We Could Have Been (2)
[part one]
Waking up the next morning beside Jaejoong was not that big of shock, because really - he would have been a fool not to expect it. But his heart did jump into his throat the moment he opened his eyes and found Jaejoong’s face only a few inches away from his own.
“Good morning,” the older man murmured around a smile. “Did I scare you?”
Yunho could feel his pulse race in uncomfortable places, like the inside of his wrist and right underneath his jaw - and only half of it was from surprise. “Y-yeah.”
Jaejoong smiled a little wider, and leaned down to kiss him. It wasn’t too-tender like Yoochun, or too-strong like Junsu. It was chapped lips that felt soft anyway; a gentle pressure that conveyed every bit of feeling without needing to go any deeper. A kiss of contentment.
And if maybe he kissed back for a second, he didn’t notice. He was too busy feeling like a horrible person for enjoying it at all.
Because Yunho had always known he was attracted to men, and Changmin wasn’t the first he had felt for - Jaejoong was.
Changmin knew, of course, and also knew that Yunho’s crush had died years ago. He hadn’t begrudged Yunho his past feelings, or let it affect his relationship with Jaejoong. But that didn’t mean the constant presence of yunjae was any less of a bitter pill to swallow.
And it didn’t mean Yunho didn’t sometimes still think of what it would be like to kiss Jaejoong like this. And now that it was coming true… it was nearly everything he had imagined. As kind, as mature and sincere as Jaejoong was.
Jaejoong broke the kiss first, raising back up and picking at Yunho’s mussed hair. He smirked. “You have morning breath,” he teased.
Yunho’s head hurt. At least that’s what he blamed it on when his eyes started to sting and he had to blink fast to keep them from watering. Jaejoong seemed to notice and asked lightly, “You okay?” He was still playing with Yunho’s hair.
Yunho cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah. Weird dreams?”
“Hmm. Well, I’m going to go make breakfast - since the others are going home today, I thought it’d be nice goodbye.”
“The others?”
“Yeah. They’re all really grateful you got them the night off, Christmas Eve and all.”
Yunho shot up, suddenly feeling sick. He had kissed Jaejoong - willingly¬ - and Changmin was in the apartment. Changmin was just a few rooms away. Somewhere in his mind he registered that meant no lawsuit in this place, then. But oh god, he felt horrible.
“I…” he said, placing his hands at his temples.
“You really don’t look so good,” Jaejoong said with a frown. “Those must have been some bad dreams.”
He rolled off the bed with a shake of his head, stalking into the bathroom and ignoring Jaejoong calling his name.
He locked the door behind him and splashed his face with cold water from the sink. That was a mistake, he told himself, a really really bad mistake. The stress must be getting to him.
He was tempted just to go to bed and sleep the day away. This was the last of them, wasn’t it? No more bandmates to go through. Tomorrow would be Christmas, and he would wake up and be with Changmin. Today he could claim sickness and sleep and just ignore everything.
But then Jaejoong started knocking on the door, his voice sounding concerned and Yunho felt like his head was going to explode. All of a sudden he didn’t want to sleep, he wanted Changmin.
He didn’t want Yoochun’s emotional assurances or Junsu’s enthusiastic pick-me-ups or Jaejoong’s soft words. He wanted Changmin to be stoic and confident and understanding and dispel his worries as if he were stupid for even worrying in the first place - a few short words to fix it all.
“Yunho? You sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine, just drop it,” he said crossly. He listened to Jaejoong grumble something and walk away, which he was grateful for.
He waited a minute before he peeked his head out, first out the bathroom door, then out the bedroom. Jaejoong was banging around in the kitchen a little louder than necessary, probably sour about being brushed off.
He could hear noises from the computer room - Junsu, still talking to his game and Yunho wanted to laugh at the irony. Instead he turned and headed to Changmin’s room, which had him passing the scary advent calendar. As nice and Christmas-y as it looked on the outside, Yunho knew that underneath the little flap for December 24 lurked a cute woodland animal and a terrifying message of impending doom.
It was why he was utterly baffled with himself when he looked anyway, and found a puppy with a red bow on its neck, a smile on its face and a little speech bubble above its head, encasing the words “I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams!”
