For Warmer or for Colder

Sometime in the not so distant past…

            Ryeowook pulled out another box from the storage room in the basement of SM Entertainment and coughed as a cloud of dust kicked up from the disturbance.  He waved his hand in front of his face and glared at his husband, who was digging through another box with marker scrawled along the side of it which read, Super Junior Super Show. 

            “Remind me again why we’re doing this on our only day off in two weeks?” Ryeowook asked, digging through the box of concert costumes. 

            “Because we love our fans and because the last time we had a day off together you complained about us just sitting around the house doing nothing.  You thought it was a waste of time and we could have been bonding or some , so this is our chance to do something different,” Kyuhyun said, reaching the bottom of his box and tossing the clothes he’d haphazardly thrown out of it back inside.

            “Kyu, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind,” Ryeowook said, carefully looking through the various pieces.

            “Well, you’ll just have to be more specific next time then,” Kyuhyun teased, walking over to his husband and wrapping his arms around his waist.  Kyuhyun kissed his cheek and was about to pull away to start on another box when Ryeowook hollered in excitement.

            “Ah-ha!  I found it!” Ryeowook said, pulling out the suit top in question.  He held it up in the air and then brought it up to his nose.  “It smells a little musty though.  Maybe we should dry clean it first and then take the pictures another day.”

            “I don’t care if it’s musty,” Kyuhyun said, reaching around his little husband to grab the jacket.  He tried it on and then leaned over the box again.  “See if the shirt is in there too, would you?”

            Ryeowook dug a little deeper and then dug out the shirt as well.  “Should I see if the pants are in there?”

            “I suppose,” Kyuhyun said.  “But we won’t be taking pictures below the waist…unless you want to…although I suggest we do that at home and not post any of those online, babe.”

            “Shut it!” Ryeowook said, throwing the shirt and pants in Kyuhyun’s face and then closing up the box. 

            Kyuhyun laughed and grabbed his husband as he started to head for the door of the storage room and pulled him against his chest.  “Quit complaining.  This is going to be fun and you know it.  You like doing weird things like this,” Kyuhyun said, wrapping his arms around Ryeowook and titling his head to kiss him.

            Ryeowook pretended to be indifferent and turned his head away.  “We should get out of here.  It’s cold and damp.  Besides, someone might see us.”

            “There’s no one else even down here,” Kyuhyun pointed out, angling his head the other way to try to kiss his husband again.

            “There was that one janitor we passed coming down the hall,” Ryeowook reminded him, trying to back away.

            Finally, Kyuhyun just grasped Ryeowook’s shoulders and crashed his lips against his husband’s this time and Ryeowook did not try to pull away, but instead found himself laughing against his husband’s lips as they kissed.  After all, he was just teasing Kyuhyun for the fun of harassing him a little.  Just as he was beginning to relax in Kyuhyun’s embrace, the lights suddenly turned off and the door closed shut and the two pulled away from each other and stood there in shock a moment.  Within seconds, they were running for the door and yelling—although they couldn’t see a damn thing and were tripping over boxes and running into each other—trying to make sure that they weren’t being locked into the room.

            “Where’s the door?” Ryeowook panicked, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket and trying to find the door handle.

            “I’m at the door and it won’t open,” Kyuhyun said, trying to pull it open.  Then he hollered for someone to open the door. 

            Ryeowook began to panic and looked for the number to the front desk in his phone when he heard faint snickering on the other side of the door.  Clearly Kyuhyun heard it too, because he released the door almost instantly.

            “Who’s there?” Kyuhyun demanded.

            Loud laughter could be heard and Kyuhyun sighed. 

            “Changmin, open the damn door!”

            “Oh!” Ryeowook exclaimed with relief, grasping Kyuhyun’s arm.  “It’s just Changmin?”

            “And Yunho, if I’m guessing right,” he said, pounding on the door with his fist.  “Hurry up!  It’s cold in here!”

            The door swung open and the duo was nearly doubled over laughing at their expense.  “Hello!” Changmin choked out.

            “What the hell are you two doing here?” Kyuhyun asked, stepping out of the storage room and grabbing onto Ryeowook’s hand after pulling the door shut behind them.  From the look of their drenched clothes, it was clear they were working on some new choreography.

            “Dance practice,” Yunho managed to answer.  “One of the staff members popped in while we were on break and mentioned you two were in the building so we thought we’d track you down, but you were busy making out when we found you.”

            “Good thing you didn’t walk in a few minutes later,” Kyuhyun admitted. 

            Ryeowook’s brows furrowed.  “As if I’d let you touch me in such a filthy dump!”

            “I so don’t want to hear about where you two get off,” Changmin pointed out.

            “You would totally let me,” Kyuhyun said under his breath.

            “Kyu!” Changmin lectured, but he shook his head and smiled at his best friend.

            “Speaking of hookups,” Yunho began, “I have a bone to pick with you, Wookie.”

            “With me?” Ryeowook asked in confusion.

            “I’m told that I was omitted from one of your dinner parties because of another guest you had over and I feel offended that he got picked over me and that I had to miss out on your cooking,” Yunho said, pointing at Ryeowook’s chest.

            At this point, Kyuhyun and Changmin had wandered a few steps from them and were already talking about games—how was that even possible, it was only about five seconds ago they were still part of the conversation—and Ryeowook was on his own to fend against his slighted elder.

            “No, no, I swear, I had no idea that he was coming!” Ryeowook pleaded.  “But I will totally make it up to you and have you and Changmin over for dinner when your schedule permits.”

            “Well,” Yunho said, a catlike grin spreading across his face since his objective had been so quickly and easily obtained, “that’s so sweet of you!”

            “Heechul just invited Jae as his guest.  I was just as shocked by his presence as everyone else,” Ryeowook informed him. 

            Yunho nodded.  “How did he seem to be doing?”

            “Well, he’s always busy, but he seemed to be doing well otherwise,” Ryeowook only said, not sure how safe it was to stay on the topic of Jaejoong around his old flame without Changmin within earshot of the conversation to help monitor it.  He was feeling uncomfortable about saying much more.  Thankfully, that was all the more his hyung said on the matter, merely nodding his head and wrapping his arm around Ryeowook’s shoulders to usher him down the hall as well.

            “I’ll let you know as soon as my schedule clears up a little bit.  My mouth is beginning to water just thinking about it,” he said, smiling.  “So…what the hell are you and Kyu digging in the storage room for?”

            Ryeowook laughed because the explanation was rather funny.  “Kyu’s fans have paid for posters in the city to celebrate his birthday, but there’s some doubt as to whether or not he’s even seen them, so to prove to his fans that he’s seen them and that he appreciates the gesture, we’re going to take pictures of the idiot standing in front of each one so he can post them online.”

            Yunho began to laugh at this and shook his head.  “This is what you two do for fun?”

            “Apparently.”

            Yunho pat Ryeowook’s shoulder.  “I hope you two never change.  I think that’s why you have worked out when almost no one else has.”

            Ryeowook wanted to ask him about this, but then he thought the better of it and held his tongue.  Clearly, he meant him and Jaejoong, but were there more former couples that he didn’t know about as well?  And was he just referring to gay couples or celebrity couples in general?

            Changmin and Yunho walked them all the way to the door, since it was one of those days where the fans happened not to be sitting outside waiting for them to come out.  It was too damn cold and they’d come early in the morning—another issue that Ryeowook had with this whole proposition by his husband, he was up far too early for having worked the night before—and not a single fangirl was crazy enough to freeze their little behind waiting for random stars to appea