This was a very, very specific prompt and at first I just stared at it because there just seemed to be so much going on but I wrote it down and went about my merry way.  Then I found myself with some time on my hands and looked at the prompt again and this story just jumped out at me as so utterly obvious I wondered why I hadn’t seen it before. 

Thief

If you asked Kibum, Taemin was a thief.  A dirty little thief. 

At first he hadn’t minded.  He hadn’t minded Taemin hoarding all of the rapper’s time, either working on his vocals or helping with homework.  Whenever they weren’t working in those early days, it seemed that Taemin was always hovering around Kibum like his own personal helicopter.

But Taemin was just so cute and innocent and vulnerable that Kibum had wanted to protect him and help him and guide him. 

And so the pair became inseparable.  

And Kibum hadn’t cared at all. 

****

From the first time that he laid his eyes on Kibum, Taemin had known that something was different.  He had to force himself to tear his gaze away from the boy from Daegu.  It seemed like Kibum must be something like a magician, casting a spell that compelled the dancer to remain in his orbit.

Since Kibum was always there, since around the older boy Taemin always felt safe and comforted and cared for, Taemin went to him for everything, for just those few more minutes of time when Kibum’s focus was just on him.  When Kibum’s world, just for that moment, encompassed just Taemin, was centered on just Taemin, and Taemin soaked it up and lavished in it.

He stole every little moment of Kibum’s life that he could, because as he grew older and began to truly understand what this fascination with Kibum was.  He began to understand that he wanted more than just a few moments.  He wanted all of it.  He wanted every moment that Kibum had, he wanted to steal them all and grab them and gather them close and pull them into himself and own them and hoard them, because he loved Kibum.

He loved another man.

****

Kibum sorted through his closet, the only member of SHINee to have his own due to sheer quantity.

"Where are you?"  He mumbled to himself, sliding hangers along the metal bar, causing a slight grating noise as the plastic moved onward.  He had bought this sweater a few weeks ago.  It was deliciously warm and soft and had felt like a cloud when he had tried it on in the store.

Today was his day.  No schedule, no practice, no anything.  For today, Kibum didn’t have to be ‘Key’ even for a second.  His entire day was his own. 

And for once he wanted to spend it just lounging around, watching movies.

He scratched absentmindedly at the side of his head where his hair was starting to grow back in since they had finished their promotions of "Lucifer" and bit his lip, side stepping as he continued to search along the bar. 

After a few more minutes of fruitless searching, he heaved a sigh and just tossed on a random hoodie, pulling it down over the waistband of his blue cotton pajama pants, and turning out the light and padding lightly down the hallway to pop some popcorn and curl up on the couch watching the stack of movies that his grandmother had bought him but he had never had the time to watch due to hectic schedules. 

As the credits rolled on the second movie of the day, the sound of the door to the apartment opening caught Kibum’s ear.  He glanced at the clock and realized that it must be Taemin home from school. 

"Hey Minnie!  How was class?"  He called out down the hallway.

"Horrible!"  Taemin retorted and as he came into view the rapper could see why.

Taemin was completely covered in flakey dry mud, obviously having fallen into a puddle earlier in the day and been forced to let it dry on his person.

"Tae!"  Kibum jumped up, "Shower!  Now!" He ordered, grabbing the dancer’s shoulders and pushing the younger boy down the hall and into the bathroom. 

"Toss your uniform into the hallway and I’ll get them started in the wash."

"Thanks hyung," Taemin smiled at Kibum and the older male felt a returning tug of his lips coming unbidden to his lips as Taemin’s brought it forth. 

Kibum darted to the room that the maknae shared with Minho and dug through the drawers of Taemin’s dresser to find some comfortable clothing for Taemin to change into. 

And there was his sweater.

His cloud-like sweater that he had been utterly to locate amongst his possessions this morning, was sitting right there, folded neatly in Taemin’s dresser.

Taemin had stolen his sweater.

Kibum wanted to be annoyed.  He wanted to yell at Taemin about personal property, like he would have if it had been Minho...or Jonghyun...or Jinki...or anyone else.

