“They are so nice, Momma.” Aaron was lying on a mat next to his mother’s.

“They really are. Very polite,” Nik began humming a soft lullaby to help her son fall asleep.

In the next room Rei and Crys were giggling like school girls. “Oh my gosh, did you see that Crys? He held my hand for nearly five minutes!”

“You are so lucky! Oh and did you see Jaejoong? He is so handsome. He had this look in his eyes that told me he was interested. Oh they are so y.” Crys and Rei continued on for hours until they finally managed to calm down enough to go to sleep.

A little before five in the morning, an hour before daybreak, Nik slipped off of her mat and pulled on her morning gear: an olive green tank top and brown pants. As quietly as she could, she went outside and started the “oven”. In reality, it was more of a fire pit with a stone shelter and a metal rack about half a meter off the ground. Stacking a few logs and lighting them with flint, she stepped back and began to fan the fire. Once it was at a decent level, she cut up some vegetables she had picked from the garden the morning before, mixed them in a giant dish with eggs and rice, and placed them in a baking dish to make a sort of casserole.

She stepped back watched to be sure the fire was at the correct level then walked to the center of the grounds to the training floor. Nik sighed and closed her eyes. ‘Block, punch, kick, punch, spin kick, block, low kick, mid kick, high kick hold, punch, knife hand,’ Nik said to herself as she did her warm up form.

Thirty minutes into practice, there was clapping from behind her. “You are very dedicated,” Yunho stepped out of the shadows.

“How long have you been there?”

“Long enough to see you have real talent,” Yunho gave a quick smile. “It’s been a while since I’ve done much martial arts.”

“It never completely leaves though. The passion, the control, the attitude,” Nik stepped a little closer so they could speak more quietly.

“That’s true. Mind if I work out with you?”

Without giving him an answer, Nik walked back out to the center of the dirt field. When Yunho followed her, she began giving commands. “Front kick, side kick, low block,” and they went on until it was light outside and the food was ready.

The entire village came out as dawn appeared, circling for food. Nik began serving the casserole, portioning it out to be sure everyone was able to have some. Soon her friends and son came out to eat as well. “Good morning, Momma.”

“Good morning, Nama. Good morning girls. Would you mind taking a few plates in for the rest of the guys? I’m sure they will wake up hungry.”

Crys giggled, “Definitely!” Crys and Rei carried three plates each, one for the four boys and one for themselves. When they got to the hut, Crys pushed the door open and walked in without knocking. “Good morning, Jaejoong. Are you hungry?”

Jaejoong and Junsu were already awake and rummaging through their bags for their clothes for the day. “Starving,” he smiled and graciously took the plate he was offered.

“Is that for me?” Junsu gave Rei a sweet smile as he took the plates from her. He put the extra plate on a side table for whoever woke up next then sat next to Rei. “It is kind of you to bring us our food. We could have come out to get it.”

“It was no trouble,” Rei smiled and adjusted slightly Junsu had more room on the long pillow chair they were now sharing.

Changmin walked in rubbing his eyes sleepily, wearing only his blue sleep pants. He plopped down on a pillow across from the others and stole a vacant bowl, not saying a word but digging straight into the warm food.

“Please excuse our young friend, he still has no manners when he wakes up,” Jaejoong said to the women. Changmin simply shrugged and continued stuffing his face. “See what I mean?” The women giggled.

Changmin swallowed his current bite then looked up, “I’m tired and hungry. Yoochun was snoring all night. You two were lucky not to be stuck in the room with him.” He mumbled something grumpily under his breath.

“No, instead we were woken up before dawn because Yunho decided to that was the perfect time to go for a walk.” Junsu, Rei and Crys watched on as Changmin and Jaejoong began arguing about who had the worse sleeping situation.

The bickering only lasted about five minutes when Yoochun walked in wearing red basketball shorts and a grey muscle shirt looking fully refreshed and wide awake. “I think that has to be the best sleep I have had in months!”

Changmin and Jaejoong scowled and, seeming to almost read each other’s mind and moving in unison, jumped up to begin bashing him repeatedly with the pillow seats that had previously been sitting on. Yoochun ran back to his room, Changmin and Jaejoong on his tail, to grab his pillow so he would have a chance at surviving. He quickly made his way back into the larger living room, bashing Jaejoong’s head before quickly dodging an oncoming body shot from Changmin’s pillow.

“Is everything ok in here?” Nik, Aaron and Yunho walked in carrying their food. The fight had escalated and Changmin now kneeled on Yoochun and held his arms behind his back as Jaejoong was tying his feet together and to his hands. Instead of going with her instinct to pull Yoochun’s abusers off of him and instead looked to her left and up at Yunho. “Shouldn’t you be separating them?”

“No, once they have him tied up I’m sure that will be the end of their mayhem.” He sat down next to Junsu and patted the ground next to him, motioning for Nik and Aaron to sit down as well. Aaron quickly sat down, but Nik stayed standing a moment longer. It was hard to ignore her gut reaction to help out the man who was almost completely tied up.

Finally deciding to sit down, Nik turned her attention to her friends. Instantly she looked at Crys. “What did you do?”

“Why do you assume that I did something?” she whined.

“Because if something set someone off, usually you are the one to do it,” Nik grinned as she took a bite of her food.

“It was not her fault. They were complaining about being tired and Yoochun walked in happy,” Junsu shook his head at his friend’s unlucky entrance.

After having successfully tied Yoochun to their satisfaction, Jaejoong and Changmin sat back down to finish their now almost cold breakfast. Yoochun grunted, “Can someone please come untie me now?” Without waiting on anyone else to step up, Aaron put his bowl down went to untie the prisoner. Nik had a proud look on her face when her son came back to sit next to her. Nik turned and offered Yoochun the seat next to her and the last bowl of casserole.

“So what is there to do around here?” Changmin asked after he swallowed his last bite.