Jonghyun found Minho sitting motionlessly on Kibum's veranda steps the next morning. He had woken up earlier than usual because he needed the bathroom and had seen him through the window in the hallway on his way back. Hesitated for a moment, he decided to join Minho and went downstairs, out the back door. Minho made no move to acknowledge him other than throwing a glance his way as he took a seat beside him. They stared out across the garden in silence, watching the sunray slowly creep over the grass and making the morning dew glitter like crystals, a few birds singing in the background.

“Is something wrong?” Jonghyun asked when he couldn't keep quiet any longer.

“I am simply thinking of my brother,” Minho answered softly.

“Okay…” he glanced at him. “Well, I think he’s fine now. At least last night he seemed better.”

Minho gave him a weird look.

“I was speaking of Hades.”

“Oh.” Jonghyun blushed, feeling unnecessarily dumb. Well, Minho should have said which brother he was talking about to begin with! Would have saved him a lot of trouble.

“Jonghyun,” Minho suddenly sounded very serious, interrupting his thoughts. “Do you know of a thing called soulmate?”

Jonghyun blinked and turned to him.

“Yeah, why?”

“What does the word mean to you?”

“Um…" Jonghyun tilted his head and looked out over the grass again. "Well, a soulmate is someone you trust a lot and can be completely yourself with, someone who loves you unconditionally and whom you love equally as much. You’re always on the same wavelength and you can almost feel what your soulmate is feeling.”

Minho watched him quietly as he held his little speech, grave lines on his otherwise unreadable face.

“Do you remember your soulmate?”

“My soulmate?” Jonghyun asked, confused. “I haven’t met her yet.”

Minho hummed.

“Humans certainly know how to seem smarter than they are.”

“What?”

“A true soulmate is something very rare, almost non-existent, and also highly dangerous,” Minho explained. “It is an exceptionally complex co-existence of two souls, and while humans have found a sort of replacement for it, they never truly meet a soulmate, as it is near impossible. It is beyond the control of even us gods. In my entire existence I have only witnessed three cases with true soulmates, one of which is my own brother.”

“Hades?” Jonghyun asked.

“Poseidon,” Minho corrected.

“Jinki?!”

He nodded.

“My brother found his soulmate a long time ago and has suffered greatly for it," he said. "If true soulmates are united they become dependent on each other in more ways than countable. When they meet they come to a point of no return, where one cannot live without the other, as they become each other’s essence of life and source of energy. It cannot even be categorised as love, which you humans treasure so much, as it is more a means to survive than anything else. However, because my brother is a god, he has managed to survive better than soulmates initially do when they lose their counter part, seeing as they are then doomed to forever roam the border of living and dead.”

“Jinki lost his soulmate?” Jonghyun choked out and a small ball of thorny vines took root in his chest.

“Several times.”

“Several times?”

“Yes. You see, his soulmate has a very strong and pure soul which can reincarnate if it dies before its time. That was, until it almost completely shattered from the many deaths it had endured and could hardly live on, only able to reincarnate one last time.” Minho suddenly looked very sad.

“What happened to his soulmate?” Jonghyun whispered, eyes wide and breath shallow.

This information pierced through his heart like a knife for some reason, causing a prickling in his chest and making him nauseous. As if he were the one who had lost someone, a soulmate, and not Jinki.

Minho looked up into his eyes; an expression Jonghyun couldn’t quite place passing his features.

“That is for my brother to tell of his own accord. However, I can tell you this; a strong and pure soul is sought after by lower celestial creatures. It can help them gain power and if used correctly it may even overpower me or my brothers, and we are the three most powerful celestials.”

“How do these souls survive, then? If every mythical creature is after them?”

“The humans in their surroundings, such as friends and family, are given protective auras, helping such souls hide their qualities,” Minho explained and added, more to himself: “It does not help that my brother is a fool, however.”

Kibum appeared in the doorway, Jinki right behind him, and interrupted Jonghyun’s question of which brother Minho was talking about this time. Jonghyun jumped and turned around to look at them while Minho simply sighed.

“Aw, aren’t you sweet,” Kibum cooed, grinning brightly. “Bonding in front of the sunrise.”

