Jongwoon and Kyuhyun were making dinner: Seaweed soup with a few kimbap and kimchi on the side. It was Kyuhyun's favorite, and possibly the only reason he had consented to manual labor. It was two weeks before Kyuhyun's 26th birthday, which meant it was two weeks until the one year anniversary of their…well, whatever it was.

Kyuhyun's 25th birthday party had been the event of the year, and naturally Kim Heechul had seen to it that he, and everyone that he knew, crashed the party; if only to drink up all Kyuhyun's ridiculously expensive French champagne, of course. At least a dozen glasses later on both their parts had turned Jongwoon and Kyuhyun into drunken lightweight fools. That is to say, handsome, wealthy, famous, , gay drunken fools with extremely good taste. And that good taste had led them to each other.

The next morning, when both men woke up together in bed and with blinding headaches, they quickly found a way to ease their pain. They had very little in common, except for the enjoyment of consistent occurrences of mind-blowing with each other, but that seemed to be enough. They weren't committed. They never decided to be exclusive, though if there were others, neither Jongwoon nor Kyuhyun were aware. They weren't in a relationship, they were just….something. Something other than what they had been before. And so it began.

The duo had caused a large stir the first time they had stepped out in public together, but then, that was always the case with the clumsy and socially awkward turtle freak and the pompous brat. They had caused an even larger stir with their first public fight, which if Kyuhyun remembered correctly had been about him wanting to keep a drawer at Jongwoon's place, and the latter refusing to understand why he should give up one square inch of closet space. It hadn't been their biggest fight, and it certainly hadn't been their last.

At the moment though, they were enjoying each other's company and Kyuhyun, at least, was enjoying the fuss made over the two of them whenever they stepped out together. Jongwoon felt more comfortable back at his small flat, where they were now, as opposed to the sometimes ostentatious Cho Mansion.

"Kyuhyun?"Jongwoon tried again. His first attempt at catching Kyuhyun's attention had been brushed off in favor of adjusting the temperature of the stove so that the soup might simmer a bit more.

"Yes?"Kyuhyun finally answered, slicing a roll of kimbap.

"Could we sit down a minute? I need to talk to you about something. It's…important."

Kyuhyun stopped what he was doing and turned away from the oven to face his lover. Jongwoon couldn't read his expression. "Oh, Jongwoonie."

Kyuhyun's eyes looked a bit funny, and he came over and wrapped his arms around Jongwoon. The raven froze, not sure what was going on. This wasn't the way things were supposed to happen. And besides, Kyuhyun didn't do reassuring hugs.

"Um, Kyu?"

"It's alright, Jongwoon, it's alright. I know you really wanted that teaching position, and I'm sorry those idiots at the university are too dumb to see how perfect you are for the job."

Realization dawned.

"Oh! No! Kyu, I got the job, that wasn't what I wanted to-"

"You did! Woonie, that's wonderful! We have to celebrate. Where's the wine?"

And Kyuhyun was off again before Jongwoon could utter another word. "But I-"

Kyuhyun rushed back in from the pantry, carrying a large bottle of red wine and grinning like a fool.

"Here we are. Now where is that ing…"Kyuhyun trailed off, searching for the bottle opener.

Jongwoon floundered for a moment, thrown off by the way the conversation had headed, but he knew that if he didn't say it now, he never would.

"Kyuhyun, I can't see you anymore,"Jongwoon exhaled quickly, the words coming out in a rush.

The brunette once again stopped what he was doing and turned to face Jongwoon. "What?"

"I can't see you…romantically…ually…anymore."Jongwoon blushed horribly, feeling miserable, but then met Kyuhyun's eyes as they looked at him in shock.

"What?"

He couldn't. "Please don't make me say it again."

"You're leaving me? Now?"

"I didn't mean to do it now,"Jongwoon tried to explain helplessly. "I mean with your birthday and our-"Jongwooncut himself off. "Ok, let me try this again…You and I are like…oil and water. And we've been trying to come together-"

"I don't know, Woonie, I'd say we come together quite often,"Kyuhyun smirked briefly.

"Kyu! I'm trying to talk to you about something serious."