He should have known. He shook his head sadly and continued on.
Changmin was fortunately in his room, and still asleep like Yunho expected him to be. The younger boy was muttering in his sleep and Yunho smiled fondly, even the slight motion enough to lift his spirits. He wanted to pinch the younger man’s cheeks. He shook Changmin gently, recalling all the other times he’d woken the younger man much like this. He’d get up early to get the others up and ready and then come back for Changmin so the youngest would get those few extra minutes of sleep. And Changmin’s eyes would flutter open and he would mumble something, and then he’d see Yunho and-
Not punch him.
“Aghh!” Yunho cried, clutching his nose.
“Ohmygod,” Changmin breathed, very much awake now. “Hyung, I’m so sorry!”
“What the hell, Min?!” He could feel the tingle of something tickling up his nose, and hoped it wouldn’t start bleeding. His eyes really were watering, now.
“Oh jeez, I’m sorry. I was still kinda asleep, I thought you were Junsu-”
“And you would have punched Junsu?!” And his voice still sounded hysterical there, but he didn’t care.
Changmin answer contained a little bit of smirk. “Probably,” he said, only to change his tone when a drop of blood slipped between Yunho’s fingers. He ran out to the hall and returned with a box of tissues. “Okay, no, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. It was a reflex… and Junsu would have dodged it! You should have known not to wake me up!”
“I wake you up all the time,” he groused.
Changmin handed him a tissue with a weird look. “No you don’t.”
Oh. Well, Yunho couldn’t argue with that - it might be true. He wiggled the cartilage of his nose gently. The sting was starting to go away, and the bleeding had already stopped. He held the tissue to his nose just in case, though.
Just then Jaejoong came to the door, a “Breakfast’s ready!” dying on his lips when he saw the blood.
“What happened to your nose?” he asked slowly.
“Nothing,” Yunho smiled weakly, although Jaejoong probably couldn’t see it beneath the tissue. “I tripped over some clothes. It was really stupid.”
Jaejoong rolled his eyes. “I live with an idiot.” Then he turned on his heel and stalked out.
Yunho turned back to Changmin. “Thanks, hyung,” the younger man said gratefully.
Yunho waved it off. “No problem. He’s already kind of mad at me, what’s making him actually mad going to do?”
“Get you sent to the couch,” Changmin deadpanned. Yunho cleared his throat awkwardly and grimaced when he tasted blood.
“At least you’re not mad at me. You punch me even when you aren’t.”
It was Changmin’s turn to wince. He grabbed the hand that was holding his nose and pulled down so he could get a look. No bruising and only the slightest smear of blood that had dried just above his lip. Changmin gently touched at it. “Still hurt?” he asked.
Yunho mumbled a ‘no’, and Changmin’s touches wandered, pressing lightly on various spots that might have been hurt. He was still holding Yunho’s hand, and Yunho reveled in the soft caresses. They didn’t stop until his eyes drifted closed, at which point Changmin jerked his hand away.
Yunho’s eyes opened and Changmin was blushing, his mouth hanging open just a little. “Um, s-sorry again, hyung. But it looks like it’s okay. Do you want me to get some ice, though? I could go get some ice, or something-” he rambled.
“It’s fine,” Yunho smiled. Changmin flushed even more, but his expression was frozen, stilted. After a second he looked away, obviously uncomfortable.
Yunho’s smile slipped away when he realized what was going on. Just because he was glad to see Changmin and interact with him didn’t mean that it was like home. He was with Jaejoong here, and probably had never shown interest in Changmin.
He felt a little guilty with how happy it made him, knowing that even in this alternate place Changmin still felt something for him. And that happiness - that relief was infinitely more meaningful than Jaejoong’s kiss. A little guilt he could live with; knowing he was being truly unfaithful to Changmin was out of the question.
Feeling at ease, he decided to leave Changmin alone. This was the last day, after all. Tomorrow he could kiss Changmin to his hearts’ content. After all this madness, it would be the best Christmas present he could ever possibly get.
Breakfast was a normal affair, in which Junsu and Yoochun bickered and Changmin broke in with the occasional joke at Junsu’s expense. Jaejoong was still annoyed with Yunho and taking a passive aggressive stance, not really acting out but withholding any and all affection.
