When they walked through the glass door of Logan International Airport, it’s already dark outside. Luhan nestled into the protection of Sehun’s shoulder when the cold breeze hit his face. The younger quickly wrapped his arm around his boyfriend to give him his warmth while his other hand lifted up to hail a cab.

He had called his uncle this morning and even though the elder man insisted on picking them up at the airport and drove them straight to his house, Sehun pleaded his tiredness to excuse his refusal. Actually he wanted to have some more time on his own to get used to the fact that he was going to meet his birth mom’s side relatives. Luckily, his uncle totally understood his situation. He offered to book a hotel for them and made a rendezvous to see them the first thing in the morning.

Giving the driver the address of the hotel, Sehun plopped into the seat next to Luhan, grabbing the bare hand of his boyfriend to put into the pocket of his coat. They were sharing a pair of gloves (Sehun’s gloves to be exact) because this playful boy sitting close to him had soaked his only ones by starting a small snow fight against him earlier in the playground.

If he had known that his baby deer absent-mindedly didn’t bring extra gloves, he would have just walked away and cut off the other one’s mood. He would not put on a smirk at the corner of his lips, throw a snow ball back in response and by chance turned the Chinese boy into an aggressive one.

“Aishhh, your hand is so cold.” Sehun grunted as he tried to warm it up by rubbing it continuously inside the pocket.

On the other hand, Luhan just gave him a big grin and darted his eyes to the street outside the car’s window.

They were dropped off at a big hotel in the downtown, both opened wide their eyes as they saw the large four-door glass entrance with two young men already approached to help them with their luggage.

Luhan couldn’t help but pulled Sehun back a bit, stood of his tip toes and whispered

“Please tell me your uncle paid for us. Or else we will hardly leave here alive.”

The younger one gave his boyfriend a baffled look before grasping his hand, continued their walking.

“I’m pretty sure he did. But even if he didn’t, we could totally afford this.”

“No, we couldn’t.” the Chinese male scanned around, giving the other a slight shake on their intertwined fingers.

Sehun wanted to tell Luhan to stop being ridiculously worried about nothing, that him Oh Sehun was confident enough to pay for them but since he knew the latter would insist him on showing evidence (which was on his passbook), he chose the simpler choice: being silent and agreed to whatever Luhan said.

The next morning was something completely kicked him in. This was the first time he woke up with Luhan curling up beside him without awkwardness (like the time Luhan accidently rolled out of his futon and ended up lying next to him) or a -blocker (a.k.a Jongin). Sehun caressed against the soft skin of the other one’s face, suddenly wishing he could see this face the first thing in every morning from now on.

He loved Luhan so much that sometimes he thought he was craving for the latter’s presence. Lately he had been thinking about their future seriously, like how they would be when Luhan graduated and he still had two more years to go. They never talked about that but he knew sooner or later they had to face it and when that moment came, he would do whatever best for his baby deer.

“Good morning, tiger.”

Luhan’s half sleep voice snapped him back to reality. The smaller boy budged slightly before scooted closer until his face hit the collarbones of the younger.

“What were you thinking? You looked dazed when I opened my eyes.”

“You.” Sehun short answered, pulling the blanket up to give both of them a little warmth but that was enough for Luhan to let out a giggle, totally being amused of how he was so cheesy in such an early morning.

“You’re saying that in order to gloss cover for being naughty last night aren’t you?”

The Korean male realized the fact that he had just pulled up the blanket was a big mistake because now it’s freaking hot and he could feel his cheek was warmed up.

Last night….

Let’s just say it was a whole new experience to both of them. And he blamed Luhan for starting the fire first.

Nothing would ever happen if they just simply changed and went to bed.

Nothing would ever happen if Luhan didn’t suggest them to take a bath together because he didn’t want to wait for Sehun to sleep when they showered separately.

Nothing would ever happen if the older didn’t accidently touch Sehun’s crotch the entire time they were in the tub (he grinned every time Sehun threw him a stop-there-you-ert look).

And nothing would ever happen if the pure evil named Luhan didn’t just leave him hanging in there and unflinchingly walked out of the bathroom.

Sehun had spent almost a minute there on functioning properly before grabbing the towel, drying himself and went find the devil who was casually lying on the bed, flipping over a magazine he had taken from the lobby earlier. The challenging glint in Luhan’s eyes was something really turned him on and for the first time since they dating, he pinned Luhan down and ate that boy up, without mercy.

“I can tell that you’re recalling.”

Again, his boyfriend’s giggle pulled him out of his thoughts. Gently Luhan’s messy hair, Sehun softly asked, slight concern could be easily recognized in his voice.

“Are you alright? I didn’t hurt you did I?”

That made the latter even dive deep into the crook of his neck.

“I’m fine. Just a little stinging pain when I move”

Luhan stirred a bit to check if he still felt the pain and the small hiss coming from his mouth told Sehun that he might got cross far from the line last night. He let the older rest more in his embrace for another good hour before waking him up with chaste kisses on every part of his face.

They had breakfast at the hotel and got picked at 9. There was no need to say how glad his uncle was when he saw Sehun. His own family lived not far from this hotel but the burial ground was in the suburb. 

After one and a half hour driving in silence with Sehun’s eyes carelessly darted outside the window and Luhan hand’s grapping his to let him know they’re going to go through this moment together, the car finally pulled over to drop them off at the T-junction near the edge of the cemetery.

The elder man took both of them to Sehun’s mom grave and Luhan had to push the younger a bit forward because at a second, Sehun seemed confused, didn’t know what to do. The Chinese boy gave him an encouraging smile, pointed the big tree behind them and mouthed “I’ll wait you there.”