"No, you're trying to break up with me and act like it isn't your fault,"Kyuhyun pointed out, his previous playful tone gone. "You're trying to act like you're the one hurt, even when you're the one leaving me for no reason."

Jongwoon sighed, trying to find the words to say.

"We've been trying to make this work, and it just isn't. We,"Jongwoon gestured between himself and Kyuhyun, "aren't working. I've been lying to myself, lying to you. We've been lying to each other; this can't possibly work! I know we - wanted it to, but Kyu, we're not exactly what anyone would call compatible, so let's just call this what it is-"

"And what is this, exactly?"Kyuhyun asked, angry suddenly. "What am I to you? Some guy you just wanted to ? And now that you're tired of me you're just going to get rid of me like all your other before?"

A loud crash punctuated his last words. Jongwoon distantly registered that the celebratory wine bottle was now a heap of broken glass and fizzy alcohol on his kitchen floor.

Oh, , Jongwoon thought. Kyuhyun was hurt. And when a Cho Kyuhyun was hurt, he got revenge. Jongwoon had been dancing on a volcano, and that volcano was getting ready to erupt.

"How long has this been going on?"

Jongwoon was startled by the calmness of the question. After that violent display, he was sure Kyuhyun was going to go into one of his rages. Usually Jongwoon didn't mind, because in the past it had inevitably ended up with them having really rough, hot against the kitchen counter or some other undiscovered location. But he knew that wouldn't be the result of this fight.

"What?"

"This can't have been just a whim," Kyuhyun insisted. "You must have thought about this before. You didn't just suddenly decide that tonight, two weeks before our anni- our whatever - that you didn't want to be with me anymore!"

"But I'm not with you!"Jongwoon shouted. "We never said we were a couple. We never talked about it. We just ed. We would , and have some small talk, and have dinner, and then some more! This isn't a relationship, Kyuhyun! This is being friends with benefits! In fact, we're too different to be friends, to ever make this be more than what it is."

"And what is this exactly? I need some clarification here, because all you've said is that this isn't what you want. So what is this?"

"It's nothing!"Jongwoon burst out.

Kyuhyun stared at him, not saying a word. A few moments of awkward silence passed before Jongwoon felt he could speak again.

"This is nothing, Kyuhyun. We don't mean anything to each other. And it's not enough. I want more than nothing. I want to be with someone I care about, and who cares about me."

"You don't care about me," Kyuhyun said flatly. "And you don't think that I care about you."

"Well, it's the truth isn't it?"Jongwoon asked, needing to know that he was making the right decision. He was just striking first; protecting himself, that was all. He knew Kyuhyun didn't care about him, because if Kyuhyun did, then he would have expressed some desire for something more.

But all Kyuhyun ever wanted to do was . And go out to ridiculously expensive restaurants and parade Jongwoon around his gaming friends and coworkers, but that was beside the point. That wasn't real, that was Kyuhyun lording over everyone else that he was 'dating' the ELUSIVE Kim Jongwoon. Jongwoon didn't feel like Kyuhyun cared about him, since he never let Jongwoon know otherwise; in fact, while Jongwoon had been expecting an adverse reaction, he hadn't thought that Kyuhyun would have gotten this upset over their…well, break up was the only term he could think of. But they weren't in a relationship, they never talked about anything really important, and Jongwoon was tired of feeling unconnected to the one person who had gotten closer to him than anyone else, and he just couldn't do it anymore.

Jongwoon stopped his rationalizing and snapped back into the conversation in time to hear Kyuhyun's response.

"I thought this was a relationship, hyung," the brunette was saying quietly.

Jongwoon winced at the honorifics. "We never said it was offi-"

"I thought,"Kyuhyun said loudly over Jongwoon's voice, "that when you told me you loved me -but oh, wait! You never did say it, did you? That's right. Nearly a year of our lives wasted. In fact, I don't think you've ever even said that you liked me. Since you don't even like me, this past year doesn't count, right? Guess you're off the hook then, huh?"

"Kyuhyun, stop overreacting. You're acting like a child,"Jongwoon said angrily.

Kyuhyun stared at him for a moment, and Jongwoon took a moment in the middle of his anger to curse his thoughtless mouth.

