Hai guise this is the JongTae thing I said I'd post earlier, here it is! Been working on it for a while and I actualy came up with it a while ago. Enjoy!

The warm air of the tropics surrounds Jonghyun as he steps out of his hotel room. He breathes in the sweet air and huffs out happily. He normally hated the heat, but in the moment, he actually thought it was quite nice. He closes his eyes for a moment before walking forward.

The other members had already made their way down to the beach, leaving Jonghyun behind. He slips his towel over his shoulder and heads down to the others. As he treads through the warm sand, wearing his flip flops, he finally sees Key, Minho and Jinki setting up a volleyball net, probably to play a couple games. His eyes wander, looking for Taemin, and then he sees him; sitting on his towel, flips flops beside him, shirtless, and away from the others. His skin glows under the rays of the sun and Jonghyun finds it difficult not to stare. His gaze is interrupted when Taemin waves a hand at him, signalling him to come over.

A lump forms in Jonghyun's throat, and he's not too sure why, but he nears Taemin anyways. He walks over to Taemin's towel, giving him a warm smile.

“Hey” Jonghyun says timidly.

Taemin nods his head and pats the warm sand next to him. Jonghyun figures that he should sit down, so he takes his towel off his shoulder and lets it drape over the sand, he pats it down so the wind can't blow it away as easily, then he sits down. Jonghyun lets out a small breath, now finally settled and for once enjoying the feeling of heat on his half body.

“Ahh..this is nice” Jonghyun sing-songs as he places his hands behind him and extends his body.

Taemin looks at Jonghyun, his eyes observing him intently. He chuckles under his breath.

“I thought you hated the heat?” Taemin asks.

“Mmm I don't know, usually, but this isn't too bad” Jonghyun says as he soaks up the sun, eyes closed, toes wiggling.

Taemin sighs, rolling his shoulders while watching Key and Jinki get crushed by Minho in their game of volleyball, he clears his throat, not particularly paying attention to what Jonghyun is doing, but still aware of his every movement and his nearby presence.

“Who are your bets on?” Jonghyun asks, not averting his eyes from the entertaining game.

“Hmm Minho?” Taemin suggests, with no reason in mind for choosing him over the others.

“What?? But it’s two against one!” Jonghyun panics as the game continues. His chest tightens, thinking that Taemin chose Minho based on “reasons”.

“Yeah but Minho is the most sporty”

“That’s true” Jonghyun agrees and continues staring while the back of his mind silently mopes at Taemin’s words. He tries to distract himself with the game.

After a while, the game starts to bore Taemin, both teams are closely tied and his interest is lost. He reverts his attention back to the melodically crashing waves, becoming lost in the way they move. After a while, he forgets Jonghyun is speaking to him and he zones out. Jonghyun realises after a bit that Taemin is zoned out so he gives up the conversation. Time passes slowly; the sun slowly creeping it’s way past mid break, filling the sky with bright heat. Taemin almost dozes off from the warm cocoon like feeling wrapping him up when suddenly he hears yelling.

Key shouts from a distance, calling out to Jonghyun and Taemin to watch out for the ball coming their way. Jinki and Minho also yell, but are mostly unheard. Jonghyun snaps from his thoughts, acting on impulse as he sees the ball headed straight for not him, but Taemin, and whether it be protective instinct, brotherly love, or pure adoration, Jonghyun’s first motive is to protect Taemin at all costs. Taemin has no time to think when he turns his head, the only thing he sees is the others yelling from afar before his vision is clouded by Jonghyun’s face above his.

Jonghyun almost throws himself over Taemin’s body, his exposed back the only thing shielding Taemin. Taemin grips at Jonghyun’s waist from a loss of balance as they both fall on Taemin’s towel. Jonghyun almost sandwiches Taemin between the ground and himself. Jonghyun’s eyes meet Taemin’s for a flash of a second before the sound of Jonghyun’s wincing enters Taemin’s ears. The volleyball hits Jonghyun straight between his shoulderblades, sending a streak of pain through him.

