Hello guys! Sorry for such a long break and no notice about it as well. It's just that whenever I plan something it never works out my way and such thing happened this time. I simply didn't have time to post or I wasn't at home (and I didn't post on sunday as promised because I just left my netbook at my grandma's and I had the new chapter on it). You'll hate me now, even more after finishing this chapter, but I'm gonna take another break until the end of August. Obviously updating regularly doesn't work for me in the summer, so when I start work again I'll be more disciplined and won't have to feel so sorry for leaving you hanging. So yeah, first Sunday of September you see the next chapter! I SWEAR! Now enjoy the ride and don't throw anything heavy things at me! Remember I still need to finish this!!!

***

It wasn’t the easiest to make out in the front seats of the car, even as big as Kyuhyun's, when there was a panel separating them.

A sudden cramp made Sungmin hiss and break the kiss he was locked in with the other man.

‘.’ He cursed and started to massage his thigh. He didn’t know it was possible to get a cramp in such place! ‘Couldn’t you get the one without anything between? With possibility to join the seats?’

‘Want to call my father and that he should have presented me with something more suitable for making out?’ Kyuhyun huffed out, face flushed and eyes glazed from the earlier kisses.

Sungmin snorted and sighed with relief when the cramp started to let go. He looked out the window. It was late and the street was empty. They were right around the corner from Youngwoon's house, ready to pick up their kids. But once they retrieved them there would be no time to indulge, even just a little. So car was the only possible option.

Looking down at his dress pants Sungmin hoped they were made from a good material. He pulled at the legs and swung out of his seat, going over the panel and straddling Kyuhyun in one move.

Kyuhyun pushed his body into the seat at the sudden contact, eyes going wide and excitement rushing through his veins when the weight of his new boyfriend settled on his lap.

Sungmin had a Cheshire cat smirk on his face, arms propped on the back of the wide seat on either side of Kyuhyun's head.

‘Hi.’ The elder man said and leaned in, once again connecting his lips to Kyuhyun's.

Instinctively, Kyuhyun's hands flew to Sungmin’s hips, holding the man in place as he reciprocated the kiss with urgency. In the new position he could touch more, hands sliding under the lapels of Sungmin’s opened suit jacket onto his back, bunching the light-blue dress shirt and probably pulling it out of the man’s pants when he fisted the material.

Sungmin pushed more into the warm body in front of his, pressing their chests together and deepening the kiss. His tongue was lapping at the inside of Kyuhyun's mouth, eliciting moans from the man. He tried hard not to muss the younger’s hair but in the heat of the moment he slid his fingers into the soft strands, turning his head to kiss deeper. If anything, Kyuhyun only groaned with approval, his arms tightening around Sungmin’s frame and one hand sliding low, to the man’s behind.

Sungmin sighed and barely stopped himself from ing his hips forward. This was no place or time for that. But at least he knew that it was possible to use this car for more than showing off in the streets. Instead, he on Kyuhyun's tongue before dwelling into the man’s mouth once again, tasting him thoroughly. He let the kiss go on for just a moment longer, until he pulled back, placing last small kiss on Kyuhyun's plump and abused upper lip.

They were both panting hard, Kyuhyun with his head pressed into the headrest.

‘That was fun.’ The younger rasped out, his lips once before swallowing.

Sungmin followed the trail of the tongue and repressed the urge to lean in again and see how far the seats reclined. There was still time for that.

‘I’ll show you real fun later.’

He didn’t expect his voice to be so hoarse and low after the kiss. Apparently, he was much more affected than he thought.

Instead of flushing, like he did more often than not, Kyuhyun laughed out loud and the hand he was still keeping on Sungmin’s squeezed it gently.

‘Can’t wait.’

They waited until their breaths calmed down and the flushing on their faces receded and could be explained by wearing too many layers on a warm night like that one.

Getting out of the car was tricky, though. Straddling Kyuhyun had been easy, going back to his seat was quite impossible if Sungmin didn’t want to rip his pants, and he would have rather not do it.