"Don't you dare try and pin this one on me, Kim Jongwoon."

Jongwoon had never heard a voice sound so cold.

"Don't you dare try to make this my fault. And don't you dare try and tell me that I'm overreacting; that I have no right to be upset when the person I've been seeing for nearly a year says that this has meant nothing to him, and that I'm just someone he likes to ."

Jongwoon wondered how things had gotten so misconstrued. "No! That isn't what I was trying to say, you're twisting my words. I just meant-"

"No, you didn't just mean something else. That was exactly what you meant. And you know what, I don't want to listen to this ing bull any longer."

"Well, you have to Kyuhyun because you've never listened before!"

"When?"Kyuhyun demanded immediately. "When have I not listened before? Exact time and place, too, if you please, so I don't twist your words and make it sound like something else."

Jongwoon floundered. "I can't-Kyu, I can't think while you're glaring at me like that. God! I'm trying to tell you that I've been dying here and I feel like this thing is just blackening my soul while on the outside I'm still trying to smile. I can't stand it and now you want me to list a time and a place-"

"Get. Out."Kyuhyun interrupted him. No, Jongwoon had been wrong before. Now he knew what true coldness was. "Go back to the dorms, to Siwon, to some at the local pub. To bloody women! See if I care. I've had enough. You wanted out of this relationship? You got it. You're out! So get out of my sight before I remember all the martial arts Sungmin hyung taught me!"Kyuhyun yelled, two bright spots of rouge coloring his angry face.

"Kyuhyun?"

"WHAT?!"

"This is my flat."

Kyuhyun glared a look of death in Jongwoon's general vicinity, since he was currently refusing to look at the raven, no doubt restraining himself from doing unspeakable things to his idiot of a boy- ex-boyfriend. Jongwoon shuddered, nevertheless. Without another word, Kyuhyun grabbed his coat and stormed out ofJongwoon's flat.

Jongwoon slumped down into the chair behind him and leaned over onto the table. , he was suddenly exhausted. He'd never had an experience like that before. With Kibum, he'd just accepted their break up. He'd taken it as an act of sacrifice. Which it was really, though if Jongwoon was completely honest with himself, which he rarely was, he would see that it was more than the stress of having a long distance relationship that had spurred his decision.

He'd gotten what he'd wanted. He wasn't in a relationship with Cho Kyuhyun anymore. He wasn't in a relationship that made him feel like he was in quicksand, struggling to float on the surface but doomed to drown, sinking into the depths below. He was trapped with someone whom he was sure would never be able to reciprocate the feelings that had begun to grow in the pit of his stomach. He'd gotten exactly what he asked for.

But as Jongwoon looked around his messy and very empty kitchen, the dinner they had so painstakingly been preparing only twenty minutes ago completely ruined, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong, and that he might have just possibly done something very, very stupid. Jongwoon stared down at the broken glass on the floor, and wondered why he suddenly felt a little bit colder than before.

Kyuhyun glared at his lemonade. He liked to take a glass with one buttered toast every morning at 10 o'clock, three hours after breakfast and two hours before lunch. It was some sort of a tradition to help settle the anxiety of dealing with imbeciles at the Cho Corporation. It was comforting and calming, and now it wasn't working. He had gotten so used to a messy haired weirdo sitting across from him, dropping crumbs all over his expensive table cloth, sipping on his repulsive, bitter drink that now when he was suddenly facing nothing at all but a too large dining table with that goddamn extra plate of toasts and a cup of steaming black coffee. He was tempted to fire the idiot of a kitchen help who dared mock him of his current situation. And this of course had nothing to do with the fact that today was his 26th birthday and he was forced to go to his own party without an because his boy--lover, had chickened out two weeks before the day.

The speech that had come from Jongwoon's mouth was quite possibly the biggest piece of bull that Kyuhyun had ever heard. It was completely unreasonable, had no logical coherence, and only a mentally challenged -clown would even suggest those things to Cho Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun refused to pander down to Jongwoon's expectations of him. Jongwoon had essentially spelled out what he thought of Kyuhyun's character, what he really thought of him as a person, and apparently, Jongwoon didn't think too highly of him. Either that, or Jongwoon didn't really know him at all. And if Jongwoon didn't know him, then he obviously wasn't the right person to be with Kyuhyun. So really, Kyuhyun reasoned, he was winning here, by getting rid of someone who would have eventually dragged him down. Yes. Everything would now be for the better.

