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“I can’t believe you want that.” Seungmin deadpans, even after he finishes pocketing his phone.
They’re in a massive checkout line, one that wraps around inside the store and has trapped them near too many trinkets that catch Felix’s eyes too easily. Seungmin had taken his phone out to snap a picture of the two of them to send to their group chat, after which Felix had noticed what had been behind him in the photo.
Now, Seungmin stares at the stuffed golden retriever plush Felix has clutched in his hand, then back at the giant basket full of them where Felix had plucked his chosen plushie from.
Felix frowns. “But it’s cute. And it reminds me of you.”
“You have so many stuffed toys at home though,” Seungmin points out, even as Felix puts the toy in their cart. “And the ones at home are cuter.”
“Don’t say that!” Felix scolds in a hushed tone. “He’s perfectly cute and I love him. Besides, he’s been chosen for the memory.”
Seungmin tilts his head, confused. “What memory?”
“This memory,” Felix says with exasperated fondness. “Of us.”
“Of us…shopping at IKEA?” Seungmin shakes his head in disbelief. “Why?”
“We’re being all domestic,” Felix points out, leaning against Seungmin’s side. “All the renovations are officially over now that the kitchen’s finally done. We’re furnishing it with all our own dishes and stuff — it’s just nice. Feels romantic, doesn’t it?”
And well, Seungmin can’t deny that.
It’s cold out, the last dredges of winter lingering in the air, and they’ve got nothing to do for the next week or so, other than their usual regular appointments, like vocal lessons for Seungmin and rehabilitation for Felix. They’d picked today since the sun was out and the windchill wasn’t as bad, taking Seungmin’s car to go out and get breakfast together before heading to IKEA to pick up their necessities.
Felix is so soft looking, dressed a lot like Chan, in all black including his beanie and his hair, the latter of which Seungmin doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to. He’s so used to the blonde, so used to the way Felix always looks like sunshine, but the darker hair always makes him look so much younger. It reminds Seungmin of the way he looked when they’d first met — just seventeen and so eager, so desperate to be able to make it together.
“You know,” Seungmin says aloud right as the thought occurs to him. “You and I have lived together this entire time. Since the beginning.”
Felix hums from his spot on Seungmin’s shoulder. “We have, haven’t we?” He sighs happily. “I like it, though. There’s not a single house we’ve been in where it hasn’t been you and me.”
“Aren’t you sick of me yet?” Seungmin asks. He means for it to be a joke, to be lighthearted and funny, but it comes out a little unsure, almost like he’s afraid of the answer.
“No,” Felix’s honest answer comes immediately. “I could never be sick of you.”
“Even when I nag you?”
Felix snorts. “You don’t nag.” he sniffs, removing his head to push the cart forward when the line begins to move. “And even if you did, it wouldn’t change anything.”
Seungmin frowns internally. “I always thought you’d want to live with Channie-hyung, eventually. Just the two of you.”
Felix makes a soft noise at his admission. He looks up at Seungmin with a small pout, eyes searching Seungmin’s face when he asks, “Why would you think that?”
“I don’t know,” Seungmin admits, moving out of the way when the couple in front of them gets out of line, grumbling about forgetting something in one of the many aisles behind them. “It was you two, first. You know? Before it was eight of us.”
Chan and Felix had fallen into their feelings so much easier than the rest of them, so much quicker. They were the catalyst that sparked the eight of them eventually falling into one another, and their bond had always been unique compared to the rest of them. There was no denying that, just like how Seungmin’s bond with Jeongin had always been different, the way Minho and Jisung were special, and Changbin and Hyunjin were comically obsessed with each other.
“Seungmin,” Felix murmurs. He doesn’t even bother checking around them as he takes Seungmin’s hand, rubbing his thumb over the back. “I love you, you know that, right? It doesn’t matter who was first. It never did, and it never will. I still love you.”
“I know,” Seungmin nods. “I love you too, Lix. You know I do.”
The soft smile Felix gives in answer is enough to quell his worries for the moment, and Felix parts from him with a soft squeeze of his hand.
