Taemin watched as the other members of the tribe danced and sang around the fire. He watched as people celebrated his return to his right mind. He knew that they appreciated that they had returned, but he didn’t feel right, sitting there alone. He turned to Kai, “Let’s get out of here.” As though he were thinking the same thing, Kai stood up slowly and held his hand out to the white-haired boy.

He led them into the woods. A part in which Taemin had never been. “Where is this place?”

“I figured since we made out...twice, that I should probably show you where I live,” pride etched the depths of Kai’s voice. He was proud of his home, whatever it looked like. “Many of our tribe choose to stay in the settlement, they find it more convenient, but I like the walk that I get from it.”

Taemin could hear the smile in Kai’s voice, though he couldn’t see it. He watched as the camp became smaller and shrank out of sight. He looked around at the trees and the way that the light hit the leaves, giving off a green hue throughout the forest. If Taemin had begun to wonder why Kai wanted to live all the way out here, he forgot about it just then. The beauty of the forest stole his breath, and since he was so focused on the sights around him, he didn’t notice when Kai stopped. Taemin bumped into him with a grunt. He looked around, assuming that they were here, but he saw nothing.

“Welcome to my home,” Kai said turning to him with a smile. “Actually, it’s partially your home too.” He looked down, “Your dad helped me build it. He was the one who came up with the design.”

“Not to be rude, bro, but there’s nothing here.” He felt Kai walked behind him and place his large hands on the sides of his head. The elder tilted his head up into the trees, and what Taemin saw took made his heart jump. The house was so Kai, that he wasn’t surprised that it belonged to the taller man.

It was a small cabin built into the treetops. It looked like someone had just set it in the trees. The branches molded and grew around it almost as though they were swaddling a baby. He wanted to get a closer look, but, as he began to hover, Kai held him to the ground.

“Rule one: no cheating.” He pointed to the ladder that Taemin had initially missed. “Climb.”

Taemin did as he was told, and when he reached the top, he was met with an enormous room. “This place looks way smaller on the ground, how did you fit this gigantic thing onto one tree?”

The fairies hooked me up with a spell that makes things bigger on the inside, but their weight doesn’t change. It looks like an ordinary tree house, but it’s actually a lot bigger than that. All of our homes are built like this.”

“Jaejoong’s tent isn’t this big.”

Kai nodded, “True, it isn’t this big, but it is bigger than you think.”  He looked around his home, “Go, explore while I light some lanterns and make us something to eat.”

Taemin made his way toward the first hall, but he was stopped by Kai’s voice.

“Taemin?”

“Yeah?”

He smiled, “Don’t get lost.”

Taemin wondered why Kai had asked that he not get lost, but when he explored the winding hallways, he understood. They connected in a somewhat intricate maze, and, if Taemin hadn’t been forewarned, he would have gotten lost. He found that there were several rooms in which guests could stay, but they looked like they had never been used. He found another room that looked relatively well lived in. It was small, and the bed wasn’t particularly large, but it had a quality to it that made Taemin sure that it was Kai’s. He took a moment to think, and then it came to him. The room felt like his. It felt like Kai. Taemin walked over to the bed and lay down on it. He basked in the scent of Kai. It smelled like maple syrup and applewood smoke. He felt himself start to drift off into sleep when he heard a knock at the open door.

“If you’re done laying on my bed, there’s a sandwich waiting for you in the kitchen.” Kai looked at Taemin basking in the sunlight that was strewn across the room. The glitter on his skin sparkled softly as he shifted to look at the elder. He looked like a cat soaking in the rays of the sun. Kai couldn’t help but to smile at how innocent Taemin looked.

“What are you smiling at?” Taemin’s voice held a hint of offense in it. As though the younger expected Kai to make fun of him at some point

“You,” Kai answered honestly, without a hint of ulterior motive. “I forget how beautiful you are sometimes, and it surprises me how easily I could forget.”

Taemin looked down, embarrassed.

Kai walked up and pulled the younger’s chin up to look at him. “You’re gorgeous, Taemin,” he whispered, his nose mere centimetres from Taemin’s. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” He pulled the younger to him, wrapping an arm around the smaller boy’s waist. He moved his free hand up to cup the soft skin under Taemin’s jaw. He used that position to gently guide the younger’s lips to his own. Taemin tasted like vanilla, something he hadn’t noticed before. He felt the other respond to him and relax into his touch. The shorter boy felt like putty in his hands. He placed his tongue on the edge of Taemin’s lips where he waited eagerly for access.