But then why did he hurt so much?

Kyuhyun's musings were interrupted by a knock on the door, revealing one of their security personnel carrying a big box poorly wrapped in a red and blue wrapper. He motioned for the guard to place it on the table and lazily found his way to the ridiculously wrapped present. Thinking of it as a present from his parents abroad, he tore the wrapping in one fluid motion but his jaw literally dropped when he saw what's inside.

Inside was the latest game console he had been eyeing for months. It was a limited edition and only five sets were released. It's not that he doesn't have the money to buy one but when he had heard of the news of its release, which was two weeks late due to hectic schedules and planning for his birthday, all sets were already sold out. And the manufacturer wasn't planning on having another batch released soon. He gingerly touched the console as if it was the best thing in the world when he heard another knock on the door.

Annoyed, the brunette looked up as a second guard walked into the room, arms full of a huge flower bouquet in all sorts of colors. Kyuhyun detached the note included, his fingers trembling a bit as he looked at the familiar handwriting.

Kyuhyun,

Happy birthday. I commissioned this for you weeks ago. I guess it isn't really appropriate now, but that doesn't matter. It's not like I could give it to anyone else. It's yours.

For what it's worth, I'm sorry. About everything. But I really think it was for the best. We can be happy now. That's what I want for you, to be happy, and I don't think I was doing that…I hope you find someone that makes you content in all the ways I couldn't.

Have a great birthday,

Kin Jongwoon

Kyuhyun stared at the page a good full minute. That idiot!

He swiftly got up from the table and headed towards his bedroom. It was where he usually did his thinking and planning, and right now, Kyuhyun needed to think of his most brilliant plan yet. He was going to get that stupid hyung to admit his feelings or his name wasn't Cho ing Kyuhyun.

Kyuhyun smiled brightly at the entire room as he made the rounds among his guests. He stole a glance at the large grandfather clock to the right of him near the foyer as he chatted amiably with Henry Lau and some of the other boys from his band on college.

Just ten more minutes. Ten more minutes before I bear my soul, he told himself nervously, laughing a little too loudly at whatever comment Henry had made. Once Sungmin joined their conversation, Kyuhyun excused himself politely and then moved on to some of the other guests, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries as quickly as he could without seeming rude. Though leaving his own birthday party early was a gesture of good will (and a slight tool of manipulation) for Jongwoon, it didn't mean that Kyuhyun had to drop all of his decorum and class.

Kyuhyun double checked that all of his guests were happy, drunk and distracted enough to not miss his presence for a quick twenty minutes or so, and then slowly made his way to the garage, intending to drive directly to Jongwoon's flat. If he knew Jongwoon, Kyuhyun was certain that the raven hadn't yet changed the passcode that allowed Kyuhyun easy access to the flat. He was five steps away from his goal when a walking annoyance barged into his way.

"Cho Kyuhyun" Ryewook said, tilting his head slightly as he looked at him.

"Kim...Ryeowook," he nodded back, hiding his impatience with a slight smile. "I trust you're enjoying the party?"

"Of course," he said, taking a sip from hiswine glass. "The best food, the best music, the best service, and all of the most influential people in Seoul as your honored guests. Well, all but one, I suppose. What more could a young man want for his birthday party?"

Kyuhyun stiffened slightly, though his smile remained in place. "I assure you, Kim, there is nothing which I desire that I could not have."

"Is that so? Would that include a certain y raven who is missing tonight?"

"I notice you're not letting his absence ruin your spirits,"Kyuhyun replied.

"He said that he would prefer us have our fun and let him be for the evening."

"I see…and how is our famous actor these days?"Kyuhyun made a show of peering around Ryeowookto catch a glimpse of Lee Donghae, who was currently turning pale as his bestfriend, Lee Hyukjae pushed him toward a guest of Kyuhyun's who looked a little too much like that girl from a famous girl group that Donghae has been flirting with.

