It was their first night.

Having gotten married only 3 weeks ago, newly weds Im Jaebum and Choi Youngjae are finally spending their first night in their own home. It was Jaebum’s fault for choosing a 3 week honeymoon in Paris and London, knowing that his husband would enjoy it.

Now, after taking as much photos as possible and after Jaebum had made sure that Youngjae was thoroughly and thoroughly ed out, they finally came back home. Just the reminder of 3 weeks of Jaebum mapping out Youngjae’s skin with his lips and the reminder of Youngjae’s hands on his has him excited.

Choi Youngjae was finally his , in all sense of the word.

“Baby?” Youngjae had interrupted his thoughts when his husband ’s head popped from the open door. “Are you awake or are you still jet-lagged?”

Jaebum, who was sprawled on the bed after their unpacking earlier, sat up to give Youngjae a smile. He did feel groggy and would’ve wanted to lie down some more and maybe sleep, but it was unfair to Youngjae.

(Also he’s a sap and he can’t let go of the meaning of their first night in their new home.)

“Did you have anything planned?” Jaebum asked, swinging his legs to find his sleepers. They were blue bunny slippers, a gift from Bambam and it matched Yugyeom’s gift to Youngjae which are yellow bunny slippers.

Youngjae smiled, “Time to cook, baby!” He showed himself, wearing the same clothes as earlier with the snapback still on, but now donning the checkered apron that Jaebum’s Mom bought.

Now that they were back home, jaebum knew they also couldn’t just order in or go out for every meal like how they had survived the past 3 weeks. Plus, Youngjae looked extremely excited at the thought of cooking and Jaebum really can’t say no to him.

“Okay, okay. Just give me a minute.” Jaebum saw Youngjae nod his head before leaving the room.

*

“What should we cook?” Jaebum smiled when Youngjae, who was seriously cutting the onions, suddenly jumped at his voice. The surprise was replaced with another one of those bright smiles that Jaebum loved, the one that makes him weak in the knees.

“I was thinking Bibimbap? Then egg rolls and Pajeon for the side?” Youngjae suggested, the ingredients already out of the refrigerator and laid out in front of him. Jinyoung’s gift to them was a refrigerator full of groceries that could probably last them a week.

“We’re being a little presumptous aren’t we? Egg rolls and pajeon?” Jaebum asked then almost wanted to coo at Youngjae’s answering pout. “Okay, alright. We’ll challenge it.”

Jaebum went to grab his apron, a matching set with the one Youngjae was wearing, and tried to put it on but ended up fumbling with the strings. Suddenly a warm hand swatted his away, a giggle soon followed.

“Baby, let me help you.” Youngjae says, taking over the job. “You should be glad I’m here.”

Jaebum laughs, “Oh yeah. Imagine what kind of mess I’ll get into if my apron isn’t tied properly.”

“The mess! You’ll have food all over your shirt.” Youngjae adds, finishing by patting Jaebum’s back to tell him it’s done.

“What would I do without you?” Jaebum grins, facing Youngjae who has this fond smile on his lips but a glint in his eyes. He looked down at his apron and then at Youngjae’s. “We totally match. And we totally look like tablecloth right now.”

Youngjae gave a full-blown laugh, the one with his mouth open and his eyes closed. “Don’t let your Mom hear you say that, Im Jaebum!”

“Then you’ll just have to protect me, husband .” Jaebum says, emphasizing the last word and it made him feel giddy. The word still feels like something foreign but definitely welcome, a treat that he’d been waiting for.

“I totally will, husband .” Youngjae grins back.

It took them a few minutes of looking sappily at each other before Youngjae decided it was time to cook because they’re both hungry, their last meal was the chicken that they got on their way here. Youngjae took out his phone and showed Jaebum the recipe, fairly easy he said.

“Do you want to cut the vegetables or prepare the chicken?” Youngjae asked, taking out the frozen meat from inside their refrigerator. Jinyoung had really gone all out with his gift, it seemed.

Jaebum didn’t want Youngjae to cut himself and the boy had a tendency to get into accidents. It wasn’t intentional, but Jaebum didn’t want to take risks at damaging Youngjae’s beautiful fingers. In the end he chooses the vegetables, carefully washing them before bringing out their brand new knives and chopping board.

