reading isn’t exactly fun in a relationship. Jeongmin didn’t mind but then he was sure he could siren seduce Lu han - which he had no intention of doing. Jeongmin wondered if he could sing Lu Han to sleep, but he doubted that would work. 

Jeongmin was startled by Luhan jolting in bed, a nightmare, Jeongmin barely whispered as he rolled onto his side to look at his hyung. Well his Gege. He reminded himself that Lu han was of Chinese decent and should be called by his Chinese honorific, although with the way Lu han spoke Korean it was sometimes very easy to forget his Chinese roots. 

Jeongmin sighed as he watched Lu Han as he picked up his alcohol. “Gege.” Jeongmin said sitting up and looking across as his friend. “Having trouble with the dreams?” he asked knowing full well what the answer was going to be, but still asking the question out of sheer politeness. 

Jeongmin paused waiting for the answer while running his hand through his hair. He didn’t really know what to say, he couldn’t sleep either but he didn’t want to sound needy. “Does that alcohol even help?” Jeongmin crinkled his nose trying to work out what alcohol it was. 

So when Jeongmin spoke, inquiring about the contents of the bottle Lu Han was currently nursing, he almost jumped ten feet into the air. Which would have been quite astonishing and in which case, Lu Han would have gone on to experiment. Perhaps he had gained a second ability?

"Nightmare from next door," Lu Han finally answered, as he turned to look Jeongmin in the eye. He noted with amusement the honorific Jeongmin had given him. Hearing the word gege coming from Jeongmin, with his Korean accent, was heartwarming, yet also oddly nostalgic. He hadn't been called that in a very long time. He sighed, holding the bottle up so the moonlight shone through it, casting an amber-colored shadow on the floor.

"Sometimes," he murmured, half to himself, half in response to Jeongmin's second inquisition. He picked up on Jeongmin's inability to sleep via the thought that darted through Jeongmin's mind but he said nothing about it. He was aware of Jeongmin's romantic troubles. Sirens were hard to come by, and it was hard to tell if it was true love.

"And no, it's scotch," Lu Han pulled himself up onto his bed, as he uncorked the bottle and took a few sips.

"You want to try?"

It was a terrible idea.

A very terrible idea.

With his rising irritation, the mousetraps had slowly started to swing around to watch the new guest instead, them snapping their traps almost nervously, as they felt the tense, unconscious energy from their master start to fill them. Something needed to chill the teen out, or he would likely snap, and if he snapped…then they would all likely snap on something of Lu Han’s. Which was never ever a good thought.

The blond finally looked up at his partner for the day and repressed his irritation, thankfully allowing the traps to return to their hunt for the mice invaders. Or rat invaders. But the thought of rats had Ren nearly starting to hyperventilate, so he stuck to just mice, thank you very much. The traps were heavy duty, though, so he wasn’t too concerned either way. His hand was resting on the peeled, rotting wallpaper below the window, something the blond had been currently focused on ripping off.

Shaking his head, he raised his voice to be understood through the muffling effect of his own mask, and said, “No kidding, genius. So pick a place and get started.” Ren could have explained why he was working so hard to clean, but he figured if Lu Han really cared, he’d likely just literally pick his brain for it. Waving his hand a little bit, the garbage bag to his right fluffed itself open, and the wallpaper just fluttered right in. “If you need anything and don’t feel like getting up, I can bring it over for you.” The teen called in a grudgingly genial voice. If they were going to work together like that all day, he might as well make an attempt to keep it from being horribly god awful.

But the reason he worked so hard on this was that he loved a project more than anything else; a fixer upper that he could smother with his lover and feminine touch. He was like that with objects, people jobs, whatever! When he looked at this sad little house, he saw something neglected that deserved love just as much as the fanciest condo did. It just needed some work, and it would be beautiful. Something about that last line settled heavily in his stomach, causing Ren to frown as he continued his work. That strangely felt like it meant more than it was supposed to…hopefully Lu Han couldn’t interpret that.

He dragged his bucket and mop into the broken down bathroom, setting the mop down on the dirty tile.

It was only then did Ren's offer to have objects come to him on their own will really register in Lu Han's mind. He looked over his shoulder at Ren in confusion.

"Why would you do that for me?" he asked curiously, leaning against his mop. He hadn't started yet, and his voice was muffled through his facemask. He hated the smell of mildew and mold and the bathroom was ripe with it.