‘Let’s just hope there are no night owls outside, lurking in the shadows.’ Sungmin grumbled and he maneuvered to open the driver’s door. When they gave in he slid from Kyuhyun's lap, supported by the man’s slightly wandering hands. He gave Kyuhyun a leering smirk, suggesting he knew that such touching wasn’t exactly necessary, and an adorable blush bloomed on the younger’s face.

It took a moment before they were presentable enough to show up at Youngwoon's house to pick up their kids. And even after all the straightening and patting down their hair Youngwoon didn’t hide his knowing grin when he opened the door.

‘I see you had fun.’ He joked as he led the way into his place. The house was substantially big, with enough rooms that everyone living there, even if only a few days a week, had their own rooms. And there was a spare guest room where Sungrin and Chunghee were surely already deeply asleep.

Despite it being around midnight Minyoung was on the couch, in front of the TV in the living room. The girl turned around at their arrival.

‘Hey Kyuhyun.’ She waved at him with a grin, so similar to her father's, before it dropped when she noticed Sungmin standing behind her father’s friend. She quickly jumped to her legs and bowed politely. ‘Good evening.’

‘Yeah, you’ve already showed what an impolite little brat you are.’ Youngwoon and ruffled her shoulder-length black hair in the passing.

The growl and slapping ensued and Sungmin chuckled at the scene while Kyuhyun shook his head.

Youngwoon had his hand spread on his daughter’s collarbone, keeping her away, as far as his arm length allowed, as he pointed to the back of the house.

‘They’re in the back room. Good luck with prying the little one away from Chunghee.’ No trace of exertion in his voice, while his daughter was huffing and puffing with irritation, still trying to slug him somehow. Their relationship was so easy going and casual Kyuhyun sometimes wondered how Youngwoon will start behaving when she’s old enough to date. If he’d go into full-on dad mode then.

‘I’ll go pry Sungrin off Chunghee first.’ Sungmin smiled and went around his partner.

Kyuhyun nodded and motioned with his head towards Youngwoon to make the man follow.

Once Minyoung was pacified, and once again on the couch finishing her movie, two friends moved into the long hallway. Youngwoon was relating the happenings of the evening, how the boys played together. It was stopped abruptly when extremely worried Sungmin emerged from the room.

‘Kyuhyun, something’s wrong.’ He informed quickly and waved at the taller male to follow him inside, Youngwoon at his tail.

At the first sight everything seemed perfectly fine. Chunghee was on his back, arms outstretched, Youngjin sleeping on his side with small hands tucked under his cheek. Sungrin was between the boys, small fist holding tightly at Chunghee’s t-shirt.

However, when Kyuhyun looked closer at his son he noticed a deep frown on his face and a layer of sweat on his forehead. The room a perfect temperature for sleeping and the three of them were covered only with a thin blanket, no conditions for getting sweaty. In addition, Chunghee's breath was very shallow and short.

In two strides Kyuhyun was by the bed, kneeling, hand gently pressing into the soft skin on his son’s face.

Chunghee was burning.

‘What’s wrong?’

Youngwoon's worried whisper sounded right beside him.

‘Chunghee is feverish.’ Sungmin supplied the answer, his voice tinted with anxiety.

‘They were all fine when I came in to turn off the TV. I checked their cheeks and foreheads in case they were too hot in this weather and I needed to turn the AC on.’

Kyuhyun looked back at Youngwoon. The man was pacing, eyes shifting between the three boys.

‘Sungrin and Youngjin are fine.’

Sungmin moved to the other side of the bed along with Youngwoon. The two of them scooped their son’s into their arms and the latter quickly took his boy into the room opposite, Youngjin’s bedroom. In a matter of minutes he came back with a thermometer.

Kyuhyun shrugged off his jacket and threw it on the foot of the bed before snatching the device from his friend and turning it on. When it beeped signalizing its readiness, he put it into Chunghee’s ear. The boy whined in his sleep, mouth opening just slightly, but otherwise stayed asleep.

When the result showed on the small bluish screen Kyuhyun felt chills all over his body.

40.1°C

‘Hospital.’ He breathed out and pushed himself up. Chunghee felt like on fire when he gathered his son, his clothes damp. ‘Give me his bag.’ He turned to Youngwoon who immediately produced a pair of shorts and t-shirt from the green baby bag. He was a father long enough to know what Kyuhyun needed.

