“Jonghyun, it’s working!”

Of course it was working. Did Minho really have so little faith in their engineering skills? Not only was the time machine the culmination of years of work, but some of the best minds in the world had toiled day and night to complete the gleaming silver contraption that sprawled across an entire room.

Jonghyun stood on a platform in the middle, holding onto two gleaming bars for balance as energy whirled around him, invisible, but tossing his hair around into a wild mess. If everything went according to plan, which it would, of course, he would appear in the same place fifteen minutes in the future.

“Are we at full power?” he shouted to Minho, who was working the many dials and levers in the control room, protected by reinforced glass and concrete.

The speaker in the test lab crackled, but Jonghyun could barely hear it over the wind in his ears and the pounding of his own heart.

 “90% and counting!”

 Though Minho’s brows were furrowed and he hunched uncomfortably over the control panel, he couldn’t hide the small smile of excitement that curled his mouth or the nervous tapping of the index finger of his left hand. Testing their machine on a human subject, even if he was only going fifteen minutes into the future, was nerve wracking. It would only take one thing going wrong to turn this exciting, monumental event into a tragic failure.

“95%, Jonghyun. Hold on tight!”

Jonghyun grinned, bright and cocky, and readjusted his hands on the metal grips, which were quickly warming. “See you fifteen minutes from now!” he called, the sound torn away by the maelstrom of energy around him.

“98%...99…” Minho squinted through the safety glass as Jonghyun’s figure began to ripple and fade behind a screen of whirling white.

Before Minho could say, “100%,” there was a high-pitched howling, everything around him felt like it was slipping of place, and Jonghyun was gone.

The next fifteen minutes, waiting for Jonghyun to reappear, were going to be the most stressful of his life. Minho settled back into his chair, pulled up a game of solitaire, and crossed his fingers.

---

Jonghyun expected to appear on the same platform he’d departed, albeit at 9:45 instead of 9:30. He did not.

The air was choked with steam and nausea hit like a hammer, sending Jonghyun into a dizzy stumble. Water beat down on his left arm, soaking his sleeve and the leg of his jeans. Half-blinded and trying not to puke, he fumbled for a hand-hold, catching the shower curtain in one hand and warm, wet flesh in the other.

He jerked back in surprise, completely lost his footing, and crashed to the floor, just missing the bathtub faucet with his head. Something heavy toppled onto Jonghyun, crushing his arm into the plastic side with an “oof.” Hot water trickled into his eyes and his panting mouth. Jonghyun was trying very valiantly not to throw up. People who just made history –who just traveled through time, didn’t immediately vomit all over themselves.

The thing, no, the person on top of Jonghyun squirmed, planting a bony hand into his kidney and shoving. Blinking rapidly helped his vision, as did the nausea returning to manageable levels. He blinked right up into confused brown eyes.

“Your shampoo smells nice.”

Okay, maybe the time travel had done more damage to Jonghyun’s brain than was initially apparent. In his defense, the shampoo smelled liked peaches.

“…thanks.”

More smooth skin brushed Jonghyun’s free arm and hand as the eyes drew back, back and up to reveal a handsome face, and a fit, , male body.

Jonghyun fumbled drenched hair from his face, both surprised and concerned with the lack of screaming. If there was ever a time to scream, this would definitely be it.

The beautiful stranger, unashamed of his ness, offered Jonghyun a dripping hand up. “Hello, magically-appearing, bleeding, shower man,” he said. Jonghyun was too flabbergasted to try and figure out where he was apparently bleeding.

“Uh.” He allowed the stranger to carefully maneuver his head around the silver faucet and haul him to his feet in the slippery tub. He didn’t even notice when the water turned off, only realizing it when the room grew silent except for occasional drips from the showerhead.

The man whipped the shower curtain open and shepherded Jonghyun onto the bathmat, dropping a fluffy blue towel on his head. Flailing a bit in surprise, Jonghyun manage to catch the man’s wrist, and that’s when everything snapped back into place.

---

Minho lost his tenth game of solitaire in a row and was about to start what would inevitably be his eleventh defeat when his monitors began to beep in warning. He flipped back to the control program with the flick of a finger and leaned forward in anticipation. Jonghyun would be right on time.

The crescendo of beeping changed to angry chitters. Something was wrong.

“What is it, what is it…” Minho muttered to himself, clicking through screens as fast as he could skim them. His left leg bounced anxiously until, “Aha!” The mass was wrong. The incoming reading was almost double the outgoing number. God, he was going to be pissed if Jonghyun came back riding a dinosaur.

The howling returned, as did the wind around the time machine in the testing lab. Minho stood, shoving his chair back and clenching the edge of the control panel in nervous anticipation.

Reality snapped around him like a rubber band and Jonghyun appeared.

“It worked!” Minho cried, throwing his hands up in jubilation.

Jonghyun was soaking wet with a towel on his head, holding hands with a man who was dripping all over their time machine.

Miho’s arms fell to his sides and he stared. And stared. “Is this a bad thing or a very, very good-looking thing?”

The return trip wasn’t nearly as bad, perhaps because Jonghyun was returning to his proper space. Indeed, it was the kind man who toppled over in a daze, showing, well, everything to the cameras and a very surprised Minho.

Jonghyun caught him before his head could bash into anything and draped the towel over his lap. It was a very nice lap and didn’t need to be captured for anyone’s later perusal.

“I’m Jinki,” the man mumbled, blinking slowly. “That’s a hell of a trip. I’m…”

Jonghyun waited with bated breath. “You’re…?”

“I’m not gonna puke,” Jinki groaned, clutching his stomach.

Jonghyun chuckled, one hand gripping Jinki’s damp shoulder and the other shading the man’s eyes from the bright lights. “Please don’t. And I hope you aren’t usually this kind to strange men that appear in your shower,” he said, smoothing some of Jinki’s hair from his eyes.

“You’re the first,” Jinki assured him, smiling dopily. He stared up at Jonghyun. “You have pretty eyes.”

Minho’s choked laughter crackled from the speakers.

A glare made Jonghyun feel better, but did nothing to stop Minho.

“It worked!” the man insisted, finally emerging from the control room. “Welcome to…9:47 a.m., the future! Though you’re two minutes late.” He tapped his watch. “It seemed you made a little detour.”

Jonghyun gazed down at Jinki, who was still draped over his leg and therefore not getting much drier. “Yeah, the future looks great.”

Minho smirked, ruffling Jonghyun’s hair. “I’m totally trying it next. For science.”

Jinki just laughed, turned his head to the side, and threw up.