...but for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to be angry at the teenager. 

Instead, he merely sighed and pulled it out of the dresser along with some boxers and grey sweatpants and left them on the counter in the bathroom, Taemin already hidden behind curtains and a haze of steam, and grabbed the dirtied uniform and pre-treated them heavily before setting them to wash – hopefully they could be salvaged.

He was sitting on the couch, watching the afternoon news report when Taemin peeked around the corner and stood, tugging guiltily at the hem of the sweater while droplets of water still fell from his hair.

Kibum just smiled and shook his head at the boy, and patted the empty space on the couch next to him.  "Gee...that sweater looks familiar... he said jokingly as Taemin’s warmth bleed over as the boy slid down the back of the couch and cuddled up close to the rapper.

Taemin bit his lip, "Sorry hyung...“

Kibum waved it off, "It’s alright, looks good on you anyway."

"It’s so comfy...“

Kibum laughed and ruffled the younger’s hair as the dancer started to sort through the remaining DVDs in the pile.  "I’m aware – kind of why I bought it in the first place."

Taemin pulled a face, scrunching up his nose and closing one eye, watching Kibum out of the other. 

The elder laughed, before telling the maknae to choose another movie from the pile and they sat back and watched it together, Taemin laughing as Kibum jumped and clung to the younger man since he had picked a horror flick. 

Kibum dropped his head to Taemin’s shoulder as the music swelled following the hero into the sunrise and the credits began to roll.  Groaning, he mumbled, "I hate you."

Taemin bit his lip to hide his snickering and wrapped both arms around the older man.  "You told me to pick – and you know I love horror movies."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Kibum grumbled, pulling himself free and standing up.  He needed to do something to get rid of the excess energy that had built up from the stress and tension of watching the movie.  "I’m going to make dinner – what do you want?"

"Kimchi Jiggae!" Taemin announced at once, "I’ve been craving it all day."

Kibum did a mental check of the fridge, "We don’t have any pork thawed though...I could do it with tuna instead?" He offered at Taemin’s fallen face.

The cherub cheeks shot up as the force of Taemin’s smile rocketed them upward. 

30 minutes later a bubbling bowl of spicy stew was sat down before Taemin at the table with a bowl of rice on the side.

Taemin jumped in his chair like a four year old and he dug into the bowl, slurping up the red liquid, a few dots flying to his cheeks in his haste, occasionally digging his spoon into the bowl of rice and shoving the spoonful into his mouth followed with a hasty spoonful of more stew. 

Taemin blew through his bowl quicker than was probably healthy, and looked into the bottom of his bowl a little forlornly.  Kibum sighed and passed over his half finished bowl and collected Taemin’s and began to clean up the dishes from their meal. 

"Hyung, I can’t take your dinner..." Taemin started.

The rapper snorted, "Just eat it; you’re the one who wanted jiggae anyway.  I’ll just eat a snack later if I get hungry."

Taemin was already digging in, appreciatively around his spoon.  "Thanks hyung!"  He chirped in between gulps.  "You’re the best!"  

“Yeah, yeah, yeah kid...” Kibum rolled his eyes as he placed another dish in the strainer.

The clunk of Taemin’s spoon hitting the side of the bowl clanged harshly in Kibum’s ears, causing the older man to turn around, and a curious expression on his face.

“I’m not a kid.” Taemin said, voice low and soft, but backed by steel it seemed to Kibum.

“You’re right.” Kibum said, confusion bleeding a bit into his voice, “I’m sorry...force of habit...” 

Demeanor completely changed, Taemin quickly finished his dinner in silence, not even a trace of the happy slurping that had previously filled the kitchen.

Kibum bit his lip and continued cleaning for something to do within the tense silence that seemed to creep into the depths of his mind, making him flinch when Taemin’s spoon scraped against the bottom of the bowl, echoing loudly through Kibum’s ears. 

“Thanks hyung.” Taemin said dully, leaving the bowl on the counter next to the sink were Kibum still stood, hands deep in soapy water, before turning and leaving the room without another word.

