A/N: Surprise, surprise. Lol honestly who doesn't like bonus chapter? :p Well I just feel the need to have some more mild fluff with the two without making more development to the plot lol.

But today, I feel the genuine warmth, the affection,

And although I may joke about it, I am touched.

The sole thickly-cloaked figure rode on a wooden wagon that was moving rather slowly, occasionally whipping at the two horses’ backs. Although the road was still largely covered in dirty white, it had stopped snowing. The horses kept walking slowly as if in anticipation of stepping on to something dangerous under the icy layer.

“Halt,” a guard shouted as they approached the border. “Who’s there?”

He pulled down his hood, revealing a soft-looking, bored face under it. He casually pet the golden Chihuahua-sized dog sitting on his lap. The young man refused to immediately answer, prompting one of the guards standing by to open his mouth to question him further. Before any words could come out, the youth spoke, the same uninterested expression still plastered on his face. “Travelling merchant. Check my cart, if you want to. It’s all spices and herbs,”

The guards looked at each other, slightly frowning. “A travelling spice dealer? In winter? This late?”

At that instant, the lad’s eyes glistened faintly, probably too faint to be noticed by the oblivious guards. The puppy immediately started barking as if warning his master. It attracted the attention of the guards but the slight glow from the dark brown eyes faded too. He pulled out a bottle of milk and pour the content into a small bowl. The small dog started drinking from it. “Well, you see there are always some people who never got ample time to gather their stock during autumn. In this increasingly competitive era, I see that as a trading opportunity to sell my goods in large number and for high price,”

The guards finally bought his explanation and let him pass. The wheels of the horse-pulled carriage began circling slowly again. Evenings in winter had always been dark. There were only a few dim torches to lit the dark and still road.

“See what I told you?” A lad, probably a scant year younger than him suddenly appeared out of blue after they were out of earshot, crossing his legs next to him and drinking from the half-empty milk bottle. “You don’t need magic to fool them. They are all imbeciles. I bet they will never recognize us.”

“Right.” He answered briefly, not in his best mood to argue with the talkative youth.

“Yah, Kim Myungsoo,” the puppy-like lad barked. “I stopped you from wasting your precious magic energy on those idiots and that’s the kind of treatment I get?”

Myungsoo pulled the strap of the harness and the large cart came to an abrupt stop, almost sending the smaller boy flying. Lee Sungjong was about to protest when L turned to his side, fixing a sharp gaze on the chocolate-haired boy. It was pretty much impossible to tell what Myungsoo was feeling from his face, mostly due to the fact that he usually remained expressionless. Even his voice sounded just as expressionless. “What kind of treatment did you expect then?”

For a while, he wondered whether he would ever see Myungsoo got personally intimate to him. Even after the older man had verbally declared his wish to live together, he never showed much emotion in most occasions, which irritated Sungjong a bit. “Well, you can talk to me more. At least smile. I never thought it was that hard to get you to smile. I must be witnessing some once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon when you smiled at me back then.”

The idea of living together with someone else was a bit foreign to L. It was Sungjong, he knew it. But still he was not accustomed to having someone so close in his daily life. He noticed he had been way too quiet to the younger magician for a cohabiting couple. But in a sense, maybe Sungjong was the reason why he, without realizing, became even more silent than his old self. Maybe he was too busy admiring the cutesy boy that he could find no reason to talk much.

“Or at least just look at me for a second, for goodness’ sake. You proposed for us to live as travelling merchants yourself. But when we are travelling together like this, you never seem to be interested in me anymore. Can you please once again look at me?”

Oh. He was just desperate for attention. But really? Was he really incognizant of Myungsoo’s observing glances all the time? It really amused him to know that his little puppy was merely demanding more tender loving care from him. He immediately took the smaller guy by the hand and dragged him into the sheltered wagon.

“Yah, K-Kim Myungsoo?”

“We’re spending the night here.”

Myungsoo noticed that the younger brunet did not complain any further and he smirked inwardly at the thought. Inside, he asked Sungjong again what he wanted him to do. The faint smell of green pepper, nutmeg and onion aded the relatively small room doubling as a spice storage and a bedroom for the two. But the pair was too used to such herbal aromas that it did not bother them one bit.

“What? Didn’t you just stop the wagon and say we’re going to spend the night here? Can’t we just, umm, sleep? Umm, together?”

Myungsoo could no longer contain his chuckle now. He pulled the terrier-like lad into an affectionate embrace and let both of them fall into the bed.

“Uh. You do know that what I mean by sleeping together is literally sleeping together right?” Sungjong asked, a bit worried by how worked out the taller youth was. “I don’t mean...something else.”

“But of course,” Myungsoo replied, pulling a thick blanket to cover both of them. He then snuggled closer to the half-shaking thinner lad as if in attempt to comfort him. L closed his eyes and petted the other boy gently, grinning without noticing himself. He cast a fire-generating spell, but only strong enough to radiate a sense of warmth between the two of them. “In this cold weather, how could I undress my dear love?”

“...Babo.”