Far too ripe.

Lu Han almost gagged as he started pushing his mop around, the soap getting into the cracks between the tiles and starting to run down towards the wall. The floor was just slightly tilted, Lu Han noted absentmindedly. He reached out with his mind, probing at Ren's.

He was struck by the other's desire to make a perfect house, managing to catch onto Ren's last thought about turning ugly things into beautiful things. It made Lu Han pause. What did Ren mean by that? Didn't the blond know just how beautiful he was? And that was when Lu Han did a double take at his own thoughts. Where had that come from?

He looked over at Ren, at the feminine puppeteer hard at work tearing down rotting newspaper. Never one to fall behind, Lu Han scrubbed harder until some of the dirt finally began falling away to reveal grungy, green tile.

So Luhan just became another name, another face, on the list of people he needed to stay away from until he got better at controlling his ability. Now though, they were stuck in an old decrepit house together. Yunho could turn around and walk out, act as if they never ran into each other but Luhan’s clearly intoxicated mood was already beginning to rub off on him. That was the thing about alcohol. It made people feel uninhibited and free, and Luhan was starting to radiate it. Yunho did his best to stave off the feeling but he could already feel himself relaxing. 

“I felt something out there. I needed to get away. Are you drunk?” Yunho’s eyes darted to the bottle then back to Luhan. He knew his answer, he could tell just by how he was beginning to feel but asking questions kept his wits about him and that was good. He needed not to let his guard down when in the presence of someone who could hear everything going on in his head. Yunho didn’t have much to hide though. He was what he was, and he lived with that philosophy for much of his life. He was almost always vulnerable so there weren’t many walls to break down when it came to him. Only layers of emotions to sift through.

“Is that what you’re doing? Having a party?” Yunho looked around, there was no one else in the house with them. He could feel the extension of Luhan’s emotions spiraling lazily around and he pursed his lips together taking a step closer. “Seems like you’re feeling a tad sorry for yourself.” Yunho pointed out. Underneath all the inebriated pleasure, Yunho could feel the self pity. Just a bit of it, and it niggled at parts of him trying to bring his own emotions in that direction but it was much too subtle. He felt a surge of appreciation for how he’d grown, enough to ignore the smaller things.

“I told you why I was here.” Yunho stated again, his voice bored and monotone. He was trying not to let it show how much Luhan’s state was truly affecting him but then figured he already knew if Yunho was thinking about it so much. “But it feels like I won’t be going anywhere for awhile. How drunk are you?” Yunho questioned, sinking down to the floor. There was a reason that if he ever did drink he did it alone. Not a drop of alcohol touched in months and he was already wobbly on his feet just by being in an intoxicated presence. He rolled his eyes, great. 

He smiled slightly, when Yunho remarked about his self pity. "What can I say?" he said softly, still sober enough to answer clearly. "I'm a pretty selfish person. Always thinking about myself, never about others," Lu Han swirled the bottle's contents around for a moment, his eyes darkening as he stared at the liquid like it would hold all the answers to the universe.

Maybe it did.

It was only when Yunho's thoughts turned to alcohol - and what it would do to him, that Lu Han finally really paid attention. Here was something interesting. Here was something that he could focus on. He forced himself to follow that train of thought into Yunho's mind, almost needing to strain with the effort to read it, as though his thoughts were a book getting further and further away.

Lu Han blinked, when Yunho asked for the bottle.

Mutely, he handed it over.

"Don't drink all of it," he warned. "It's really strong." He kept his voice low, as he scooted closer to Yunho. "Why don't you sit?" he added. "You look like you'd fall over with the first sip." Lu Han studied Yunho for a long moment, as he waited for the other to take the bottle from him.

All he really knew about Yunho was that the other's ability dealt with emotions, dealt with feeling the emotions in the air around him and then...doing something with them. It had always confused him, Yunho's ability. But perhaps now was a chance to get to know the other better. Lu Han smiled, one selfish thought running through his head.

It would be his chance to find what made Yunho tick.

He waited for Yunho to take a sip, his hand curled loosely on his thigh as he straightened. He was still sober - sober enough that he could carry on a conversation. He knew when he was completely drunk. It was when he couldn't sense the thoughts of other people anymore.

When it was just his own voice in his head.