Wakefulness comes slowly, like a great whale slowly rising from the depths of the sea and not quite breaking the surface. Taemin allows his thoughts to run on that tangent and slips into his favourite fantasy of being a whale in an endless ocean. The heavy duvet is a comfortable weight pressing down on him and the bed is both soft and warm-

-but it is not his bed.

Taemin snaps awake.

His eyes can’t make out anything in the darkness of the room, which is another indicator that he is in some strange place; in both Kibum’s apartment and his, there is always a little light leaking in from under and around the curtains. He sits up, reaching out blindly for his phone, a light switch, literally anything that can help him see, and his hand smacks against something; a solid something in the same bed covered in the same duvet that is over him too.

The sheets and duvet rustle with movement.

“What the ?”

A wave of relief washes over Taemin. That voice, gravelly and annoyed, belongs to Kibum.

“Sorry,” he says, with a mouth gone dry in fright “I just… where are we?”

The bedding rustles even more; Kibum must be rolling over and Taemin can just imagine the angry squint he must be making. “It’s amazing you’re still alive,” Kibum grouses. “We’re in Canada, remember?”

One day he falls asleep on his couch and wakes up in Kibum’s house, and now he falls asleep in his own bed and wakes up in Canada? Taemin would cry if he has the strength to.

When he doesn’t reply, Kibum says “Oh my God, you don’t remember. Yah, we’re in Toronto, we have a concert tonight?”

Of course they have a concert, why else would they be in Canada?

A small light fills the room; Kibum’s gotten his phone. The room is definitely a hotel room. There’s a small coffee table in a corner, where Taemin spots his own phone and two empty wine glasses. There’s a suitcase at the foot of the bed, spilling clothes, which definitely belongs to Kibum.

“It’s almost four, you should go.”

It’s visceral, the way he hates the sound of Kibum telling him to leave.

“Go?”

“You’re hopeless,” Kibum complains. “Am I even talking to a person who’s awake, or are you just saying nonsense in your sleep? You need to get back to your own room before the managers and stylists wake up.”

This isn’t entirely new to Taemin. Whenever they go overseas they have to keep up the pretense of not being together, and that means getting and staying in separate rooms and sneaking around to meet each other in the dead of night when the only people awake are the zombie-like night staff of the hotel. The only problem with it now is that he has no idea where he is, no memory of getting here and no concept of the layout of the hotel to even enable him to find his own room.

“Just ten minutes more,” he pleads, wanting to stay where he is, with Kibum. He knows he’s won when Kibum flicks the shell of his ear. “Ow! That’s abuse, you know?”

Kibum laughs, though it’s really more of a cackle than anything else. “You hit me first.”

Taemin waits until Kibum settles back into bed, and then he lies down too, shuffling backwards until his back meets the solid wall of Kibum’s side. He likes how he’s one of the few people who knows how muscular Kibum actually is under all of the layers he wears.

Unexpectedly, Kibum rolls onto his side, throws an arm over Taemin and pulls him into his chest, and Taemin is so happy he could cry. He’s missed being held like this so badly, and even before all of this craziness it was a rare treat because Kibum always complains how his arm gets numb in this position. Taemin burrows into Kibum’s embrace, where, for the first time in days, he finally feels like there is solid ground under his feet.

Cherish it, he tells himself.

XXXXX

hi all! i'm back with two new chapters for you XD comments are welcome and much loved, but more than anything i hope you enjoy the story and taemin's imminent comeback.