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2022 Round 2: AUs
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Status: Closed
This round has closed. It remains open for fills, comments and remixes, but prompts are no longer accepted.
✧ Seventeen Holidays ✧
About
When you put the characters you love in a new world, you end up loving them even more. Sometimes it's about the aesthetic (dark academia). Sometimes it's about straining those ship dynamics to the extreme (Pacific Rim). Maybe life is hard and you need to exorcise something (unemployment/coporate slave AU). Or perhaps you are so in love with the world you want to see Seventeen in it. Shakespeare, My Hero Academia, RuPaul's Drag Race. No problem - just give some context so anyone can fill it. Examples
MinWon - Bittersweet
Ah yes, the ambiguous Bittersweet MV. I'm curious to see anyone's interpretation of those MinWon scenes.
Any / NCT AU
Remember how Seventeen was supposed to be subgroups divided across Korea, China and Japan? What if that happened and the members were split up, only to reunite once a year. Or if they promoted like NCT - thinking about the graduation angst of NCT Dream, the ridiculous schedules of SuperM. Who is Mark and over-employed. Who is Shotaro and stuck in the basement?
Wonhui X Link Click (Donghua)
Link Click is a show about two guys who run a photography studio and time travels to help their customers. Wonwoo knows every event within 12 hours of a photograph being taken and Junhui can time travel and possess the photographer for 12 hours to complete a mission. Wonwoo speaks in Junhui's mind and tells him what he needs to do - where to go, what to say, what will happen. There's a rule that Junhui can't change the past because it will change the future :') but Junhui wants to :'). Would love to see WonHui investigating another sebong's story, or an exploration of their contrasting attitudes to fate (resigned vs headstrong - roles can be reversed if you want).
Rules
How it works
Prompting
Filling
Remixing
Art/media
Note!
Have you considered trying for the 17hols hall of fame? The categories are: Exactly 400 Words, Year of the Tiger, Five of a Kind and the Rarest Pair. ▽ Click for More Info ▽Exactly 400 words: your fill is the absolute minimum word count. Well done you cold curt succinct savage. Year of the Tiger: in celebration of 2022, we will also celebrate anyone who supports this agenda (context: burn your ears). You must seamlessly incorporate a horanghae or wooahae or hahahahanihae (etc) in your fill. You can not regret it. Five of a Kind: You win this if you fill 5 prompts, and each fill is different in the same way. E.g. 5 different ships, 5 different AUs, 5 different mediums. You also win this by doing 5 remixes! The rarest pair: the fill with the rarest pairing at the end of the fest wins. This is based off the number of works in the ao3 tag. For simplicity, this will be the / tag and not &. (e.g. a “Wonwoo & Minghao” platonic fill will be counted by the “Wonwoo/Minghao” tag). The ship must only have Seventeen members and be the main pairing in your fill. We will update the category with the current titleholder during the fest so you know who to challenge~ I anticipate polyamory. (To help us out, please mention that you’re going for one of these categories at the beginning of your fill.) Navigation
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[FILLL] what’s wrong with secretary josh?
Major Tags: office au, boss/secretary
Additional Tags: none but i'm sorry it came out so much sluttier than you asked for asasdafj
Permission to remix: yes
***
Truthfully, Joshua hates events like this. It’s fine when he’s trailing along behind Minghao as he makes his rounds, nodding polite greetings and then hovering on the edge of the conversations that follow. But there’s always a point where he starts to feel like an imposition, just standing there smiling without contributing anything, and the moment he politely backs off the awkwardness always slams into him in a wave.
Tonight he’s hovering close to the bar, using it as cover even though he isn’t actually drinking, casting his eyes around the room to try to find his best option.
There’s always Mingyu — chatting cheerfully with a group of older women as he undoubtedly waits for Jeonghan’s signal, at which point he will swoop in with some excuse or other so Jeonghan can leave early. Joshua’s halfway through heaving out a sigh, thinking about how much of Mingyu’s inane chatter he’ll have to put up with only for Mingyu to inevitably ditch him, when one of the lawyers from the floor below sidles up with clear intent in his eye.
Joshua sighs again.
The Can I get you a drink? is as expected as it is unwelcome, and Joshua smiles blandly at him as he shakes his head in what he hopes is a manner that seems at least slightly apologetic.
“I’m not drinking tonight, sorry,” he says, polite but giving him nothing else, and that’s when it starts to get uncomfortable. The other man — over forty, flushed and stretched at the seams in the particular way that signals a life of excess — snorts, his feigned friendliness giving way to something uglier.
