#yes key is basically edna and jinki basically has the super strength like mr incredible

[shitfics]

"My date stood me up, can you come pick me up?" Jinkibum;; i'm glad you're back! 💚 And i hope you're better rn. I'm another one that have the notifs on because I really like your fics/prompts. Thank you for sharing what you write again ;;;;

Thank you so much bb!! That really warms my heart. ;-; And sorry this one is coming a bit late, it ended up longer than I thought it would and I’ve been real unfocused lately. Things are definitely better than they were, but they’re still a bit rougher than I realized. ^^; 

I hope you enjoy this!! (If you can’t tell, this is 100% inspired by the incredibles because I saw it the other weekend.)

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It takes a few dozen rings to get through.

“This is Kibum speaking.”

“My date stood me up. Can you come pick me up?”

The other end of the line crackles. “...Jinki? Is that you?”

“Yeah.” Jinki runs a looped finger around the ribbed wire of the payphone. “I’m at that breakfast dinner near the highway.”

“The one with the shitty coffee?”

He laughs. “That’s the one.”

“I’ll be there in a bit.”

The line goes dead with a click. Jinki sets the phone back on the receiver and sighs. He knows Kibum will come for him, but he wishes hadn’t gotten into this situation. He should have given up on his date and taken the last bus.

But the stupid part of him -- the desperate part of him, if he’s honest with himself -- had to hope that maybe the other man was just late. So he’d stayed. And now he’s stuck on the opposite end of the city from his apartment.

He takes a seat against the side of the now-closed diner and lights a cigarette to pass the time.

The researchers that’d run tests on him back when heroes were above-ground had never told him if his freakish strength and sturdiness came with an immunity to the shit in them, but it’s not like he would’ve quit anyway. The habit is one of the few things about himself he can consider normal, and it’s hard not to be attached to that. Especially in recent years.

When he sees the dual headlights of Kibum’s bright blue car pulling into the parking, he stomps out the light and tosses the butt in a nearby trash can.

“Thanks for coming to get me. I know it’s late.”

“Don’t worry about it -- anything for an old friend.” Kibum smiles at him widely. When Jinki settles into his seat, he can see that Kibum isn’t clothed in his daring fashion -- instead of a tight-fitting dress-shirt, he’s clothed in a plain pink house robe, over a set of loose cotton pajama pants.

He feels a pang of guilt. “I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

“Of course not. You know I always draw at night.”

Jinki laughs. “Yeah.”

Kibum rolls out onto the street and enters the highway for the direction of Jinki’s apartment, already knowing where to go. The engine revs sharply as they gain speed -- Kibum’s flashy sports car really was something else -- but quickly settles into a steady rumble. It’s then that Kibum decides to speak again.

“Do you know why they stood you up?”

“I have a guess, since we met through a friend of a friend. He probably heard along the grapevine that I had powers.” Jinki sighs. “I swear, everyone gay in this city already knows...”

“It’s a small community. Things travel like that.”

“You’d still think at least one person wouldn’t care. It’s not like we’d have to worry about having children.”

Kibum snorts. “Don’t worry about it so much. You’re young and handsome; you’ll find someone.”

He turns to look at Kibum, expecting a follow-up joke. The lights over the highway give him only an intermittent and dim view of Kibum’s face, but Jinki can see his words were genuine.

He smiles slowly. “You think I’m handsome?”

“I’m just stating facts,” he says, hand tightening on the wheel. He glances at Jinki sidelong, then looks away quickly, back at the road. “...But I do, yeah.”

Jinki shifts in his seat, suddenly unsure what to say. He’d known Kibum liked men from the moment they met, and at first he’d been interested -- but he pushed that down when Kibum treated him with nothing more than professional distance.

Things had changed, though. Kibum knew his alterego -- had to, since it was the only legal identity he had anymore -- and they’d become friends. Why couldn’t that change again into something else?

The old warmth in his chest that would bloom when Kibum’s hands traveled over him to take measurements feels just in reach. He wants more of it again, and not just for nostalgia.

“Would you want to come up for a drink, once we’re back at my place? I splurged on some good whiskey recently.”

“I’m not stupid, Jinki. I know what you’re really asking.”

“I’m not good at being subtle, I know,” he says. “...But what do you say?”

Kibum finger taps rapidly against the leather cover of the wheel for a moment before he answers. “Look, if you’re just lonely--”

“I’m not,” Jinki says. “I was interested in you before.”

“You never seemed like it.”

“We met through a government program. You think I was going to make a move on you when there were agents there every time I tried on a new supersuit you made?”

“You have a point,” Kibum admits, lips pursed.

He brings his car to a stop in the lot of Jinki’s dingy apartment complex, and after shifting into park, stares at Jinki appraisingly. The light of a passing van travels over his face, and again, Jinki gets a brief insight into Kibum’s feelings -- there’s hope and want in his eyes, but his jaw is set with tension.

“If we do this, and it doesn’t work, I’m not sure how easy it’ll be for me to go back to being friends.” He licks his lips, clearly nervous. “I want to make sure you’re aware of that.”

“I’m willing to take that risk, if you are.”

Kibum’s mouth quirks, a bit of vulnerability falling away to be replaced with his usual confidence. “I drove across the city at two in the morning to just give you a ride home. How much more obvious can I make it that I’m willing to do stupid things for you?”

Jinki grins. He reaches a hand across the car and places it on Kibum’s thigh. “I can think of a few ways, maybe.”

Kibum peels it away, brow raised in amusement. He leans in towards Jinki, who closes his eyes, heart fluttering in anticipation for their first kiss -- only to feel breath against his lips as Kibum does nothing more than speak.

“You owe me that drink first.”