Minjun

Kensington Resort was even more incredible in person. The white forest mountains framed the hotel from behind and true to their name, Jun could see snow on the some of the higher peaks.

"Jesus, they still have snow on the mountains." Ewon moaned from behind him.

"It's beautiful, but I can't imagine living up here year-round." Jun shivered in response to the thought.

"I could!" Nichkhun was all smiles "You can roll out of bed and go skiing."

"I didn't know you skied." Ewon shot Nichkhun a shocked look.

"I don't, but if I lived here, I would." Nichkhun grinned, his dark eyes dancing.

"You make absolutely no sense." Ewon rolled his eyes.

"Where's the water slides?" Jay ran full-force into the back of Jun's legs.

"Inside, buddy." Jun yanked the excited little boy back to his feet and pointed to the opaque glass windows toward the rear of the hotel that he knew enclosed the water park.

"I'm ready. Let's go!" 

"Where's Gainoo?"

"She's having a tough time waking up. Taec's with her." Chansung said quietly.

Jun's gut churned with guilt. There wasn't enough room for him to ride in Chansung's SUV with Gain, who'd insisted on riding up with Jay and Taecyeon. That left Jun to drive with Nichkhun and Ewon.

"Here we are. Princess Gain is now awake!" Taec announced making dramatic jazz hands to herald her arrival.

"I'm not a prin-theth, Taec." Gain grumped, folding her arms over her chest.

Jun couldn't help noticing her lisp was back in full force. It almost seemed to him like it was only coming out now when Gain was tired or crabby, which thankfully wasn't as often as it used to be "Taec, didn't the website say that grumpy kids aren't allowed on the waterslides?" Jun raised an eyebrow at Taecyeon who coughed to hide his laugh.

"You know what? I think it did say no grumpy pants were allowed on the waterslides."

"I'm not a grumpy pants! See!" Gain plastered a too-bright smile on her face.

"I'm still not convinced." Jun winked at Taec over Gain's head. 

"See, Uncle Junnie?" Gain ran to Jun, a real smile on her face now.

Jun bent to scoop her up. With exaggerated movements, he looked Gain over "I don't see any signs of grumpy pants."

"Told ya!" Gain planted a kiss on his cheek.

Not wanting Gain to see the effect of her kiss, Jun held her tight. It was the first time since Miryo passed that Gain kissed him without having been prodded or bribed into doing it.

"Now that we know there aren't any grumpy pants, let's go check in to the hotel." Taec slapped a hand on Jun's shoulder, steering him toward the entrance with flags from various countries welcoming visitors to the resort.

"Then can we go on the waterslides? Jay said it's a long climb to the top before I can slide down. I think heights are scary, but Jay said I could do it 'cause I'm super brave." Gain reached up for Jun's hand.

"We sure can, honey." Jun couldn't help laughing at Gain's happy expression. His niece was super brave. It's something he should have been telling her all along, instead of her having to hear it from another five-year-old.

What he needed to do was praise her accomplishments, no matter how big or how small they seemed to him. He owed Jay big time for showing him another way to get closer to Gain. 

Half an hour later, Jun was standing at the base of the tallest waterslide in the park. His stomach pitched at the thought of climbing all the way up to the top. Repeatedly. There was no way Gain was only going to want to try the tallest slide once. 

"Hey, you okay?" Taec said from behind him "You're looking a little green."

"It didn't look this tall on the website." Jun could feel himself starting to sweat. Heights weren't his thing. The last time he'd faced his fear of heights was last summer when Junho and Ewon wanted him to have dinner with them at the top of the Lotte world tower back in Seoul.

Jun spent the night staring at his plate, pushing his uneaten food around, instead of looking out over the panoramic view of the city.  In his mind, he couldn't see an outcome where this ended well for him.

Taec laughed and slapped a hand on his shoulder "If Gain's brave enough to try it, you should be too."

"Says who?" Jun swallowed hard. Knowing that a five-year-old was braver than him wasn't helping his flagging confidence.

"Me!" Taec looked all the way up to the top of the slide, where kids were yelling as they started down "Look, Jun. Gain doesn't know you're afraid of heights." 

"What does that have to do with anything?" as soothing as it was to stand next to Taecyeon, he wasn't making a whole lot of sense.

"If she sees that you're afraid, she might be too. You don't want to teach her to be afraid of something." Taec rocked back on his heels.

Jun hated to admit it, but Taecyeon had a point. The last thing he wanted was to discourage Gain from trying something new "What do I do?"

"You do what parents have been doing since the dawn of time. it up and make it look like you're having a blast." Taec laughed at the shocked look on Jun's face.

"For Gain's sake?" Jun would do anything for his niece. He just never figured conquering his own fears would be fair game.

Taec nodded "And who knows?  Maybe you will end up having a blast. All of those screaming kids look like they're having the time of their lives."

Jun shook his head, knowing Taec's advice was sound, but was still nervous about climbing to the top of the slide "Are you turning into Doctor Khun?"

"Who's turning into me?" Nichkhun asked from behind them.

"Taec is. I'm having a hard time with the thought of climbing up the slide and he thinks I should shut up and do it for Gain." Jun rolled his eyes. 

"I didn't exactly say it that way..." Taec shrugged.

Nichkhun grinned at Taecyeon "I've never been very good with heights either."

"The hell you say!" Ewon yelled "Weren't you just saying that if you lived up here you'd ski every day?"

"Cross-country ski." Nichkhun answered weakly.

Ewon burst out laughing "I can't believe it! Am I the only one brave enough to tackle the climb?"

"I am, Ewon-hyung!" Jay ran up to join the group wearing his T-Rex bathing suit.

