They lay next to each other, sated and breathless, with all their limbs intertwined, waiting for their racing heartbeats to slow down, while Mino’s face nestled at the crook of Taehyun’s neck.

"Yo, Mino. I can't find the..." the door was pushed open with the loud voice of P.O. rudely forcing them out of their peaceful state. Taehyun scrambled to disentangle himself from Mino to cover himself with whatever cloth he could find, while Mino barely moved an inch. "Sorry..Sorry. I didn't see a thing. I swear!" the unwanted person quickly covered his eyes with both hands and backed away from the door, looking appropriately contrite.

"What the was that? I swear I locked the door," Taehyun's tone was accusatory as he stood up and wrapped the sheets around his body, glancing down at his boyfriend who was splayed on the bed in all his glory. He believed he lost a few years of his life at that moment.

"Umm, sorry," Mino mumbled. "The lock doesn't work. Been meaning to fix it."

"That was... this is... so..." Taehyun was at a loss for words as he pressed his palms against his heated cheeks. "We are never doing it here again, ever," he promised.

"I wonder who jumped on whom just moments before." Mino teased, smiling goofily as he tried to lie on his side but his smile quickly turned into a grimace.

"You are lucky you're so cute, and in pain. Coz I could pound you to death right now," Taehyun grumbled as he got up with the sheets wrapped around him. He wore the first clean shirt he could find and his own boxers, as he started looking around for a first-aid box.

"You find me cute? Wow! I am touched. I think I'm going to cry," Mino rested his hand on his heart while Taehyun made faces at him.

"Where is the ing first-aid box? Do you even have one?" he was irritated now, and he did feel a little bad for jumping on Mino when he was obviously in pain. His brain must have been severely clouded by the alcohol and lust.

"I think we usually keep it in one of the kitchen cabinets," Mino remembered as he tried to pull the sheets over himself.

"But I can't go out now. I am planning on staying inside here until everyone is gone and leave and never look at P.O. ever again," Taehyun grumbled.

"And leave me here like this? In pain?" Mino pouted. "And what if you needed to pee? Or what if you get hungry? And what if I get hungry? I can hardly move a muscle here," he counted off various scenarios and added a painful groan for good measure.

"You are so..." Taehyun growled out loud knowing he was fighting a losing battle. He looked around the room to look for something to wear and threw on the first pieces of clothing he saw. He sighed loudly as he approached the door, listening to the noises from outside before opening it a bit and peeked outside.

He could see the other boys continuing their alcohol binge around the couch in the living room, none of them seemed to face his way and he took the chance to slip quietly to the left of Mino's bedroom where the kitchen was. 

'The things I go through because of this stupid boyfriend.' He thought to himself as he rummages through the cabinets of the kitchenette. "Hey, I've been looking for that everywhere," a voice called out behind him as he was bent over a lower cabinet and he whipped his head up to see Kyung. "Aish! This Mino, he told me he didn't borrow the shirt and it was with him all along huh?" he mumbled, completely oblivious to Taehyun's stricken look as he made his way to the bathroom next to the kitchen.

Taehyun was angry now. He also couldn't find the first-aid box anywhere and gave up. He made his way back to the room and saw the first-aid box dangling from P.O.'s forefinger. The guy wasn’t even looking in his direction as he conversed with Zico. He felt his face getting hot as he went towards the boy and snatched the box from the teasing hands, only to see P.O. looking quite embarrassed to even look at him.

"Hey, why don't you guys join us here, there's a lot more beer to go around," Zico told Taehyun when the latter had turned to go.

"Okay," he hastily agreed before rushing towards the room to glower angrily at a suffering Mino again.

"What?" Mino noticed the angry eyes.

"Stupid...ing stupid.." Taehyun spat. He settled himself next to the bed to take out the ointments for Mino's cuts and bruises. He roughly cleaned his boyfriend with a wet towel while Mino howled and whimpered in pain, begging him to be more considerate. "Shut up," he hissed as he slapped on a band-aid on a bruised knee. "Why do you have to borrow T-shirts from other people?" he slapped on the bandaged knee for good measure. "And why don't you have locks on the doors?" he slapped on another for his ribs. He trusted a painkiller in Mino's direction and gave him water. "Now take this and sleep while I go try and make things less awkward with the guys," he got up and left the room, but not before planting a soft kiss on Mino's lips.

