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(1)The First time Ob-un saw Shan’s reaction to total darkness, He wasn’t sure what to do about it.He had been butt naked in the bathroom, whispering or rather narrating a dialogue of something he either intended to write or had already written…with a knife in his hand… a knife that would oh so easily nick the skin and draw blood…He should have screamed bloody murder and got out of there, especially with the reputation of the building…But he went in… confronted him… Call him an idiot all you want, but Ob-un wouldn’t sit idly by and let something bad happen to someone on his watch…The world was cruel… Ob-un wasn’t going to be one…But then the darkness descended on them, and He could see - partly - the light of the still young day reflecting on the soothe surfaces around the bathroom… There was enough light for him to see Shan quiver in fear, hold onto him as his life depended on it…and beg him to not leave…The world was cruel… Ob-un wasn’t going to be one…He sat in the tub with Shan… soothing his shakes and fears…till the light went on… and the other person stared at them like they had lost their mind.If the day ended with Ob-un fired, sued for plagiarism, and down on his luck, at least he could fall asleep knowing he could help not one but two people.—(2)“I have a candle…”Ob-un did… and he knew where he had put it along with the lighter when he was - forced to - pack his belongings from the other apartment.He had thought of that… he might deny it, but since he knew how Shan was scared of darkness… he wanted to have something in handy that he could carry into his room, or just keep in the space for him…He was on the floor when he got back carrying the lit candle, was already looking like a frightened child more than the formidable writer he had seen the other day…“Something horrible had happened… I… I am fine now, it’s just those… symptoms…”Ob-un resisted the urge to correct that it wasn’t symptoms but trauma reaction that was most likely to never fully fade…Whatever awful thing had happened… whatever the cruel world had done to Shan… Ob-un wished always to have a candle lit for him.and that whoever had done something awful to Shan… would burn in whatever hell they were in…—(3)Candle wasn’t going to cut it… He needed something more stable… and more reliable…He had been out most of the day, doing interviews, and other jobs, seeing his friends, and getting some writing done in cafes in between. So by the time he headed back to the condo, he now shared with Shan, it had been dark, it had been dark for a bit of time…his phone battery had long died on him, and he thanked his lucky stars that he hadn’t been that far from the condo already.Only to walk in total darkness in the condo…He initially thought that Shan too must have been out and rushed to turn the light on so that he wouldn’t come back to a dark house…but the light didn’t turn on… damn that electrical faultness in the building…“Shan! Shan!”He wasn’t in the living area… wasn’t in the kitchen they shared… wasn’t in his own room or in the bathroom…He was sprawled on the floor of Ob-un’s room…Ob-un cursed before dropping next to him on the ground, his breath was erratic… his chest heaving like the air wasn’t going into his lungs…He must have come looking for the candle… and didn’t find it…Ob-un looked around, it was where he put it, on his desk along with the lighter…He sprinted to his desk and lighted the candle in haste resulting in the lighter burning the tip of his finger before he put it on the floor, cradled Shan’s upper body… and tried to wake him up.He was shaking… breath was still erratic, and he could almost feel his equally erratic heartbeat…Panic attack… probably from the long exposure to his trigger…“Shan!!”He opened unseeing eyes and looked at Ob-un, hands clawing at his sleeved arms…“Don’t leave me alone… I am sorry… I didn’t mean to…”It took Shan a couple of minutes to notice the candle and Ob-un’s tight hold on him, the soothing words that spilled from Ob-un’s mouth without even thinking about it, and when he did he murmured an apology and detangled himself from Ob-un’s arms, tucking himself so small and further away from Ob-un…Shame… Shan was ashamed… and Ob-un didn’t know how to help… The world was cruel… Ob-un wasn’t going to be one… except that he had just wished he would hurt whoever did that to Shan…—(4)“Two of those, please…”Ob-un stood in the appliances store, staring at the lights…Candles weren’t going to help Shan, He had asked the maintenance in the building about the electricity, it was rather a new building and that shouldn’t have been an issue…They talked of faulty wirings and maintenance procedures, but by the end of it, they promised they would work on it. But until that happened, Ob-un wouldn’t sit idly by while Shan tore himself apart whenever that happened.If that was a lighter symptom of what Shan had suffered from before then Ob-un wasn’t sure he was going to bear seeing him like that or worse, it did something funny to his heart, did something even funnier to his mind.He looked it up on the internet, people with similar issues with the darkness, looked through solutions high and low, till a rather simple solution presented itself as he was delivering an order…The front of an appliances store had a camping lamb, a chargeable one…He had just pocketed his first paycheck, so he was a bit sure of himself when he walked in.