Naws, it’s a baby fic. Sorry it’s so short but honestly I stretched it out as much as I could. Originally it was less than 250 words :P

“Hyung,” Sanghyuk calls from the door to their hotel room. “N-hyung.”

When the maknae gets no response he enters the room and kicks his shoes off, only slightly annoyed that he wasn’t getting an answer. He finds Hakyeon face down on his bed and sighs, approaching the leader.

“Hyung,” Sanghyuk murmurs, patting the older man’s back.

Hakyeon stirs. “Mmm?”

The maknae smooths the elder’s hair back and rubs his shoulder briefly. “I’m going out with Hongbin and Jaehwan for a little bit. You should get into bed if you’re going to sleep.”

“Mmm.”

Sanghyuk takes that as an ‘okay, do what you want’. After another pat to the leader’s fluffy hair the maknae puts his shoes back on and leaves.

“Be careful,” Hakyeon mutters when the door clicks closed.

Sanghyuk returns a few hours later totally ready to just sleep. He’s surprised to find the lamp beside Hakyeon’s bed still on but it isn’t until he’s begun to get changed that he realizes the leader is being uncharacteristically quiet and actually inspects his bed.

Hakyeon is facing the wall and at first Sanghyuk thinks he is on his phone. It isn’t until he leans over to get a proper look that he realizes Hakyeon is asleep. He’s about to move away – because he wasn’t really into getting in his hyungs’ space – when he notices the shiny tear tracks on the elder’s cheeks. They’d long since dried but they were still visible despite the shadows cast on his face.

The maknae isn’t really thinking when he reaches over and brushes his fingers over Hakyeon’s cheeks, all he knows is that he doesn’t like it when Hakyeon cries and his throat has tightened painfully. His fingers do absolutely nothing except cause Hakyeon to stir, wiping his own hand over his face before turning over.

Normally Sanghyuk was in public when Hakyeon was crying – either in front of cameras or with the other members – and hides that he too wants to cry. But right now the best he does is fight off a sob that has somehow built up in his chest.

How many times has he wanted to tell Hakyeon that even if he is the leader he doesn’t have to bear everything alone? That the other members are here for him as much as he is there for them? And yet Hakyeon never did. He bore everything alone in a way that made Sanghyuk feel like a burden even though he knew Hakyeon didn’t see them that way.

Feeling like a five year old – and not caring that he does – Sanghyuk climbs into Hakyeon’s bed. Weirdly Hakyeon doesn’t wake up, too used to being jostled around in the van. What does wake him up is when the maknae returns his fingers to the leader’s cheeks to try wipe away the tear tracks.

“Hyogi?” he asks groggily.

The worry sets in instantly when he hears Sanghyuk’s uneven breathing and feels the shakiness of his large frame. Had something happened when he’d gone out?

“What’s wrong?” the leader mumbles, pulling the maknae closer and wrapping him in a tight embrace.

It’s been a long time since Sanghyuk has felt small, at least in a good way. There were times after their debut when he’d made mistakes and felt like an idiot, like he didn’t belong, like he brought the team down. There were other times when he’d been scolded like a child. But every now and then his hyungs managed to make him feel small and protected and loved.

Encased in the leader’s arms, a little annoyed that he’d intended to comfort and was now being comforted, Sanghyuk feels that way and let’s himself sob.

“Hyung,” he manages to say through the tightness in his throat.

“Mmm?” Hakyeon asks, not trusting himself to speak.

“Don’t cry anymore.”

The leader struggles to swallow down his own sob but fails. Trying to be strong, and thinking that he’s failed, Hakyeon buries his face in Sanghyuk’s throat and sniffles away. He tries to tell Sanghyuk that he’ll stop crying and be strong when the maknae squeezes his arms tighter.

“Don’t cry alone anymore,” he amends, voice breaking.

Something between a laugh and a sob escapes the leader’s chest. “Okay,” he agrees easily, feeling relieved that Sanghyuk wasn’t calling him weak.

They exhaust themselves like that, wrapped up together with tears on their cheeks, and when they wake up in the morning their hearts feel a little lighter.

I was torn between having Hakyeon call Sanghyuk ‘Sanghyukki’ or ‘Hyogi’. Hyogi is really cute so of course that one won. That’s what I call him in my head ^.^

Originally Hakyeon was going to be crying in his sleep but I did a quick search and didn’t like any of the reasons why a person would often cry in their sleep. It turned into Hakyeon having a little cry while falling asleep and Sanghyuk finding out.