During breakfast the next day, Taehyun got a call from the furniture shop that the bed he ordered for Bobby was ready to be delivered later in the day. Mino rejoiced with a whoop causing the attention to be focused on them.

"Yes!! Taehyun is getting a new bed, let's celebrate!" Zico announced. Taehyun stared at him, blank.

"Party at our place?" Mino beamed at him.

"Hey! When did it become "Our" place?" Kyung scolded and it hit Taehyun that Mino using the word "our" did not sound strange to him at all.

"Who the hell throws a party for a new bed?" Taehyun enquired, amusement evident on his face.

"We do!" Mino answered as if it's the most natural thing in the world.

"We throw parties for everything. We had a party for the group's first "F" in an assignment,” Zico counted on his fingers.  “Another party for Krystal's new shoes, a party for my new hair.." 

"Hey, you guys have never been to the apartment right?" Mino asked, which did not really require an answer. "So...?" Mino looked towards Taehyun for permission.

"We can help set up and rearrange and stuff," P.O. suggested, who had apparently slept on the couch last night instead of making the short trip back to his own room.

"Okay," Taehyun agreed. He could tell he was going to experience a lot of random fun and quirks with this group. "A party for a new bed, I guess I can get down with that."

The three boys cheered and started whipping out their phones to call the others and inform them about the hastily planned party.

That was how the group of a dozen people turned up at Taehyun's door late on a Saturday afternoon, with party supplies in their arms. Bobby who was still half-awake simply looked on at the people trickling in the apartment, with a perplexed expression and an arm perpetually raised to receive a hi-5 offered by each of the guests. 

There were cries of excitement and noisy chatter as the group explored every inch of Taehyun's apartment. "Hey! This is awesome! I can see so far from up here.

This place is the !" Krystal called out from the balcony that was connected to the study they had planned to convert into Bobby's room. He saw Sulli leaning perilously from the rails and the apartment was on the 9th floor. Taehyun raised an arm to try and tell her to be careful when he saw her leaning her upper body out, but he was distracted by Baekhyun calling him from the kitchen, inquiring where the microwave oven was.

Taehyun moved from his place in the living room to address his queries when the refrigerator located near the kitchen entrance almost banged at his face. "Sorry," P.O. smiled and proceeded to store the beer bottles inside.

He had just finished showing Baekhyun how the microwave works when he was called by Mino to tell him they were moving the sound system to the living room. Minzy and a freshened up Bobby were in charge of the party music and a minute later, the sound of rap music filled the apartment. Seungyoon complained he wanted to listen to rock genre that Jinwoo supported wholeheartedly and a loud argument ensued in the middle of the living room. Taehyun prayed his neighbors wouldn’t complain about the noise.

Kyung wanted to know where the bathroom was and Zico was busy trying to organize the living room to make it fit for a party, while managing to break the fight between the four people as he asked them for help. The couches and chairs were rearranged to create space. Mino and Seunghoon helped Taehyun to move his desk and other items to his bedroom, and the study was ready for the arrival of Bobby's bed. Baekhyun, Sulli and Kyung were in charge of food in the kitchen while Mino helped Taehyun re-arrange his bedroom.

"Ummm...I have a surprise for you," Mino announced when they were done setting up the room according to Taehyun's specifications. He looked a little embarrassed.

"Huh?" Taehyun looked around, Mino seemed to be holding a huge paper bag behind him and he had no idea when Mino found the time to do that.

"Don't be mad, all right?" Mino required, shuffling his foot a little.

"Why would I be mad?" Taehyun could not hide the smile forming on his face, which seemed to give Mino courage. "Let me see."

"Okay, it's nothing extravagant, it's not even mine to give actually..but.."

"Come on.." Taehyun tried to snatch the bag from him with an outstretched hand. Mino dodged it efficiently but handed the bag to him anyway. Taehyun peeked in excitedly while Mino worried his bottom lip, trying to gauge Taehyun's reaction. Taehyun gasped and Mino's shoulders lost a little of their tension.

"Wha..." Taehyun took out the contents of the bag one by one and laid them out on the bed. "These are....where..."

"I found them while I was looking for a pen in your desk, and I knew those are yours because I could see your signatures at the bottom. They were breathtaking and beautiful and kind of sad and I just...I don't know..I kind of felt it was a waste to be kept in a drawer like that and I thought..maybe..you know..I mean you don't have to if you don't want to..but I thought since your walls are bare. We could hang them up with proper frames like these..and umm...are you mad? I should've asked you first shouldn't I? I am so....."