“It works for long hours once it’s fully charged, and actually, if you leave this button on, it will turn off as it’s hooked to power and on once the power is out…”It was exactly what he needed, he would leave one in Shan’s room and one in the living room so that light could be seen around the house even in the dead darkness.If those lights made Ob-un’s pocket lighter as he walked out of the store carrying the two boxes, it might his heart fuller as he knew that Shan wouldn’t be scared and alone if anything happened while he wasn’t there in the condo.—(5)Shan took to working in the living room…Previously and as far as Ob-un knew about him, he was a very private person when it came to writing, but somehow ever since Ob-un moved in, they have been spending more and more time around each other in the living room.Ob-un kept his distance whenever Shan was writing because for one, he knew how fragile one’s train of thought could be, and one plagiarism case was more than enough for him.The power hadn’t been out for days, practically the power hadn’t been out since Ob-un bought the new lights, and while he was frustrated a bit, it meant that the problem was on its way to be solved.Shan hadn’t said a word since he sat on the couch with his laptop in his lap, fingers tapping away on the keyboard in a rhythm that told Ob-un that Shan was probably in a different headspace entirely, that he was not aware of his surroundings, his brain seeing the pictures that were translating into words before his eyes.Ob-un stared back at his tablet… willing something to be written on the blank page…When it happened… so suddenly, and so abruptly the lights went out and the condo swam into total darkness…He could see Shan’s hand hovering over the keyboard, eyes blinking too fast, but before anything could be said, the camp lights turned on, their light bright enough that Shan turned to it, eyes seeking it as if it was in hunger…“I… Where… did those come from?”Shan whispered softly… He was practically talking to himself, and Ob-un didn’t dare say he bought them. He just sat and let Shan conclude on his own.Shan turned his gaze on Ob-un, eyes lingering on him, Ob-un smiled, a bit shyly…“Little Prince…”The words had a tone of longing, of something akin to fondness, and for a second Ob-un wondered if that was what writers usually meant when they said that a word caressed a person because he was sure as hell he felt a physical caress with those words.“It’s a camping light… there’s another one in your room…”Shan didn’t turn his gaze away from Ob-un, his eyes drinking him in, fondness growing more and more that Ob-un had to turn his gaze away before he would drown in the pools of chocolate in Shan’s eyes.“You shouldn’t have bothered…”“wasn’t going to leave you to the darkness without protection…”He hadn’t meant it like that, he simply meant that he wasn’t going to let Shan face another panic attack, wasn’t letting him face one of his monsters in the dark…Shan sighed before Ob-un heard shuffling and saw Shan stand before him, he was clad in his loungewear, looking soft in unstyled hair and glasses that framed his face all too well…“Thank you, little prince… My protector…”If the words sent warmth down Ob-un’s heart, he wasn’t going to admit it.—(6)Working two jobs… writing… keeping up with promotions… co-writing…Shan stared at Ob-un as he typed away on his tablet, they had taken to sitting together in their living room most of the time both of them were in the house.Sure it had messed up a bit with Shan’s very strict schedule, because he could no longer stop himself from being in Ob-un’s orbit for more time, but it had been rewarding on so many levels.because if anything, Ob-un was kind, wasn’t going to do or say anything that would set Shan off, and wasn’t going to make fun of his little quirks of acting out scenes before writing them in the kitchen or the bathroom.Wasn’t going to let his fear of the darkness eat him alive…warmth exploded in Shan’s chest… He had woken up in utter darkness in the middle of the night several days after the initial incident where he discovered the camp lamps to find the other one showing his room in soft light.Ob-un was so kind… and so hard working…his little prince… One look online told him that those must have cost Ob-un a good sum… It wasn’t like he wasn’t able to buy something like that himself, but he was trying to overcome the issue, he was always told to push through, that fear of the darkness was for children, and that he should toughen up,Ob-un was the first person who took the matter to heart and made arrangements for him.He stared at him as his hand massaged his neck and shoulder once again… he looked tired, wary, and if Shan knew any better like he wasn’t getting sleep at all…Because simply, more