sparklepox | Cheesy Lu Han's birthday fic

Title: Five Times Lu Han Kind Of Failed At ~~Life~~ Proposing to Minseok
Rating: R
Pairing: Lu Han/Minseok
Word Count: 2707
Notes: Thanks to Difa for #1 and also cheering me on. ♥ Happy Lu Han's birthday, fandom.

1.

Minseok is so used to Lu Han staring at him for no particular reason that he doesn't think anything of it, until one morning as they're getting dressed when Lu Han suddenly bursts out, "You can say no."

Minseok pulls his hand out of his sock drawer and turns to look at Lu Han. "What?"

"You can say no if that's you want. Just say something." Lu Han looks like a kicked puppy and Minseok has no idea why.

"What are you talking about?"

Lu Han frowns uncertainly. "The ring." Off Minseok's confused expression, he adds, "I put it in with your socks three days ago."

"You what?" Minseok turns back to the drawer and digs around. He finds socks and more socks and finally, in the very back corner, cold metal. He closes his fingers around it and pulls out a gold ring. It's simple but beautiful, two thin strands entwined. Minseok kind of wants to laugh at how this clearly didn't go the way Lu Han intended, but then, Lu Han bought him a ring.

"You got me this?" he asks Lu Han, who nods, looking nervous. "Does it mean what I think it does?"

Lu Han swallows hard but nods again. "Yeah. It does."

Minseok holds out the ring to Lu Han, flat on his palm. Lu Han's face falls, so Minseok hastily explains, "Ask me. Do it right."

Lu Han takes the ring and holds it up. He looks mildly terrified, so Minseok flashes him a comforting smile. What does Lu Han think he's going to say? Lu Han only looks minimally relieved, but it's enough. He smiles back, a little stiffly, and asks, "Will you marry me?"

Minseok makes a show of thinking about it until Lu Han groans, "Don't do this to me."

Minseok grins, partly because it's too much fun to pick on Lu Han and partly just because he's really happy. He holds his hand out to Lu Han, who looks confused for a few seconds before he gets it and slips the ring onto Minseok's finger, expression splitting into an enormous smile. He steps closer, going for a kiss, but Minseok stops him with his ringed hand on Lu Han's chest. "Wait a second."

"Why?" Lu Han whines.

Minseok leans in close until his lips are almost on Lu Han's and then he smiles, small and soft. "Yes."

2.

Lu Han spends hours composing his proposal letter to Minseok. He knows if he tries to say it out loud, he'll just trip over his words, get all tongue tied. If he can write it down, hopefully he can say what he means, make Minseok understand just how important he is to Lu Han, and why he wants to be with him forever.

Even in writing, he's not great with words, but finally, he's satisfied. He folds the letter into an envelope and writes Minseok's name on the front. He slips the ring he bought into his pocket, braces himself, and heads over to Minseok's apartment.

He's incredibly nervous, jumpy and awkward, and probably the only reason Minseok doesn't notice is that Lu Han is jumpy and awkward a lot. Two hours later, while he's still working up the courage to actually give Minseok the letter, an overenthusiastic hand gesture sends both their drinks flying. Minseok grabs the tipped glasses while Lu Han jumps to save his phone charger from a watery grave. He's thinking about how it's good that he left his laptop at home, and it's only once his charger is safely out of his bag that he remembers the letter down at the wet bottom of it.

"Let's get your stuff out to dry," Minseok suggests. They drape his sweatshirt over a chair and pat a waterlogged book with a towel, and finally, the letter comes out. Minseok's name on the outside is smudged, unreadable, and Minseok frowns at it. "Was this something important?"

Lu Han takes the letter out of Minseok's hand and throws it in the trash, wondering if maybe he should take this as a sign. "No," he says, trying to ignore the heaviness in his heart. "Nothing important."

3.

Lu Han walks around with the ring in his pocket for three weeks trying to muster up the confidence to ask Minseok to marry him. He doesn't have any particular reason to think Minseok will say no, but it scares him anyway. Who knows? Maybe Minseok will think it's stupid, overly sappy or just unnecessary. Maybe he'll laugh like it's a joke when it isn't at all. Maybe it'll freak him out, like in the beginning when Lu Han fell a lot faster than he did and Minseok wasn't sure he could handle the intensity.

Lu Han's not thinking about any of that on this Saturday night as Minseok pulls him over to their bed. They're kissing furiously and Minseok's hands are on Lu Han's bare chest, his shirt already lost somewhere in the hallway. Lu Han falls onto the bed first and Minseok climbs on top of him, threading his hands into Lu Han's hair as he kisses even harder.