"You really like them?" Taehyun asked quietly, not taking his eyes off the colorful paintings that were now framed with a wooden base.

"I find them exquisite and unique, like you," Mino commented, glancing at the pieces of art his boyfriend had created.

"Okay," Taehyun looked up at him from his seat on the bed with smiling eyes, and Mino let out a sigh of relief. They started putting up the pieces on the walls in one straight line, making the room look like an exhibition of sorts. 

"Looks great!" Mino commented once they were done. He crossed his arms on his chest and admired the view. Taehyun came up next to him to wrap an arm around his waist, resting his head against Mino's and sighed in a contented fashion.

"Thank you," he whispered quietly, and Mino's chest puffed in pride. Taehyun wondered what goes on in his boyfriend's head when he looks at the pictures hanging on the walls. He believed without a doubt that Mino was a better artist than he ever hoped to be. His sketches and comic strips tell stories and they make him feel indescribable things and he admired Mino’s talent a lot.  

After hearing bits and pieces about Mino's childhood from Danah, he found a whole new meaning in his boyfriend's art works. Mino never hesitated to show him his sketches when he asked, however, Taehyun always felt a bit reluctant to show his own art to the older boy. Seeing them hanging on the walls for all to see left him feeling a little , but he couldn't help feeling a little happy that Mino seemed to like what he sees in them.

Mino turned to face him to connect their foreheads, his warm hands on either side of his head. Taehyun's eyes closed involuntarily, knowing Mino was looking at him as if he was trying to stare into his soul, as if he knows what he was thinking about. "I wonder what I will discover about you next," Taehyun could feel the boy's breath on his lips, and he could hear the smile in his tone. He waited for the kiss that was about to come.

"Woah!" Minzy came in to tell them food is ready, but saw the deep colors and fine lines hanging on the walls instead and gave a low whistle. She did not notice the two boys that had jumped a meter from each other when she had exclaimed out loud. "Looks great!" and she gave thumbs up to the two boys. 

"These are Taehyun's works of art by the way," Mino showed-off while Taehyun tucked a hair behind his reddening ears.

"Really?" Minzy's eyes opened wider. "Do you have plans to be a painter in the future?" she asked in an off-handed way as she gave the artworks a second glance.

"Uh..ummm.." Taehyun had never talked about his secret dreams before, and Mino seemed to be waiting for an answer. "I don't know, maybe....though it is just an outlet as of now," he smiled sheepishly.

"I am thinking I am going to have a famous artist boyfriend in the future," Mino commented.

Minzy snorted. "What makes you think you're going to last that long? What do you even see in him Taehyun-ah?" Minzy teased.

"I am surprised myself," Taehyun jibed back, though there were a lot of things that flashed in his mind when he looked at the boy next to him. Like how Mino nonchalantly broke down his walls as if the walls were made of paper, or something like cobweb. He smiled as he imagined trying to protect himself with cobwebs and Mino irritatingly swishing through the sticky webs to get to him. "Let's see how long he lasts," he said out loud instead, earning giggles from Minzy.

"Wait...what? What do you mean by that?" Mino looked back and forth between the two of them. "Hey, I am not any other guy, okay? I am Song Min Ho and I...." he stopped talking abruptly, his eyes darting everywhere but at Taehyun's face.

"Whatever. If you guys are hungry there's food all right," Minzy announced and left the room. Mino took that time to pull out his phone from his pocket and took a shot of the part of the room they had just finished decorating.

"Go take a picture with your work. This will be like your first art exhibition," Mino directed to his boyfriend.
The artist smiled, a little shy as he settled himself cross-legged on the bed in front of his artworks, staring right into the camera with a peace sign and a proud smile.

The object of honor for the party arrived with much plumb and ceremony, and the two furniture movers were also invited, beers into their hands. However, they could not stay as they were still on duty and left after finishing a beer each, and the party began in full swing after the bed had been set up.  

Mino proudly showed off Taehyun's wall to everyone who cared to listen while the artist pretended not to notice. He could hear Seunghoon saying "The human heart does not look like this. It's supposed to be a heart right?" while examining one of the frames. 