As the ball collides with his back, he is shoved impossibly closer to Taemin. His whole body slumps over the younger’s and he can't find it in himself to care for two reasons: one being the hit he's just taken, and two being that he couldn't be bothered to remove himself from Taemin's soft, warm body; however throughout all the pain, Jonghyun was able to grasp onto a smidge of subtle joy. As he felt Taemin's small a hands wrapped around him involuntarily, his face so close to his own, and the feeling of Taemin's bare skin against his own his heart sped up.

After having kept his eyes closed a few moments after the initial hit, he opens them only to see Taemin's face painfully close to his own. Their noses practically brushing as their breaths mingle. They silently pant, still shaken from what happened. Taemin almost hugs Jonghyun when their eyes meet, something clicking inside the both of them, telling them to stay where they are. Time passes in slow motion, seconds last years as Jonghyun lays on top of Taemin. The other members running and yelling towards them is what breaks them from their love stricken trance.

“Yah! Are you guys ok??” Key asks with a worried face and he nears the two men.

Jonghyun moves his hands from Taemin's chest and places them on the ground beside his head, trying his best to push himself up. He groans as he tries to prop himself up, Jinki and Minho each grab a hand and help him sit up. Taemin stays stilled to the ground, almost unable to move, and too far gone to be able to form proper sentences.

“Hey are you okay?” Jinki says calmly as he kneels down beside Jonghyun, trying to search his eyes for the truth. Jonghyun's eyes meet his and he gives a small nod followed by a weak smile. This is enough for Jinki and he waves to Key and Minho that he's alright.

“You should lie on your stomach, it'll help” Jinki suggests as he fixes up the ruffled towel beneath Jonghyun's body and coaxes Jonghyun into flipping over. Taemin's watches as Jinki guides him while Key walks back to the volleyball net and Minho retrieves the ball. He sighs, sits up, shakes his head and dusts his body off from the scattered sand. He looks over to Jonghyun- now flat on his stomach, lying on his own towel again. Taemin's stomach sinks.

Jonghyun avoids Taemin's eyes as he turns his head the opposite way. Some time passes and Jonghyun falls asleep, Taemin sits by him as he did before. While Key and Minho get back to playing, Jinki sits nearby, eyeing Taemin from time to time. Their eyes meet and Jinki wiggles his eyebrows in a way that makes Taemin blush and feel nauseous at the same time. Taemin turns his head away to look at the ground, too embarrassed to look at Jinki again, worrying that Jinki might be able to see the truth in his actions.

Taemin sighs as he looks at Jonghyun's sleeping form, he pouts as he notices a red splotch starting to form on Jonghyun's back. He looks up to see Jinki is distracted by Minho and Key. He's take the chance to softly graze his hand over the bruising flesh. Jonghyun stirs in his nap, probably extra sensitive. Taemin holds a small smile before running his hand through Jonghyun's hair, moving it out of his face.

“Hey” a deep voice calls out from behind him. Taemin almost jumps as he rips his hands away from Jonghyun, turning around to see Jinki only inches away from him, crouched down next to him.

“You alright?” Jinki says soothingly to the younger.

“W-what?” Taemin stutters, trying to act “cool”.

Jinki says nothing, he nods his head at the sleeping Jonghyun and then looks back to Taemin, looking at him directly. Taemin stays silent worrying about what he might say about his special feelings for his hyung.

“I'm...okay” Taemin says reluctantly.

Jinki lets out a breathy chuckle before standing up, he pats Taemin's shoulders.

“Watch him” Jinki says before running to the others.

Taemin remains quiet. He frets when he realizes that he didn't even say ‘thank you’ to Jonghyun for saving his face. He wanted to reciprocate, but he felt like the moment had passed, all he could do now was be by his side, and maybe try to thank him again later. As the others started a new game and finally forgot about Jonghyun. Taemin took the time to intertwine his hand with Jonghyun's. Averting his eyes back to the crashing waves.

Hope it was okay! I actually have a possible part 2/3 but I'm not sure if I should make them a part of this story or seperate on their own. lol idk