‘I’m so sorry.’ Youngwoon apologized watching Kyuhyun change Chunghee into dry clothes.

‘It’s not your fault.’ Kyuhyun was distracted, but he knew that with his experience his friend wouldn’t have allowed Chunghee to catch anything that wasn’t already there. ‘You should check up on Youngjin, though. It might be something infectious.’

Sungmin was rocking Sungrin in his arms as the boy’s pliant body limply hung from his shoulder.

‘It might be fifth disease. Sungrin went through it once, right before coming to nursery.’ He kissed his son’s head and rocked him more, despite the fact that Sungrin probably was completely out, and would stay out until morning.

‘Might be.’ Kyuhyun mumbled and finally lifted Chunghee into his arms. The boy was completely unconscious. Pulling the baby bag onto his shoulder Kyuhyun threw a quick glance at Youngwoon. ‘Don’t beat yourself over it. I’ll call you when I know what it is.’

Youngwoon nodded wordlessly and they hurried towards the door. Minyoung looked confused over the couch’s back but they didn’t have time to explain.

Sungmin strapped his carrycot in the back seat of the Cherokee, right next to where Kyuhyun put Chunghee in the boy’s booster seat. They jumped into the front fast and waved towards Youngwoon before they were on their way.

‘I could drop you off… on that main street close to you. It would take a lot of time to maneuver into your neighborhood.’ Kyuhyun's voice was pained and he kept throwing glances into the rear mirror. Chunghee didn’t wake up, probably from mixture of exhaustion from the evening's fun with friends, and the fever. Sungrin was just as out, but sleeping through a cannon round was the boy’s talent so it wasn’t anything new or worrisome.

‘I’m going with you. Sungrin’s completely content in the carrycot and you might need me to bring you something to the hospital if that’s something other than the fifth disease. Girl next door is pregnant and her maternity instincts are off the charts so she’ll be more than happy to babysit for me if I need it.’ The elder male quickly dismissed the suggestion.

Kyuhyun sighed with relief. Chunghee rarely got sick and it was an ordeal when he did. Kyuhyun could be a very good father, but he was panicky and completely helpless whenever something he couldn’t fix struck his child.

Reaching across the gears Kyuhyun searched for the other man’s hand only to have it grabbed and squeezed in reassurance. He didn’t need to look to the side to know that Sungmin’s eyes were locked on him.

***

Sungmin walked silently through the hospital’s corridor. He was bearing two cups of coffee from the vending machine standing in the registration and two packs of chips sticking out of his small jacket pockets. He has never been in this particular wing of the town’s hospital, pediatric ward, since Sungrin never needed any immediate medical help, thankfully. However, he was quite well associated with the maternity and oncology wards. The trigger he feared didn’t come to render him useless for Kyuhyun and he assumed he didn’t really have too many bad memories from this particular place. His unstable mental state was due to people, not places. And here he encountered only helpful and sympathetic people.

Upon turning the corner Sungmin immediately caught the sight of his friend, slumped in the plastic seat, his jacket thrown carelessly onto the one next to him. However, his eyes were fixated on and attentive to the baby carrier set in front of him.

Possibly hearing the soft clicking of Sungmin’s dress shoes the younger male turned his tired eyes and smiled a ghost of his real smile.

‘Thanks.’ He murmured when Sungmin carefully placed the hot drink in his outstretched hand.

‘Still doing tests?’ Sungmin asked and brought the steaming cup to his lips. Despite the hot night the inside of the hospital was kept on a comfortable temperature that caused body to cool down considerably when motionless. Otherwise he would be already tearing at his expensive suit and simultaneously bringing his brother’s wrath upon himself.

Kyuhyun nodded in answer and started to sip at his own beverage, eyes back to the small figure in the carrier.

Sungmin turned his eyes towards it as well. Sungrin looked perfectly fine and comfortable, sleeping with his head turned slightly to the side and small lips opened just a fraction. In this position Sungmin could see that his son inherited his upturned upper lip and pointy nose. Although, that could have been as well Sunkyu’s legacy since they were freakishly alike for a married couple –mistaken for siblings more often than it was comfortable for Sungmin.