Everything is going great and Lu Han thinks nothing of it when he gets out of his pants and kicks them off the bed. He has much better things to think about, like Minseok's hands all over him, his tongue in Lu Han's mouth. He doesn't think anything even when Minseok gets up because the box of condoms by the bed is empty, leaving Lu Han hard and waiting impatiently. Only when Minseok comes back and asks, "What's this?" before he bends down to pick something up next to the bed does Lu Han remember the ring in his pocket, without so much as a box to hide it.

"Uh, wait!" he protests, struggling to get up, but it's too late. The ring is already in Minseok's hand, and the way he's frowning at it makes Lu Han's heart sink all the way down to his feet. "I'm sorry. I—I mean, it's not..." Lu Han snatches the ring from Minseok and closes his hand around it.

Minseok looks up at him, his frown turning confused. "It's not what?"

"Never mind. I won't—"

"Lu Han." Minseok cuts in, firm, his frown morphing into a wry little smile. "You were just holding onto this?"

"Yes," Lu Han admits with a sheepish grimace.

"What were you waiting for?" Minseok's smile is wider now, though he looks a little hesitant.

Lu Han shrugs awkwardly. "Just...the right time, I guess." His eyes travel over Minseok's naked body and then to his own. "I'm pretty sure this isn't it."

Minseok laughs loudly at that. "No, it probably isn't." Then, "Ask me anyway?"

"Seriously?" Lu Han asks incredulously.

"Seriously." Minseok pushes him back onto the bed and climbs on top of him, his knees on either side of Lu Han's thighs. He's so close and they're both naked and hard and Lu Han is never going to be able to tell anyone this proposal story without turning tomato red, but Minseok is looking at him like he really means it, a small smile on his face and unguarded affection in his eyes.

Lu Han swallows hard, steadying himself, and then smiles back even though his heart is racing. "I love you," he says simply. "Will you marry me?"

It's highly unlikely that Minseok will turn him down at this point, but he still feels an immense sense of relief and an even more immense rush of happiness when Minseok's little smile turns into a wide grin. "Yes. I will." He leans in to give Lu Han a brief kiss, chaste compared to what they were doing before, and then offers his hand to Lu Han to put the ring on.

He's distracted by Minseok's lips still in close proximity to his, so he doesn't realize what he's doing until Minseok murmurs, all low and sexy, "That's the wrong finger." Then they both burst out laughing, collapsing back onto the bed. "I really love you," Minseok says, still half laughing, as he holds out the correct finger for Lu Han, and Lu Han can't stop smiling stupidly wide.

Once the ring is safely on his finger, Minseok kisses Lu Han again, harder now, and Lu Han remembers what they were in the middle of. "Just like that?" he asks between kisses as Minseok presses up against him.

"Are you complaining?" Minseok threads the fingers of his ringed hand through Lu Han's, holding tight, at the same time as he slips his knee between Lu Han's legs and rolls his hips into him.

"No," Lu Han answers without hesitation. "No complaints." In this moment, with the ring pressing into his skin and no thoughts in his mind except for Minseok, everything is perfect.

4.

Lu Han can hardly believe what he's hearing when Minseok tells him that his company is thinking about transferring him to Beijing. They've been long-distance for years now, and it's worth it because he loves Minseok (torturous flights to Seoul and all), but it's hard, especially without an end in sight.

"It's nothing sure yet," Minseok hurriedly adds. "I won't know for a month or so, and they didn't promise anything. But it would be nice, right?" In spite of his words, he sounds hopeful, and Lu Han can't help getting his hopes up too.

He thinks about it a lot over the next few weeks while they both impatiently wait for an answer from Minseok's bosses. He thinks about finally being able to live together again, about waking up to Minseok every morning, about having him there to hold and to touch, not just to look at on a screen.

They've been together for a long time, and even if they've spent a lot of it in different countries, as hard as it is sometimes, Lu Han can't imagine his life without Minseok, and he knows Minseok loves him back. He doesn't need to make it official, really, and they can't make it official in any legal way anyway, but maybe Lu Han's a bit of a romantic deep down because he likes the idea of "popping the question" to Minseok. There's something appealing about affirming their commitment to each other in a real, explicit way.

He decides he'll ask once Minseok comes to Beijing, because it's much better in person, and that'll be a good time, at the start of their new life together. He doesn't buy a ring yet because he doesn't want to get ahead of himself, but he daydreams about it, about how surprised Minseok will look, and how wide he'll smile after he says yes.