Kibum listened carefully, hearing the younger man walk down the hall and into his and Minho’s room, shutting the door behind him.  He didn’t slam it or anything, just gently pushed it closed, but the click of the bolt falling into place might as well have been a gunshot for the intensity with which Kibum heard it.  That metal meeting metal clanged through his ears and Kibum couldn’t explain why it hurt so much.  Why his breath hitched and his heart skipped, the answers were beyond him.

But he really didn’t like it.

****

Taemin lay down on his bed, staring at the ceiling but not really seeing it.  He wasn’t focusing much on anything at all – just staring off into space it would seem.

He was sick of being seen as a kid, as a child, as someone that everyone else needed to look after.

Really though? He thought to himself.  After all he’d let Kibum handle his laundry when he came home, and had sat like a child while Kibum cooked to Taemin’s preference, and even took the rest of Kibum’s bowl, like any child would from their parent.

That’s it.  If he didn’t want to be seen as a child, he would have to start behaving more like an adult.  Become more like a man and leave the little boy behind.

Decision made, Taemin rolled over and grabbed his school bag that had been deposited by Kibum earlier.  He fished out a textbook and began studying for an exam that they were having later that week.

First thing adults do is follow through on their responsibilities…

****

Kibum felt listless, and useless and just a bit sad.  That sadness seemed to sit in the pit of his stomach like an ulcer.  Always gnawing at him.  A little bit painful but not distractingly so, just a constant, never ceasing ache that nothing seemed to alleviate.

Even on joyous days, like a successful concert, or another first place victory, or even on his own birthday, if he took even one second to stop and breath, it was there.

A hollow sort of space that was his constant companion. 

He knew why Jinki and Jonghyun wouldn’t let Kibum baby them – they were older than him.

He knew why Minho wouldn’t let Kibum baby him – they were the same age, and technically Minho was his senior since he had joined SM earlier.

But Taemin – Taemin had always been the one that Kibum could coddle, and care for and the one whose company he could always count on.

Always.

Or so he thought…

The maknae wasn’t being Kibum’s personal teddy bear anymore it seemed.  He wasn’t going to be the one who Kibum could pull in close whenever he was feeling down or homesick or during those bad moments that all of them had sometimes when they regretting signing up for this gig in the first place when it got so incredibly hard.

Kibum couldn’t set him up and do as he liked.  He couldn’t count on the younger man to be there to do anything; he was often out, lately with people who he had met through Kibum.

Taemin’s contact list in his phone was almost identical to Kibum’s these days, and they all seemed to find SHINee’s maknae more entertaining than it’s middling rapper because they sure weren’t calling him up as much as they were blowing up the dancer’s phone. 

Taemin’s social calendar was filling up while Kibum’s dwindled.

But Taemin looked so happy.  He smiled so much and laughed into his phone when they called, and spent their free moments in the car traveling from one event to another texting away. 

Taemin was growing into himself, despite the pressures that their profession threw at them.  And Kibum couldn’t help but be proud of the younger man.  He couldn’t begrudge him the time that his friends were now shifting towards the maknae.

“Hyung,” Taemin stood in the doorway of Kibum’s bedroom in the SHINee dorm, “A group of us are going to go out to eat and hit the noraebang after.  Want to come?”

Kibum smiled at the maknae.  So nice of him to pity his hyung, but he didn’t want to step all over the young man’s life anymore.  He’d made it awfully clear that he didn’t want Kibum to do so anymore.  “That’s alright.  You go and have fun.  I’m rather tired tonight.”

Taemin pulled a face, like he knew that the elder was lying.  “You sure hyung?”  He asked again.

Kibum nodded and sat back on his pillow.  “Positive.  Go have fun.” 

“If you’re sure…” Taemin said softly and then he was gone from the doorway.

Kibum rolled over and sighed, pressing his hand against his middle, against that ever present ache within, and curled up fetal. 

There was nothing to do but endure.

****

Taemin slipped back in through the door quietly…or as quietly as he had been able.  Alcohol had flowed hard and heavy all night, from the restaurant to the bar to the noraebang, Taemin knew that he had drunk too much, but he wasn’t too far gone.