‘You don’t have to stay whole night here, I’ll need to get stuff from home as well, I’ll drive you and Sungrin home soon.’

Sungmin turned his head towards Kyuhyun again and looked imploringly at him. He decided that it was the right moment to introduce that elective hearing most people in relationships seemed to have.

‘I was thinking… you should give me your keys, I think that I should be able to operate that freighter on the empty streets in the middle of the night. I’ll go to the city and drop Sungrin off with Sungjin, he’ll be thrilled to spend some more of my money on those ridiculous animal outfits for his nephew. Then I’ll change and grab stuff from your place, whatever you’ll need and be back here in about two hours.’ He didn’t let any of the indignant huffs from Kyuhyun stop his tirade. The man was incredibly defensive about his car.

The internal conflict was evident in Kyuhyun’s eyes. However, if it was more because he was worried about the jeep or other innocent people who might get into driving-Sungmin’s way, he wasn’t sure.

After a moment Kyuhyun sighed and patted his jacket for the keys. He placed them quickly, albeit reluctantly, in the other man’s palm.

‘Just be careful.’ He murmured.

Sungmin nodded with a soft smile and patted Kyuhyun’s shoulder.

‘I’ll be back as soon as possible. Hopefully with your car in one piece.’ He joked and chuckled at the eye roll it earned him from the other man.

Sungrin smacked his small lips and wiggled in the carrier when Sungmin picked it up, but didn’t wake up. It wasn’t the food-time yet.

Just as he was ready to go, with all of his bags on him, a hand on his elbow stopped him and forced him to turn. Kyuhyun was standing with one hand in the pocket of his slacks, shirt opened at the collar and already slightly rumpled.

‘Thank you.’ The younger said quietly, eyed fixated on Sungmin’s.

Sungmin smiled again and tilted his head. ‘That’s what you have me for, no?’

A tired smile tugged at the corners of Kyuhyun’s lips before he bent his head and placed a soft kiss on Sungmin’s lips.

When already going down the corridor to the exit from the ward Sungmin was feeling too exuberant to care about the disapproving look the young nurse threw him before probably informing Kyuhyun about his son’s condition.

***

Staring at the wall with eyes so heavy he was surprised he was even able to keep them opened still, Kyuhyun thanked God that Chunghee’s illness was just the fifth disease. The doctor said his fever was a little higher than normal, but with all the heat waves going through the city it wasn’t that unusual. And now that he knew everything was okay with his son, and that he could take Chunghee home the next day when the check-outs started, he was feeling completely drained. His eyes were full of sand, inside his mouth he could taste the sour aftertaste of the hospital coffee and his clothes were uncomfortable and restricting. He was offered a bed beside Chunghee, but decided against it. Sungmin was still to come with the supplies.

At the memory of the short man something lifted in Kyuhyun. It wasn’t even the fact of the new nature of their relationship, but rather the knowledge that there was someone he could count on so fully. There were his friends, who he cherished greatly for what they were ready to do for him, or the nursery workers. However, he had never felt that he had a partner he could put the life of his own son in hands of. In the short time Sungmin proved to be that trustworthy person and so much more. And as long as they kept working on their relationship, fighting off the ghosts of their pasts, they could build something amazing together. Regardless of what the society and his nosy hanok village neighbors thought.

For the first time in a long time he could say that life was staring to pan out in the direction he never thought it would, but which was most probably going to bring him happiness.

The sound of steps on the hospital’s corridor made Kyuhyun smile in his tiredness. Sungmin was earlier than he expected.

Turning his head to welcome his partner with that smile Kyuhyun felt a wave of nausea roll through his body when his eyes landed on the person who stopped just a few feet from him. Cold sweat broke under his dress shirt and he could already feel the tremor in his hand starting quickly before it would spread throughout his body.

‘You neglect my son so much he lands in the hospital. What kind of father are you, Kyu?’

The nickname was drawled out, completely different from how it was rolling off Sungmin’s tongue, not the same melodic sound that made Kyuhyun forget all about the one night of his life that destroyed him.