“Wakey wakey.”

Something nudges Kai's ribs painfully, an elbow or a boney finger. Sleep recedes away like an old friend abandoning him, but Kai refuses to open his eyes and acknowledge it.

“I said, wake up...” The voice is cloying, overly sweet, and that makes it sound like death to Kai's ears. He peeks open an eye, the one closest to the bed and therefore farthest from view in case whoever annoying person this is can see. 

It's 5:30 in the morning. He groans.

“Ahah!” Baekhyun cries out in success, and Kai knows he's doomed. The game is lost. “Come on, get up. That's not the sound of someone sleeping. That's the sound of someone trying to ignore me. Kai, wake up,” he sing-songs the last line, and the fingers resume their prodding.

Kai almost insists on pretending, because how on earth can Baekhyun expect him to wake up at such an hour? It's positively inhuman. And then he remembers the last thing he heard last night. The last few words Baekhyun ushered before he fell asleep, and Kai stayed up with his mind pounding, wracked with guilt and sorrow because how dare Baekhyun greet him with words like that.

Kai came to the apartment last night fully expecting to have to deal with a miserable boyfriend (and hopefully not an ex-boyfriend after what he said) fully expected Baekhyun to be sad or angry, and possibly both, and Kai had a plan and a complete set list of answers and apologies; they would make up in a grand way and all would be well.

“I love you.”

But then he couldn't get inside, and Baekhyun wasn't answering his phone and he'd already seen Tao leaving, and all his words turned to tears when nobody answered his knocks. Finding Baekhyun asleep in the bed was the best and worst thing that could have happened, because Kai had no idea what it meant. If Baekhyun was sleeping away his anger and grief, or if he was so fine with everything that he could sleep soundly, Kai didn't know.

Eloquent words turned to mush the moment he slid in beside him, praying Baekhyun wouldn't push him aside. 

“I love you.”

How exactly could he answer those words when all of Kai's thoughts were of remorse bordering on such extreme relief that Baekhyun had not only pulled him under and kissed him and evidently didn't need to hear Kai's 'forgive me' speech to fall asleep happy in a cuddle. 

I love you, too, he whispered into the dark. 

Nobody heard him, not even himself. Morning would come soon enough, and indeed it does.

Kai moans and tries to roll over, but a body stops him.

“Are you awake?” Baekhyun asks nicely this time.

“Mmmm.”

“Good.”

He can hear the happiness in Baekhyun's voice, and that prompts him to try harder. He opens both eyes fully this time and looks around. They are still very close to the position they fell asleep in, or at least in the spoon-position Baekhyun fell asleep in before Kai laid awake mulling over everything in his head. He rolls onto his back, necessitating that Baekhyun should move too, and he does just enough that Kai can turn his head to look at him and reach across to gather Baekhyun's hand. It rests on his stomach already, lightly clenching and possessive. Kai can't help it, but a tear tugs at his eye as his emotions let loose.

Baekhyun obviously sees it happen. He pulls his hand free and touches the dampened place in the corner of Kai's eye. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Baekhyun says sadly. “Doesn't look like nothing.” He pushes himself up onto one elbow, the better to gaze down at Kai.

Kai remains silent, but he can't avoid Baekhyun's concerned stare and he doesn't want to. “I thought... I thought maybe you were so mad at me you wouldn't want to see me again.”

Baekhyun smiles, his lips closed and the left side of his face moves more than the right and Kai sees every tortured emotion mirrored back at him. The smile doesn't quite reach Baekhyun's eyes, but a beautiful kind of love shines out of them anyways.

“And why would you think that?”

“Because I said some awful things to you?”

Baekhyun smirks, like he has to consider the past few days. “Did you?” he teases. “I can hardly remember. It's been a boring set of days. I mean, not boring necessarily... Tao bought a waffle maker, and I rode a bike - that was miserable, my poor thighs - lots of dance and nobody bothering me on the phone terribly much, and what else? Oh, I ran into Luhan giving Minseok a on the stairs in the studio between the first and second floor and let me tell you: that was a sight I'd much rather not see again...”

Kai gapes at him, only one fact really resonating.

“We have a waffle maker now?”

It's 6:00 am when Tao stumbles out of his bedroom to the crippling smell of waffles in the morning. Instead of him at the counter this time, however, and Baekhyun waiting impatiently at the table with his corner store bought coffee, it's Kai doing the work and Baekhyun still sits at the table clutching a hot paper mug of caffeinated liquid.

