I'm sorry for the delay. Last week I just had a bad day/week and didn't feel like posting. This chapter is nothing exciting, but I hope you'll find it interesting. POV will start shifting a lot from here on. I wanted first to show more of Kyuhyun's mindset and only then move to Sungmin's.

Small announcement. Or rather poll question? Those of you who also would like to read 'Sweep me off my feet' - I can't write both, this story and the 'Love Dust' sequel, so I wanna ask you if you'd prefer I posted these two stories in turns, every two weeks (this week SL, next 'Sweep', then again SL etc) or if you want me to first finish this one and then only focus on 'Sweep...'? Please tell me what you'd like.

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Sungmin brushed against Kyuhyun again, as he reached for the flour. He could have put the bowl next to him, but instead he preferred to bypass the other male in the process. He was finding it quite amusing, how each time Kyuhyun was in his breath and momentarily stopping chopping the onions before restarting it again in a blink of an eye.

It wasn’t that Sungmin wanted to torture the man, he thought he made himself quite clear last night, before they went to sleep. He did imply that he was hoping for future, whatever that would bring their way. Even without verbally confirming it, Sungmin was pretty positive that Kyuhyun was attracted to him. It was all out there – the staring, the blushing and the eagerness. On the other hand, Kyuhyun was a bit withdrawn about his feelings and, perhaps, was trying to brush off the crush. Waiting for it to fade out.

Plopping another ball of dough onto the tray Sungmin shifted closer to the man beside him. Now their upper arms were brushing every single time one of them made a move. Reaching over Kyuhyun’s cutting board Sungmin placed a ghost of a touch on the younger’s wrist – enough to be felt but not as obvious as to seem deliberate – and waited. As expected, Kyuhyun’s shoulders jumped just slightly and his impressive chopping skills wavered for a split second.

Yes, definitely there was something.

Forming the last bun Sungmin looked over his shoulder, towards the open living room, and a small smile lifted the corners of his mouth. Sungrin was staring intensely at his interactive board, probably analyzing it in that slightly creepy way he did with all of his new toys. Chunghee, however, had his mouth opened as he was completely lost in the cartoon that Sungmin put on right before he and Kyuhyun started to prepare their lunch. The boy was sitting with his legs opened wide, Sungrin fitted between them and leaning on his older colleague’s front.

‘You, uh… finished?’ Kyuhyun asked him quickly when he was washing his hands off the flour and sticky dough.

Humming positively in response Sungmin grabbed the tray and slid it into already pre-heated oven.

‘I’m gonna check if kids want anything and be right back to start mixing meat.’ His hand patted Kyuhyun’s shoulder blade and slowly slid down and to his lower back as he passed him. He chuckled internally at the twitch of the taller man’s muscles under his palm.

He placed a bowl with peeled and cut apples, which he took out of the fridge on his way, next to Chunghee's leg. ‘Anything you want?’

Chunghee didn’t even tear his eyes away from the cartoon as he shook his head while Sungrin stretched comically to reach the bowl. The boy was all about food and nothing was going to stop him. Not even a pair of wiry arms holding him in place. Chunghee was treating the younger boy as his personal, living plush toy apparently.

Bernard was on his side, stretched right in front of the boys, sleeping peacefully until they decide to play with him again.

Ruffling Chunghee's hair Sungmin pushed himself up, his knees popping after the strenuous position.

The vegetables were all cut and in bowls when he came back to the kitchen, Kyuhyun was just placing them in the fridge to keep them from withering in the heat that was seeping into the apartment through the opened windows. The array of spices was already set and prepared for mixing with the meat and Kyuhyun pulled out the bowl they put the beef in.

‘Ready to get dirty?’ Sungmin chirped and snorted when Kyuhyun jumped a little, his face beets red when he turned.

Shaking his head Sungmin quickly pulled out a spoon and after adding everything in quite careless measures he pointed at the bowl. ‘Knock yourself out with the kneading.’ And he propped his hip on the counter, waiting, arms folded on his chest.

Huffing in annoyance at being ordered around, Kyuhyun sank his previously scrubbed hands into the meat. He scrunched his face at the odd feeling of meat being squashed under his fingers, but kept going.

Sungmin was just standing there, next to him, looking. He though it only fair, most of the time he was the subject of Kyuhyun’s scrutiny, however the younger was never as open about it.

