Jonghyun fell down on the couch in Kibum's living room with a yawn. He had just returned from his own house after going there to change into pyjama pants and a t-shirt. They had all decided it would be best if they slept in Kibum's house. Well, Kibum had decided, everyone else had just went along. Jonghyun's parents didn’t mind of course. Their houses were just about ten steps from each other and it wasn't unusual for him and Kibum to have impromptu sleepovers, which meant he didn’t have to come up with any other explanation other than he and Kibum were having one of their very usual movie nights.

He closed his eyes with a small hum, snuggling into the plush cushions, and waited for Kibum, Jinki and Minho to change upstairs and settle their sleeping arrangements. He knew he would sleep with Kibum in his queen-sized bed – like he always did since they never could be bothered to get out of Kibum's room to pull out a mattress, pump air into it and put sheets on whenever they had a sleepover – but Minho was being sceptical of the bed in the guestroom. Apparently it was not what he was used to sleeping on. Jonghyun didn’t know what kind of amazing material Minho's bed usually was made of, but Jinki didn’t have any problem with sleeping on a mattress on the floor, which made Jonghyun think Minho was just being difficult.

The seat cushions of the sofa to his right dipped and he squinted his eyes open to see Jinki settle down beside him, pulling his legs up and crossing them. He watched Jonghyun with a small smile, eyes inquisitive.

“Can I have a word with you?” he said, voice soft, after a moment of observation, which Jonghyun found he hadn't been able to interrupt – mostly because he was busy watching Jinki's eyes glimmer like waves in the sun as they moved over his face. It was quite a fascinating sight.

Jonghyun nodded, pushed himself up a bit higher and turned so they were sitting face to face, tucking his right foot into the crook of his left knee. Jinki looked down at his hands, pressing his fingertips together.

“I want to apologise,” he murmured softly after another moment and threw a quick glance up at Jonghyun through his hair.

Jonghyun blinked.

“For what?”

Jinki looked up at him with a small smile on his lips, only it had turned somewhat forced.

“For frightening you earlier,” he elaborated. “It was not my intention to make you afraid. I lost control for a moment.”

“Oh,” Jonghyun let out in a breath. “Um, it… well, I won’t say I wasn’t scared.”

A small grimace passed Jinki's face.

“But I was kind of worried too.”

He raised his eyebrows at Jonghyun questioningly and Jonghyun blushed.

“I apologise once again,” Jinki mumbled. “I do not want to make you fear for your life. Especially not because of me.”

“Right… my life,” Jonghyun said sheepishly.

To be honest, the thought hadn’t even occurred to him except when Apate had seemed to single him out to attack. Sure, he had been scared of Jinki, but he hadn’t even thought of the possibility of him killing him. He had been more worried about Jinki's feelings once the adrenaline had settled.

“What I meant was that I was– am kind of, slightly, a little worried about– uh… you…” he said, his voice growing quieter at the end of the sentence.

Jinki’s face went blank for a second. Then a giant grin lit it up and Jonghyun wrinkled his nose, embarrassmed, his blush still very much visible on his cheeks.

“About me?” Jinki murmured.

“Uh, yeah…” Jonghyun scratched his neck, looking to the side to avoid Jinki's happily staring eyes . “I mean, you seemed really sad and like you were hurting very much.”

He chanced a glance back at Jinki and saw him still smiling at him widely. He cleared his throat.

“Kibum and Minho seemed worried too, so...”

“I know,” Jinki said, sounding like he couldn’t care less about them or their worries.

Jonghyun nodded and tunred his face away, trying to hide how embarrassed he felt. He wanted to ask why Jinki had become so angry earlier, but decided to leave it for later. He didn’t want to scare or hurt him again when he was now back to his wide smiles and making Jonghyun blush and feel stupid. Not that it was a good thing.

“Jinki!” Kibum called from upstairs. “I fixed your bed, so you can go to sleep now if you want!”

Jinki made a small sound and stood up, looking down at Jonghyun as if he was waiting for him to follow him.

“Would you like to accompany me uppstairs?” he asked when Jonghyun just looked at him dumbly. “You will sleep in Kibum's room, if I understood correctly?”

“Right.”

Jonghyun stood up to follow him but was rooted to his spot when Jinki didn’t start moving towards the stairs. Instead he remained in his place, tilting his head to look Jonghyun's face over with a thoughtful expression. Again.

“What?” Jonghyun managed to ask this time. His throat had suddenly gone dry so his voice came out as a croaked whisper.

Jinki's lips tilted up at the corners, moving into a gentle smile, and he stepped closer. Jonghyun thought he was going to cough up his heart as it shot up his throat. The crazy thought that Jinki would kiss him again flew by in his head, because they were now barely even two centimetres apart, practically breathing the same patch of air. Even crazier was the realisation that he wasn’t even compelled to move away.

Jinki let out a soft, amused snort at Jonghyun's wide-eyed expression before grabbing his hand and pulling him over to the stairs. Jonghyun stared at the back of his head, feeling silly and blushing like crazy. Then he frowned. His hand and arm were growing unnaturally warm again from Jinki's grip. But he didn’t let go. It felt natural to hold his hand, somehow.

“Do gods have a higher temperature or something?” he asked as they started climbing the stairs.

Jinki's steps faltered and he looked back over his shoulder.

“Why do you ask?”