Mino laughed and slapped a hand at Seunghoon's back. "Hey! You computer geek. What do you even know about art?" Seunghoon pouted at the derisive laughter and went away to sulk to Minzy who comforted him with open arms and a death threat to Mino.

Zico looked quite curious about the artworks, Taehyun noticed him staring at each of them in a contemplative manner and he was a little nervous about what the boy would think. He knew from Mino that Zico is quite an artist himself and had seen some of his works that had left him surprised and awed. He knew then that the boy who seemed so easy-going and happy-go-lucky actually is more than what meets the eye, leaving Taehyun with an insane need to pick his brains about what goes on in the older boy's head.

He entered his own room like a stranger and stood next to the tall boy silently. He hummed a little to announce his presence, which elicited the desired response. "Oh! Didn't see you there," Zico jerked a little.

"That's okay...." he paused.

"Mino told me these are yours?" Zico picked up the conversation.

"Yeah....it's a little embarrassing, I know.."

"Nah, it's cool. It seems like these are you trying to express yourself and that's a good thing. Some people find it difficult to express themselves with words, that is why art exists," Zico reassured him while he moved on to another picture.

Taehyun stared at him with surprise. The boy next to him suddenly seemed matured beyond his years at that moment.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Zico had turned his attention back at him. "Do I sound silly? That is just a theory of mine by the way, you don't have to..."

"No. No. I agree with you," Taehyun hastily replied. "Do you...what do you think? Of these, I mean."

"It doesn't really matter what I think, does it? These come from you, from your heart. You should never allow another person to be the judge of that. It is your form of self-expression in the purest, non-destructive form and you should not be ashamed of it ever or ask for approval," Zico replied looking straight at him, and Taehyun absorbed the older boy's words. "I'm sorry, I'm preaching," the older boy scratched the back of his head looking very sheepish as he smiled. "It's just...I have made mistakes before, and I just hope you don't face the same disappointments I have."

"It's all right. Thank you," Taehyun wanted to ask him more but decided he will save his questions for another time. 

"And I really like them by the way. They make a person think, and that is always good," Zico ended with a huge grin.

"Mino forced us to attend the exhibition," Jinwoo announced as he came to stand next to them, his other half was also present next to him. In Taehyun's mind, Jinwoo and Seungyoon are attached at the hip. He doesn't remember seeing the couple apart ever and he found it endearing.

He turned back towards Zico. "Thanks for saying that," he smiled and turned to leave.

"Hey! I didn't just say those words to be nice, okay," Zico called out behind him.

"I know," Taehyun replied. If there was one thing he knew he could expect from Zico, it was his honesty.

"And I know you are proud as of these pieces," the blonde raised his beer bottle in salute, and Taehyun could not deny that fact.

The guests left in the early hours of the morning, there just wasn't enough space for all of them to sleep in, and that left only the couple who were too lazy to move from their place on the bedroom floor, and Bobby who was furiously rapping into a karaoke microphone in the living room. 

"I hope we won't have a lot of cleaning to do tomorrow," Taehyun's voice was a little slurred from the alcohol, his arms were folded at the front as he lied on his back.
Mino crushed the smoked blunt in his hands, smiling like a fool. "We have our work cut out for us," he looked around the trashed apartment. He settled himself down next to Taehyun, arms brushing against each other.

"This is the first time I have thrown a party," he commented, lips curved into a tired smile.

"And how was the experience?" Mino was curious.

"I will tell you tomorrow, depending on the amount of damage," Taehyun joked. Mino found that to be the funniest thing in the world and he could not stop himself from laughing for a good five minutes.

"I'm serious," Taehyun wheezed as his own laughter died down.

"I'll help, don't worry," Mino assured.

"It's OUR apartment, of course you'll help," Taehyun did not have the mind to think about what he was saying, but Mino caught the intonation. 

"By the way, Danah is visiting Seoul this Christmas," Mino informed Taehyun. 

"To check out the college or to check up on you?" Taehyun teased. He knew Danah would be graduating next year.

"Hey! I will be the one looking after her," Mino protested.

"We both know she don't need to be taken care of. And she was worried about you. She asked me what kind of people you were hanging out with, whether they seemed like nice people and stuff," Taehyun confessed.

"I bet she told you about my childhood too," Mino looked away and Taehyun noticed.

"She did actually," Taehyun started, careful not to push.

"Did she show you pictures too?" he looked straight up, avoiding Taehyun's gaze.