times than not he was writing in the dead of the night, barely getting any sleep in time for him to head to one or another of his jobs. And now that he sat in front of Shan, He looked like he was a second away from dropping asleep in front of his tablet.Shan felt his phone vibrate next to him, eyes - regretfully - leaving Ob-un to look at the display…He sighed before taking his phone and walking into his room, it was going to be a long and daunting phone call and he would rather write or simply make some tea and sit with his little prince.True to his expectations, by the time the - long - phone call was out, he went back to find Ob-un asleep in his arms in front of his tablet.Shan sighed… padding softly to where Ob-un was sitting - or rather sleeping, and patting his head softly.He jerked awake after one touch, barely a touch if Shan was truly honest.“Awake… I am awake !!”Shan chuckled, letting his hand rest on Ob-un’s arm and lingering there…“I thought you always write ahead, that you didn’t have any upcoming deadlines…”“I don’t…”“Then what’s the matter?”Ob-un shook his head, whether to clear it or to refrain from answering, Shan didn’t know but waited all the same…“You should sleep…”“I will shower and come back, I can sleep later…”Shan looked at him worriedly… hand tightening on his arm.“Maybe I can help you to relax a bit… Sleep a bit and I will wake you before your alarm…”“Your schedule is strict… I don’t want to mess that up…”“It’s alright, I wanted to watch a movie anyway…”Ob-un hesitated, but Shan used the hand on his arm to tug him out of his seat and in the direction of Shan’s rooms…“Where are we going?” One of the off sights on his behave was his ensuite, he had a luxurious one while the other room had a very very basic bathroom with a shower head to one wall.He dragged Ob-un to the ensuite, leaving him to open the hot water to fill the tub…“I don’t need to bath, a shower would be more than enough…”Shan turned to him, his cheeks were red, and then it struck Shan…He had seen Shan butt naked here… this was where they met before…“It’s… for you to relax, I have bathing salts that will help you with that sore neck as well…”Ob-un touched his neck gingerly, before dropping his hand to the side…“I would rather not use your space…”“Since it’s limited to only my room, we can share it, just tell me whenever you feel like you need to use it to relax a bit…”He heard Ob-un murmured something down the lines of it being not necessary but dismissed it with a wave of his hand before dropping a bath bomb in the half-filled water…“It should be nice in a minute… I can grab a change of clothes for you, or you can use one of the bathrobes…”Ob-un stared at Shan for a longer than necessary moment before he turned his gaze to the bathrobes and nodded…“Would you let me wash your hair? I won’t look where I shouldn’t, I promise…”Ob-un hesitated, Shan moved, allowing Ob-un to come closer to the tub, before turning his back on him.“What are you doing?”“giving you privacy…”He heard Ob-un sigh before he felt the shuffle of clothes and the tell-tale sounds that Ob-un had gotten into the water…“You don’t have to help me… I can do it…”“I want to… I don’t have to… you work too hard and you deserve some nice things from time to time…”He deserved nice things all the time, solely for his kindness… but Shan wasn’t about to say that… not at that moment, but definitely later.He heard the splosh splash of water before Ob-un’s voice came again.“You can… help me…”Shan turned to see him…Ob-un knees were tucked closely to his chest, his back was to Shan, and Shan smiled when he saw the tint of blush on his cheeks, from either the hot water or from shyness…“I won’t make you uncomfortable, I promise…”Ob-un hummed, resting his head on his folded knees, letting Shan wash his hair…Shan took his Shance, pulling out one of the bottles of his shampoo before dropping a dollop in his hand and massaging it into Ob-un’s hair…He heard him hum, head tilting back and eyes closed as Shan worked the shampoo into the soft strands of hair.his hands strayed from his hair to his neck, working the tense muscles under his fingers…“You work too hard…”Ob-un just hummed, muscles loosening… eyes closed…Once Shan washed the shampoo from his hair, and the water had grown slightly colder, he stepped back.“I will be out… call on me if you need me…”“Shan?”“Yes, Little Prince…”“Thank you…”Shan smiled and nodded once before he pulled the door closed after him.A few minutes later after he went back to his seat on the couch, staring at his laptop but without any ideas to write… he heard soft steps behind him before Shan took the seat on the couch, opposite him..,Shan cursed in his mind, Ob-un still refrained from being close as Shan wrote… curse that court case and Shan’s rush decisions…“Play that movie…”“What?”“you said you want to watch a movie… Play it, I am not sleepy anymore…”Shan wanted to argue that Ob-un should rest, but thought better of it.More time with Ob-un was better than more time without him anyway…If the morning found both of them asleep in the living room, Shan couldn’t have been happier…