Yunho felt pretty happy with the situation.
That was, until the other three left. Evidently Yunho had, at some point, cleared their schedule enough to allow for the other three to return home for the night. Jaejoong and Yunho of course wouldn’t have enough time to go all the way home and so would stay at the apartment. The younger members, however, would be leaving midday and returning early the next morning. Yoochun and Junsu were obviously excited, happily chatting about their plans and brothers and what they were going to get to eat for dinner.
Changmin was a little quieter on the matter, and Yunho wasn’t sure if it was him being his usual reserved self or because of the events of the morning. He hadn’t quite met Yunho’s eye since.
Yunho waited until he was leaving, the car waiting downstairs and Changmin in the foyer, tying his shoes. He held the door open for the taller man and Changmin offered him a careless smile.
“Bye, hyung.”
“Changmin…”
The other hesitated, just enough for Yunho to reach out a grab his hand. He took a breath, trying to gather his thoughts. What exactly did one say to your lover-that-was-not-your-lover? “Have a good time at home,” he finally said, hoping to convey some sort of sentiment.
Changmin finally met Yunho’s eyes, and Yunho was reminded again of the sheer presence of Changmin, the strength and dignity he carried with him in everything he did. He breathed in.
“See you tomorrow,” Changmin finally said, face serious except for the smallest tilt of a smile.
He breathed out. “See you tomorrow,” he said. He didn’t add I can’t wait, and maybe Changmin didn’t even pick up on the unspoken phrase, but Yunho thought it was okay, because it was a great big understatement anyway.
All Yunho had to do now, of course, was survive the rest of the day - alone - with Jaejoong. He’d done it with Junsu, and all although that hadn’t ended quite too well, for the most part it had been okay. All he had to do was avoid being the object of the older man’s attention, and he would be okay.
But, then again, this was Jaejoong.
“So…” Jaejoong slunk into the living room, previous ire obviously forgotten. Yunho was reading a magazine on the couch, finding some weird sort of curiosity in reading an interview he was sure he’d never actually done. Jaejoong interrupted him by draping himself over Yunho’s shoulders, his hands sliding down Yunho’s arms suggestively.
Yunho gulped and dropped the magazine - which, unfortunately, seemed to be exactly what Jaejoong wanted. “We have the apartment to ourselves-” and he paused to chew at Yunho’s ear, which made him shiver and he started to worry, “-so what-” but then Jaejoong paused again, this time to tug at the lobe with his teeth, and that didn’t so much as make him shiver as wince, “-do you-” because, wow, that really kinda hurt, “-want-” and oh, that really hurt, owowow “-to do n-”
“What the - ow, god, stop it!” he finally cried, pulling back and clapping his hand to his ear. What was with people and hurting him today?
Jaejoong frowned down at him. “What? I wasn’t biting that hard.”
“Not hard? Why were you biting at all?!” His ears were sensitive, and while he was all for a little rough play, biting-til-you-bleed just wasn’t his thing.
Jaejoong raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Why…?” he seemed a little lost for words. “Well, you- I mean, you… you’ve always liked that!”
“Why would I like having my ear ripped off?”
“I was just-” he stopped and seemed to come to a realization. “Is this because of your head hurting? Is it? I didn’t think - I’m sorry, I can tone it down-”
How about not toning it at all? He wanted to say, but stayed his tongue. He rubbed his abused ear, trying to work some feeling back into it. Behind him Jaejoong moved to kneel behind the couch so that he was level with Yunho, his head right beside his. He tried to kiss Yunho’s ear in apology but ending up getting flicked in the face instead.
“Ow,” he said pointedly. Yunho just felt vaguely justified.
They sat in silence for a little while longer. He couldn’t guess what Jaejoong was thinking about, but Yunho’s mind was buzzing with how to avoid any further advances Jaejoong might make.
Ironically, as much as he indulged in the kiss that morning, the idea of going any further was starting to make him anxious. ‘Jaejoong the Crush’ was someone meant to be admired from a distance, an adolescent ideal that didn’t really exist. Reality was ‘Jaejoong the Bandmate,’ who was clumsy and tactless; who sometimes left his cigarette butts on the kitchen counter just to gross Yunho out and knew the definition of ‘personal space’ but just didn’t care. Reality was someone who treated Yunho too much like a brother to be anything else, and that was exactly what Yunho was happy with him being.