Both Jonghyun and Minho scowled at him when he snickered. He ignored them and snorted out that he was going to prepare breakfast. Jinki looked amused as well, but gave Minho a suspicious look, as if he knew what they had been talking about. It didn’t really help that Jonghyun couldn’t meet his eyes properly when he looked at him either out of guilty as well as pain of what he had just learned.

“I hope my brother has not bored you with his endless musings,” Jinki said good-naturedly.

Minho gave an indignant huff and Jonghyun looked up at him, hesitant.

“N-no,” he stammered, blushing. “We had a… really interesting conversation.”

Jinki quirked an eyebrow sceptically and narrowed his eyes at Minho. Jonghyun felt it best to get up and leave as fast as he could. He didn't want to get caught in the middle of whatever was obviously going on or an oncoming argument. Minho beat him to it, though, and he was inside the kitchen in the blink of an eye, leaving Jonghyun and Jinki to blink at each other in surprise.

“Uh,” Jonghyun let out in lack of anything better to say, fiddling with the hem of his shirt.

An annoyed frown appeared on Jinki's forehead and he looked over his shoulder at his brother before sighing.

“He told you something unnecessary, I am sure.”

It wasn’t unnecessary! Jonghyun had the urge to shout, but managed to contain himself. Instead he pressed his lips together, his jaw clenching in anger. How could Jinki think his pain was irrelevant? Couldn't he see how important it was that he was happy? It was the only thing that mattered!

Jonghyun's thoughts screeched to a halt and he binked. Where had that come from? He cleared his throat and was about to suggest they joined Kibum and Minho in the kitchen, but the words died in his throat as he properly looked at Jinki, suddenly seeing him in a new light.

He felt a little bad letting what Minho had told him influence the way he saw Jinki, but he couldn’t help it. To him, Jinki now looked way older than his appearance of twenty something, smiles and mischievousness let on. There was a certain hard and weathered edge to the glint in his eyes, which Jonghyun had previously only thought of as warm. He seemed thoughtful of his every move where he stood, fidgeting a little as he waited for Jonghyun to say something, as if he was weighing the pros and cons of certain actions and how they would affect his surroundings, as if one wrong move could send everything around him flying or make him shatter to pieces.

But most of all, he looked incomplete.

Jonghyun had no idea how someone who certainly had all body parts and more could look incomplete, but something about Jinki glowed with the need of a last puzzle piece to be put in place, to glue him together. Jonghyun had the crazy notion that if he were to look under Jinki’s shirt, he’d see the hole where his heart – the last puzzle piece – was supposed to be. Which was the stupidest thing ever, since he had already seen Jinki . Twice.

Cue the blushing.

“Uh, I-I,” Jonghyun squeaked, suddenly really embarrassed. “Think I sh-should help K-Kibum in the k-kitchen.”

He stumbled to his feet, but didn’t get any farther since Jinki was blocking the entrance. Jinki didn’t seem to realise and he simply stayed where he was, staring down at Jonghyun with thoughtful eyes.

Jonghyun bit his lip, rolling on the soles of his feet.

“You’re standing in the way,” he mumbled.

Jinki seemed to wake up at this. Then he glanced over his shoulder again before stepping out and closing the veranda door behind him softly. Once again, Jonghyun found himself barely even two centimetres away fromhim, his eyes caught by brown, turbulent seas. He distantly wondered how it would look to his parents if they happened to step out on their own veranda at this very moment and look their way. Would they scream at him, be confused or simply laugh? Those thoughts were very fleeting however as Jinki invaded his space further, making his brain draw a blank. He found that he didn’t mind it that much.

What he did mind, though, was how hurt Jinki looked.

“Jinki,” Jonghyun murmured and he leaned in even closer, glancing down at his lips, which in turn made Jonghyun blush again. “What are you doing?”

“I…” he whispered, his eyes returning to Jonghyun’s and he smiled faintly. It looked so bittersweet it made Jonghyun's chest ache again, especially since he now knew what Jinki had been through.

