#sorry for the repost! forgot to add my signature last time | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nctsworld · 4 years

Text

fire alarm

✩ mark x reader | college au | fluff | 1.7k

SUMMARY ⇾ when your dorm building’s fire alarm goes off in the middle of the night and everyone’s outside, you offer to share your blanket with your shivering, cute neighbour. WARNINGS ⇾ fluff, couple of swear words RATING ⇾ teen+

⇾ gif created by me, please don’t repost or share without credit!

You started to drift into deep sleep when the sudden blares of the dorm’s fire alarm stirs you awake.

Your groans are muffled in your pillow, frustrated that this is probably another false alarm like usual. With heavy eyes, you rush to grab your phone and keys, stuff your feet into your shoes, and waddle among the crowd of students, departing the building with your blanket over your shoulders as a make-shift jacket.

The moment you reach the front of the building where everyone safely coalesces, you glance at your phone as you tug at the ends of your blanket around your chest. 3:08am glows back at you, along with a couple other notifications. You barely get the chance to check them since the blatant chattering of teeth nearby catches your attention instead.

Your gaze rests on the familiar figure a few steps beside you, rubbing his arms up and down while his legs tremble. Peering around, you realize you’re one of the few who brought more than a jacket for extra warmth during this chill, autumn night. On the other hand, he’s one of the few who hardly had any layers, solely wearing a baggy red t-shirt and a pair of boxers.

His face swivels side to side, searching the crowd, and it dawns on you that it’s none other than your next door neighbour, Mark.

His dorm room was to the left of yours. You’ve only interacted with him in passing, regularly acknowledging each other with casual nods and smiles. His sweet smile never failed to make your heart race and to make the corners of your mouth widen further. You didn’t know much about him, except for the fact he played guitar since you occasionally heard him play late at night.

You always wanted to get to know him, but neither of you shared the same classes nor were you in the same clubs. To make matters worse, the only time you saw one another was when either of you were coming or going.

Perhaps now was the time to finally make a move.

Lifting your blanket off the pavement, you shuffle your way towards him. As you near him, it clicks in your head that you didn’t initially recognize him because, besides the lack of clothes and the slightly messy hair, he’s wearing glasses to boot.

“Hey, neighbour.”

Mark stops his searching and his focus lands on you. The handsome individual steps closer to shorten the space between you, displaying his signature smile. You grip onto your blanket tighter and the weight of your shoulders droop, allowing your face to shyly sink into the sea of fabric covering you.

The shivering man says your name and replies with a cool, “Hey.”

“Do you want to share the blanket with me?”

“Oh, no. It’s okay, I’m all right,” he stammers with a shake of his head, continuing to rub his arms.

You perk an eyebrow and open one of your arms out, offering him the promise of warmth.

Beaming, you say, “There’s enough room for another.”

His mouth twists to one side of his face, the gears in his head obviously turning.

“Are you sure?”

A hum, nod, and a grin answer his uncertainty. Mark swiftly grasps onto the end of the blanket and wraps himself over his shoulder. Although the heat from the front of your body flees due to the partial sacrifice of your cover, you’re now having an extra source of heat from being right next to Mark, touching shoulder to shoulder.

“Thanks,” he bobs his head. “I appreciate it. I just bolted out of bed and didn’t think of even bringing a jacket.”

“That’s okay, that’s why you have me,” you joke, swaying and pressing your shoulder lightly against his.

Both of you chuckle softly. There’s something else to add to the list of things that are keeping you warm—the prickling rising from your chest to your cheeks.

You then comment, “I’ve never seen you with glasses before. I almost didn’t recognize you.”

“Ah, yeah, I wear contacts during the day. Depending on stuff, I sometimes wear my glasses, but not as often.”

“Well, I think you look good either way.”

Your eyes practically fall and roll away from your head, cognizant of the words that just escaped your mouth.

“I mean—” You snap your eyes shut for an extended beat, not wanting to see the look on your next door crush’s face. “You know what, let’s just pretend I didn’t say that out loud.”

Exhaling a lengthy sigh, you turn to face the opposite direction, now regretting your offer to share your blanket with him.

Your regret leads you to miss the way his face lights up.

“Hey, no, thanks for the compliment.”

Under the blanket, his fingers gingerly graze over yours for a fleeting moment, which causes you to shift your head towards him again. The tips of your noses are almost touching. His twinkling eyes are locked on you, but yours are veering everywhere else except on him.

“If it makes you feel any better, I think you look good too.”