His slipped across the floor in his socks. 

Falling into bed, grateful that Minho was a heavily sleeper, Taemin felt a little lost.

He had tried to ingratiate himself with Kibum’s friends so that he could spend more time with Kibum outside of work and their home.  So it would seem natural for them to be together without SHINee as a pretext. 

But it wasn’t working.  Kibum didn’t like Taemin joining them apparently because now Kibum bowed out whenever Taemin was attending. 

He was reaching his wit’s end.  He didn’t know what else to do.

****

Kibum looked down at the music that they had just been handed by the managers.  Each person’s parts were highlighted to draw their attention and Kibum felt a sad smile cross his face.  Ever since “Hello,” Kibum had noticed his own parts shrink, as Taemin’s grew larger and larger. 

He’d gone from a significant singing part on each album, to a few lines per song and mostly rapping.  He didn’t mind rapping exactly, but singing had been his reason for joining SM and for going forward with the arduous training system and being so very far away from home and family. 

He’d remembered seeing video parodies online, one of the videos that foreign fans made with fake humorous subtitles.  A running joke was a combination of Key wondering where exactly his lines had gone and Taemin being greedy to take more and more.

Ironic how things weren’t that far off.

“Hyung!” Taemin said excitedly, dropping with surprisingly little grace onto the couch next to the rapper, his own music sheets clenched so tightly in his hand that the paper was bending and crinkling.  “Look!” He pointed down at his sheets, which Kibum noticed were covered with rather more florescent ink than his own, “I sing as much as Jonghyun-hyung and Jinki-hyung!”

Kibum looked through the music Taemin was showing him and thought that the maknae was right.  He compared that to his two lines of singing and mentally sighed, but on the outside put a smile on his face.  In the old days, he thought, a large chunk of those lines would have been his.  But seeing Taemin so excited, Kibum couldn’t begrudge him this either. 

“Congrats Tae!  It’s because you’ve been practicing your singing so much!”  He gave the younger man a one-armed hug and Taemin squeezed back hard, giddy and bouncing on the worn cushions that they sat upon. 

“Hyung!  You’ve got a lot of rapping in this song!” Taemin exclaimed, having peeked at Kibum’s own pages while the rapper zoned out.

“Hmmm?” He hummed coming back to the present.

“Wow!  I don’t think I could do that much rapping.  Anything beyond one line and I start tripping over my own tongue…” Taemin said with a smile in his voice.

Kibum felt his face flushing and a bubbly sensation in his chest that made absolutely no sense in reality, but he felt undeniably pleased that Taemin thought that he was somehow worth admiring.

“Th-thanks,” Kibum stuttered softly, ducking his head, his chin hitting his chest. 

“Really hyung,” Taemin reinforce, his voice so full of a sudden heavy sincerity that Kibum felt it as though it was a physical weight around his shoulders, embracing him and giving warmth in the slightly chilled room.

Kibum’s eyes met with Taemin’s and for a moment the world froze.  Taemin’s deep brown eyes were wide open, in more ways than one.  Kibum swore if he just kept looking into them, if he never took his eyes away he would find the answer to all of life’s questions there.  Or at least the most important one: why am I here?

Kibum’s heart pounded loudly with the sudden crashing realization.  His mouth went completely dry and gaped open while his hands shook.

Because the answer was: Taemin. 

His entire reason for being, the reason he was born and brought to this earth was the young man sitting before him. 

****

Taemin saw Kibum’s eyes move from a caged and defensive look when the maknae first sat down to this current look of complete and utter vulnerability.

“Hyung…?”  Taemin was concerned and his eyebrows furrowed as he tried to figure out what was wrong with the rapper.  “What’s wrong hyung?  Are you alright?”

The elder’s mouth wagged a little, bobbing up and down as though he had forgotten how to speak.

But then there was a jerk of his head, sending blonde hair flying about his head, and Kibum forced his mouth shut.

“I’m fine…just…” he cleared his throat, “I’m fine.”

Taemin roused up his courage and grabbed the elder’s hand.

