crush imagines (he/him crush)

surprise

August 8th marked 6 months of long distance with C/N. 

It was bittersweet. On the one hand, we'd made it 6 whole months, which meant there were only 6 more to go. On the other hand... well, there were still 6 more months to go. And I missed him. I missed him a lot, and I missed him intensely. Say what you want about being an independent partner, but once I'd gotten used to being (healthily) dependent, it was hard to let go. 

It was evening, and I was standing in front of the open fridge, weighing my options for a late-night snack. There was fruit, vegetables, something healthy, something fresh... but there was ice cream in the freezer, and that was incomparable. 

My phone timer went off, startling me. I plopped the cartoon on the counter before scuttling over to the desk, where my phone's vibrations were making stray pens and papers rattle.

The timer marked the time when C/N would send me his daily proof-of-life photo. I sent one to him in the early morning his time—he said he liked to start his days off right—and he sent his at 10:30 my time, so that I could sleep at night. 

I opened our text chain, expecting a silly selfie, or a sexy selfie, or even one of the rare sad selfies that he'd send on especially bad days. 

I found nothing. 

My heart leapt a bit, because he was never late. Something could have happened. He could be in trouble, and there I was, all the way across the world, unable to help him. 

But my rational side calmed me down, and reminded me that he was only human. Something harmless was probably hindering him. If I could go on making dinner and distract myself with culinary splendor, everything would be fine. I'd have a photo to look at as I sat down with my meal. Things would be normal. 

I lasted around three minutes before checking my phone. 

And thank goodness I did, because there was a photo waiting for me. C/N was grinning ear to ear, and I couldn't help but grin with him. His joy was contagious. 

I examined the background of the photo. Usually, he was either on the train or still in bed. Today, he was outside. And it was dark... which was unusual. Unless I was seeing something incorrectly? I squinted at the screen. No. He was outside. 

A structure in the background was illuminated by the streetlight. It was a bus stop, I realized. My bus stop. As in, the one directly across the street from my building. 

Which meant... 

Holy shit. C/N was here. 

I let my phone clatter onto the desk and zig zagged around furniture as I ran to the front door. The neighbors below me would be pissed off about the thumping of my feet, but in the moment, I didn't care. Nothing in the world would stop me from opening that door as soon as possible. 

When I got to the door, I was so excited that I couldn't seem to remember which way unlocked it and which locked it, so it took a moment to get it open. When I finally found my common sense and turned the key to the left, I came face to face with C/N. My beautiful, irreplaceable C/N.

He was holding his suitcase in one hand, and a bouquet of flowers in the other. However, he let both go when I came diving into his embrace, choosing instead to wrap his arms around me, tightly. I convinced myself that would take 6 bodybuilders just to pry his fingers from my back.

"Y/N," he said, his voice brimming with emotion. He pulled back enough to find my mouth and kissed me. Hard. Good hard. 

When he released me, there was a flush creeping across the bridge of his nose, and his hair was all messy from my hands running through it. He took a step back and looked at me.

"Honey, I'm home!" he joked, a sad smile gracing his face. 

I smiled back. "For how long?"

C/N ran a hand through his hair. "I don't..." He paused. "I don't know. Anymore. I don't know if I can do this." 

My breath caught in my throat. He couldn't have come all this way just to end things. Right? 

But at the same time, he would come all the way to my doorstep just to end things in person. Because he liked things face-to-face. I admired that about him.

"C/N, are you talking about you and me?" I finally managed.

C/N's eyebrows shot up. "What? No!" 

He closed the distance between us and stroked my cheek. "I was talking about the position in Hong Kong, silly." 

He placed a kiss to my forehead. I beamed. 

"Don't get me wrong, I want you home. But... are you sure?"

C/N looked down at me, eyes shining. 

"You know, I wasn't sure when my plane pulled into the gate. But now I am, Y/N." He bent to pick up the bouquet, then handed it to me. "I can't be away from you another day."

His gaze lingered on my mouth for a moment, but he managed to peel his eyes away and grab his suitcase. I hurried to hold the door open, and he grazed a sneaky hand along my ass as he walked inside. 

"Welcome home, handsome," I said, watching as he finally filled the gap on the shoe stand that had taunted me for months. 

He turned to face me. "Thanks, beautiful," he said. "There's no place like it."