But now, ‘Jaejoong the Lover’ wasn’t going to be ignored. He let out a puff of air that ruffled Yunho’s hair. “Does this mean we don’t get to use the handcuffs?”
Yunho’s mouth fell open. “…What?”
“Don’t tell me you forgot your Christmas present! I told you I when I got them - and do you know hard it was to get real, police-issue handcuffs?! All the sites I went to needed either police authorization or my ID number to order them - and it’s not like I could give that,” he babbled, and Yunho was a little too scared to stop him. “I finally got Heechul, of all people to get them, and I have no idea how he did it, but you know he’s into some really kinky stuff - I don’t know how Hankyung deals with it. Still, Heechul’s going to tease you to death next time you see him, so ask him about those stilettos I found in his closet and that’ll shut him up-”
“Okay okay okay, I get it,” Yunho hissed, just wanting to stop the tirade. He did not want to know about alternate-reality-Heechul’s sex life - though, to be honest, he wouldn’t be surprised if his reality’s Heechul was any different… but that was beside the point.
Jaejoong pouted again. “No need to be snappish. You’re head must be really hurting…” and he raised his hand, dragging it through Yunho’s hair - gently. That Yunho could appreciate. Jaejoong gave the best scalp massages.
He closed his eyes and leaned back. “Yes,” he sighed. “Yes, it hurts very much, and no, I don’t think I want to use the, uh, handcuffs. Not today. Sorry,” he added.
“It’s okay,” Jaejoong said, scratching at the crown of Yunho’s head and chuckling when it made his toes curl into the carpet. “I understand. Let’s just spend some time together, how does that sound?”
Yunho rolled his head along the back of the couch so he could meet Jaejoong’s eyes. The other man was smiling softly, and Yunho couldn’t help but smile back. Sadomasochistic-lovers aside, he had missed hanging out with Jaejoong - spending time with the person he easily called his best friend. Just like it had been a breath of fresh air to dance with Junsu and, looking back, even to talk with Yoochun - uncomfortable as it had been, Yunho could never call a good hug a waste of his time.
“That sounds fine by me, Jaejoong,” he answered honestly.
And so Jaejoong went to pick a movie, and when they couldn’t decide between four decided to watch all of them and make a marathon of it. Halfway through the second Jaejoong stopped to make popcorn, and they settled on the couch, heads bent and feet tangled together. Jaejoong kept up a running commentary through the film - sometimes related to the movie, sometimes not, but it was enough to keep Yunho half amused, half irritated the whole time.
He drifted off to sleep sometime during the fourth movie, his eyes sliding shut around the time of a cliché, tearful scene of mistaken identity. He heard a chuckle, felt a kiss pressed to his forehead, and then suddenly sleep stole him away. He didn’t dream.
He was in his own bed, alone, when he woke up, and he allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief. This was going to take that as good a sign as any, and he’d made it through each day - so this had to be the end of it.
And then someone started pounding on his door, and he heard his sister yelling from the hall, telling him to wake up, because it was Christmas and he had slept in long enough.
In half a second he had scrambled up, only to trip on a sheet and practically stumble all the way to the door. He threw it open and even though his sister hadn’t stopped yelling at him, he was still surprised to see her in the hall.
“You-! What the hell are you doing here?” he asked desperately.
“Well thanks a lot. It’s good to see you too, bro,” she grumbled before walking away, calling for their mother. Yunho heard her answer from somewhere near the kitchen.
And after that, he felt perfectly justified in running back to his bed to bury his head in his pillow, and then scream like he was being murdered.
The weird thing was, beyond the fact that his family was for some reason living in his apartment in Seoul, there wasn’t a single sign of Dong Bang Shin Ki. His mother didn’t exactly put his achievements all over the place - that was Junsu’s mom’s thing - but she had put up a couple of pictures of him, from concerts and award ceremonies. She’d even had a picture of the five of them in the hall.
