Four days later

“Damn it, Key!”

“Well, if you would go to a real physician, maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much,” Key dipped the bloody rag back into the bucket of water, ringing it out before he continued to wipe the blood from Minho’s injury. “I’m not an expert.”

“I won’t bother them with such a small injury. They have other soldiers with serious injuries to take care of,” he answered sternly.

Jonghyun moved closer to the cot Minho laid on to glance at the gash on his abdomen. “I don’t know, Minho…That could be nasty if it gets infected.”

“It’s alright,” he held in a wince as Key began applying medicine, “Key is taking care of it.”

“If you hadn’t been so careless, this wouldn’t have happened,” Key scolded. “I know you’re worried about Taemin, so are we, but you can’t let that affect you here, alright?”

“I know…I know,” Minho released a sigh, laying an arm over his eyes, “I’m trying not to think about it, but that damn letter just made things worse. I can’t believe Taemin could think that that letter would pacify me at all. He’s a terrible liar, even through writing, and I can tell something is very wrong.”

Jonghyun kneeled down next to Key, looking at the frown that was etched on the Princes face. He understood, he really did. Taemin was a sweet kid, and Jonghyun was worried about him too. He also could imagine that he would be feeling similar to what Minho was feeling, if something had happened to Key. Hell, he worried about Key every single day, out in this battlefield.

“I understand, Minho, and I don’t blame you for being concerned. At least Taemin was well enough to write you, though. Be content with that, and concentrate on getting out of here unharmed.”

“Yes,” Key emphasized, as he finished bandaging Minho’s wound. “For once, Jonghyun is speaking wisely.”

Key smirked as Jonghyun pushed him playfully, “I always speak wisely! I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You keep thinking that, Jjongie,” Key stood up, patting his lover’s hair. Jonghyun smacked his , earning a girlish squeak from the younger boy. “Hey!”

Minho lifted his arm, watching his two friends bicker playfully, and actually laughed for the first time in a while. “You two are hopeless.”

“What?” They yelled simultaneously, turning their heads to him.

They eventually stopped their bickering, leaving Minho’s tent, but not before Key could demand that he rest for the day.

Minho was finally left to his thoughts, and he couldn’t have been more regretful that Key and Jonghyun left. Despite their sometimes annoying antics, they were quite entertaining. They gave him a bit of that light-hearted feeling he got when he was with Taemin.

But now that they had left, his mind was once again plagued with worries. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do about the battles. Things just weren’t going well, and it frustrated him. He wanted to get home as soon as possible. Not only was he worried about Taemin, but being away from the boy for so long was killing him. He felt as though, if he were away from Taemin too long, he would forget the way the boy’s skin felt, or how that sweet voice called his name, or the silkiness of his hair, or the soft look in his ice blue eyes.

He knew it wouldn’t be possible for him to forget such significant things, when he dreamt about them every night. It wasn’t the same though…

He hated that this war had gotten in the way of so much. He could be home with Taemin, lying in the garden with him, just listening to him speak about insignificant things. He could have been married to Taemin by now, and maybe even convinced the boy to stay.

Minho sat up slowly, grabbing the paper and quill Key had brought him earlier, on request.

Taemin,

Stop lying to protect me. I can see right through you.

I suppose I can’t force you to tell me what happened, but when I return, I expect you to tell me every detail. I want to personally murder whoever dared to hurt you.

I’m sorry I left you there. I truly am. I believed it would be the right thing to do. I had confidence that you would be safe. But it seems I have made a mistake. Please, forgive me, Taemin.

You have no idea how much I miss you. When I return, I don’t know if I’ll be able to release you from my arms.

I love you.