“Well,” Jonghyun shrugged, “it’s just that every time you’ve touched me today it felt strangely warm.”

“Oh,” Jinki said and turned forward again. “I have no knowledge of it.”

Jonghyun narrowed his eyes at his back. He had a very strong feeling Jinki was not telling the whole truth. But before he had the chance to confront him they had arrived at the top of the stairs and stopped outside Kibum's roomm. Jinki turned around to stared him and Jonghyun raised his eyebrows questioningly, waiting for him to say something.

“I wish you a good night,” Jinki finally said. Then he bent forward and pecked Jonghyun's lips so fast Jonghyun didn’t even have the time to blink or react before he was gone, hastily making his way down the hall to the last door and slinking inside.

Jonghyun stood still, staring into empty space for what felt like eternities. There was something stirring inside him that he couldn’t put his finger on. A feeling that escaped him as soon as he tried to focus on it. It wasn’t a bad feeling, just… there. As if it was as common as breathing and shouldn’t be questioned. As if it was… instinct. He really didn’t have a better word for it.

Another thing was how the warmth was not only in his hand and arm anymore, but deep in his chest as well, making his heart beat slow and calm, filling him with peace.

He heaved a heavy sigh and opened the door to Kibum's room.

“Did you and Jinki have enough quality time?” Kibum asked smugly as soon as he closed the door behind him, sitting up from his sprawled out position on the bed.

Jonghyun scowled at him.

“It’s not like that.”

“Sure, if being kissed goodnight by someone means platonic friendship,” Kibum said with a knowing smirk.

The scowl turned into open-mouthed astonishment.

“How did you know?!”

“I wanted to get a glass of water, but you two were kinda blocking the way,” he pouted mockingly. “You didn’t even notice me, going into lala-land or whatever.”

“What? Well– I– you– you should have said something!” Jonghyun spluttered.

“And -block a god? No thanks!” Kibum cackled. “I would not want him to unleash his wrath on me.”

“Kibum, I swear,” Jonghyun began warningly.

“Would you just relax?” he drawled, falling back onto the bed. “You didn’t look like you particularly disliked it.”

“Because he’s sneaky!” Jonghyun argued, ignoring the little voice in the back of his head that agreed with Kibum. “He does it without warning every time so I don’t have the time to react until it’s too late!”

Kibum sat up again so fast Jonghyun thought he would fall off the bed.

“Every time?”

Jonghyun gulped, cursing himself for not thinking before talking.

“Did I say every time?” he tried to back pedal. “I meant–”

“Kim Jonghyun,” Kibum interrupted his try at redeeming his mistake. “How many times is ‘every time’?”

“Uh…” Jonghyun stalled, fiddling with his fingers in discomfort. “Two?”

"Two…” Kibum narrowed his eyes at him. “You already kissed him, without telling me I might add, and then you won’t admit you have a crush when I point it out? What kinda bull is that?”

“Okay, first,” Jonghyun said indignantly, holding up a finger. “I never kissed him! He was the one taking the liberty to assault me. Second, just because he kissed me once does not mean I automatically have a crush on him!”

“Oh, Jonghyun,” Kibum said patronizingly, shaking his head. “You clearly underestimate the power of gods.”

“I think I would know if Jinki influenced me to fall in love with him,” Jonghyun seethed. “It would feel strange and wrong and bad.”

“So you admit kissing him feels good?” Kibum jumped at him immediately. “That you actually are in love?”

“No!” he hissed. “I have known him for less than two days!”

“Tch!” Kibum grumbled to himself. “That doesn’t matter.”

Jonghyun sighed deeply and dragged his hands over his face.

“Can we just not talk about this? I want to sleep.”

Kibum glowered at him, but scooted over to make some room on the bed. Jonghyun gratefully threw himself onto the soft mattress with a quiet groan, curling up on his side. Kibum threw him a disapproving frown, but let it go with a sigh, and pulled the covers over them both, falling onto his back with a small bounce. Then he turned the bedside lamp off, leaving the room to only be illuminated by the moon.

“You know, there’s something going on with Jinki,” Kibum murmured after a few minutes of silence.

Jonghyun, who had started to doze off, jolted and groaned in frustration, opening his eyes to glare at him.

“Kibum, I already told you, nothing–”

“Not that, idiot!” Kibum hissed. “You’re too stubborn and dumb to talk about it anyway!” He turned around to face him. “I meant his bond with you and loss of control earlier.”

Jonghyun stared at him uncomprehendingly.

“Why? He’s a god, shouldn’t he have that much power?”

“Yeah, but he shouldn’t lose control like that,” Kibum whispered. “And he shouldn’t be able to share the bond’s energy with his brother either.”

He grabbed Jonghyun's wrist to look at the mark, tracing it with his finger.

“I looked it up, because I knew I wouldn’t have missed such information. And I was right, nowhere does it say gods can share energy from the same person.” Kibum frowned. “It said it was impossible and should not be attempted.”

Jonghyun frowned too.

“Maybe it’s different since Minho is, you know, ‘king of their kind’?”

Kibum bit his lip.

“Maybe.”

He didn’t sound very convinced, though.

A/N: Not proofread OTL But I hope it makes sense anyway, hahaa...

And Jonghyun's starting to get it bad xD He's gonna break like a small twig, hahahaha!

Anyhoo, hope you liked it!

Love <3

Bye~!