So, instead of waiting for the answer or for him to move, Jonghyun did something really stupid. He put his arms around Jinki's shoulders and hugged him tightly, like he usually did with his sister or Kibum when they were sad. Jinki stilled, his breath coming out in a surprised puff of air against his ear. Then he let out an incredulous chuckle and put his arms around Jonghyun as well. The unnatural but comfortable warmth returned.

“I should be the one questioning your actions, should I not?”Jinki murmured, but tightened his arms around him all the same, keeping him impossibly close.

“Are you okay?” Jonghyun asked almost inaudibly, his face pressed into Jinki's shoulder. His blush had spread all over his face and ears by now.

He had no idea how it could be that he cared about Jinki this much. Logiccally, he shouldn't since he hadn't known him for very long. But something had changed. Maybe it was when Jinki had lost control, maybe it was even before that, but Jonghyun couldn’t very well ignore it at this point, not when he ached at just the thought of leaving Jinki alone. The only thing he knew was that he wanted to make him feel better, just like he always wanted to make Eunmi or Kibum happier when they were down.

“I am perfectly content at the moment,” Jinki answered, voice amused. “However, I suspect your question is of something my brother told you.”

Jonghyun nodded, still hiding his face in Jinki's shoulder.

“Then I shall repeat myself,” Jinki pulled back and gently raised Jonghyun's face with a finger under his chin.

A warning bell chimed somewhere in the back of Jonghyun's head, but it was quiet enough to be overrun by the blood rushing in his ears and his loudening heartbeat. It struck him again how natural, instinctive this seemed, the situation he found himself in. He was starting to suspect it had something to do with the mark on his wrist… and maybe also because Jinki actually was a little charming as well. But he was certain something weird was going on.

Jinki waited until Jonghyun raised his gaze to his eyes before smiling warmly.

“I am perfectly content at the moment,” he murmured then and leaned in, softly pressing his lips to Jonghyun's.

Jonghyun's brain didn’t even bother with the futile attempt of telling him he was not gay, that he hadn’t known Jinki for very long or whatever excuses he had tried telling Kibum. What did that even matter in any case?

Nothing, he thought as he closed his eyes and hesitantly pressed back. If this made Jinki even the tiniest bit more complete, then it was okay, he reasoned.

“You must stop gazing at me so intently,” Jinki chuckled breathily when he pulled back. “It is quite inviting.”

Jonghyun blinked his eyes open in confusion, but his stuttered response was interrupted by the sound of a pan falling to the floor, followed by Kibum's laughter and Minho's muttering. He quickly slipped out of Jinki's arms, suddenly very embarrassed of his actions, and made for the door.

Jinki caught his wrist just as he put his hand on the handle, making him jump and look at him in alarm.

Jinki smiled at him solemnly.

“Thank you,” he said quietly and let go of his arm.

Not able to find his voice, Jonghyun nodded once, though he was not entirely sure why he was being thanked, and opened the door. He stepped inside to the sight of Kibum teaching Minho how to fry eggs. They looked up at him as he entered, a smirk spreading on Kibum's lips while Minho looked past Jonghyun, most likely at Jinki, with a worried frown forming on his forehead.

“What are you doing?” Jinki asked from behind Jonghyun.

“Eggs,” Minho answered slowly, still staring at him.

“The king of our kind cooking human food?” Jinki teased light-heartedly.

Kibum snickered quietly and Jonghyun smiled.

“Yes. We need to have our meal and leave for the girl’s house as soon as possible,” Minho ignored the jab. “She might have information regarding our brother.”

Jinki made an agreeing sound and put a hand on Jonghyun's back to push him forward, making warmth spread across his lower back. He blushed again, but Jinki didn’t let his touch linger. Instead he moved over to stove to help with breakfast. Minho narrowed his eyes at him and glanced back at Jonghyun quickly before apparently deciding he would argue with Jinki later. Jonghyun wasn’t sure he wanted to now what that argument would be about and something told him things were about to get a lot more complicated than he had ever thought.

A/N: I don't even know what's going on @_@ I hope it makes sense and if not, you're very welcome to tell me >_<

So... Jinki's just kinda using his bond with Jonghyun, haha xD But I don't think he really minds, though...

I hope you liked this!

Love to everyone<3

Bye~!