"Me too!" Gain joined them in her bright pink bikini.

"So are we!" Chansung added, pointing to Junho, but not looking completely sure of his answer.

"Let's do it!" Ewon led the charge toward the stairs leading up to the top of the slide.

"Are you coming, Uncle Junnie?" Gain was waving him forward.

"I sure am, sweetie." with Gain's confidence in him, Jun was pretty sure he could do anything "You coming, Taec? I might need you to hold my hand." 

"Right behind you." Taec grinned.

"I know you are." Jun waggled his eyebrows and turned back to catch up with Gain. He knew he was toeing the line, flirting with Taec like that, but with Gain's happy attitude and the way Taec looked in his swim trunks, he felt like he had the world on a string. All he needed now was for Taec to feel that way too.

Taecyeon

"What's going on, Taec?" Nichkhun asked when they'd caught up with the rest of their group on the stairs of the waterslide.

"What do you mean?"  instead of meeting Nichkhun's eyes, he kept them on Jun and the way he was filling out the of his grey swim trunks. The things he'd do to that ...

"Don't play coy with me. What's going on with you and Jun? You seem awfully cozy." Nichkhun stepped into Taecyeon's line of sight.

", Khun, I-" it wasn't like Taecyeon to keep Nichkhun out of the loop. He'd been so confused about his own feelings and he thought that talking to Nichkhun would only muddy the waters.

"Are you back together?" Nichkhun raised an eyebrow in question.

"Not exactly." trying to buy some time, Taec took a deep breath. 

"So you're ing him then." tt wasn't a question.

"No! Damn it, Nichkhun." Taec hadn't told anyone about Jun's idea that they get back together. He'd spent the last week knocking the idea around in his own head, making a pro and con list, and checking it twice. Seven days later, it still added up to uncertainty.

"Look, I was there after Jun broke your heart. I watched you struggle to heal and find yourself again. It killed me seeing how broken up you were. I don't want you to get hurt again."

"I know, and I love you for that, but you don't understand." Taec shook his head "Hell, I'm not sure I understand either."

"So tell me about it." Nichkhun's dark brown eyes were kind.

"We're not sleeping together, aside from the time you know about. I want to. God, knows Jun wants to, but we're not."

"Okay. Did you two talk about things after the fight on Sunday?"

"It wasn't a fight, Khun." it was totally a fight. He hadn't been that pissed since the time he'd seen Jun out with a new man about three months back.

Nichkhun raised an eyebrow, but stayed silent. 

"Okay, fine. I was pissed that Jun was treating me like a hired hand with Gain and not wanting to talk about what was going on between us."

"Did you tell him that?"

Taec nodded "And then he told me that he wants us to get back together."

"What? Jesus, Taec! Why the hell didn't you say so? That's great!" Nichkhuns dark brown eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Hold your horses there, doc. I said no."

Nichkhun looked stunned "What do you mean you said no? Jesus, getting back with him is all you've wanted for the last two years. I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone."

Taec snorted "I kind of did too."

Nichkhun snorted "Explain this to me before my brain explodes."

Explaining was the easy part. Dealing with his aching for the last week had been pure torture "He asked me to get back together and I told him I didn't know if I could yet. There's more at stake now with Gain being in Jun's life. If it was just the two of us, I would have jumped at the chance."

"Bull." Nichkhun drawled slowly "I can see the fear in your eyes. You're afraid that what happened last time is going to happen again." 

Nichkhun could read him like an open book "Partly, but I'm afraid of what would happen to Gain if we broke up. She just lost her mother. I don't want her to have to deal with losing me too."

Nichkhun sighed "Yeah, I can see where you're coming from, but that's not the whole story and you know it."

Taec smiled sadly. Having a best friend who knew him this well was a blessing, but sometimes it was a curse too. He didn't really want to talk about it, but there was Nichkhun pulling the story out of him like a magician with a pocketful of multi-colored scarves "I don't know why he wants me back. Is it because he still loves me and thinks we have a future? Or is it because I make things between him and Gain work?"

"I hate to say it, but I was wondering the same thing myself."

"Good, so I'm not totally crazy then. You see it too." Taec had been hoping maybe Nichkhun had seen something in Minjun that he'd missed, but it wasn't to be.

"I do. You're so good with her, Taecyeon. If half of the parents out there would step up and get in their children's lives like you've done with Gain, this world would be a much different place."

It was nice to hear Nichkhun talk about him this way. It meant everything to him that he was making a difference in Gain's life, but it didn't bring him any closer to solving the situation with Jun. 

"You're a natural with her because she accepted you right away, unlike with Jun who she saw as the bad guy. I've seen the way you're pulling them closer together as time goes on."

"Yeah and what happens when they don't need me anymore? Do I get pushed aside when Gainoo and Jun are getting along famously, the way a father and a daughter should get along? Does he kick me out again? I mean hell, it's been two years and I still was struggling without him. I won't survive that a second time."

Nichkhun shook his head "I don't have an answer to that."

"I know you don't. Neither do I, which is why I told him I needed to think about it. We're going to spend this vacation together and see where we stand at the end of the week."

Nichkhun squeezed Taecyeon's beefy shoulder "You know I'm here no matter what happens."

Taec nodded "I know you are. Thanks, man."

"Come on, Taec! It's our turn!" Jun shouted from the top of the slide.

"Go." Nichkhun laughed. "Just watch your at the bottom of the slide. I saw some YouTube videos of guys who lost their trunks when they hit the water at the bottom of the slide." 

", that's the last thing I need! To be bare-assed in front of a bunch of vacationing mothers."