It takes three and a half weeks for Minseok to finally get his answer, and Lu Han knows what it is the second he sees his face at the start of their video call. "They said no?" he asks anyway.

Minseok nods, eyes downcast. "They're sending a guy from another department. He's got seniority and his Chinese is better than mine. They said maybe somewhere down the line, but...who knows?" He sighs heavily. "I guess it just wasn't meant to be."

Minseok looks so sad already that Lu Han tries not to let it show how much it hurts as his dreams slip through his fingers like so much dust. "No," he reluctantly agrees. "I guess it wasn't.

5.

Neither Lu Han nor Minseok are much for big, romantic displays but Lu Han feels like if there's ever a time to make an exception to that, it's for a marriage proposal. They've been together for long enough and let their lives becomes intertwined enough that they might as well be married, but it's still a big gesture, however symbolic, a statement of commitment to their relationship. He loves Minseok an awful lot, and that should show in the way he proposes.

He thinks about it for a while, and then he goes to look for ideas online, which just leaves him feeling woefully inadequate. On the other hand, Minseok would probably kill him if he did anything too big and too public, so maybe it's better to keep things relatively simple.

In the end, he buys a nice ring and puts it in a nice box, plans out a speech and drags Minseok out to a fancier restaurant than they usually bother with. Minseok doesn't seem to notice, talking casually as usual, looking unfairly hot in his button-up shirt. Lu Han ends up doing a lot of smiling and nodding and not registering what Minseok's saying because he's too caught up in thinking about what's to come, plus all sorts of things he'd never say out loud about how unfairly perfect Minseok is.

His plan for a casual stroll through the park near the restaurant is ruined by an unexpected rainstorm that starts while they're eating, and Lu Han tries not to take it as a sign. "Let's go home," Minseok says, taking Lu Han's arm to pull him close so they can share his umbrella.

Proposing in their living room isn't quite what Lu Han had in mind, but he's so nervous at this point that he thinks he should get it over with or he'll just shove the ring box into Minseok's hands without a word. Minseok's already inside and Lu Han has just finished taking off his shoes when he calls, "Hey, Luhannie, catch!"

Lu Han turns automatically and lifts his hand to catch whatever Minseok threw at him. It's smaller than he's expecting, but his reflexes are good and he catches it easily, closing his hand around it. "What are you—" he starts to ask, but breaks off when he opens his hand and sees what it is he caught. He stares at the ring for a few long seconds, then looks at Minseok, eyes wide.

Minseok smiles at him, teasing but with a hint of nervousness. "Marry me?"

Lu Han's jaw drops. "What?"

"Marry me," Minseok repeats, no longer a question.

"But..." Lu Han frowns. "But I..."

Now Minseok's grin widens. "You should really clear your search history before letting your boyfriend who you're planning to propose to borrow your laptop."

"Oh." Lu Han feels incredibly conflicted. On the one hand, all his planning has come to nothing. On the other hand, Minseok is proposing to him, which in some ways means more than him saying yes to Lu Han would.

"Sorry to steal your thunder. I just saw some of those things you looked at online and I thought I should save us both the embarrassment of an overblown public proposal." Minseok's smile is starting to fade, like he's not sure if he's made a mistake. He walks over to Lu Han, who's still standing by the door. "Do you mind?"

"I, um..." Lu Han's thoughts are still a confusing swirl. He looks at the ring in his hand again. It's silver, smooth on the outside, but he realizes there's something engraved on the inside in Chinese. He lifts it up and reads "always."

When he looks up again, Minseok flashes him a crooked smile. "I meant it," he says. "Maybe I made it sound like nothing, but I meant it." He takes one more step toward Lu Han and puts his hand under the one holding the ring. "Marry me. Please."

Lu Han meets Minseok's eyes, steady and serious despite his smile, and realizes that he doesn't care at all that he didn't get to propose to Minseok in a beautiful park, or that he didn't get to propose to Minseok at all. The only thing that matters is that Minseok wants to marry him, and of course Lu Han's not going to say anything but yes.

He closes his hand tightly around the ring and then throws his arms around Minseok, picking him up clear off the ground and spinning him around. "Hey!" Minseok protests, laughing and clinging to Lu Han.

When Lu Han puts him down, Minseok smacks him on the shoulder, but he's grinning widely. "I'll take that as a yes?"

Lu Han laughs, realizing he's grinning every bit as wide. "Yes," he says firmly, as if there was ever any doubt.