Kai didn’t have to wait long, for Taemin granted him entrance almost as soon as he had asked for it. He guided the other backwards gently toward the bed. Taemin collapsed onto it and Kai onto him. They bumped heads, and their activities were stopped by Taemin’s giggling. Kai watched the other laugh. He watched his plush lips pull back to reveal straight white teeth. He watched as Taemin’s coffee coloured eyes sparkled with mirth. He noticed the way he would get flustered and try to cover himself with his small hands, as though he were trying to shield his body from everything. Kai saw everything that Taemin did in those few seconds of laughing, and it made him fall even more in love with the boy beneath him.

“You’re doing the thing again,” Taemin said pointedly.

“What thing?” Kai realized that he had been caught.

“The thing where I do something and then you just stare at me as though I’m some sort of specimen for you to dissect.”

Kai cocked an eyebrow.

“You look at me as though you’ve never seen me before, but at the same time it’s like you’re deeply focused on something else.”

It was Kai’s turn to laugh. “I am, Taemin. Everytime I look at you, I find something else about you. Something else that I need to memorise before it disappears. Something that will go away in a small moment. Something else to love about you.”

Taemin was speechless. He pulled Kai back down and met his lips with renewed fervor. He couldn’t yet express how he felt above the larger man with words, so he hoped that his actions could speak for him.

Within moments the two of them were a mess of lips and tongues. Their shirts had been discarded on the floor nearby, and Kai had begun to explore Taemin’s torso with his lips and fingertips.

Kai looked at the muscles beneath Taemin’s skin tense every time he touched him. He dragged his fingertips across the younger boy’s chest and watched as goosebumps appeared shortly thereafter. He looked at the small patches of glitter that appeared in the sunlight. He ran his fingers over them as though he could wipe of the sparkles, but they were truly part of Taemin’s skin. His eyes roamed the boy’s stomach and stopped short when they landed on the small scar that had started all of this. He ran his index and middle fingers over it, remembering that it was him who had sent Taemin on the path to getting that scar. He murmured a small apology and placed a light kiss on the small white mark.

“It’s not you’re fault, you know,” Taemin said, as though he had heard what Kai had whispered.

“I know, but I still feel guilty about setting you on that path.”

“Oh, well. What’s done is done, and there’s nothing we can do to change it.”

Kai bent down to resume his ministrations on Taemin’s stomach, but the boy stopped him.

“Don’t you find something a little wrong with this situation?”

Kai looked up, startled that he had done something wrong, “What?”

“We’re here, having this extremely steamy make-out session, but we haven’t even gone on a proper date yet.”

“A date?”

Taemin’s eyes grew to twice their normal size, “You mean to tell me that you haven’t ever gone on a date?”

Kai sat up and shrugged, “No. Here, we court people by paying the bride’s dowry, then get married and have kids. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a date.”

Taemin sprung from the bed and grabbed their shirts from the floor, “Well come on then, we’re going on a date.” He went over to the table where he scribbled a small note. “Put something nice on while I take this to Onew.” He instructed as he moved to Kai’s balcony and flew off into the night.

Kai scratched his head, What just happened?, he thought to himself.

Taemin flew to the village where he found Onew and Minho making out in a corner of the campfire circle. He cocked an eyebrow, “When did this become a thing?”

They separated so quickly that Minho had nearly fallen from the log on which he was perched.

Onew rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed, “Um...about...two months. Shortly after you disappeared from our world.” He saw the white slip of paper in Taemin’s hand, “What’s that?”

Taemin was brought back to reality, back to why he had come in the first place, “Oh, can you give this to Jaejoong. It basically says that me and Kai are going away for a bit.”

“How long?”

“I don’t know since the flow of time can change very strangely.”

Onew nodded, fully grasping the situation. He took the note from Taemin, “Well you cooky kids have a blast.”

Taemin smiled, “Thanks, hyung,” and took off into the night.

He landed softly on the balcony and walked into Kai’s room. He looked around for the elder, but he was nowhere to be found. He then heard a thump come from the closet, so he moved quietly towards it and opened the door slowly.

He tried not to laugh as he took in the sight before him. Kai stood there with an old button-up from what looked like 1930, and a silk tie with trees on it. He had the shirt partially buttoned and the tie hanging about his neck loosely. He obviously had no idea as to what he was doing.

Taemin looked around the closet and found an old worn out shirt. It was white and  had buttons down the front, complete with ruffles down the middle and on the sleeves. Taemin took the shirt to the dresser where he found a small knife. He cut the seams that attached the ruffles to the shirt. When he was finished he threw out the scrap material and tossed the shirt to Kai.

“Put this on and forego the tie.” He looked at Kai’s ripped shorts, “We’ll have to get you some jeans and shoes at my place. I’m sure Minho won’t mind.”