And his father usually asked after the other members and their families. His sister usually asked him for autographs of other celebrities, regardless of whether he’d met them or not. But there was none of that.
Instead, his mom only had a picture of his old dance team and his high school graduation. His father asked him about friends he hadn’t talked to in years. His sister didn’t ask him about anything at all.
“Have you ever heard of Dong Bang Shin Ki?” he finally asked, halfway through a breakfast that had been more than a little awkward on his part. His sister kept making jokes that his being out of school had made him slower than usual.
His mother and father shared a look. “Is that… a new movie coming out?” His mother ventured.
“I haven’t heard of it,” his sister said quickly.
Yunho grabbed at a big glob of rice. “No, never mind,” he said, and then shoved the rice into his mouth so he couldn’t answer any more questions.
“So, how long are you staying?” his mother asked. “We didn’t even hear you come in last night.”
Yunho chewed for as long as he possibly could, until the rice was mush and slipping down his throat along with any more reason he might have to stall for time.
“Uh, not… long?” He finally answered, hoping that would satisfy her.
She seemed to accept it, but at the same time wasn’t happy about it. At the other end of the table his father nodded. “Keeping you busy at work, are they?”
Yunho nodded, grateful for the easy yes-or-no question.
“That’s good,” he continued, sharing another look with his mother. “The harder he works, the sooner he’ll be promoted.” He turned back to Yunho, “then you’ll have more time for yourself, trust me. That’s how it always works in the big companies. Before you know it you’ll have a corner office and a secretary of your own.”
“Yeah…” Yunho agreed softly. He wondered what he supposedly did for work in the first place.
“But at least you’re back home for the holidays,” his mother broke in with a smile. “It wouldn’t have been the same without you.”
He smiled honestly at that. He had missed enough Christmas’ over the year to appreciate being with his family - his blood family, anyway. Somewhere out there was another one waiting for him, hopefully. He swallowed harshly and sighed. If any of them noticed his momentary sadness, they didn’t comment.
After breakfast presents were opened, and Yunho allowed himself to play the role of dutiful son and doting big brother. It wasn’t that hard. Other than a different home and a different career, it seemed the Yunho of here wasn’t much different from the real him. Spending a lazy midday basking in the attention of his family - no, that wasn’t that hard at all.
Soon his sister was busy playing with her new cell phone, his father with his new cable box. He went into the kitchen, where his mother had started on cooking dinner. He moved behind her, his arms going around her in a hug. Sometimes he forgot how much taller he was than her, now - she had never been small to him, not when from his earliest memories she was always the biggest person in his life. He buried his face in her hair.
She chuckled as he hugged her. “Oh? What’s this for?” And she reached up and pat him on the head, like she used to when he was little. It was the comfort he needed. “You seem tired.”
“Mm,” he agreed. He felt exhausted - mentally, if nothing else.
She pulled his arms from around her, turning so she could cup his face in her hands. “Go get some sleep, then. I’ll wake you for dinner.”
Yunho shook his head. “I came back to see you-”
“Hush,” she said in admonition, shaking his head lightly, “I’m busy cooking, and just having you here is good enough for me. It was a wonderful morning, Yunho. Go to sleep. You need it,” she said, and when she smiled there was something secretive lurking underneath her laugh lines. He raised an eyebrow but she just shook his again, and then with a little push sent him on his way.
He shrugged and went back to his room. A nap did sound good. He buried his face into his pillow, trying to force himself to fall sleep faster. From somewhere in the hall a song started playing, but he was already halfway gone and hoping maybe, maybe…
“Yah, Yunho! Yunho, wake up!” There was someone slapping his face.
“Go away, sis,” he murmured.
“Do I look like your sister to you?” came the sharp retort.
Yunho’s eyes flew open. Sure enough, there was no sister in the room. It was just him, and Changmin - in their room, their apartment. Still, he was almost afraid to ask, “Changmin…?”
Changmin stared at him like he was crazy. “Do you have doubts?” he mocked.
And that was the point at which Yunho jumped on him. And if maybe he cried a little bit, he noticed. But he didn’t care.
“I love you so much, you know that?”