Seungmin looks into their cart, cataloging everything they’ve bought and comparing it to the mental checklist he has of the things they’d needed. They’ve got most of it — plates, bowls, those plates that are also bowls, mugs, glass cups, some jars and containers for kimchi — along with things they didn’t really plan for but still needed.
They each bought their own lunchbox containers for the days they have to pack their own lunches due to their respective diets, a collapsible dishrack, dishtowels, organizers for their fridge, Ziploc bags with cats on them (Felix’s), a seal lock jar with cats on them (also Felix’s, but meant to fill with cookies for Seungmin), and some candy and snacks they’d spotted and wanted to try.
Felix had also bought another ergonomic pillow, as well as new bed sheets and a new duvet cover for the both of them — ones to swap out for laundry days, he’d said. Seungmin snorted to himself when he spotted the duvet cover with matching pillowcases Felix had picked for Seungmin to use. It was a light green color, with dark green images of cats. The sheets were a light green gingham pattern to match.
Seungmin eyed Felix’s choices where they rested in the cart beside his own — light grey sheets with white daises on them, a matching daisy cushion, and a white linen duvet cover, along with his new puppy plush.
The sets were pretty cute, Seungmin could at least admit that.
“Oh look,” Felix says as they approach another large bin. He holds up a round, all-black cat plush, one that goes with his chosen bedspread for Seungmin. Felix is smiling, the smile Chan calls his “gremlin smile,” and Seungmin shakes his head.
He doesn’t say it often, and it feels wrong when he says, “Felix, no.”
Felix pouts. “Felix, yes,” he retorts, then puts the black cat in the cart.
Seungmin sighs.
He looks ahead, trying to gauge how long the line is, raising up on his tip toes to see how far they are from the registers.
Unfortunately, they’re not as close as Seungmin would like, and he spots several other large bins and end cap displays with plush, stuffed animals.
He pushes air out of his nose, sighing.
Maybe they need to say no to Felix more often.
Especially once they get to the register and Felix runs off, only to return with two popsicles, one for himself and one for Seungmin, pressing a sticky sweet kiss to the back of Seungmin’s neck.
+
They managed to get home about an hour later.
Felix had indeed pillaged all of the bins and end caps and found something for all of the other members. There was the little green alien plush Felix had found for Jisung, and a little husky plush Seungmin personally couldn’t wait to see Felix give to Chan. They’d even found a gray and white cat toy that looked a little like Dori for Minho, an arctic fox toy for Jeongin, and a pink bunny in an astronaut suit for Changbin. There weren’t any ferret toys, and Felix debated getting the hedgehog, but he didn’t know how Hyunjin would feel about it, so just in case, he’d grabbed that along with a portable easel set that came with a palette and a spatula to mix paints with.
Seungmin had tried his best and protested all of them. Felix had promptly ignored him and put them in the cart anyway.
The six plushies were in the trunk of Seungmin’s car, currently, while his cat and Felix’s puppy sat on their couch. They’d loaded up their new sheets, pillow cases, and duvet covers the second they got home, and Seungmin was currently washing all of the non-dishwasher safe dishes they’d bought in the sink while Felix unpacked everything else in the living room.
It's quiet as they work, Seungmin diligently washing their dishes and Felix arranging everything else in their kitchen and living room to his liking.
Eventually, he can hear when Felix finishes with his tasks, warmth already spreading through his body as he hears Felix approach, wrapping his arms around Seungmin’s waist from behind, burying his face against Seungmin’s spine.
“You’d be such a good husband,” Felix sighs happily.
The words are a little mumbled from where his cheek is pressed against Seungmin’s back, but he hears them all the same, feels the way the words vibrate through his body. It takes another second for the words to actually sink in, though, and when they do, Seungmin nearly drops their brand new plates on the counter.
He’d never really considered marriage, especially not when the eight of them were so tightly woven together that they didn’t know where one person’s love ended or began, when they were all so equally devoted to each other — mind, body, heart, and soul.