                                                                                                                                                                Yours Forever,

                                                                                                                                                                             Minho

~~~~~

One week later

“You’re never going to stop reading that, are you?”

Taemin jumped, startled at the voice, and folded the letter quickly. “I- I can’t help it,” he replied, cheeks turning a light shade of pink.

“I’m only teasing, Taemin,” Mir placed the tray of food down, smiling softly at the boy. “I understand.”

Taemin sighed, picking at the food on his plate, “I really miss him…”

“I know,” Mir replied, giving him a sympathetic glance. “I can tell; you’ve read that letter every night since it came.” He could see Taemin’s cheeks darken slightly as the boy continued to stare down at his food. “You…you must really love him, huh?”

“Yes, of course, I-“ Taemin stopped mid-sentence, looking up at him with wide eyes. “Wait, you- you know that we’re- that we’re-“

Mir shrugged, a bit amused by the astonished expression on Taemin’s face. “IU and I came to that conclusion, yes. We could see that you two weren’t only putting on a façade for the public. It’s quite obvious that you two weren’t just pretending.”

“And you don’t find it…strange?” Taemin asked hesitantly. He could remember the first time he had told Key about him and Minho being together. Key had told him to be extremely careful about their relationship. Homouality wasn’t something widely accepted in his own world, but it was even worse in this world.

“Well, I did…in the beginning,” Mir replied thoughtfully. “It’s a strange thought, two men being together. I had been taught that women and men belonged together, and I never even fathomed that there could be anything different. But the way I see it is…you love my brother, and my brother loves you. It’s that simple. I don’t see anything wrong.”

The innocent expression Mir wore had Taemin chuckling. He had said it so simply, as though it was obvious that everyone should think that way. If only everyone could be that sensible…

“Thank you, Mir.”

“There’s no need to thank me. I’m just happy that you make my brother happy.”

Taemin smiled at his words. “Don’t ever change, Mir. You’re really the kindest person I know.”

This time, Mir was the one to blush, “W- Well, I-I don’t know about that, but…um well,” Taemin had to hold back a laugh at his stuttering. “A- anyways, how are you feeling?” He asked, in an attempt to change the subject.

“Much, much better,” Taemin sat up straighter, eyes sparkling in excitement. “I think I can get started on the garden today. Onew said he has everything prepared, and he even got a few servants to help out.”

“Are you sure you’re up for it?”

“Of course!” The wounds on his back had closed, and the bleeding had stopped completely. It still hurt sometimes, if he moved too much or bended the wrong way, but he was definitely ready to get out of the room and get started on the garden.

“Alright. I’ll inform Onew.”

“Wait, Mir! Let me just…write this quickly. Can you give it to someone to deliver to Minho?”

“Sure.”

Taemin snatched the extra paper and quill, scribbling something down before handing it to Mir, a smile in place.

~~~~~

Taemin frowned when he got a glimpse of the destroyed garden. He heart sank to his stomach at the sight of it.

‘I’m going to fix it though, I promise.’

He fiddled with the choker on his neck once again, his mind going to Minho’s mother. She had built this garden, and it held such a significant place in Minho’s heart. It may have been Taemin’s favorite place, but to Minho, it held memories of his mother.

Taemin wasn’t going to let Minho come home to this. He didn’t want to see the devastated expression the Prince’s face.

A smile crept on his face when he spotted the servants entering the garden, all the supplies in hand. He offered many of them help carrying things, but every single person refused, telling him to rest while they took care of it. So he retreated back to his place, his lips set in an annoyed pout.

“Are you feeling alright today, Taemin?”

Taemin turned to Onew, huffing in annoyance. “I wish people would stop asking me that. I’m perfectly fine.” He had enough with everyone treating him as though he were so fragile. Minho did that enough for everyone.

“My apologies,” Onew answered, fighting a smile, “I’m simply worried.”

“No…I’m sorry, that was rude,” he chewed at his bottom lip, feeling ashamed for snapping at the man. “I know you’re just concerned for me.”

“It’s quite alright,” Onew grinned, “I would be quite irritated if I were asked that as much as you are.”

Taemin shrugged, “At least I know people care, I suppose.”

“Of course they do, Taemin.” Onew pinched his cheek playfully, and Taemin swatted his hand away, laughing.

“Thank you so much, Onew. I really don’t know how I would do this without you.”

“It’s nothing. I wish to see this garden back to its former glory also.”

“Do you think you could convince them to let me help with something?” Taemin stared forward longingly, his fingers itching to help.

