“Stop that Minho.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m talking about your attempt to set an eight year old kid on fire with your glare.”

“I have no such intentions, though if they occur, I won’t complain...”

Key smacked Minho on the head, earning himself one of those glares, not that he cared. They were at Jungmo’s birthday party at the beach, and Minho was not as excited as the others. Jonghyun and Onew had already gone off to swim and most likely do something stupid, and Key, who did not want to swim, decided to make sure Minho didn’t kill an innocent child.

Taemin was off with Jongin, Sulli, Krystal, and Jungmo. Minho and Jongin already had a talk. Jongin was to make sure Taemin stayed safe at all times, including from Jungmo. Jongin was only younger by a few months, and Taemin was quite a clumsy child, a trait Minho fears he got from Onew. Either way, Jongin was going to take care of Taemin since Minho couldn’t really go and join the kids the whole time. Luckily, Krystal seemed to be on a mission to keep Taemin away from Jungmo as well. It seemed the little girl was developing a little crush on his younger brother, and it was honestly one of the cutest things Minho had ever seen.

Krystal was constantly trying to get Taemin’s attention and get Taemin to play with her the most. It was just too adorable, and although Minho still didn’t want Taemin being in a relationship so soon, even if it was with Krystal, he’d let them be close.

So far, everything was going fine. Jungmo had divided his attention equally between all of his friends, and made sure the elders didn’t play too roughly with his younger friends, which gave Minho a bit more respected for the boy. Just a bit. He was still cautious.

“Minho hyung!” he heard. He turned his head in the direction he knew Taemin was, looking at the boy who was smiling brightly and waving him over. He silently got up, his mood much better now than it was before, and made his way over to his little brother. “Look! I made a sand castle!”

“It looks nice Minnie,” he replied, smiling sweetly at his little brother. The boy was much too innocent. Minho wasn’t sure he would ever let Taemin date someone. He wasn’t sure he would ever deem anyone worthy of his little brother. “Can you help me make one?”

“Of course hyung!” Taemin moved closer to sit next to him a bit away from his own castle, so that they could start a new castle. Truthfully, Minho was just using this as an excuse to keep Taemin away from Jungmo just a bit longer. It was the best he could think of at the moment.

They started quickly, adding layer upon layer. Soon enough, they were making a trench and decorating their masterpiece with whatever rocks, pebbles, and seashells they could find. Minho didn’t let Taemin carry the big rocks, in fear that the boy would accidentally drop on his own foot. Seashells were also a problem, but he was a bit more lenient with that and let Taemin gather a few. He didn’t want Taemin to accidentally cut himself with a broken shell or anything.

“Hyung! Hyung! It looks awesome!” Taemin was jumping around, completely happy now that they had finished their amazing looking castle. “We have a castle now!”

“That we do Taeminnie,” he replied. “You will be the prince, so get inside okay?” He pointed to the area inside of the trench, and Taemin nodded.

“What about you hyung?”

“I’m the dragon, remember? I have to stay out here to protect you.”

“So we have to defeat Minho hyung to get to Taemin hyung?” he heard. He turned to see Jongin in front of them, a grin on his face as the six year old was obvious plan already forming in that little head of his. For some reason, Minho was a little unnerved by that grin.

“But Minho hyung is a good dragon. You shouldn’t hurt him. He lets good people in,” Taemin said, trying to defend him. Taemin didn’t like his hyung getting hurt.

Jongin seemed to think for a moment, putting a hand on his hand, before grinning again, this time with a glare and his hands in a claw like position. “But I’m not good! I’m the evil wizard! Muahahaha!”

“Oh no! Minho hyung, save me!”

Minho chuckled at being pulled into their games, but played none the less.

Soon enough, other little kids were joining in, pretending to be evil and get to Taemin, and Minho had to fight them back as gently as possible. Some of them would latch onto his legs and he’d pry them off. Others even tried tackling him, but he would catch them and put them back on the ground. The whole time, Taemin was cheering for him, jumping up and down in his little space and warning him when a kid was coming from behind.

Eventually, Jonghyun joined him, each choosing a side to protect. Onew had originally joined them, but he fell got dogpiled by one too many children. He settled for sitting by Key and watching the match unfold.

In the end, Jongin had managed to get past them when the other kids had them busy and got to Taemin. Taemin was laughing hysterically by now, giggling and poking at Jongin, calling him sneaky. They already had an arm around each other’s shoulders, and Minho knew those two would forever be friends. There was no way they wouldn’t be. They were already like brothers.

“Hyung! I got caught by Jongin!”

“Muahahaha! He’s mine now!”

“Oh no,” Jonghyun said dramatically, putting an arm over his forehead, raising his other arm up to the sky and closing his eyes. “We’ve lost the young prince to the evil wizard Jongin! Whatever shall we do now?!”

Krystal and Sulli had decided to join in by now. Pretending to weep.