Changmin slowly lifted his hands to return the embrace, but Yunho could tell he was still a little weirded out. “Yes…”
“More than Yoochun, and Junsu, and Jaejoong.”
“Okay, what’s going on-”
Yunho pulled back, but not far enough that he couldn’t keep his arms around Changmin’s neck. “Nothing, nothing. Everything’s absolutely perfect.”
“You sure?” Changmin asked, brushing his thumb beneath Yunho’s dry but obviously red eyes.
“Yeah. Come on, lay down with me a bit.” He tugged Changmin down. The other man was already dressed and it was already mid-afternoon, but still he didn’t care.
Changmin didn’t seem to mind either, and was kicking off his shoes even as he climbed in beside Yunho. “Have you been in bed this whole time? You lazy ass.”
“I feel like I’ve been dreaming for days,” Yunho laughed wryly.
“Mm, I would agree with that. I felt like I haven’t seen you in days.”
“Yeah?” Yunho asked hesitantly. They stretched out side-by-side, and Yunho watched as Changmin laid his arm over Yunho’s waist. It had to be the most perfect arm, ever.
“Well, that’s a bit extreme,” Changmin said, and Yunho realized he’d spoke out loud. But instead of blushing he grinned.
“Only speaking the truth.” He walked his fingers up Changmin’s arm, running them down his side and back up again. He played with the fringe of his hair and then touched at his nose, mimicking the spots that yesterday’s-Changmin had pressed.
Changmin seemed to indulge him, but couldn’t help but comment rhetorically. “What are you doing, you weirdo?”
“I missed you.”
“I was only gone for a day. My family says hi, by the way. Have you called yours, yet?”
“In a way,” he murmured.
“Good. I know how much they’re looking forward to you coming home for break.”
“Yeah. I’m just sorry you can’t come with me.”
“Hmm,” he made a face like he was seriously thinking, “Gwangju or Australia? Gwangju or Australia?”
Yunho scoffed and slapped at him. “Shut up.”
“Fine. Then I shouldn’t say I missed you, too?”
He hit him again. “Shut up.”
“Can’t even say a Merry Christmas?”
Yunho paused to consider it. “Well, maybe you can say that. Although,” he sighed, “I’ll admit, I’m not really in the mood for Christmas.”
“Yeah… you’ve seemed kind of out of it.”
“A lot’s happened in the last couple of days.”
Changmin cocked his head in question. It was all kinds of adorable, and Yunho couldn’t help but lean forward to kiss him. Changmin responded eagerly, that perfect arm of his pulling Yunho even closer.
Yunho broke the kiss only when his phone buzzed on the nightstand. He reached for it lazily and answered without really looking at the number.
“Hello?”
“Merry Christmas!” A chorus of three.
Yunho smiled crookedly. “Merry Christmas guys. From me and Changmin, too,” he added when the younger man nudged him.
“Oooh!” he heard Yoochun call, and Junsu cackled in the background. “Did we interrupt something?” he teased.
“Yes, so go away. You’ve done enough interrupting,” he sniped, and heard only Jaejoong’s outraged “What the hell does that mean-” before he snapped it shut and tossed it across the room.
Changmin raised an eyebrow at him. “For once, I’m actually glad I won’t be seeing them for a while. Jaejoong hates it when you hang up on him.”
“He’ll cool off by the time we get to Japan.”
“You hope.”
“As long as he doesn’t come at me with handcuffs, I will be perfectly content.”
“What the hell does that-”
Yunho kissed Changmin and laughed when the younger man flailed in surprise. “Huh,” he mused, “Junsu was right. That is kind of fun.”
“What the fuck are you talking ab- hey!” he protested as another kiss cut off his words. “Stop doing that.”
Yunho smiled innocently. Across the room, his phone started buzzing again. Changmin threw a pillow at it - which, really, didn’t do much good.
But Changmin turned on him with a fierce grin. “No more interruptions, right?”
Yunho’s answer more than made sure of that.
It wasn’t until evening when they woke again, and even then Yunho didn’t feel like leaving bed - he was just so happy to wake up and stay in the same place that he wanted to relish it for a bit longer. But Changmin wasn’t one to laze about, and began to pull an outfit together.
“No,” Yunho whined. “Stay, please?”