Tilting his head to the side and narrowing his eyes Sungmin tapped his arm with his finger.

He loved Sunkyu. Loved her like he had never loved anyone ever before. As cliché as it may sound, she was the light of his life, his joy and the reason for living for those many years. And now she was gone. Her ghost was still everywhere in the apartment, her smile beaming from every picture and Sungmin knew that he could never just set the feelings for her aside. They would follow him until his last moments and he was glad for that. The feelings they shared should never be forgotten. But he knew that in the heart of every person there was enough space to love and care for many, many people. You didn’t have to ditch someone to invite someone else in. And Sunkyu was quite clear in her last will. Aside from bringing up their son she left him another task – he was to find someone who he could laugh with, love and care for again and he was to tackle that person’s heart and never let go. Just like he did with hers, as she pointed out. Be it days, weeks, months or years after she passed, but he was supposed to search and finally find, never cease hoping.

Kyuhyun was… broken. Resigned. He was covering it up with being a great father, but his past was haunting him, unfortunately in the same form that he loved so much – his own son. Chunghee was both, his blessing and the reminder of the nightmare he went through. And even before that he lived in a constant fear of being found out, of being casted away. It wasn’t that Sungmin’s parents were delighted when he came out to them, introducing HanGeng during the Sunday lunch when, until that moment, they thought that the Chinese student was just a lost friend their ever helpful son took under his wings. Well, he was up to some point, but then things shifted between them and Sungmin wasn’t keen on keeping it a secret from anyone. Apparently HanGeng was, judging from how fast he fled to China when things started to get a little rough at the university. Sungmin couldn’t put all of the blame on the man. He knew he acted hastily, he was overexcited and the attraction was new and completely different. The point was that Sungmin never let the opinions of others bother him. He wouldn’t have agreed to date Sunkyu if he did, with her reputation of a walking loony bin.

Kyuhyun on the other hand never got whatever it was that he wanted, but was handed huge responsibility and life that he probably never imagined for himself. Hidden behind his fears he never tried to get things he craved and right now he already focused all of his attention on his son. It was painfully obvious that anything other didn’t matter as much and he was ready to sacrifice his whole life for the boy. He didn’t look past what they had in the present, he didn’t think into the future, when the center of his life, Chunghee, would leave to have a family on his own. The boy was unlikely to abandon his father, but nevertheless Kyuhyun would be alone. And by his own choice.

They both were rebuilding their lives, no matter how settled Kyuhyun’s looked already. Sungmin decided that he would like to be the active witness of Kyuhyun’s recovery, show him that he was allowed to think about things that weren’t only about Chunghee. The thought occurred to him only at night, when he was staying in younger’s guest bedroom. He was allowed to really look at Kyuhyun for the first time and the voice in his head – the one that sounded distinctly like Sunkyu’s – was telling him that a year was enough. That he had a perfect opportunity right in front of him, he just needed to make an effort. And so he was doing just that. Making first tiny steps, preparing the grounds, and Kyuhyun, for later. He knew there would be later – he just needed to make Kyuhyun understand that he deserved to want things. Sungmin knew that everything was on his shoulders, but he didn’t mind. It was only fair since Sunkyu did everything for him, now he had to pass it on.

‘I think it’s enough.’

Starling out of his reverie Sungmin looked at four neat balls on the counter, ready to be flattened and grilled. Kyuhyun had the strange look on his face, slightly suspicious, as he was rinsing his hands from the soap.

‘Oh, right. We have…’ Sungmin checked the timer on the oven. ‘Twenty minutes for the buns to be ready so I think we can start grilling now.’ He felt just a little flushed at being caught so deep in thoughts.

Kyuhyun raised his brow, but nodded, and bend to retrieve grilling pan from the wall, where some of the pans and utensils were hung.

The next half an hour was comprised of flipping hamburgers, pulling brown and delicious looking buns from the oven and assembling huge sandwiches on the plates. Sungmin cut and cooled the meat for Sungrin, not even a third of what he and Kyuhyun were going to eat, while Chunghee bravely demanded the whole burger. They fawned around the small round table, the youngest strapped securely into his high chair – very similar to the one that was still occupying a part of Kyuhyun’s kitchen since he never got around to getting rid of it. And it’s just all good, it was coming in handy now that he was taking care of Sungrin.