Kai looks over at Tao sheepishly. “Morning. Breakfast is almost ready.”

Baekhyun secretly smiles behind his back and gives Tao a blisteringly bright 'Everything's okay!' silent announcement. 

“Thanks for cooking,” says Tao as he slips into a chair next to Baekhyun.

“Yeah. And thanks for buying this thing,” Kai says. “And, other stuff.”

“No problem. Any other essential kitchen items you need?” Tao jokes. 

“How about a deep fryer?”

Baekhyun chokes on his coffee. “What do you need a deep fryer for??”

Kai turns around and leans with his back against the counter while the batter cooks. “Didn't you know? In the south for breakfast sometimes you can get waffles and fried chicken!”

Tao makes a face. 

“No way,” Baekhyun cries.

“It's true! Honest! I'll take you sometime.” 

“Mmm, yes please.” Baekhyun makes his eyebrows dance. “But I'm not so sure about the fried chicken thing for breakfast.”

“Okay, how about catfish and grits?” Kai suggests.

“I'm not even going to ask,” says Tao. 

Not even twenty minutes later they have all eaten and the dishes are cleared away. “I can't believe we're all actually awake this early,” Kai complains after Tao goes back into his room to shower. He stands behind Baekhyun's chair with his arms on his boyfriend's shoulders. Baekhyun is still his boyfriend after all that happened; Kai needs to revel in that. He slowly massages a few spots around Baekhyun's neck and shoulder blades. “Explain to me again why you woke us up so early?”

“Because today's a long day and I won't get to see you much before I have to go to the studio - oh hang on, you missed a spot... right there... there - and I wanted someone to cook me breakfast - ahhh that feels so good.”

Kai removes his hands and boxes Baekhyun's ears a couple of times. “I see...”

Baekhyun drains the last of his cold coffee. “I need another one.”

“Whatever happened to Mr. I don't like coffee?” Kai teases. 

“Circumstances, man. It's early, and it's also kind of cold. Come with me to get another one, please?”

Kai has no choice but to follow Baekhyun back out into in the morning chilled air, the two of them bundled up in their fall coats to the convenience store with quite a decent selection of coffee since Baekhyun insists it's better than making it in his machine. Instead of returning to the apartment though, Baekhyun sits on a bench outside the storefront and Kai sits down next to him, a cup of his own now in his hands. 

It's a slightly chillier atmosphere, not that the temperature has much to do with it. Baekhyun is waiting, waiting for the explanation he knows Kai still needs to give, and he is waiting for the right opportunity to issue an ultimatum of his own.

Kai knows it too. ”I talked to my mom yesterday,” he says.

Baekhyun remains silent, but he looks up to give Kai an encouraging nod, urging him to continue.

“I'm going to take that job teaching. Just temporarily.”

Whatever Baekhyun expected, it's not this. He's puzzled, genuinely pleased, but still a little worried about Kai's capabilities no matter how he came to the decision that this is what he wants to do. “So you're going to teach.”

“Not the full evening. Just about half of it. Three classes. Sehun is taking the other half. And it's just for the rest of this semester and spring. That'll give my mom time to... hire another teacher if she needs since we don't know when Mrs. Jung will be back.”

“I'm glad,” Baekhyun says. 

“Glad about what? That I'm going to teach, or try to?”

“That, but mostly that you talked with your mom.”

“Oh.” Kai hangs his head slightly over his lap, coffee resting on his knees. 

Baekhyun nudges him in the side and Kai howls as elbow meets ribs, again. Baekhyun grins and laughs and tries to sneak his arm behind Kai's back, but Kai gets there first and cuts him off. Baekhyun's left with no other option than to lean into Kai, one solid arm holding him close. He breathes in the cool air, content to stay like that for a while.

“I'm proud of you,” Baekhyun says. 

Kai grunts uneasily to show he heard, though he doesn't have the words to say anything more about it.

“And also...” Baekhyun continues, and then stops. 

“Also, what?”

Baekhyun's head rests on Kai's shoulder so he can't see his expression. He's too nervous to look anyways. “I mean what I said... last night.”

By his silence Baekhyun knows Kai heard. He waits with bated breath.

“You said... you loved me,” Kai says softly.