“Hyung…what is it?”  His voice was soft but incessant, demanding.  He needed to know what was going on.  That twisting feeling in his stomach was telling him that this was an important moment, one of those times in his life that he was going to look back on as a turning point.  

“It’s nothing,” Kibum whispered, but Taemin could feel his hyung’s hand shaking beneath his own.

“Then why are you trembling?”

Taemin could see a vein working in Kibum’s neck as the other man struggled to find something to say in response.

Kibum turned his head and looked as far away from the maknae as he could manage, and Taemin felt something rising up in his throat.

“You’re a thief you know that?”  Kibum said finally with a short gasp of a laugh.

Taemin narrowed his eyes in confusion, tugging a bit on Kibum’s hand, trying to encourage the other man to turn back around.  “What?”

“A thief.  A dirty rotten little thief.  It’s not fair.”  Kibum’s voice had the distinct quality of one who didn’t know someone else was listening.  To Taemin it seemed that Kibum had forgotten that the maknae was even there.

“You’ve taken everything from me.”

Now Taemin was really confused.  The words themselves were accusatory, but the tone that Kibum spoke them in was anything but.  The man sounded light, and happy.

“You captured all of my time in the beginning.  All of my attention was focused on you.  Then you crept into my possessions – I swear you wear most of my clothes before I get a chance too…”

Taemin bit his lip, unsure where this was going but thinking that Kibum was telling the truth, as weird as it sounded coming out of his mouth at the moment.

“And my friends hang out with you more than me, and I don’t want to barge in and interrupt you guys so I just stepped back, yielding my friends over to you…”

Taemin’s eyes went wide.  That actually made sense, it made a lot of sense and things were clicking into place in his brain.

Kibum jerked his other hand, still holding the music, up and added, “You’ve even taken over my singing parts in SHINee.”

Taemin didn’t know what to say.  He had tried to keep Kibum to himself, wanted to be as much a part of the elder’s life as he could because Kibum made him happy and content in a way that no one else every had in his life.

But had he been hurting Kibum by doing so…?  

Taemin loosened his grip on Kibum’s hand and was about to slip his own away when Kibum’s clenched around his retreating fingers.

“But the most important thing you stole from me, I didn’t even realize you had taken.”  Kibum finally turned back around and physically and wrapped his other hand around Taemin’s as well.  “Do you know what it was?”

A small smile sat on Kibum’s face and a sense of wonder twinkled in his eyes.

Taemin drank in the sight, the beautiful sight, and tried to commit it to his memory because he didn’t know when he would ever see it again.

Shoving past the blockage in his throat Taemin growled out a barely intelligible, “What?”

Kibum slowly lifted Taemin’s hand and placed it softly against his chest.

“My heart.” Kibum whispered.

Taemin’s own heart seemed to be trying to escape from his chest it was beating so hard against his ribcage.  

For years he had pined after Kibum.  For years he had tried to keep Kibum as close as he could while keeping his feelings as far from the surfaces as possible.  And now he was being told he didn’t have to hide away those feelings anymore.  

“Kibum…” he whispered.

The rapper pulled Taemin’s hand and gently kissed the very tips of the dancer’s fingers.

Taemin’s lungs seemed to have forgotten how to function…or maybe he had forgotten how to breathe…either way, he was becoming dizzy and excited.

Leaning forward, Taemin pressed his lips against Kibum’s.  It was a chaste kiss and only a few seconds long, but it sent tingles through both of their bodies.

Kibum had the shocked look of someone who thought he had been dreaming finding out that he was wide awake. 

But then a big wide smile spread over the rapper’s face.  He reached up and lay on hand against Taemin’s cheek, his eyes darting over Taemin’s face, trying to commit the moment to memory.

“My thief.” Kibum teased, tapping gently against Taemin’s face.

Taemin smiled, turning his face and kissing the soft palm of Kibum’s hand, “My treasure.”  

I know the prompt said rapping…but no.  Sorry, couldn’t take away everything.  Besides I really just don’t see the maknae rapping.  It makes me giggle just to think about it.  

Let me know what you think!