Holding tight the bouquet flower against his chest, Sehun hesitantly took a few steps until he reached the grave. He could feel his heart beating like crazy inside and from nowhere, tears started streaming down.

“Mom…”

The word was stuck down in his throat as he realized how much he missed her. They didn’t have chance to meet but from what was written in the diary, he felt like he had known her for a really long time.

“I… I’m sorry it took me so long to accept you…”

Pausing a second to wipe his blurry eyes, he continued

“I know from the heaven you are watching me right now like you always do. I guess you already see how well I was brought up and what a tough childhood I have been through. But nothing matters any more. I’m happy now and that is all you wish for right?”

Trailing his finger against the letter carved on the stone, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It was like he could communicate with her through this and it warmed the cockles of his heart.

Sehun looked back and met Luhan’s eyes. He waved his hand at the older one, signaled him to come over. When Luhan reached his place, he pulled the other closer and smiled before turned back to face the grave stone in front.

“I want you to meet someone special. This is Luhan, my boyfriend. Maybe you already know but he’s the one who brought out the best in me.”

He smiled contentedly as he saw Luhan’s cheeks were rosy in shyness, intertwined their fingers. They stood like that for few more seconds before Sehun broke the silence, mumbled with his low voice.

“I’ll come back one day mom. I promise.”

He shook his hand to motion Luhan to move, making the latter startled a bit. Luhan stopped, pursing his lips.

“Don’t you want to stay a little longer? Who knows when we could have another chance?”

 “It’s okay.” Sehun closed his eyes then looked up to the sky “I believe she got what she wants.”

He gave Luhan another reassuring smile and they headed to where his uncle was waiting. Luhan saw the wrinkles formed on his forehead as he saw their entwined fingers but the elder man quickly wiped it off and urging them to get inside the car since the snow started to fall down again.

They were driven to Sehun’s grandfather’s house for short visit and although the Korean boy was not really happy to meet the man who forced his mom to abandon him, Luhan once again successfully convinced him. They were also introduced to some relatives but Sehun didn’t bother either to remember their names or to smile the whole time. What really irritated him was that his uncle mentioned Luhan as his friend whenever someone brought up the question “And who is that boy?”. He wanted to scream out loud “No, he not just my friend. He is the one that I love.” but the grip on his elbow and the pleading eyes Luhan gave him told him not to do that.

When the city lighted up was the time they got his uncle’s place. It was a lovely one with large front yard where kids would play on the grass and small basket board at the corner.

So he has a boy?

Sehun thought, his eyes scanned around as they followed the house’s owner through the front door.

“I’m home honey.”

To his surprise, his aunt was an American-Korean woman. They actually had two sons, both were younger than Sehun and their Korean was a lot worse than Luhan’s. In fact that was quite comfortable for him because that meant he had less questions to answer.

Meanwhile, the Chinese male also had a great time, but for a different reason: he found it very interesting to have a small chitchatting with the two young blond boys.

His uncle approached him when Sehun finally gave up on joining the conversation with Luhan, silently took a look outside the window while enjoying the warm chocolate his aunt had just made for him.

“So” the elder man coughed to get his attention “How was your trip?”

Averting his eyes to his uncle before turned his head back to front, Sehun shrugged his shoulder

“It’s fine. I leant something useful.”

They fell back to the silence for a quite long minute before the older male spoke up again, trying to find a topic that might enlighten the atmosphere around them

“Luhan is a nice guy isn’t he?”

And it works

Sehun held the cup with both of his hand, his lips curved into some kind of a loving smile at the mention of his baby deer.

“Yeah, he’s the best.”

“I can see you really like him.”

There was no sarcasm or mock in those words, Sehun could see the admiration when he looked into the latter’s eyes.

“Yes, I love him.”

Sehun wanted to say more, about how he could do anything for that boy, how his life turned into a better one since the day Luhan stepped in, how he couldn’t stand the fact that he had to wake up every day without seeing that beautiful face beside him. But he guessed those three words was enough for his uncle to understand how much he felt for the Chinese boy.

“I’m sorry for what happened earlier. Some of our relatives aren’t open-minded so….” his uncle paused a second, trying to find the right word to explain “I don’t want them to talk about you with bad word.”

Sehun stood dazed for a moment then for the first time since they met, he gave the elder man a genuine smile.

“Thank you.”

Their conversation was dropped there as his aunt called out the two little boys to go to bed and Sehun took it as an excuse for him to leave.

The next day quickly passed by as Luhan dragging him all the way to the Plaza to play. Sehun actually had to pull the older boy out of a Gunshot game after he exclaimed that he would never leave the shop until he beat the highest score on the list. Scanning the result his boyfriend got so far, the younger was pretty sure they might have ended up spending the whole afternoon and wasted money on Luhan’s hunger for success.

On the contrary when Sehun by chance came across a random violinist playing on the street, his foot seemed to be rooted to the spot and as much as Luhan admired the passion for music of his cutie pie, he had to in the moment and took Sehun off by all his strength.

The Chinese boy remembered after they started dating a week, he had a heart to heart talk with Yixing about his relationship with Sehun. Frankly, he was scared. Because the feeling he had for the Korean male was so much more than anything he knew before. What if it didn’t work? What if Sehun suddenly changed his mind? What if he fell so hard that he could never pick himself up?, those questions had weighed down on his mind.

“Again, you’re thinking too much” Yixing looked over the pillow hugged tight against his chest “From what I heard from Jongin, he’s not that kind of playing with the other’s feeling.”

“I know.” Luhan nodded in agreement “But he’s so hard to approach. And I’m afraid my childishness will ruin everything before it even begins.”

“Don’t worry ge.” the dancer out of nowhere sounded like Doctor Tao “Love will change both of you, in a good way.”

And it’s true. They both changed as their love blossomed beautifully.