The next morning, Thomas opened his eyes and then immediately closed them again with a groan. Why had he drank that much? God, that was a terrible idea. As he lay there, bits and pieces of last night began to come back to him, including meeting Minho. He groaned again. The man must think he is an idiot.
He crawled out of bed and got in the shower, standing under the water until it started to run cold. Then he got out and dressed, trying not to make any sudden movements. Just as he was slipping his last sock on he heard a knock at the door.
"Someone had better be dying!" he shouted and opened the door to find Minho standing there, two cups of coffee in his hand.
"Morning, sunshine." He said, shoving one of the cups into Thomas's hand. "I thought you could use that."
"Yeah. Thanks" Thomas mumbled. "Come in." he turned and went to the kitchen, not waiting to see if Minho would follow.
He did, as it turned out. Thomas heard his footsteps coming up behind him. "Do you want some oatmeal or something?" he asked him without turning around.
"No thank you." Minho said, looking around the apartment.
"My place isn't as clean as yours." He said, finally turning to look at the other man. "I'm not much of a house keeper."
Minho smiled kindly at him. "I've seen worse." He said, looking around again. "A lot worse."
"Yeah, well I may not put my laundry away, but I can cook." He said. "You sure you don't want something?"
Before he could answer, large paws skittered across the floor and Minho stumbled forward.
"Oh, Jesus. Pat get down!" Thomas shouted, then pressed his hand to his forehead.
"It's okay." Minho said with a laugh, turning and reaching down to pet the massive dog. "Friendly guy, isn't he?"
"You could say that." Thomas replied, watching him kneel down and scratch Pat's head. Minho was rewarded with a lick to the face, and he laughed, causing Thomas's mouth to quirk up automatically in response.
"Why don't you take him out with you in the mornings?" Minho asked. "Surely a dog this big needs to get out."
"Yeah I take him out, but he's not much of a morning person." Thomas explained. "He prefers to sleep in."
Minho smiled and nodded. "Achilles, is always up before me." He mused. "Usually sitting on my face."
Thomas snorted then groaned.
Minho clucked his tongue sympathetically. "Finish your coffee." He encouraged. "Then if you'll put your shoes on , I will take you to the best hangover food in the city."
Thomas nodded in acknowledgement of Minho's offer and downed the rest of the coffee. He wandered into his bedroom as Minho talked to his dog softly.
He reentered the room, shoes on, to see Pat put his front legs around Minho's neck, putting him off balance and knocking him to the floor. He was sure that the other man would be angry but Minho just laughed and shoved at the big dog to no avail.
"Oh, brother." Thomas grumbled. He went to Minho's aid. While Minho pushed, Thomas pulled and finally, the dog moved.
"As you can see, those obedience classes I paid for really paid off." Thomas said, offering his hand to Minho and hauling him to his feet.
"He's not ill behaved, he's just…affectionate." Minho said with a smile. "You ready?"
"Yeah."
He took Thomas to a small restaurant just a few blocks away. They were seated in a booth immediately and handed menus.
"Now the ultimate hangover cure is the chicken fried steak with redeye gravy." He said
Thomas found it quickly on the menu and read over it. "Are you kidding?" he asked "This has more calories than what I eat in a whole day. You eat like this all the time?"
"Pretty much." Minho said with a shrug.
"But you look like a Calvin Kline model." He said and then immediately blushed.
Minho laughed and blushed himself. "Well I run a lot. And I have a really high metabolism."
"Right," Thomas said. "The heart attack on a plate it is."
Hours later, Thomas and Minho finally returned to their respective apartment to work. Thomas thinking about the way that Minho had dug enthusiastically into his food, and Minho thinking about how Thomas had laughed at his story about the kid at a book signing that had puked on him.
They kept running together, although they stopped trading notes in favor of text messages and photos of the progress on their work. About three times a week, they could be found in each other's apartment.
Thomas cooked for Minho quite a bit after discovering that the other man couldn't cook to save his life. Minho discovered that Thomas ate very healthy meals and was absolutely appalled to find that Minho's own diet consisted mostly of take out and stuff you could make in the microwave.
They found out they both loved sports although there was many-a long debate about teams. As the time approached for Minho to turn his completed work in to the publisher for theirs and Ava's approval, he found himself spending a lot of free time at Thomas's place.
One night as they sat silently watching TV Thomas turned to him. "They're going to love it." he said simply.
Minho turned and opened his mouth to say something which must have read on his face because Thomas stopped him
"They loved the stuff you've sent them so far, haven't they?" he said.
Minho nodded.
"Then they're going to love this." He said and turned back to the TV without another word. After a few seconds he reached over and patted Minho's leg. The other man reached down and gave Thomas's hand a grateful squeeze.
They both jumped sometime later when Thomas's phone rang. He jumped up quickly and grabbed it, seeing his sister's picture on the screen.
He held up a finger to Minho and wandered into the kitchen. "Hey, sister." He said warmly.
"Heeeeyyy!" she said. "Whatcha doin?"
"Just hanging out with my neighbor." He said. "How much have you had to drink?"
"The artist neighbor?" she asked loudly
"Yeah." He said, turning his back to the living room.
Teresa made kissing noises into the phone before suddenly remembering that she had been asked a question. "We sampled reception cocktails today." She said in a stage whisper. "Lots of cocktails. The bartender we got is a kick."
Thomas shook his head. "I'm glad you're having fun. I'd better go and get back to my guest, sis." He said.
Teresa made more kissing noises and bid him goodbye and he went back to the couch. Minho raised a questioning eyebrow at him. "That was my sister." He said. "She's drunk. And getting married next week." Minho gave a short laugh, but said nothing. They continued watching TV in silence, neither one of them wanting to leave the other's company.