“Figures,” he says, and Joshua’s expression freezes on his face, a rigid plastic smile. “The kind of man who serves another man for a living….” he laughs as he trails off, clearly expecting Joshua to laugh along at a joke made at his own expense.
The worst part isn’t the look on his face, or the sound of his laughter.
The worst part is that Joshua does it, even as disgust washes over him — forces a smile, a few brittle “ha”s as discomfort washes over him in waves, wishing desperately he was almost anywhere else in the room. He should have just gone over to talk to Mingyu instead of being such a bitch about it — Mingyu would stand up for Joshua, no question, which makes Joshua feel a little shitty about how uncharitably he was just thinking about him.
Only a little, though.
Joshua’s still flustered, so focused on trying to think of an out that he doesn’t even notice Minghao’s presence until he’s right next to him, one hand touching lightly at Joshua’s back.
“What was that?”
Minghao’s question isn’t aggressive. There’s a challenging glint in his eye, though, even if there’s nothing but curiosity in his tone. If Joshua didn’t know better he might still think it was only that he didn’t hear the other man properly.
He does know better, though. A shiver runs down his spine before he can stop it.
The other man’s eyes flick to Minghao, then back to Joshua. A thrill of daring runs through Joshua and he holds the man’s stare, his earlier polite smile long gone, until the other man is forced to look away first.
Joshua’s shoulders straighten.
“Nothing,” the other man says to Minghao, another laugh accompanying his words — a little uneasier now, Joshua thinks, or maybe that’s just what he wants to hear.
“Figures,” Minghao says, smiling coolly. Joshua holds himself very still, waiting, but Minghao doesn’t say anything more, holding the smile until the other man excuses himself to walk away and then letting it drop immediately.
Joshua still doesn’t move, even as Minghao turns to look at him. Embarrassment starts to wash over him, making him feel sick and small. He doesn’t want to know what Minghao thinks of him.
Minghao, who’s still looking at him, gaze narrow and focused. Joshua hates when he does that — or, well. He hates that he doesn't hate it, not totally. There's something weirdly compelling about the idea that Minghao likes what he's seeing — Joshua likes being looked at, usually, when it's Minghao.
Sometimes he even lets himself look back.
He doesn’t like it now. He coughs a little, looking towards his feet, and Minghao makes a tiny sound — concern, maybe, or frustration. If Joshua could make himself check Minghao's face he'd be able to tell.
He can't, though. So.
“Let's go,” Minghao says quietly, finally, and that’s enough to shock Joshua into looking up. He blinks at Minghao for a moment, mouth parted, trying to figure out the look on his face. There's no irritation there, none at all, which only leaves concern.
Joshua's cheeks heat.
“You don't have to do that,” he says. “If you aren't ready — ”
“I'm ready,” Minghao cuts him off firmly. “There's nothing important for me here.”
Joshua honestly doesn't know what to say to that. If he was braver he would ask, maybe. Am I important? Am I important to you? But even the thought of it makes him cringe, ears burning to match his cheeks.
“Okay,” he forces out, proud of how steady his voice sounds. The two of them are still staring at each other. “Do you need me to call you a car?”
“We can just take a taxi,” Minghao says, the we throwing Joshua for another loop. He doesn't know what to do with any of this.
“Okay,” he says again, uselessly, before he takes a breath and forces himself together. “I'll get our coats.”
It's colder than he expected when they get outside and Joshua fights back a shiver as a gust of wind hits. His padded coat isn't formal so he's wearing a pea coat instead, suitable for the event but not the weather. Minghao looks over at him and frowns, hands pausing where they'd been fixing his own scarf.
“Is that all you wore?” he asks, nodding towards Joshua's coat. Joshua slides his freezing hands into his pockets and shrugs, offering Minghao a smile. The wind whips against his face, no doubt turning his nose an unattractive red.
“I'm fine,” he lies, just as another gust of wind hits and a shudder wracks through him. He tries to force his body still but he still feels shaky from the confrontation inside, embarrassingly, and it's harder than he'd like to hide it — especially from Minghao, whose sharp eyes seem to catch everything.
Sure enough —
“You’re cold,” Minghao says, frowning, craning his neck towards the road as though he can make a taxi materialize out of nowhere. “You’ll get sick.”
Joshua fights back a snort, coming closer to peer down the street along with Minghao. He hasn't gotten sick in years — not since before he even started working here, he's pretty sure. He takes all the herbal medicine his mom sends him and gets a flu shot every year, and he stopped drinking on work nights about three weeks after he took the job. Sure, he has a tension headache nearly every day and an anxiety stomachache every time he has to attend an event, but that’s nothing. Part of the job, that’s all.