"You didn't answer my question, Cho."

Damn it. Nothing ever gets past Ryeowook, Kyuhyun cursed.

"I would never presume to claim to possess something that did not wish to belong to me…however, sometimes what a person wants and what he thinks he wants are two completely different things. Tonight I intend to rectify my earlier mistakes and reclaim what is rightfully mine."

Ryeowook scowled. "Jongwoon hyung isn't something you can own, Kyuhyun, like another addition to your games collection or some piece of property."

"Of course not, whoever said he was?"Kyuhyun replied, slightly amused. "While we're on the subject of my Yesungie, though, am I to understand he's sitting alone at home right now?"

"I can't really say," he replied, clearly miffed by his earlier remarks.

"Well, I'll soon be finding out. If you'll excuse me, Wookie-ssi. I have a lover to win back,"Kyuhyun said as he swiftly sidestepped the man and entered his car.

He was just about to leave when Ryeowook stopped him once again.

"But how can you be sure this is what he wants?" he blurted out.

Kyuhyun grinned at him. "Whoever said this was about what he wants?"

Oh no, Kyuhyun thought as he drove out before Ryeowook could form the protest waiting behind that frown.

He arrived in Jongwoon's entryway, lightly dusted off invisible fuzz from his shoulder, and then made his way over to the living room where he could hear the sounds of the television blaring. The volume was turned up loud enough that the raven sitting on the sofa sipping a cup of coffee didn't notice that Kyuhyun was even there until he was about a foot away.

", Kyuhyun!"Jongwoon exclaimed, jumping into the air and nearly falling off his seat. "What are you doing here?" he asked once he regained his balance and stood up.

"Enjoying your clumsiness as usual,"Kyuhyun said wryly.

Jongwoon snorted. "Yes, I'm sure I'm much more entertaining than a ballroom full of guests."

"You'd be surprised," was the soft reply. Kyuhyun watched calmly as his remark threw Jongwoon off for a moment.

"Er…Happy birthday," the black- haired hyung said in an attempt to make small talk. "You got my gift?"

"Yes. It was lovely. Thank you."

Jongwoon twitched uncomfortably under the other man's gaze. Kyuhyun simply continued to stare, taking in Jongwoon's rumpled clothing, the shadows under his eyes, the scruff slowly emerging around his jaw; Jongwoon was not in good shape. Kyuhyun liked to think it had something to do with his absence, but he would hold his tongue until he was sure. The aim tonight was to keep Jongwoon, not to catch him for a few moments before he escaped again. And in order to catch something wanting to flee, you had to make it trust you. And in order for a Kim Jongwoon to trust you, you had to be honest first.

"Can I get you anything?"

"No, I'm fine. Thank you."

Don't lose your nerve, don't lose your nerve, don't-

"Kyuhyun, what are you doing here?"

Kyuhyun snapped into focus. Here goes. "It's my birthday."

"Yes, I believe we already covered that fact."

"So I should get what I want on my birthday."

Jongwoon was silent. "Er…well, what does that have to do with-"

"You?" Kyuhyun interrupted. "It's quite simply really. It's my birthday, and while your present was absolutely beautiful, it wasn't what I wanted." He ignored, with some difficulty, the hurt look that quickly crossed Jongwoon's face.

"Okay…what do you want then?"

"You."

Kyuhyun watched silently as Jongwoon blinked a few times.

"What?"

"I want you for my birthday, Jongwoon."

Jongwoon laughed nervously, before realizing Kyuhyun was serious. "Wha-wha-"

"Why?"Kyuhyun shrugged nonchalantly. "It worked out so well last year, I thought I'd repeat it and see how it turns out on the second go around."

"But-but-we broke up!" Jongwoon frowned, looking adorably confused. He was so adorable, Kyuhyun thought.

"Correction. You broke us up. I did nothing….I was 'nothing', I believe you said,"Kyuhyun winced.

Jongwoon's frown deepened. "Kyuhyun, I'm sorry for the things I said that night. I really am. But that doesn't make them any less true."