Onew chuckled at his hopeful expression, “Of course. You can help with the flowers. Come…”

Taemin was probably a little too excited about planting flowers, but he was just happy to be helpful. He didn’t like sitting back and watching while everyone else did the work.

About an hour into their work, Taemin was covered in dirt, laughing with Onew and servants. It was the first time he had felt so carefree in a long time.

“Having fun?”

Taemin stopped abruptly, the smile slipping from his face when he looked up to see the Queen standing over him.

He stood up, wiping his dirty hands on his robes, and gave her a challenging stare. “Yes, actually. Did you need something from us?” He asked coldly.

She seemed amused by his boldness, a lazy smirk on her face. “No, I’m simply making sure you fix what you destroyed.”

“You can accuse me all you want, you can punish me as much as you want, but I will never admit to destroying this garden. I’m fixing what you destroyed,” he answered sternly, pointing at her with the small shovel in his hand. Dirt flung off of the shovel, landing on her dress. Taemin smirked, “Oops.”

Everyone in the garden seemed to have stopped what they were doing to stare at them in awe. Their eyes traveled from Taemin, to the Queen, their expressions full of fear.

Taemin could see the Queen’s jaw clenching, he could see her fighting to mask her irritation. “Watch your back, little girl,” she hissed, turning around and storming out of the garden.

He smiled, feeling extremely triumphant.

~~~~~

Minho,

Stop worrying, Stupid Prince.

Come home soon.

I love you.

                                                                                                                                                Yours Forever,

                                                                                                                                                            Taemin

Minho chuckled, the letter making him feel consideribly better, surprisingly. It was playful, teasing, and cute. It was just so…Taemin. It surprised him that something so short and simple, could lessen the weight on his shoulders. Even the silly nickname Taemin had given him left him feeling light-hearted.

When the letter arrived, he had expected his worry to only grow. He was never sure if it would be more bad news from Mir, or more empty assurances from Taemin. But when he opened it and read the contents, he grinned broadly.

“Minho!” He was pulled out of his thoughts, and he looked up to see Jonghyun standing at the entrance of his tent. “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” he answered with a sigh, “Yes, I’m ready.” He folded the letter, tucking into his robes.

This time, he wasn’t going to let his worries for Taemin distract him. He was going to put the motivation this letter had given him to good use.

~~~~~

“Waaah Taemin, that was great!”

Taemin lowered his bow, smiling widely and blushing faintly at Onew’s praise. “Thank you.”

“You’re truly do have a natural talent for this.”

In the past week, the garden had almost been completely repaired, and Taemin had even found time to practice his archery. His body was slowly getting better – his back still hurt if he overworked himself – but he was feeling almost completely back to normal. He believed that doing these things did him good; much better than lying in bed all day, letting everyone else handle things.

Also, standing up to the Queen had given him a new-found confidence.

He lifted his bow once again, and retreated into his own world, his concentration fully on his target. Just as he released the arrow, he was interrupted.

“Taemin! Onew!” Jaejoong came running to them, breathless and flustered. She stopped a moment to catch her breath, and the two boys stared at her expectantly.

Her lips stretched into a grin before she spoke, “Atelia has surrendered. The troop are coming home.”

~~~~~

A/N: THANK GOD lol

I can't wait to write more 2min. This story is seriously missing 2min moments recently. It's been killing me to write these last few chapters. I'm so happy I'm finally allowing Minho to come back x)

I don't really know if I'm succeeding in this at all, but I'm trying to portray Taemin's character as somewhat strong. I have a habit of always making Taemin very vulnerable, weak, annd innocent. And of course, he has those qualities at times, like anyone else does. But I'm trying to give him some strength too.

Side note: I didn't think that the AFF crash had affected my stories at all, but today, I realized that it did -_- I noticed that chapter 15 was still my post about the oneshot I had wrote. Luckily, I write this in Word, so I still had the chapter. But it irritates me that, after I posted chapter 16, if anyone was just discovering my story, they would have completely missed chapter 15 xp So I'm sorry if that confused anyone.