There aren’t any taxis on the road.
“I’ll call one,” Joshua says, pulling out his phone and navigating to the app, putting in the request for Minghao’s apartment first without thinking about it. Minghao watches him do it, silent. “Seven minutes,” Joshua says, tilting the screen so he can see it better, switching the phone to one hand so he can slip the other one back into his pocket. It really is so cold.
“Here,” Minghao says suddenly, voice familiar and soft, and Joshua tears his eyes from the phone screen to find Minghao untying his scarf with brisk intention. An awkward laugh bubbles up from his throat, only a little panicked.
“You don’t have to — ” he tries, but Minghao shuts him down with a stern glare, softened by the little smile lurking at the corner of his mouth. Joshua laughs and shuts up, lets Minghao come closer and wrap the fabric around his neck. It’s soft, which he guesses he should expect, given what Minghao paid for it. Minghao’s hands are confident as he arranges the scarf to lie the way he wants, apparently just as comfortable fixing it for someone else as he is when he does it for himself.
He smells good, this close. Joshua tries very hard not to notice.
“You have to take care of yourself,” Minghao says as he finishes, offering one firm pat to Joshua’s chest before he pulls his hands back.
“Thanks,” Joshua says weakly, tearing his gaze away to look down at the phone in his hand just to give himself something to do. Four minutes.
Minghao doesn’t say anything else as they wait for the taxi, seemingly content to wait in silence. The inside of Joshua’s brain feels like a riot, thoughts flinging themselves against each other even as he holds his body perfectly still. He doesn’t quite understand where all this is coming from. It’s his job to worry about what Minghao does, obviously, and he knows he’s good at it — probably because he spends his entire life worrying about everything.
It’s only supposed to go one way, though. Minghao isn’t supposed to worry about him, too. Minghao isn’t supposed to leave the party for him, isn’t supposed to —
The taxi pulls up. Joshua opens the door to let Minghao slide in first, both of them silent as the car glides through one green light, and then another, and then —
“You don’t always have to be so polite,” Minghao says quietly, eyes focused out the window. Joshua’s stomach lurches and he doesn’t say anything. Minghao turns to him, then, their eyes meeting for a split second before Joshua’s drop to his knees.
“I mean it,” Minghao says as he reaches for Joshua’s kneecap, the touch impossible to ignore. “No one should ever say something like that about you. You don’t have to let them.”
I didn’t let him, Joshua opens his mouth to say, but it dies before he can force it out. Minghao would see through the lie, anyway.
I won’t do it again, Joshua could say, but Minghao would see through that, too. He keeps his mouth shut, instead, and doesn’t move Minghao’s hand from his knee.
The taxi driver takes a left at the next light — they’re almost there.
The air between them feels tight, nearly electric, as Joshua lets his knees open a little, until Minghao’s gripping his thigh for real. He can feel Minghao’s gaze, hot against the side of his face. His scarf is still warm around Joshua’s neck.
“Joshua,” Minghao says, very quietly, as the taxi pulls to a stop in front of the building. Joshua meets his eyes without flinching, knowing exactly what kind of man it makes him.
“Aren’t you going to invite me up?”
Re: [FILLL] what’s wrong with secretary josh?
He should have just gone over to talk to Mingyu instead of being such a bitch about it — Mingyu would stand up for Joshua, no question, which makes Joshua feel a little shitty about how uncharitably he was just thinking about him. - EXTREMELY josh
and the entire sequence at the end, josh letting his knees open so that minghao's grip slips down his thigh... HELLO???? THE END??? I AM RATTLING THE BARS OF MY CAGE FOR REAL!!!!!!! HE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT KIND OF MAN IT MAKES HIM!!!!!
Re: [FILLL] what’s wrong with secretary josh?
I am obsessed with every aspect of this. With Mingyu being Jeonghan’s secretary. With Josh shittalking Mingyu in his head and then feeling a little bad about it (only a little). With Minghao cutting in and making that gross guy run away. WHEN HE ASKS JOSH IF HE’S GOING TO INVITE HIM UP BUT IN A WAY LIKE “hello are u or what” UGH PERFECT PERFECT
and the scarf ☹️ i love the way you write josh and minghao so much… THANK YOU !!!!
Re: [FILLL] what’s wrong with secretary josh?
Re: [FILLL] what’s wrong with secretary josh?