"She certainly did," Taehyun smiled, remembering the cute chubby pictures of Mino and Danah. "I thought they were absolutely adorable. I wish I had known you those days."

"You wouldn't wanna know me then. I was awful," Mino sighed audibly.

"I heard you were in juvie for a while," Taehyun commented.

"She even told you that?" Mino's voice was raised. But he did not seem angry.

"Ummhmmm. It is interesting to me," Taehyun hoped that was enough to ensure Mino he is not judging.

“I was young and stupid, and trying to act tough. I mean, I was tough..." 

Taehyun laughed. 

"I was!!" Mino protested. "But I didn't know being tough doesn't necessarily require breaking laws."

"So what did you do?"

"Oh I did a lot of stuff, my parents sorta gave up and did not fight when I was caught for the last time to be sent to juvie, but you don’t have to know all that,” Mino trailed off.

“But I wanna know,” Taehyun whined a little as he shifted sideways, elbow on the floor and a hand propping his head up, looking down on Mino who was still studiously ignoring his face. “I feel like you can read me so easily without me needing to tell you anything, while you…I don’t know. I feel like sometimes you only show me what you want me to know about you,” he requested, playing with his boyfriend’s t-shirt.

Mino turned to look at him then, unsure. Taehyun assured him with a smile, curious and a little afraid. Not for himself, but afraid to know for sure how exactly Mino struggled in the past. Danah did not have time to go into details. Mino had always been open with his feelings, and Taehyun can almost always know what is going on. But these are stuff that happened before they knew each other, and he wanted to know what events shaped the boy he knows today.

“You have seen my childhood pictures, I know you don’t want to admit it, but I was overweight then, and terribly lacking in confidence. I was bullied and I was a loner. I wanted to toughen up, for Danah mostly, because I felt like it will be embarrassing for her to have an older brother like me. So I joined a local gang, delinquents mostly but with a boss and everything,” he paused.

“Did your boss wear like those ugly floral printed shirts with ill-fitting shiny suits?” Taehyun joked, trying to make Mino more comfortable to share his story. 

Mino laughed. “Hell no.”

“I don’t think I have ever encountered a gang member before. I thought they exist only in movies,” he commented.

“Hey! You privileged rich kid,” Mino mocked.

“I resent that,” Taehyun side-eyed him, grabbing a fistful of the t-shirt he was playing with.

Mino merely smiled. “You wouldn’t know even if you encounter them. You know movies are all exaggerating on facts,” he explained. “As for me, I was young. I was not really useful to them but I just sort of tagged along and they made me do the grunt work and stuff. I was caught lots of times because I was dumb as , and I was fooled and cheated a lot by the people I hung out with."

"Danah said you were too nice, even then."

"I guess I seemed nice because I was too dumb to be anything but. I thought I was the coolest when people at school started talking to me. I was reveling in the fact that they actually needed me for help, and I did everything I could too. Protecting them, lending them money, doing their homework, stuff like that. But then, they all leave me whenever something bad happens. And then I was completely immersed with the people outside school."

"And how did you become friends with Seunghoon hyung?"

"It's a funny story actually," Mino chuckled.

"Tell me.."

"Umm..he was obsessed with video games, and he had quite a reputation in the online community. One of my gang members challenged him to a game and they made a bet on it, which Seunghoon hyung won. The loser got mad, and he knew Seunghoon hyung was from my school, so he demanded I take revenge for him, convinced that hyung was cheating. They gave me a live snake to put in his locker, non-venomous okay, which I did. Someone ratted on me to hyung and he challenged me to a fistfight," Mino narrated.

"That is not a funny story at all," Taehyun pouted.

"Just listen..." Mino prodded, excited now at the fond memories coming back to him. "So we went to the courtyard to fight, I thought it'd be pretty easy since he was so skinny and a computer nerd. But he was so fast I couldn't even land a punch. The fight continued on and on and people started getting bored and left." 

Taehyun was smiling from ear to ear picturing the chubby kid and the skinny one falling onto the ground without landing a single punch on each other. 

Mino chuckled at the hilarious event. "We were tired too, and we both slumped down to the ground at the same time and called a truce. We were inseparable after that. He was the only one who stuck by me even after I left juvie, and he was the one who kept me on the good side and made me realize my love for the arts." 

