“Lee Taemin. You will leave your bedroom right now and come and get some dinner. It’s already set out on the table for you.”

“No.”

Kim Kibum sighed in irritation. Taemin had been a complete brat all day. Taemin was usually a brat, of course, but he was usually a brat in a funny way, a way to make his hyungs smile and get them to do whatever he wanted, the way the evil maknae usually did… but today, he was just being a pain.

Now, Jinki, Jonghyun and Minho had gone out to a restaurant for dinner. They were all meant to go…but Taemin was refusing to go out due to the fact it was raining outside and the forecast said to expect thunder and lightning storms later in the night. Taemin had complained that his hair would get wet, and due to it being dyed back to black recently, the dye would run and stain his clothes… so Jinki, Jonghyn and Minho had left to go eat and Kibum was stuck looking after the brat they called their maknae.

He was annoyed, feeling more diva-ish than normal, having been looking forward to spending a night unwinding after a nice meal, instead, he’d been forced to cook while three of his best friends went out and had a meal without him.

“I swear, Lee Taemin, you better open this door. You’ve been an utter brat all day. Jongin told me you’ve been ignoring his texts. He was worried about you.”

“That’s a shame.” Taemin replied from behind the closed door, no remorse in his tone.

“You’ve done nothing but snap at us all day. You’re acting like a moody child, Lee Taemin. I know you’re the maknae but you’re 20 years old, you should be acting better than this. You’re almost an adult. I don’t know wha-”

But Key’s tyrant was cut off by a loud clap of thunder that vibrated through the entire dorm, the windows feeling like they were shaking from the force… and a loud, terrified whimper from Taemin’s room.

“…Taemin?” Key hesitated, leaning against the bedroom door. “Are you okay?”

“G-go away, hyung!”  Taemin hiccupped, his voice trembling. “I don’t want you here, go away!”

“You didn’t answer my question, Taeminnie…”

“I-I’m fine! Please go away!”

“I’m coming in.”

“Kibum no!”

But Kim Kibum decided to ignore Taemin’s wishes, pushing the door open and walking in to the badly lit room. Waiting a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the change of light, Key slowly surveyed the room… focusing on a mound of blankets in the middle of Taemin’s bed that seemed to quake slightly.

“Taeminnie..?” Key kept his voice low and gentle, the previous malice and annoyance destroyed at the sound of his best friend scared. Getting only a weak whimper in response, Kibum let himself cross the room to the mound, sitting beside it.

“So…you’re scared of the storm?”

“G-go away, Kibum..! I told you to..!”

“I know you did, but I don’t take orders from you. What’s wrong? Why is it scaring you?”

“I’m not scared! Go away!”

Kibum sighed, rubbing his forehead to try and remove the threatening headache. Taemin was just so… difficult at times. But Key refused to move. Slowly, his hand settled on the mound, finding Taemin’s back and beginning to gently rub circles into the tense flesh, wincing every time Taemin flinched and whimpered at every crash of thunder, every lightning flash… his heart broke for the maknae, what could have made him so scared?

“Kibum-hyung… w-when I was small, there was a big storm… I was only 5 years old, maybe 6… but my best friend thought it was so cool, he loved the flashes of lightning, the loud thunder… it made him happy to feel the rain on his face…” Key could almost hear the smile on Taemin’s face though his words. “But like I said…there was a huge storm, Eomma and Appa didn’t want me to go, but Dae-won-hyung was adamant that it was really fun…so I went, I trusted him with my life… we had a river we used to play at, it was the place we’d met, so we went there in the rain, in the middle of a storm… it was raining so heavily that the river was really deep, it was overflowing the banks, but we didn’t care. We ran around, dancing, screaming with happiness in the thunder, getting soaked to the bone by the rain… Dae-won slipped, the bank was soaking wet and muddy.” Taemin’s voice began to break. “He fell into the river. I laughed to begin with, I thought it was a joke…but he didn’t come back up. I’d began to panic, all I could hear was the rain, the loud thunder. I was screaming for him. I was screaming for Dae-won to come up and to stop playing around, that it wasn’t funny anymore… it turns out that when he fell, he’d hit his head on a rock and had been swept away by the current…” Kibum could only sit and stare at the quivering mound, tears beginning to prick his eyes at Taemin’s story. “I just remember… that heavy rain and the thunder… it killed him. It killed Dae-won and I hate it. I hate it!”

“T-Taemin, calm down, it’s okay.” Key reached over, pulling the blankets away from Taemin, heart breaking even more at the sight. Taemin was curled up in a ball, his makeup from the previous schedules that day having run down his face from tears, grubby streaks of black from his eyeliner staining his cheeks, eyes clenched tight while his hands were fists by his chest, struggling to keep the sobs at bay. “It’s okay, Taebaby, it’s okay. That…that was an accident, and I’m so sorry you had to go through that but…but it’s okay now, the storm can’t hurt you.”

“It can’t hurt me f I’m inside…but…but Jinki, Minho and Jonghyun hyungs are outside…” He quickly sat up, the side of his hair wild from the friction from the bed he was lying on. “O-oh no, they’re outside! Key, they’re going to get hurt!” Taemin panicked, hurrying to stand while Kibum reached over and pulled him back down onto the bed.

“Taemin, Lee Taemin you calm down right now. They’re fine, I promise.” Taemin just hiccupped and sobbed in response, curling into Key’s side and hiding his grubby face in Key’s lap. Using one hand to the younger’s hair, Key pulled out his mobile and quickly text Jinki.

From: Kibum
To: Jinki
Taemin’s terrified of the storm, he’s scared you guys will get hurt. Please hurry back, I don’t know what to do.

It wasn’t even two minutes later that Key’s phone began ringing, Jinki’s name on the caller ID.

“Yeobosayo?” Key sighed into the phone.

“Put Taemin on.” Jinki ordered hurriedly. Jinki had instantly gone into leader mode it seemed.

“Aye aye captain.” Key grinned, before handing Taemin the phone. “Taeminnie, it’s Jinki, see? He’s fine. Do you want to talk to him?”

Taemin stared up at him for a second before nodding, taking the phone with a trembling hand and putting it to his ear. “Hyung?” He asked, voice weak and broken from his sobs.

“It’s me, Taeminnie.”

Taemin relaxed a little, focusing on Jinki’s voice as he talked, soothing the maknae. He could hear Jonghyun and Minho in the background, asking Jinki what was going on and if everything was okay, but Jinki ignored them, focusing only on soothing Taemin.

Key pulled Taemin towards him, his hands running up and down his back gently as he felt Taemin’s trembles began to lessen, as he unfocused, listening to Jinki’s voice only for comfort.

Peering down at the maknae, Kibum noticed his eyes beginning to slide closed, his body exhausted from the crying he had done. Sighing lightly, Key held the younger to his chest, beginning to rock gently, humming a gentle tune.

The phone soon fell from Taemin’s grasp, Key waiting a few moments to make sure the youngest was fully asleep before picking the phone up, about to talk to Jinki to thank him for calling to calm Taemin, when he heard the dorm door open and Jinki run through to the bedroom, looking pale and worried… but he visibly relaxed when he saw Taemin fast asleep in Key’s arms.

----

Hello again! Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! This was inspired by the song the chapter is named after, Lullabye for a Stormy Night by Vienna Teng, I love that song and it brought back so many memories.
Well... I had to have an angsty chapter after having two funny ones, didn't I!

Originally this was going to be OnTae, but I don't want this entire oneshot collection to be OnTae, no matter how much I love that pairing right now...

Anyway, Thank you for reading! Let me know if you have any requests!