“Present tense, Kai. Present tense,” Baekhyun says to lighten the mood.

“You love me,” Kai amends.

“Yes. But I also meant the other thing I said too.” 

Kai hasn't removed his arm, but it does slide up to cover Baekhyun's shoulder and still they haven't looked at each other. Baekhyun focuses on a storefront on the other side of the street and occasionally the cars that pass by. 

“Something about not going away from you again? Baek, I promise I won't... do that again.”

Kai sits up and sets his coffee cup aside, and then takes Baekhyun's as well and puts it on the ground. His face is taut and serious-minded, and even though Baekhyun knows he's not about to say something upsetting or mean or damning to their relationship, he can't help but feel his heart pound as the gravity of their situation makes itself known. He already told Kai he loved him, and has yet to hear those words back. It shouldn't be stressful with all the little things they've already covered this morning, but it is. It's like Kai asked him to climb a tree and crawl out onto a limb and he did, but Kai didn't go with him, and now all Baekhyun wants is either to be on the ground safe and sound or sitting sturdily on a stronger branch. His face must be an open door to his heart because Kai looks back at him anxiously.

“When you asked me what was wrong earlier, and I said it was nothing,” Kai begins. He holds Baekhyun's shoulders with either hand. “It wasn't nothing. I was just so incredibly shocked that you... that you loved me, that you said that even after the last few days. I didn't think I deserved that.”

Baekhyun stops him with a cheeky smile. “It isn't about deserving it honestly. It just is that way. I am that way. It's why I let you run away, because I knew you would be back.”  Kai stares at him perplexed, and Baekhyun squints one eyebrow. “What?”

“You! That's what.” Kai almost shouts. 

“And what about me?” he taunts.

“I knew you were worth waiting for,” Kai says, and the cheesiness in his tone just rolls off his lips.

“You haven't even slept with me and you say that?” Baekhyun laughs.

Kai gulps and looks around quickly do double-check nobody heard that. Baekhyun meanwhile continues to laugh, and Kai glares back at him, though it's obvious he's having a hard time trying to keep a straight face himself.

“This! This is what I mean,” Kai growls happily, hands flailing between them now as he indicates all of Baekhyun from his head to his toes. “There's only one thing that pisses me off, though.”

“What?”

“That you got to say it first.”

“Say what first?” Baekhyun's confidence is soaring, no longer just fake bravado.

“'I love you.' You got to say it first.”

“Well I am older than you.”

“Yeah but I've loved you longer.”

Baekhyun scoffs. “Not possible. You couldn't have, because you can't love some fully that you've never met.”

“Oh, but I can.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

To make him prove it, Baekhyun leans forward putting his face inches from Kai's and practically dares him with his eyes to check their surroundings now. Kai meets him there and kisses his lips with a ravenous kind of hunger. Arms entwine around Baekhyun and his heart thumps. A woman coughs close by and he just knows people are staring, but both of them refuse to acknowledge the world.

Until Kai shifts in his seat, one knee kicking out to keep his balance and Baekhyun's coffee goes flying down the sidewalk.

Baekhyun pulls back immediately and screeches. “My coffee!”

It rolls several feet away and lands by a trash can, all liquid spilled on the concrete between them and the can. “Kai, you are so getting me another cup of coffee!”

“What? But you've had two already.” Kai cries as he jumps up to fetch the now trashed cup. 

“One and a half, so it doesn't count. I want another one!” he pouts.

“Okay, okay, I'll get you another one,” Kai says. He sits down on the bench and hugs Baekhyun in what should be a comforting posture. It's awkward though and Baekhyun pulls away, fighting the mass of arms as Kai laughs at him. “But only because I love you, alright?”

“Alright. Wait, what?”

Kai grins. “Because, I love you.”

“Wow, my love must be cheap if it only costs you a few bucks,” Baekhyun whines, eyes playfully capturing Kai's glance. 

His boyfriend smirks as he stands up, all ready to reenter the corner store. “If you ever want me to kiss you again, you'll accept my cheap kind of love.”

“Okay, I'll accept the deal,” Baekhyun says quickly.

Kai enters the studio behind Baekhyun later that morning, reluctant to let him out of sight for as long as he can. He's even missing his first class of the day to do this, but Baekhyun doesn't have to know that, he hopes. Some mornings a guy needs to have priorities, and Kai clearly knows where his should be today: making up for lost time, and proving he loves Baekhyun.