“I’m getting up, and so should you. Come on, let’s get dinner.”
“I’m staying here.”
“I’m going.”
And then he went. After a few seconds of being alone Yunho groaned and pushed himself up. He wandered into the hall just as a song started playing - it was vaguely familiar, and it took him a few seconds to identify it. It was the song he’d heard as he was taking his nap after being with his family, and he hurried forward to find the source.
The source was Changmin, who was still in the hall and was playing with the advent calendar. He was lifting all the little windows and humming along to the song.
“Oh there's no place like home for the holidays ‘cause no matter how far away you roam, if you want to be happy in a million ways for the holidays, you can’t beat home, sweet home.”
Okay, that was weird. “Is the calendar playing that song…?” he asked.
Changmin looked up. “Yeah, when I flipped the window for Christmas… but I can’t figure out where the music box is. And have you seen these messages? They’re kind of creepy.”
Yunho stepped forward and pulled the thing straight off the wall. “I saw them. Let’s just get rid of it, okay? We don’t need it anymore, anyway.”
Changmin shrugged. “Fine by me.”
They moved out of the hall and Yunho took great pleasure in folding the calendar into halves and shoving it in the trashcan. He didn’t know if it had anything to with his strange experience or not, but he wasn’t take any chances.
Changmin was waiting for him in the living room, sprawled out on the couch and Yunho took advantage of sprawling out all over him. They shifted around to get comfortable, and once they were didn’t move for a long time.
“I’m glad,” Yunho said after a while. He’d been flipping aimlessly through TV channels, but his thoughts had been wandering to other things.
Changmin lifted his head from the armrest and set his book down. “Hm? ‘Bout what?”
“Us,” Yunho said. He ducked his head, his forehead resting against Changmin’s ribs, counting them with wandering fingers. “How we are… It could have been a lot different.”
“I guess,” the younger man replied slowly, “But… whatever we could have been, it would have been ‘we.’ That’s enough for me.”
He raised his head, looking up at Changmin. “That’s all I wanted,” he breathed. “I really love you.”
Changmin gave him a crooked smile and pat him on the head. “Love you too.”
They lay in silence for a while, Changmin’s hand drifting down to lock fingers with Yunho’s, bouncing playfully. “Yah,” he said after a few minutes, “If you love me so much, where are my presents?”
“Presents?” Yunho murmured thoughtlessly. Then he winced. He and Changmin were supposed to go shopping… on the day he instead spent with Junsu. The younger man would not be pleased. “Uh, Christmas is you and me together, ‘Min, right? That’s enough for me, too…?” he tried.
Changmin’s grip on his hand tightened ever-so-subtle. “Really now?”
He winced and tried again, this time pouring all his earnestness into his gaze. And if maybe he turned it into a doe-eyed pout, it was perfect justified because it was no understatement. “Really. Being here with you, right now, is the best gift I could have asked for.”
“Hn,” Changmin snorted. But he was blushing, his infamous, happily mismatched eyes creeping into his glare.
“Merry Christmaaas,” Yunho crooned.
Changmin just rolled his eyes. “Yah, yah. Merry freaking Christmas.”
“Freaky Christmas, more like,” he muttered under his breath.
“What was that?”
“Nothing, love. Absolutely, perfectly, nothing.”
started writing: 12/18/09
finished writing: 01/21/10
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Oh my fucking god it’s done ;___;
This was the one that was actually supposed to be third in the series, but kept getting so big... and well, yeah. It’s long :'D It was also supposed to be comedy, lol, but it just became one of those pieces that dragged on and on, especially because I’ve never written Yunchun or Hosu… nor ever really understood those pairings. So this is an attempt for a realistic take on how they might work/not work.
That’s also the end of the series! Only a month late behind schedule, haha, but thanks for sticking around this long, and to those who commented. ;)♥
In other news, I’ll probably be taking an extended break after this, to just really work out my writing regimen for this year, and to focus on original fiction. It shouldn't be too long, and depending on how it goes, when I get back I'm considering looking for a beta and/or opening requests... sound interesting to anyone? ;D If you see me around in the next couple of weeks, though, please, feel free to tell me to go away. It'll probably be good for me XD