In the late hours of the night, the weather had begun to change. The cold air swooped through the town bringing the official start of autumn. When the sun began to shine the following morning, a fog had settled on the area and the grass was covered in dew that sparkled in the sunlight. It happened so sudden that when the family woke up that morning, they were shivering and clutching their blankets tightly for dear warmth.

Kibum groaned tiredly, wearily blinking open his eyes. When the brightness of morning light hit his eyes, he clenched them shut immediately. His head was throbbing badly, making him feel quite ill. Whimpering softly, he swallowed thickly and rolled onto his side so that he could go back to sleep, but there seemed to be a body in bed next to him.

“Huh?” He murmured in confusion, opening his eyes to see who was in bed with him. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw the familiar mess of blonde hair on the pillow next to him.

“Your bed is so warm,” Key whispered blissfully.

“What are you doing?” Kibum demanded, glaring at him for intruding into his personal space. “Get out of my bed and go back to your own room.”

“You have the best blanket in the house,” Key objected stubbornly, tugging the blankets away from his brother to prove a point. “Stop complaining already, gosh.”

“Well, why did you feel the need to crawl into bed with me?” Kibum complained, yanking the blankets back possessively.

“Heechul kicked me out because my feet are cold,” Key answered, nudging him to be quiet already. “Can you just shut up and go back to sleep? God, you whine so much.”

“Oh my God, whatever,” Kibum snapped, although he didn’t argue after that.

They stayed in bed for an hour fighting each other for the blankets. They kicked and elbowed each other until they went back to sleep. A couple hours passed before Key started to wake up again and he tried to stay asleep as long as he could but eventually hunger began to set in and he couldn’t fight it off any longer. Abandoning his brother, Key shuffled back to his own room. He pulled open one of the dresser drawers and dug around for a pair of thick socks, quickly putting them on before grabbing the blanket off his bed and wrapping it around his shoulders before he left the room.

He hopped down the stairs loudly, determined to make enough noise to force Heechul to wake up so that he could turn the furnace on. When that didn’t work, he quickly went into the kitchen and grabbed a muffin off the counter before running back up the stairs and into Heechul’s bedroom. In a swift motion, he jumped onto the bed, landing on his knees and bouncing up and down continuously.

“Hyung, wake up,” He demanded with a mouthful of muffin. “Wake up, wake up, wake up!”

A moment later, he was lying on the floor with the pillow that had been thrown at him, knocking him off the bed. He rubbed his aching head and picked himself up, crawling to the side of the bed and peeking over to see Heechul looking at him murderously.

“Good morning,” He said sweetly, tilting his head to the side in a cute manner.

Heechul shifted so that he could see the alarm clock, but unfortunately it was already 10:29AM and he knew that it was time to get up. With a loud yawn, he threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, stretching his arms over his head and arching his back like a cat. He ruffled Key’s hair and gave him a peck on the cheek before walking into the bathroom and closing the door behind him.

Taking the hint, Key gathered up his blankets and headed back downstairs. Shuffling into the living room, he curled up on the couch to watch TV. He grabbed the remote, turning the television on, and began to flip through the channels as Heechul slowly came downstairs and then to the basement. There were some clunks and rattles, and then Heechul returned a moment later.

“Heats on!” He announced, heading into the kitchen to start the coffee pot. “Come to the kitchen if you want breakfast!”

He began to pull out the pan from the cabinet, placing it on the stove to heat up, and grabbed the carton of eggs, milk, and bacon from the refrigerator. As the kids shuffled into the kitchen, he waved his hand for them to begin the daily breakfast routine.

“Ugh, I hate when it smells every time we turn the heat on for the first time,” Donghae complained when the scent of burning dust filled the air.

“It will go away in a minute,” Heechul replied, cracking the eggs in a mixing bowl. “Where is Kibum?”

“He’s still asleep,” Key informed him, handing him the whisk from a drawer. Chuckling in amusement, he added, “I slept with him for awhile after you kicked me out. I was that cold!”

“Getting a head start on your bonding?” Donghae asked sweetly, handing him a handful of forks to put on the table. Key snatched them, giving him hard look that made Donghae keep his mouth shut regarding anything to do with Kibum.

Heechul, on the other hand, fell into the remark innocently. He turned around with a happy smile on his face, “I’m really relieved to hear that, Key. He’s so nervous about going back to school. It’s great that you’re in his corner backing him up.”

“Well, some of us actually care about his emotional wellbeing,” Key said, elbowing Donghae in the ribs as he walked by.

“That’s rich, coming from you,” Donghae shot back, kicking him in the shin. “Not that you spent an entire summer bullying him before pushing him down the stairs so that he broke his arm.”

“I didn’t push him, he fell! I apologized to him,” Key exclaimed, pushing him backwards. “If you are so concerned about him why did you let him overdose on drugs? It’s your fault he went into cardiac arrest and nearly died!”

“No it wasn’t!” Donghae yelled, shoving him into the counter. “I was trying to protect him.”

“Well, you’re doing a grand job at that,” Key snapped, rearing to strike back. “Award for best brother goes to you, right?”

“Enough!” Heechul shouted, stepping between the two of them, holding them apart. “I don’t know what’s gotten into the two of you but it ends right now. Now, I’m overjoyed that you both care about Kibum this much, but you don’t need to fight over him. We’ve all made mistakes when it comes to him, but that doesn’t mean one of us is worse than the other.”

He pushed the two of them away from each other, sending them in opposite directions to avoid any further fighting. Shaking his head, he returned to the stove and finished scrambling the eggs and frying the bacon. “One of you please go and get your brother,” He said quietly, turning the stove off.

Key volunteered and walked out of the kitchen so he didn’t have to listen to the sound of Donghae’s voice. He slowly headed back upstairs and entered Kibum’s bedroom for the second time that morning. When he walked to the bed, he found that his brother was still fast asleep, so he sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to shake Kibum’s shoulder.

“Hey, it’s time to get up. Heechul made breakfast for us,” He told his brother, but Kibum only groaned in response. He shook harder, determined to make Kibum get out of bed. “Come on, rise and shine sleeping beauty. Let’s get going before Donghae steals all of the bacon again.”

“I’m not hungry,” Kibum mumbled, burrowing into his blankets. “Tell Heechul I’m skipping breakfast.”

“No, you can’t do that,” Key said quickly, his heart skipping a beat. “You have to eat, Kibum. Your body needs the nutrients to function properly and get through the day.”

Kibum groaned loudly, clutching tightly to his blankets as Key began to tug them away. He opened his eyes and glared at his brother. “Leave me alone, Key! I’m tired and I want to sleep so get out of my room.”

“No, it’s time to get up,” Key responded adamantly, grabbing his arm and pulling him up.

The sudden motion sent the room spinning dangerously, causing Kibum to swallow back a wave of nausea. He didn’t fight as Key pulled him out of bed and led the way down to the kitchen where Heechul and Donghae were waiting patiently. He collapse