“Oh baby, we need rice too.” Youngjae slaps his forehead as he goes to presumably wash their rice and cook it.

There was silence between them as they worked, the only sound coming from the chopping and sometimes the running of water. It was nice and it feels a lot like domesticity, which it probably is. This has Jaebum smiling brightly at the thought as he glances at Youngjae’s side, the boy busy following the recipe for marinating the chicken.

Jaebum turned to his own recipe, the list of vegetables needed to be cut (and how it needs to be cut). He sees the list and immediately grins, walking towards the refrigerator. He was sure Jinyoung would buy it, just to spite Youngjae because Jinyoung likes to annoy people too. Just a little subtle than the way Jackson does it.

“Hey, you forgot one ingredient Youngjae-ah.” Jaebum says as nonchantly as possible as he takes out one cucumber from the stack of it, showing it to the boy. He grinned even more at the way Youngjae’s eyes widened with horror.

“No! Not that!” Youngjae immediately went and grabbed the cucumber from Jaebum’s hands, grunting as he throws it back in the refrigerator. “Not this! It’s not my type! Hyung, how could you?!”

Jaebum laughs before wrapping an arm around Youngjae, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” he didn’t sound sorry at all.

“Hmph!” Youngjae walks away from him, going back to measuring the sugar he was going to put in. Jaebum immediately followed, wrapping his arms around Youngjae’s waist instead and held the grip when his husband tried pushing him away.

“I’m sorry.” Jaebum apologizes sincerely this time, if there was one thing he hated in the world, it was being the cause of Youngjae’s distress. “I love you, husband. ”

Youngjae finally sighs, turning around to press a kiss to Jaebum’s nose. “Now go away and finish your task, baby. I do want to finish cooking tonight.”

Mentally cheering, Jaebum goes back to his task, but not before pressing a kiss to Youngjae’s cheeks. He hears Youngjae whine a little, but saw that the other boy was smiling again and that was totally enough for him.

*

It turns out the Bibimbap was the easy part.

“The egg!” Youngjae wails as they don’t successfully roll the egg for the 3rd time. It was frustrating the both of them, but Youngjae was also visibly upset.

“Let’s just eat these.” Jaebum picked up the plate of what should be egg rolls but are just… eggs. He pinched a part with his fingers and tasted it, surprised that it wasn’t really that bad. “It doesn’t taste bad, we can just eat it like this.”

When Youngjae didn’t answer, Jaebum cut a bigger piece and placed it at Youngjae’s lips. He grinned at the boy, prodding his lips with the egg until Youngjae opened his mouth and took the offered food from Jaebum, the remnant of grease from his fingers too.

“So? It tastes good, right?” Jaebum asked, watching Youngjae’s reaction.

“It tastes okay.” Youngjae finally admits, tearing a piece with his own fingers to feed Jaebum. “I think we should add more salt because I can taste too much onion and carrots.”

Jaebum munches on the offered piece before doing the same thing and feeding Youngjae again. Soon they’ve almost demolished the 3 trials of egg rolls, their fingers greasy and their mouth full.

Youngjae zeroed in on Jaebum’s lips and he almost thought the boy was going to kiss him until Youngjae reached out with his clean hand and wiped something from Jaebum’s lips. He flicked it off, smiling at him.

“Egg. You’re such a messy eater, baby.” Youngjae teased, giggling when Jaebum pouted at him. Instead this had Youngjae to laugh harder. “Please don’t ever pout again! You look weird!”

“Hey!” Jaebum protested.

After a few more laughters, Youngjae was back to pouting, “I wanted things to be perfect tonight, for our first night.”

Jaebum didn’t want to kiss Youngjae with his greasy lips so he just reached out and held Youngjae’s hand with his clean ones, interlocking their fingers together. It felt perfect and warm, the thudding in his chest making him feel a little dizzy with the overload of feelings for the boy in front of him.

“It’s just the first of many, Youngjae-ah. We’ll be fine.” Jaebum assures him.

Youngjae smiles brightly at him, “I love you too, baby.”