Kibum stirred awake to the sound of rustling papers. The late autumn sun was barely up and already streaming into the room. He had forgotten to bring the blinds down last night and he was paying the price for it now. His upper body that was outside the covers felt cold, especially now that his source of warmth was no longer on him.

No, the source of his warmth was obviously the source of the sound now.

He reached out to the bedside table, searching for the switch for the blinds blindly, ironically enough. He found it and flipped it so that the blinds would roll down. Content with the sun not being directly in his face anymore, he pulled the covers up to his neck to get cosy again, turning over onto his other side to investigate the sound.

Minho’s eyes were on him instead of the papers in his hands. There were more of those scattered over the covers, filled with handwritten notes. Minho looked too neat and groomed for someone who had just woken up. It also looked like he had started reading as soon as he woke up as he was still somewhat tucked under the covers. There was a pen currently in his mouth for quick access when he needed to scribble something down.

 “You’re awake…” Minho said, taking the pen out of his mouth.

“Mmhmmm…” Kibum sounded coarse and dehydrated.

Minho placed the papers in his hands down on his lap, giving him his full attention now although Kibum was still lulling between sleep and reality. He managed to keep one eye open to peer up at the other.

“Morning, Kibum-ah…” Minho whispered, voice as raspy as his own, all the while running his hand through Kibum’s hair, down his back under the loose, silky pajama and back up his arm. Kibum simply had to close his eyes, reveling in the contact.

“You still mad at me?” he asked, when he received no answer from Kibum.

“So you remember…” Kibum mocked. Minho’s hand stopped moving and Kibum took the chance to bury his face in the pillow, looking for the position that was just right to fall back asleep. He had absolutely no intentions of getting up. He’d just have to call in sick today.

“Yeah, I was the biggest to your friend and I’m sorry about that…”

He lost the physical contact with Minho then.

Kibum opened an eye again, looking up at the other suspiciously.

“Okay, that was easy. What’s the catch?” he probed. Minho sighed, shuffling through the papers on his lap mindlessly.

“There’s no-“

Kibum lifted his head off the pillow.

“Okay, I’m more sorry for the choice of words rather than the gist of it. He was making a lot of assumptions, Kibum-ah…”

“Yeah, you were kind of a jerk…”

Minho gave him a deadpanned look and they held that eye contact for a while before Kibum finally broke it, pushing his body up and leaning on an elbow.

“Are those important?” Kibum asked, gesturing at the papers. Minho nodded, confused.

“Okay I’m gonna need you to relocate them cause I need the space…” Kibum said, scratching his head and yawning. How attractive he must look right now.

 A small smile graced Minho’s lips for the first time since the conversation began as he picked the papers up and placed them neatly on the floor beside the bed. He laid back down afterwards, inviting Kibum onto his chest.

“Yah, don’t you have to get ready for work?” Minho asked, contradicting his own words as he helped Kibum get comfortable under the covers. Minho smelled oddly of lavenders and it was like an aroma therapy, relaxing Kibum back into the realms of sleep. Had Minho already taken a shower?

“I’m not going. Now, tell me what happened yesterday…” Kibum mumbled into the crook of Minho’s neck.

“Kibum-ah, I was drunk and I couldn’t-“

“Not that…” he interrupted Minho. Minho’s fingers stopped in his hair temporarily, before picking up the pace again slowly.

“I lost the opening statement for the most important case I’ve had in years. It was stupid, we overlooked something very obvious and their attorney went to town on it…” Minho spoke in a low voice. “It’s the most embarrassing thing I’ve had happen to me in years and it was entirely my fault…”

Kibum listened quietly, the words waking him up enough to keep both his eyes open and trained on the white, bare wall as he drowned in his own thoughts. For a man with pride like Minho’s, this couldn’t have been easy to deal with. No wonder he had looked so exhausted yesterday. He probably dove straight back into work to fix everything and worked himself to the bone in the process.

“So you made a mistake?”

Minho’s chest rose and fell, following a deep sigh. The worry about Minho’s burdened mind was making Kibum’s heart feel heavy as well.

“Not just any mistake Kibum-ah. It was bad. Could hurt my reputation if I end up losing the entire case because of this, could hurt all my father and I have worked for…”

Kibum did not like how competitive Minho was at times like this, when he’d rather beat himself up for something he did wrong than accept it was alright to fail sometimes. It was as if failure was never an option to him, especially so when his father was involved.

“I’m going to quote a motivational quote off of Tumblr, don’t hate me for it ‘cause it’s true…” Kibum began with a disclaimer, “but mistakes make you human and help you get better…”

He waited for it. The laugh, the sneering. Something. But nothing came. Kibum lifted his head to look at the other’s face and was relieved to see the other biting a finger trying to hold back laughter.

“Yah, yah what did I tell you?” Kibum scolded, berating him by slapping his chest and pulling Minho’s hand away from his face, letting the laughter escape. Kibum had to fight hard to hold back his own laughter at the sight, it would ruin the bratty character he was trying to portray to cheer the other up. His idea of staying in character was nipping down on the skin of Minho’s earlobes and jaw to be annoying. Minho, however, had other plans and led him instead into a deep kiss.