"To you, maybe. But not to me."Kyuhyun took a deep breath. "What you said that night was not true to me, because you have never meant nothing to me. It's quite the opposite, really."

Jonwoon closed his eyes, wearily searching for patience. "I'm not talking about when we used to tear the mickey out of each other at -"

"And neither am I," the brunette retorted. "I'm talking about the past year. It meant something to me, Jongwoon. It meant a lot. You….you got under my skin somehow, just like you always do. You've seen parts of me that no one else has, that I wish no one ever would... You've seen me at my most vulnerable, hyung. Whether I was falling down drunk or yelling at some idiots on my game or…or crying into my pillow because in spite of being an evil,snarky bastard, I'm scared of thunder, damn it!"

Jongwoon was slowly backing away towards the door, probably in response to his shouting, but Kyuhyun wasn't letting him get off that easily. It was his birthday, damn it, and he was a Cho, and he was going to get what he came for.

"I know things haven't been as good as they should."Kyuhyun lowered his voice in an attempt to calm down, feeling better when Jongwoon visibly relaxed and stopped his backward movement. "We've been going about this the wrong way. We're thinking instead of feeling. We think too much, and then we forget to appreciate all that's being left unsaid. We just focused on the fighting and snarling and, well, I think we just fight too much. And that's probably my fault as much as yours….well, alright, it's equally both our faults."

Kyuhyun brought a hand to his mouth and bit on his nails, unconsciously copying a habit of Jongwoon's. He took another deep breath and fully implemented "The Plan." He wanted to date a Kim. What did they respond to? Honesty; brave, blunt, brutal honesty. Well, . That wasn't going to be easy. But he wanted this, he wanted Jongwoon…and he was going to do whatever it took to get him.

"Look, it comes to this. That birthday gift you sent me was not something you just give to a buddy. That was a gift meant for someone you care about. And the fact that you gave it me, even after our break up, tells me something. It tells me that you still care, whether you want to admit it or not. And you may be scared right now, but so am I. I'm looking you in the eye right at this moment, and I am ing terrified. I want you, Jongwoon. I want you, and I want you to want me. Not just as someone to , but as someone you could love. I think I could love you, hyung, if you let me."

He walked up to stand right in front of Jongwoon and let his words come out in a rush so Jongwoon couldn't interrupt.

"Yes, we fight. Yes, we can never agree on anything. Yes, sometimes it feels like we have absolutely nothing in common. And yes, this is going to take a hell of a lot of work. But we have to give it some time, and we have to try, for real, or else this all really will have meant nothing…and I don't think I could stand having you think of me as nothing."

Kyuhyun lifted a hand to cradle Jongwoon's face, hope blooming when the latter made no attempt to stop him. "We can burn so brightly if we choose to. We can outshine them all." He softly kissed the man in front of him, a simple brush of lips, before he pulled away to look straight into those black eyes.

"Give us time to shine, Jongwoonie. Give us a time to fall in love...with each other. It's not going to take long anyway."

He waited.

Kyuhyun stood silently and watched the possible love of his life stand in front him, judging him, deciding whether or not he was worthy, and god help him, Kyuhyun had never wanted to prove himself more than he did at that moment. Nothing else ever seemed so important.

More seconds passed. Jongwoon still hadn't moved, hadn't said anything. He just continued to stare at Kyuhyun, until the brunette started to become uneasy.

I failed, he thought miserably. He doesn't want me. I really am nothing to him.

Kyuhyun stopped himself from reaching out to Jongwoon in a desperate attempt to force the feelings he knew were true, at least to himself, into the other man's psyche. He swallowed hard, nodded once, and whispered, "Alright then," before slowly turning away and walking to the front door. He would at least have a dignified exit before he went home, sent all his guests away, and settled into bed for a good cry.

He had just grasped the handle when he felt a light touch on his shoulder. Kyuhyun turned to Jongwoon, sunlight peaking a bit through the fog in his mind as he registered the warm hand gently encircling his wrist.

He waited.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he was pulled into a hug that tightened with every breath, every second that passed between them. They stood there for long minutes, never moving, just breathing together.

"I was scared."