Sungmin was smirking around his burger while listening to appreciative moans emitted by his new friend. Kyuhyun was immensely enjoying the sandwich, similarly to his son. Chunghee was picking at the vegetables, sneaking tomatoes and lettuce under the table for Bernard whenever he thought no one was looking, but he demolished most of his hamburger and top half of the bun. And Sungrin didn’t really care what was on his plate as long as it was food. And not broccoli.

It was a perfect lunch after the drinking fest the night before – Sungmin didn’t even feel that much hangover until he bit into his greasy burger. Despite slight queasiness at the start, he really felt much better and less cranky.

‘This was like all Christmases gathered together for my palate.’ Kyuhyun groaned later on, sprawled on the couch, a cold cola in hand to add finishing touch to their, less than healthy, feast.

Sungmin agreed from the other corner of the couch and mindlessly followed an orange fish on the screen. He didn’t remember how many times he had already seen this movie, but Sungrin loved the colors and squealed in glee whenever Doris was on. And he had to admit he liked stoned turtles.

The mid-afternoon heat was easing and shadows started to spread longer on the streets. They agreed to stroll to the playground for an hour or two and maybe some ice-cream after the movie.

Dumb seagulls were chasing the pelican on the screen when Kyuhyun’s pocket went off, playing some old rockish song. The man looked annoyed at the display before answering.

‘What?!’

Chunghee turned his head around to look at his father before returning his attention to the movie. Sungrin was napping on the floor, on his belly, with one of Bernard’s ears flopped onto his chubby legs.

‘What happened?’ Suddenly Kyuhyun was on his feet. ‘How did it crash? We set it up just last week, it couldn’t have enough~’

He cut short and listened, pads of his fingers squeezing the bridge of his nose, eyes scrunched.

‘Okay, I’ll come there and reprogram everything, just keep trying to get it up and working again.’ After a curt goodbye Kyuhyun cut the call and stood there for a moment before turning around to face Sungmin. He wavered for a second, throwing a look towards his own son, and Sungmin understood immediately.

‘Pulling out sitting partner card?’ The shorter man asked with a slightly disappointed smile on his face.

Kyuhyun nodded and sighed. ‘One of the servers crashed, I need to head to the company to check what’s wrong and only I have all the security codes.’

‘Company?’ Sungmin furrowed his brows. ‘I thought you’re working from home.’

‘That’s… complicated. I’ll explain later.’ Kyuhyun was already kneeling beside his son. ‘Chunghee, there was a huge crash at the big glassy building in the city and Henry said it is something really, really bad. I have to go save the computers there and I don’t know when I’ll be able to come back. Can you stay with uncle Sungmin and with Sungrin today, and maybe even spend the night?’

Chunghee pouted a little, but nodded. Then he spread beside Sungrin and took one of the sleeping boy’s hands in his own and kept watching the movie.

Sungmin followed Kyuhyun into the hallway and looked as the man checked his pockets before strapping on his sandals.

‘I’m sorry.’ The younger muttered looking at his hands.

Sungmin reached out and run his hand through Kyuhyun’s hair, ruffling it a little. He was amused at the surprise on Kyuhyun’s face when the younger looked up.

‘Hey, emergency’s an emergency, you told me before that you don’t really have something like a day off, I get that.’ The elder smiled and cooked his head, now waiting for some reply.

Kyuhyun released a shaky breath. ‘I’ll swing by in about half an hour with Chunghee’s things. I’m pretty sure it’ll take me at least half of the night to set things straight again.’

The sad smile again painted Sungmin’s lips but he nodded. ‘That’s fine. Sooyoung is going to drive her kids here in the morning, Chunghee will have company and you can rest. You didn’t sleep much last night either.’

‘Mmm… yeah…’ Kyuhyun wavered for a moment before reaching out and gently grabbing Sungmin’s upper arm. He squeezed it and his touch lingered for a moment before he dropped his hand, his face flushed and eyes again set to look at the floor. ‘Thank you.’

Sungmin only managed to open his lips to say goodbye and Kyuhyun was already out the door and thumping down the stairs.

Sighing heavily Sungmin rubbed his face with both of his palms and returned to the living room. Chunghee was asleep, the hand that was holding Sungrin’s now thrown across the boy’s back. Bernard snuck his muzzle between the legs of both kids and was huffing.

After covering the trio with a thin blanket Sungmin went to wash everything after the lunch, trying hard not to think too much about the sudden affectionate gesture displayed by Kyuhyun.