As he stirs the vegetables in the pan, Minho thinks that the apartment is oddly silent. Taemin should be home at this hour already and he doesn’t want to admit it to himself but he is growing more and more nervous. The clock is ticking evilly on the wall, every second getting louder and Minho runs a hand over his face. Taemin isn’t a baby, he has to remind himself. He will be fine.

The sound of opening door hits Minho like a warm wave of relief. Although the apartment isn’t that big he has to focus to hear Taemin’s voice over the sizzling vegetables.

“I’m back!”

Minho furrows his brow. Taemin seems to be lisping, his voice muffled for some reason. He can be eating something, Minho thinks and nods to himself when focusing again on the pan, stirring the veggies to make sure they turn a pretty gold, not ashy black. Cooking is one of the things he enjoys doing, especially when Taemin comes back tired and hungry and wolfs down everything with rosy cheeks and appetite of two.

But when a groan reaches his ears new scenarios pop up in his head – Taemin got in a fight and his lip is bleeding, that’s why he is lisping. What if he fell down and hurt himself or maybe broke his nose? Minho holds the spoon tighter in his hand when raising it up in the air in some type of a menacing gesture, already imagining fighting the boys who dared touch his boyfriend. Regret quickly comes to him though when he sees droplet of the sauce scattered all over the kitchen tops.

“Babe, are you alright?” Minho asks carefully, because Taemin hates when he tries to babysit him. Minho can’t help it – Taemin is younger and there is no way he will ever stop taking care of him. Taemin better gets used to it because it’ll never change.

“I have a surprise!”

Now Minho is confused like never before. the dinner, he decides and takes the wooden spoon with himself, just in case he really has to fight any bullies. They bump into each other in the threshold, more sauce dripping onto the floor.

“Hyung” Taemin gasps and Minho takes a quick look at his face. There are no traces of blood or bruises and his lips are perfectly fine and plump as ever so Minho doesn’t understand why the boy keeps speaking with a lisp.

Minho wants to open his mouth and shower his boyfriend with questions (that he is actually nervous to hear the answers to) but Taemin is faster and that’s nothing that Minho has imagined so far in his head. Taemin’s tongue is stuck out and a little shiny bead is poked right through the middle of the swollen muscle. The boy’s eyes are shining as if he’s waiting for approval from a parent. Luckily, Minho isn’t Taemin’s parent but it doesn’t make it any easier for him to comprehend the situation.

“And? How is it?” Taemin manages to ask with his tongue still out because he wants Minho to keep admiring his genius idea of getting a tongue piercing. The other boy only keeps staring, noticing how much bigger Taemin’s tongue got due to the swelling. His nose wrinkles involuntarily, only imagining how much it hurt when it got pierced.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while now” Minho has to read most part from Taemin’s lips because the boy is speaking so incoherently, wincing and whining every two words “Didn’t tell you because it’s a surprise. Tadah!”

Now it’s time for Minho to groan before he finally speaks out.

“Are you out of your mind?”

Taemin’s brow furrows, partly out of pain and partly caused by indignation. He thought Minho would be surprised, yes, but overall happy with his idea. Nothing’s cooler in this world than piercings, especially tongue ones. He has a few in his ear, but those are boring. A little bit more fun wouldn’t hurt but apparently Minho isn’t buying it.

“It’s not like I can take it out now” Taemin is lisping again, passing Minho by and hopping onto the counter. Usually he gets scolded by Minho but this time his boyfriend is too dumbstruck to even notice. The realization that his little Minnie has a piece of metal in his mouth hit him too hard and he needs more time to let it sink in. Sure, Taemin has had many crazy idea since he met him – he dragged him into an old house once in the middle of the night because ‘he felt like it’; he also jumped into the city fountain for the very same reason (they, or rather Minho, had to pay a fee for that one), so he shouldn’t be that shocked. It is different though. It has to do with Taemin’s body and health. What if the metal particle provokes an allergic reaction and his tongue swells more at night and Taemin chokes to death? Or maybe he swallows the piercing accidentally? He can’t bleed out from such a tiny hole, right?

“I can hear you overthinking from miles away” Taemin is rolling his eyes, the babysitting side of his boyfriend stronger than ever. He moves his tongue inside his mouth experimentally while looking at Minho who is staring back at him like a deer caught in the headlights, the wooden spoon carried by his side like a sword dripping with blood, only in this case it’s tomato sauce. “Wait, I need to try something” Taemin jumps off the counter and takes quick strides towards Minho before cupping his face and kissing him on the lips. It seems to finally sober up the boy but before he can react any better Taemin is pulling his tongue out of Minho’s mouth as soon as he sneaked it in.

“. So she was right about kissing” he hisses and sticks his tongue out in an attempt to soothe the pain. Minho finds himself confused, not sure if he enjoyed the short moment when he felt the metal sliding against his own tongue.

“Who is she? Taemin, I swear, if you get some infection in your mouth I will cut your tongue out” Minho seems to be back to his senses after what seems like hours, and when he does he feels angry. Taemin didn’t even ask him for his opinion. Of course he would let Taemin do as he pleases, it’s his body after all but he could at least talk it out with him.

“Don’t be angry. It’s just a few weeks” a hum leaves Taemin’s throat when he puts his tongue back in his mouth, content with the way it stopped hurting. “You will be able to survive this long without us making out, right?”

Minho groans irritated. He wants to kiss his boyfriend as much as he wishes. So far he sees only disadvantages in the fact that Taemin’s tongue got pierced. How is he supposed to survive long long weeks with Taemin nagging about his swollen tongue?

“Oh, you’re cooking? You can as well throw it away, I can’t eat solid food”

Well, .

Hope you enjoyed this tiny drabble guys ♥