Taehyun couldn't help mirroring the smile on his boyfriend. The bad things that happened in the past did not matter to him now, because the Mino who was currently lying below him was happy and well, and his past only seemed to make him look even more awesome in Taehyun's eyes.

He settled his head on Mino's chest, listening to the slow rumble of his boyfriend's stomach and his beating heart. "Mom said Donghyun is coming home for the holidays," Taehyun shared.

"I know." From the smile Mino gave, he could tell his boyfriend shared his joy, but he was confused as to how Mino knew. Mino merely lifted his phone to show Taehyun the screen. "Kakaotalk."

Taehyun scoffed. "I don't know how I feel about you and my mom being friends," he commented. This is all a bit strange to him.

"I am a very likable person," Mino stated with evident pride in his tone. "I bet Donghyun will love me too. I have always wanted a younger brother."

"The little rascal sent me a letter telling me he is sure he is taller than me by now," Taehyun laughed.

"Does he know about me?"

"Hell no! You're my dirty little secret," Taehyun held Mino's chin and shook it playfully. Mino quickly swatted his hand away, his eyes glaring. "I'm kidding. We'll tell him when he arrives. Maybe we can go pick him up from the airport," Taehyun assured, making Mino smile.

"And your mother?"

"You and I both know she already knows..."

"No, I mean... how is it going?"

"Oh," Taehyun realized what Mino was asking.  "We will have to wait and see. I guess I needed someone to push me and you did. It wasn't some huge problem in the first place. It was the little things...I was old enough to know about the fights, you know...I get that divorces happen and I wasn't angry.....maybe disappointed but I expected it to happen anyway," he played with his fingers as he spoke, not really looking at Mino. "But I blamed her for not trying to at least give us any semblance of a home after all that. She left me to my own devices...she sent Donghyun away. He is the reason for...you know...everything I do. And maybe being angry with them messing up my admission to Yale seemed petty, but it would've turned out well if they co-operated but they wouldn't," he sighed, unwilling to bring up everything from the past. "But it's okay now. If they hadn't messed up I wouldn't have met you," he gave a self-conscious laugh and Mino's face beamed with delight. "And I know I was being selfish and I understand now how depressed she must have been after the divorce. I guess we can only go up from here so...," he smiled then, at the boy who was looking at him with adoring eyes.

Mino was quiet, and it made Taehyun squirm, a little uncomfortable. He had shared a lot today without meaning to. His artworks were laid bare in front of other people and Mino basically now knows his family history. Mino's eyes were warm, and it slightly comforted him. He has to take Mino's words as fact, after all, the boy hates lies so he must be telling the truth to him all this time. But knowing that still did not comfort him as much as he hoped it would. He hated the fact that, for the first time, he needed someone to know him and approve of him, and he also realized he had found someone he is afraid to disappoint, apart from himself.

He moved to lie in his original position, next to Mino, side by side. He can still feel Mino's eyes on him, and he basked in that glorious feeling for a while. 

He realized he hadn't properly expressed his gratitude to Mino, for helping him mend broken bridges, for helping him embrace his art, for making him learn what being in a tight-knit understanding group of friends felt like, and so much more.  And with how Mino was looking at him as if he was the only thing that mattered in this world, was making him want to melt in a puddle of goo.

"Thank you," he whispered, looking up to hold Mino's gaze. "Thank you for...everything."

Mino gave a lopsided smile, and Taehyun knew he understood. But the next words coming out from his handsome boyfriend shook him to the core, and even his alcohol-clouded brain understood the magnitude of it.

"I think I'm falling in love with you," Mino whispered, but as soon as the words left his mouth, he took in a sharp breath and covered his lips with his hand. Taehyun realized Mino spoke the words in his head out loud, and embarrassed about it. His boyfriend looked so adorable at that moment with that scared expression in his face, and he wanted to reassure him.

"I think I'm falling in love with you too."

a/n: sooo....I know everyone is bored of the story already but I ain't stopping lmao. I need to get rid of them feels you know, and writing helps me cope. I get more and more subscribers everyday though, which is a strange and wonderful feeling. I wish you guys will take the time to comment. It'll mean so much to me.

so many thanks to Elijiri, my wonderful bae for all her help with this chapter, and beta Ayen as always for taking the time. Metta, I always appreciate your invaluable input.

i read all your lovely comments whenever I feel down and it never fails to make me smile and helped me get through the day. They are the best bedtime stories ever and I thank you all so so much!!