It was said softly, right at Kyuhyun's ear, the breath stirring a few pieces of his hair.

"Of what?"

"…Of needing you…when I didn't think that you needed me. So I pushed you away." Jongwoon paused so that he could pull back and look Kyuhyun in the eye. "I'm sorry."

"No,"Kyuhyun shook his head. "I'm sorry. Sorry for not showing you what you did mean to me; for not showing you what we meant to me."

The silence lingered for a few moments.

"Will you show me now?"

Kyuhyun broke out of his thoughts of the past, of things he might have done differently, what Jongwoon might have done differently, and focused back on the man wrapped around him. The past ten minutes not withstanding, Kyuhyun had never been very good at saying what he actually meant, at least when feelings were involved. Jongwoon was much the same, Kyuhyun was coming to realize. But there was something with which he had always been very good at using to express himself.

Kyuhyun leaned over and touched his lips to Jongwoon's, sliding his tongue against the other man's lower lip and tasting the sweet sweat and roughened skin that came from Jongwoon's habit of biting his lip when upset. Apparently, he'd been very upset recently. Kyuhyun soothed the broken skin, swallowing the low moan that Jongwoon gave. Jongwoon tried to deepen the kiss, ing his mouth into Kyuhyun's, and while the brunette allowed the intimacy, he maintained the slow pace he had set. This wasn't about passion or or lust; this was about what they had meant to each other, and what they could mean to each other. They continued to kiss, with a slow burning fire that could easily burn with higher flames, but instead had a pooling intensity that bespoke of an eternity of heat and joy.

When they finally parted, neither could stop the grins spreading onto their faces.

"I'd show you a bit more, but there is a little something going on at the Mansion that I should be attending to,"Kyuhyun said.

"Right,"Jongwoon sighed. "That ridiculously formal party you insisted on having but in truth, you just wanted to have an excuse to get drunk"

"Well, you'd better hurry up and get changed,"Kyuhyun said lightly. "No boyfriend of mine is showing up to a black tie event in jeans and a shirt that looks like it hasn't been washed in a year."

"Oh?" Jongwoon replied airily, disentangling himself from the other man and edging toward the bedroom. "And just who says I'm going to this thing?"

"You're going to regret that,"Kyuhyun intoned, putting on a stern face and attempting to hide his smile as he chased Jongwoon into his room, the raven laughing all the while. It wasn't long before two voices echoed laughter down the hall.

"Kyuhyun?"

The whisper cut softly through the dark and tickled the hair along his neck. It was late, or rather early, depending on one's perspective, and he and Jongwoon had just settled into a post-coital cuddle in Kyuhyun's bed back at the Mansion. His birthday party had gone on for a few more hours (no doubt the rejuvenation of the party had occurred with Jongwoon's entrance; Kyuhyun personally would never forget the look on the Siwon's face) before everyone had left and Jongwoon and Kyuhyun had tumbled into some rather brilliant make-up .

"Yes?"

"Did you have a good birthday?"

Kyuhyun turned to face Jongwoon, positioning their bodies so he could completely envelope the man in his arms. He placed a soft kiss on Jongwoon's nose.

"Yes, I did."

"And…"Jongwoon bit his lip, "you really enjoyed your present?"

"They were both spectacular."

Jongwoon wrinkled his nose in confusion.

"But I only gave you one."

Kyuhyu  chuckled. "No, Jongwoon, you silly. You didn't just give me one. You gave me much more than that."

"I did?"

"You gave me everything."

Jongwoon blinked adorably for a few seconds, trying to figure out Kyuhyun's meaning, before he found himself on the receiving end of a rather amazing kiss. No matter, he thought. I'm happy with being happy.

Similar thoughts of happiness were running through Kyuhyun's mind, though his centered more on idiotic turtle freaks and their susceptibility to cunning Cho Kyuhyun plans.

"Happy birthday, Kyunnie."

"Happy birthday indeed."

One last kiss, and the two men settled down to sleep, a smile playing on both their lips and warmth blooming in their chests. Jongwoon had one last thought as he drifted off.

Quicksand isn't really all that troublesome, really. One just has to stop panicking, and learn how to float.