There’s a little pit of shame that forms in his stomach as he considers it now — Felix dressed in some pretty flowing white ensemble with lots of tulle and lace, and Seungmin, in a three piece suit at the end of an aisle, waiting with a minister and rings in his pocket.
Seungmin would be a good husband. He’d be a good husband to Felix.
“So would you,” Seungmin says eventually.
Felix makes a small noise of protest. “Not like you. You’re made to be someone’s husband.”
“I could be your husband.” Seungmin offers.
A soft exhale comes from Felix. Seungmin can feel the warmth of it through his shirt, and he carefully sets the bowl he’s washing down in the sink, grabbing a towel to dry his hands.
He turns in Felix’s arms, bringing his hands up to cradle Felix’s cheeks. Felix’s eyes are shiny, and his tongue pokes out, wetting his lower lip.
“What…” Seungmin trails off, a little embarrassed about his sudden declaration. “What do you think about that?”
Felix blinks, almost dazed. “You wanna be my husband?”
“Like…” Seungmin says in English, but the words get jumbled in his head. He’s unable to fully articulate what he wants to say in English, too shy to say them in Korean. “Yeah,” he ends up saying in English, and Felix smiles, a soft laugh passing through his lips.
“And the others?” Felix asks. “What would we tell them?”
It’s a good question that Seungmin doesn’t know the answer to. He loves the others, too. The last free days they had a couple of weeks ago, Seungmin spent the first two tangled in Changbin’s sheets with both him and Hyunjin, and Felix had been at Chan and Jeongin’s, most likely doing the same.
Seungmin had slept over at Jisung and Minho’s the other day, practically glued to Minho’s bed, while Felix had both Hyunjin and Chan over at their place.
“Or maybe,” Felix murmurs, turning to press a kiss to Seungmin’s palm. “Maybe we don’t tell them? Maybe we just keep it a secret.”
“Yongbok-ah,” Seungmin means to chastise, but he just sounds shocked, though secretly pleased. “We —”
“I would marry you,” Felix interrupts. “For the record.”
“In any other situation,” Seungmin finishes his thought.
Felix’s mouth quirks up into a small, wistful smile. “In any other situation.”
“I’d marry you, too.” Seungmin adds after a quiet moment, rubbing his thumb along Felix’s cheek bone. “For the record.”
Felix smiles, he drags his hands from Seungmin’s waist to his chest, fiddling with the rings on his fingers there. He takes one off — a thin silver ring with their birthstone at four points of the ring — and gently wraps his hand around Seungmin’s, bringing it down between them and sliding it on Seungmin’s left ring finger.
In turn, Felix takes the pinky ring Seungmin’s been wearing, a plain silver band that he wears sometimes, and he resists the urge to make a pitiful happy noise when Felix slips the ring onto his own left ring finger and sees it fits perfectly.
Felix looks up at Seungmin from under his pretty lashes, a shy smile on his face when he says, “I think this is the part where you kiss me.”
Seungmin laughs in disbelief, “That’s it? We’re married now?”
“Yeah,” Felix breathes, searching his eyes. “Is that okay?”
“Did you plan to get married here in our kitchen?”
Felix nods. “Yes. Here in the kitchen. It’s legal and binding — there’s food here and a crucifix on the wall.”
Seungmin snorts. It’s a crucifix from Felix’s home in Sydney, one his mother gave to him and Seungmin had no protests or qualms about when Felix had asked if he could hang it there. “We don’t have cake, though. Or flowers.”
“There’s flowers on my sheets in the wash,” Felix points out. “And I can bake us a cake, if you insist on tradition.”
“I insist on tradition because it’s what you deserve.” Seungmin murmurs quietly, curling his hand into a fist at Felix’s hip to feel the way the ring digs into his skin, before placing his hand on Felix, pulling him impossibly closer.
“Then I’ll bake a cake,” Felix smiles, “But you still have to kiss me. It’s the rules.”
“Rules,” Seungmin snorts with a shake of his head.
He complies anyway — because he can never say no to Felix — tilting his head down just a little so he can kiss Felix, sealing the deal.
“My husband,” Felix murmurs against his mouth.
“Yours,” Seungmin agrees. “Always.”