Jonghyun and Taemin stepped out of the air-conditioned SM building and into the sun. It was a hot, sweltering day, the kind of day that made you feel like your face was about to melt off, slide down your body and land with a plop onto the overheated pavement, Jonghyun thought before telling Taemin This. The younger made a face at him. 

"Want to stop for some bingsu, hyung?" he asked, pointedly ignoring Jonghyun's ratrher graphic description of the weather. 

Jonghyun sighed, pushing his slightly damp hair out of his eyes. "I just want to go straight home and take a bath in ice water actually." 

"You go home first, then," Taemin suggested "And I'll get it and bring it back." 

Jonghyun hesitated, his expresson one of concern and Taemin had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. He was a grown man, but in Jonghyun's eyes, he was forever a kid who shouldn't have to take a taxi by himself. 

"Don't worry about me, hyung. No one's going to kidnap me," Taemin reassured. 

In fact, if anyone were to be kidnapped, it would most likely be Jonghyun. His small, compact body would be all to easy to stuff in the trunk of a car. And being of short stature, he wasn't too hard to carry around either as Minho often demonstrated when he threw a struggling Jonghyun over his shoulder and ran around the dorm with him, claiming that he was working out, much to Jinki's amusement and Key's disapproval. 

The line felt several miles long; on a day like today, everyone wanted bingsu. When he fnally stepped inot the dorm, carrying his prize, instead of the cooler temperature he anticipated, he was hit with a blast of hot air. 

"It's like something set the couch on fire," Taemin grumbled ot himself. 

"Did the air conditioning break again?" he asked loudly. 

No one answered him; the dorm was silent. Taemin pecked inot the other members rooms as he passed by. All the hyungs were passed out on their respective beds, lying nearly on top of the sheets and clearly doing their best to survive the brutal weather. Only Jonghyun was missing, the spot next to Kibum-hyung empty. Taemin frowned. He hoped the older boy hadn't been kidnapped after all. Jinki sometimes joked that one day an overzealous fanboy might spot Jonghyun on the streets and be so overcome that he would just steal him. 

He stepped into the bathroom, which was the coolest room in the house, to wash his face and almost fell over when Jonghyun suddenly emerged from the bathtub. dripping with water. The older boy laughed at him, before disappearing underneath the bubbles again. Suddenly aware of how sticky and grimy his practice clothes felt against his skin, Taemin grimaced and began stripping. He kicked the clothes to the corner and stepped into the tub. Jonghyun reemerged to splash water at him. 

"What are you doing, Taemin-ah?" He pouted cutely up at him. "The tub is too small. There's not enough room." 

Ignoring his protests, Taemin sat down gingerly but still caused some of the water to overflow and spill onto the bathroom floor. Somehow, after a brief period of futile struggle on Jonghyun's part and some clever maneuvering by Taemin, they both fitted into the tiny tub, their legs entangled together. Taemin leaned back, sighing as the cool water washed over his chest, contrasting nicely with the warmth of Jonghyun's back pulld up against him. 

"This is so uncomfortable," Jonghyun complained, but Taemin could hear the smile in his voice. 

In response, Taemin just ran his hands up and down Jonghyun's back under the guise of washing it. In fact, he spent the rest of the time "washing" the smaller boy very thoroughly. When all the bubbles had nearly gone, they moved to Jonghyun and Key's shared bedroom. They held hands as they tiptoed in, towels haphazardly around their waists and still happily refreshed from the long bath. 

"What if he wakes up?" Jonghyun whispered apprehensively. 

"He won't wake up if you're quiet," Taemin whispered back. "And it's not like we're going to right next ot him or anything." 

Jonghyun blushed at that and looked away, his cheeks staining a pretty pink. "Taemin-ah, don't say it like that." 

Taemin sat down on the bed, back to the wall and beckoned Jonghyun over. The other hesitated, hovering at the door. Taemin took the opportunity to admire his hyung. Sometimes, he couldn't believe how cute Jonghyun was. As Shinee's maknage, he was expected to be the cute one, but in his opinion, Jonghyun was so much cuter. Everything about him was adorable: his hair that was quickly fluffing up as it dried, his pretty tan skin, his tiny waist, even his somewhat hairy legs that he refused to trim. 

"Stop staring," Jonghyun said, clearly embarrassed by the other boy's intense gaze. "And I thought we weren't going to...you know...on the bed." 

The way he stuttered when he was flustered was cute, too. Despite Jonghyun's doubts, it didn't take too long for Taemin to coax the older boy to teh bed and into his lap. He never could say no to the precious maknae, whether the thing he was asking for was a more ice cream or a quick, hurried . Taemin nuzzled his face against Jonghyun's neck, trailing fleeting kisses along the other boy's jawline. Life couldn't get any better than this - the thought hazily crossed his mind as he breathed in the scent of hope another clean, warm scent that was uniquely Jonghyun. Everything - the slight hunger that nagged at him, his sore muscles from yesterday's practice, the hot humid hair of the room, Key-hyung lying unknowingly next to them - faded into the background. In contrast to the soft, indulgent kisses that he showered on Jonghyun's upturned face, his hands were a completely different story. He d, squeezed and gripped, tightly enough to leave bruise marks for days. 

He was so engrossed that he didn't notice that Jonghyun was getting really loud, his soft sighs and muffled whimpers gradually giving way to yelps and keening. So he nearly feel out of bed, taking Jonghyun with him when he saw something that looked like it came from a 90s horror movie glaring at him.

"Kibum-hyung. Did you sleep well?" He smiled at the other to encourage to relax his expression as well, which was honestly not very pleasant to look at right at the moment, especially when paired with the fact that his hair was sticking up in all directions. 

Jonghyun seemed to be trying to burrow his way into Taemin's chest; Taemin could practically feel the morticiation radiating off him and even without seeing his face, Taemin knew that he was blushing furiously. 

"You're scaring our hyung," Taemin mouthed to Kibum as he petted Jonghyun soothingly. 

Kibum's expression softened, but only minutely.

"He should be scared," he retorted sharply.

"Check the fridge," Taemin called out as Key left the room, closing the door with a little more force than necessary, hoping that some bubble tea would appease him. Especially if he went into the bathroom first, Taemin thought, guiltily remembering the mess they had left in there.