Minho had taken a shower and he had brushed his teeth too.

“I’m sorry, I know you were trying to be positive and all, but I can never take those quotes seriously…”

Kibum puckered his lips out, like an imprudent child.

“Fine, next time I’ll laugh at your failures…”

“Please don’t…” Minho said, meeting his puckered lips with his own.

“Okay fine I won’t,” Kibum surrendered, planting a kiss on the other’s Adam’s apple and letting his mouth trail lazily down the expanse of skin before him, his leg searching refuge between Minho’s and finding it. The taller man demonstrated just how strong he was, trapping Kibum completely between his legs.

“Minho-yah, seriously though, you know stuff like that happens to everyone right?”

Minho hummed, agreeing but obviously not accepting it to be the case for him.

“And just because you’re the smartest, most talented attorney in Seoul with hair that is only rivalled by my gorgeous locks-” Kibum took a break from worshipping the chocolate skin beneath him  – that looked more like pale milk chocolate, now that summer was a thing of the past – to look into the other’s eyes. Minho wiggled an eyebrow, as if waiting for him to continue.

“-doesn’t mean you’re above making stupid, human mistakes like the rest of us earthlings.”

Minho flipped them over in one fluid motion, almost as if he was tackling Kibum onto the floor during Jiu JItsu. But this was of course, less painful and more exciting. Not to mention, this was less wet from all the sweat. If Kibum was lucky though, this might just get sweaty as well and judging by the look in Minho’s eyes, it seemed very likely.

“Appa, are you awake? Do I need to call Ahjumma to take me to school?” Kibum was almost startled out of his wits at the sound of the voice. Minho groaned, burying his face into Kibum’s neck while his hands burrowed under the pillows below Kibum’s head.

“Ahjumma’s sick Yoogeun-ah. I’ll take you, I’ll be out in a while…” Minho yelled back to his son after a while, deafening Kibum in the process. He was at least courteous enough to help massage his ear when he noticed Kibum’s discomfort.

“I don’t wanna leave this bed, Kibum-ah…” Minho said, leaving haphazard kisses all over his chest, pulling the pajama shirt apart with barely any effort.

“So don’t. Stay, sleep, you sure as hell look like you need it…”

“I can’t, you know that…”

Kibum wanted to push further for the man to take a break, but he knew Minho’s mind will be at work the whole day even if his body wasn’t. Only way he was getting any rest is after redeeming himself in this case he’s working on and that, unfortunately, seemed a thousand years away.

“Hey, speaking theoretically, if I said I’d bring Yoogeun to school, would it give you some more time with me?” Kibum offered instead, much to Minho’s joy apparently.

“Theoretically yes, but you don’t have to. I just think it wouldn’t matter if he’s like 10 minutes late today though…” Minho said, tempting him into a languid kiss and succeeding at it. Kibum was only beginning to realise just how much of a putty he was in Minho’s hands and the thought of it both thrilled and scared him.

“Ten minutes? Somebody’s ambitious…” Kibum whispered teasingly. However, he began regretting that instantly when he felt the hand slipping under the elastic band around his hips. He barely resisted the urge to vocalise his approval of where this was leading, though it was hard to think of anything else with Minho overpowering all his senses.

And about ten minutes later, Minho was devil incarnate while he was putting his clothes on for work, smirking down at a very Kibum in bed. Kibum shook his head at the other’s childishness, pulling the covers onto himself as shelter from those evil eyes. The only time they left him were to fix Minho’s hair and face in the mirror, but it didn’t take long at all before they were back on Kibum tauntingly.

“Minho-shii, your flaming charisma is brighter than that sun I was trying to block out, could you turn it down a little?”

Minho looked away to compile the notes on the floor into its folder, the smirk still in place nonetheless.

“Kibum-shii, will you be here when I get home later?”

Kibum nodded, stopping short of telling the other that there was no place he’d rather be.

“That’s great, Kibum-shii…” Minho said, seating himself on the edge of the bed, looking at the sheets. He was obviously hesitant about something.

“Yah, what is it?”

“Are you happy? With me? With us?” Minho laid out the loaded question in the open, letting it dangle in the space between them like a veil that Kibum was afraid to pass through. What was his honest answer to that? To know how something that felt so right to him was possibly causing a lot of anguish in Minho’s son was not a very nice feeling. How does he convey the frustration he feels at times, without coming across like he despised the boy?

Because he didn’t. Far from it. He really wanted the boy to acknowledge him. It was even strange to himself how much he cared what the boy thought of him.

Kibum could only hope that this will not be the case forever. They have made strides in the right direction in the past few months and maybe in another few, he wouldn’t be facing the guilt of tearing a boy away from his dreams anymore.

“I’m happier than a good cup of hot chocolate can ever make me…”

Minho smiled at him, looking absolutely beautiful despite the stress signs all over his face. He leaned over to press a chaste kiss on Kibum’s temple, leaving his skin tingling with a whispered ‘I love you’ afterwards before getting up to leave.

That right there, those words whispered in bed or shouted out loud in the car on long road trips.  Or just about in any situations really. Those words made everything tough bearable. For how much longer they would have this effect Kibum didn’t know, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to give up fighting to hear them from Minho for the rest of his life.