With that, your gaze finally lands on Mark.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

You want to continue the conversation, you really do, but you’re at a loss of words and are too busy getting lost in the galaxy of his eyes from up-close. From the way he’s not tearing his eyes away either, a little part of you wonders if he harbours an infatuation with you as well. He couldn’t possibly, right?

Despite being practically strangers, the silent, intense aura blooms as time passes. Your respective breaths brush against each other’s lips and it’d be so easy to just lean in to meet the other’s—

Suddenly, the tension is cut short as everyone begins to sluggishly amble their way back into the building.

Although nothing really transpired, you break apart simultaneously like someone caught you two doing something you shouldn’t. Mark lets you have your blanket all to yourself once more and both of you head back side by side in comfortable silence.

After walking up the flight of stairs, trailing behind all the other residents of the building, you finally reach your respective doors.

“It was nice to see you,” you say, pulling your keys out and inserting the fitting one into your lock.

“Yeah, thanks for sharing your blanket with me. I really appreciate it.”

“Anytime, neighbour,” you glance up at him from your hand. His whole body faces you and his mouth is agape like he’s itching to say something. On second thought, he presses his lips together and feels around his body for his keys. Realization hits him in the face.

“Shit,” he bangs his forehead against the door, deterring you from entering your home abode. “I forgot my keys inside.”

Mark turns to you with a scrunched face. Even in a state of frustration, how could someone be so cute? “Sorry to ask, but can I borrow your phone?”

“Oh, yeah. Of course.” You don’t hesitate to scramble and hand it over to him.

He mumbles a quick thanks, rubbing the back of his head. When he finishes entering a number to dial-in, he holds the phone against his ear and leans the side of head against his door, still facing you. You stand there awkwardly, eyes wavering between the adorable phone borrower and the handful of people in the hallway trickling back into their dorms.

After the third unanswered ring, a bold offer impulsively escapes your lips.

“You know, you can stay at my place overnight if you need to.”

Oh, no. Shit. Why brain, why?

You don’t register your brazenness until the fifth ring, when Mark’s jaw is hanging and his eyebrows are glued to the ceiling. Okay, maybe you can save the moment by saying it was a joke or—

“Hello?” you overhear a muffled grumble on the other end.

The shock dissolves away from his face. “Oh, hey. Sorry to wake you, Johnny. It’s Mark…”

Utter embarrassment. This time, you can’t save yourself from your impetuous words. Millions of possibilities run through your mind, including abandoning your phone for him to keep and then moving to another building. No, moving to another college. Actually, Mars sounds like an even better idea.

You’re so deep in your overdramatic thoughts, your face in a pinch behind your blanket, that you don’t even realize Mark’s already done with his call.

“Thanks.” His voice breaks you away from your thoughts, eyelids shooting open. He must’ve stepped closer while you weren’t looking because he’s now in front of you, dangling your device from his fingertips. You gently grasp the phone, jointly holding it with him.

“And about your offer…” You cringe, ready for him to ignore your existence until the end of time. You officially ruined everything, and nothing has even happened yet.

“How about we go on a date first?”

Your head shoots up at his proposition. Did you hear that right?

“Then, maybe when the fire alarm goes off again next time and I forget my keys, I’ll take you up on it.”

It could be because it’s almost 4am and you’re teetering on sleep, or you’re purely stricken, but all you could do is nod mindlessly and squeak, “Sure.”

A heartstopping smile rolls over his face. “I was hoping you’d say that. I took the liberty of adding myself to your contacts and sent a text to my phone.”

Mark releases your phone from his grip and begins to walk backwards towards the stairs, suppressing his desire to stay with you for a little while more. But, it’s late and it’s not like this was the last time he’d see you. You are neighbours after all.

Waving, he whisper-shouts in the hallway, “I’ll text you back first thing when I can. Have a good night!”

You subtly wave back, still huddling your blanket over your shoulders. When he disappears from your line of sight, you enter your room and flop onto your bed with a jubilant sigh.

Following knocks at his door, a slit-eyed Johnny is welcomed by a vivacious friend. Too vivacious for 4am.

“Dude, you won’t believe what just happened. Remember that cute neighbour I’ve been telling you about?...”

Maybe (and thankfully) there wasn’t an actual fire, but another one was certainly beginning to kindle.

And neither of you had the intention of extinguishing it any time soon.

#mark #mark lee #mark lee fluff #mark lee scenarios #mark lee imagines #nct #nct imagines #nct fluff #nct scenarios #nct 127 imagines #nct 127 fanfic #nct 127 fluff #nct 127 scenarios #nctcreations #mark x reader #mark lee x reader

1K notes · View notes