That's why he doesn't fight back when Baekhyun introduces Kai to the first person he runs into as, “Hey, this is Kai. He's my slave for the day!”

Now Kai is starting to have doubts about why Baekhyun had him carry his heavy shoe bag all the way down the street and into the building. The girl Baekhyun says hi to isn't one that Kai knows very well, so he grins at her sheepishly and painfully behind Baekhyun's back as they brush past each other in the hallway. Baekhyun chuckles on their way up the stairs, and finally retrieves his bag back from Kai. 

They find the usual crowd of soloists and principles in one of the dance rooms and Kai invites himself inside. He sits down beside a drugged up, sleepy Minseok who has the beginnings of a cold. 

“Better not get too close to him. He might be contagious,” says Suho from his perch on a chair in the corner. He's still on crutches and grumpy about it as ever. Kai had it on good authority from Kyungsoo through Sehun from Yixing, that he and Yixing were not-so-secretly but secretly dating, but it wasn't something he dared to speak of polite company, for fear of being whacked on the head by Suho's wooden crutch. Luhan already got a knot on his head last week from trying to make guesses about their love life, Baekhyun had told him. The other half of this supposedly sunny pair was stretching on the other side of the room, and if Kai wasn't looking for it, he wouldn't have noticed the occasional glances the two shared through the mirror.

“What are you doing here anyways?” Suho asks.

“Yeah, what are you doing here?” Luhan repeats the question. Minseok rolls his eyes at him.

“Just hanging out.”

“And where did you leave Tao?” 

“He was about five minutes behind us,” Baekhyun explains. It was the wrong thing to do apparently.

“Us?” Luhan says, mouth agape unattractively. “You mean you two came together, from your house? After a Monday night?” He whistles and leans back on his palms appearing quite impressed. Minseok tries to distract him but is unable to do so. “Well, at least you guys made up.”

Kai pales uncomfortably, because the subject of his and Baekhyun's 'fight' wasn't something he was particularly keen to have talked about. Baekhyun gives him a reassuring look, however, and pats him on the thigh. It was another wrong move, because Luhan didn't miss that one either. He stares at them with a suspiciously ual glimmer in his eye.

“So what were you guys doing, making up on a Monday night, huh?”

Baekhyun smirks at him. “Nothing you and Minseok wouldn't do on a staircase on a Monday afternoon.”

Minseok turns quite possibly the palest shade of white Kai has ever seen on a human face, and when Luhan catches his boyfriend glaring at him, he shuts up prettily.

“Moving on!” Kai says loudly.

“Yes, moving on!” Luhan repeats. He clears his throat and scoots a few inches farther from Minseok and everybody else and tries to focus. One of their instructors for the day comes in urging the dancers to stretch before warm-ups. Tao sneaks into his spot a few minutes after that, and suddenly Kai has nothing to do. Baekhyun clasps his hand though when warm-ups begin and instead of leaving for the day, Kai kisses him casually goodbye and finds another room he knows to be empty. He uses the same music currently pumping through the thin walls of the other practice room to set his own pace. It's a slower and less demanding work out than the other dancers are getting, but for him it will have to do.

3,175 words

So this is what a 'southern' meal is. L-R we have fresh biscuits, real butter, spiced watermelon, fried chicken, and waffles. Yes that's me in the picture, and no I didn't eat that whole plate by myself. 

Anyways. Success! They're back together and everything's alright! Story's not quite over of course. We still have a few more things to deal with but I can pretty much guarantee you this fic will not go over 40 chapters, and that's including at least one (or two) epilogues that I probably intend to write. I see the end though folks, and the world will be a strange place when I don't have Spotlights to write. Okay I'm making this sound all depressing when I'll probably be writing for at least another couple months lol.

FYI, there may be a storm brewing in the fandom that starts with the letter "L" and I don't know how much of it may or may not be true or what may happen. Just know that if something happens, this Xiuhan shipper is prepared: I'll probably lay low for a while and ignore the world, and then rise again to write another day. (I make it sound like it could take eons. It won't. Most likely.) Everyone take care though. Hopefully we won't need to deal with any of this, but you never know. It is 2014 and the Kpop apocalypse is starting to feel real. We all need to get our zombie survival gear in order. ;)

See you for the next chapter update :)

<3 Rosie