Still A_Stray: Living With Stray Kids (ot8 fanfic)

Chapter 19

Not gonna stop until the day I die, rising

After their interview Saturday morning, the members all gathered in the dorm for Movie Night, a day late. I'd been mortified when Chan had told me I'd fallen asleep in his bed the night before, even though I didn't remember falling asleep or him waking me up and helping me back to my own room. He'd seemed fine with it—I knew the members flung themselves over his stuff and fell asleep on him all the time—but it was still embarrassing. He'd had to reassure me five times that it was okay and he wasn't mad.

We hung out together on the couch, waiting for the last slivers of warm sunlight to slip over the horizon.

Changbin tried to pull me aside into the spare bedroom, but I stopped him before he could close the door. "I know what you're going to say. I'm doing fine."

He crossed his arms. "Have you talked to Claire since the relapse?"

I hesitated. "No."

"Does she know at all?"

"Kind of." At his pressing gaze, I sighed. "She understands that sometimes I have days where I need space. And she gets that I'm pretty fucked up."

"You're not fucked up."

"I am, but that's okay." I smiled tightly, trying to show him that I meant it. "I'm okay. You don't have to go all protective-brother on me. Alright?"

He uncrossed his arms, letting out a breath. "Alright."

Still, though, he sat next to me when I joined the members on the couch, and the way he slung his arm over my shoulders told me he had no intention of moving. I let him be protective for as long as I could bear it, then wiggled out from under his arm and moved to stand by the counter with the excuse of looking for a shopping list.

"Did someone touch the shopping list I was making?" I called, ignoring Changbin's annoyed frown. "I had it right here on the counter."

"Oh, I think I put it away," said Chan. "Sorry, I thought it was another one of Innie's New Year's resolutions. Drawer by the sink."

"Jeongin has New Year's Resolutions?" I asked curiously as I went over to the kitchen to grab the list.

"Not for himself," said Jisung. "He makes them for us."

I snorted, rifling around in the drawer. "That's not a bad idea, to be honest."

"It's really not," said Minho. "It's not even in our top ten."

I frowned, pausing my searching to look over at Minho. He was sitting on the floor next to the chair Chan sat in, reading a book; Changbin and Felix sat on the couch, the latter styling Hyunjin's hair, who sat by their feet with his arm thrown over Jeongin's shoulder. Seungmin sat in the armchair closest to the TV, sharing an earbud with Jisung.

"What do you mean, top ten?"

"We have a running list of our worst ideas," Chan explained. "Right now Jisung's at number one with his wonderful idea for us to all go bowling."

"Which is really unfair," Jisung grumbled. "Hyunjin isn't even in the top five, and he literally brought a wolf into the dorm as a pet."

"I thought it was a stray dog, okay?"

"We have enough stray kids," Seungmin pointed out. "We didn't need a stray dog on top of it."

"It was pretty cute, though," said Minho. "I'm kind of mad Channie-hyung didn't let us keep it."

Chan cast him an exasperated look. "It was a wolf, Minho."

"But it had the sweetest little ears..."

"That wasn't even the worst idea Hyunjin's had," Seungmin mused. "Remember the April Fools prank he tried to play on us?"