“Not my prince,” Krystal cried out.

“My brother’s gone,” Sulli said, hugging Krystal.

Minho played along, falling to his knees next to Jonghyun and also raising an arm to the sky. “We’ve lost him Jonghyun. Our young prince is gone! We’ve failed the King and Queen!”

Jonghyun turned to look at Key and Onew who were looking at them as if they were crazy. He pointed to them as he spoke. “King! Queen! We apologize deeply for our failure!”

Key looked like he wanted to hit him and Onew was grinning widely before getting into character. “No! Not my son! Who will become king now?!”

Key remained quiet until Onew elbowed him. He glared at them before sighing and grinning. He put a hand over his heart, clutching his shirt, and fell dramatically to the floor. “My poor son! Oh, my frail little heart, it hurts!”

Meanwhile, Jongin and the other boys were dancing around Taemin, cheering happily that they had caught the young prince. Minho didn’t even take the time to notice that Jungmo was in that circle. He was honestly just enjoying him time too much, and he couldn’t be bothered by an eight year old. Everyone was happy, playing along, and Jungmo wasn’t doing anything to Taemin. He was just being the eight year old that he was, playing games and having fun.

So Minho decided that just this once, he’d let the kids do what they wanted.

Taemin, as usual, was being the curious child that he was. And as a child, that curiosity was not quenched until he got his answers, which he needed now.

“Hyung?”

“Yes Taeminnie?”

“Can we go camping?”

Minho was silent for a while, thinking about his answer, before sighing. “It’s too cold out Taemin, and I don’t want you getting sick. How in the spring or summer when it’s nice and warm out?”

Taemin didn’t seem to like that idea and pouted. He didn’t want to wait that long. He was Choi Taemin, and Minho taught him that when a Choi wanted something, they fought for it! But Taemin didn’t want to fight with Minho. He couldn’t never! Fighting with Minho was like having milk without the banana flavor. It was unacceptable! But he had to fight for it right?

“Hyung, I’m confused.”

“Why?”

“Because, you said a Choi has to fight for what they want, but I don’t want to fight you. But I will want to go camping, and I don’t want to wait that long,” Taemin said.

Minho stared incredulously at his little brother before sighing again. He definitely wasn’t going to get much of his essay done tonight, but then again, it wasn’t due until next week, so what was the rush?

“Taemin, when I said fight, I didn’t mean you actually had to fight. I meant you have to work hard to get what you want,” Minho replied.

“So I have to get a job?”

Minho facepalmed. Taemin was definitely smart but Onew’s cluelessness was clearly rubbing off on him, which wasn’t exactly a good thing.

“No no, not a job. You just have to try very hard. Like, if you don’t get onto the soccer team on the first try, you keep practicing until you get better so that you can get in next time. Get it?” he explained.

“Yep!”

“Okay, so tell me it means.”

“It means I have to practice my soccer skills! Will you help me hyung?”

Minho groaned. Clearly this was a concept Taemin would not yet grasp. Instead of trying again, he got up, picking up Taemin on the way and walking to the living room.

“Let’s go camping.”

“Yay!!”

Since they couldn’t go outside, because it was too cold, Minho decided they would camp indoors, in the living room. He didn’t have a tent, but they could easily hang some blankets over them to make it look like a tent. Plus, he had sleeping bags, so he they could use those.

Jonghyun and Onew helped, moving the couches out of the way and hanging up the blankets. They kept one couch inside of the tent, because Key refused to sleep on the floor. Typical.

They couldn’t put up a fire, for obvious reasons despite Taemin’s explanation that there was no such thing as camping without a campfire. Minho would rather have a house than a campfire. Instead, they used the fireplace to make smores and kept the fire going throughout the night.

Taemin had a sleeping bag, but that didn’t stop him from crawling into Minho’s anyway. Minho was actually scared of when Taemin would grow up and start using his own room. The boy practically lived in Minho’s room despite having his own, and Minho feared the boy would never learn to be dependent.

He knew he had to start teaching Taemin about doing things on his own, but that didn’t mean he had to start now, or stop spoiling him, which he wasn’t allowed to do often because of Key. He would continue to treat Taemin the way he always has, and when the time came, he’d teach the bow to be dependent and do things on his own.

For now though, Taemin was his precious little brother, and he’d keep protecting him. After all, Taemin was only six. He could barely tie his shoes on his own. A bit more babying wouldn’t hurt.

Minho just hoped Taemin would never stop needing him.

What is this? AN UPDATE I SEE?! 

I am so sorry I haven't updated in so long. School is killing me and I have a job now, which I'm supposed to be getting ready for, so I've been quite busy.

However, I will try to update sooner than before. "A Love Thicker Than Blood" will maybe be updated tomorrow, or maybe tonight if I can. 

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed!

Please comment and tell me what you think!

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