Ah see I told you it'd be up late on Tuesday..... So tired!!!! Still, enjoy the update everyone!

- -

By the time Jaejoong returned that evening, he was surprised to find that the apartment was empty. He wasn't sure where Yunho had gone; he couldn't see any note waiting for him, and he hadn't received any texts or phone calls. That automatically made him annoyed.

What was it with people not letting him know what was going on?

He shuffled about the apartment restless. He wanted to speak to Yunho. He wanted to clear the air about whatever Yoochun had said to him. He wanted Yunho to go back to being himself.

The only time Yunho had seemed even remotely similar to this was back when they were in high school. It wasn't as sudden, but at one point, Yunho seemed to really go off the rails. Jaejoong wasn't sure what he should think or do. His friend was getting into all sorts of trouble; going out with a different person every few days, and partying all the time. The same day that he confronted Yunho about the whole thing, was the day they stopped being friends.

At least, he thought so. The events of two or three days from around that time seemed a little blurred in Jaejoong's memory, though he couldn't really be sure of the cause anymore. If they were not the same day, they were at the very least very closely connected times.

What would happen this time around?

Jaejoong gave up any hope of seeing Yunho for the rest of the night, and went to have a shower. While he was getting changed in the bathroom, he heard the front door slam, and for a moment his heart stopped. What if Yunho had brought someone home with him? What if he'd brought lots of people home with him?

He couldn't hear any unfamiliar voices as he left the bathroom, but he peeked his head into the lounge room first, just to make sure. Yunho was alone, he seemed a little unsteady as he plopped himself onto the lounge, and Jaejoong could see why. He had two cases of mixed drinks with him. His eyes were already a little unfocused, telling Jaejoong he'd probably already had a fair bit to drink before he went to buy alcohol.

Still, if they'd sold it to him, he couldn't have been that drunk, could he? “Joonige!” he cooed excitedly, half bouncing on the lounge as he reached his grasping hands out to him. “Yunho?” he answered, nervously taking a few steps closer. The moment he was within his grasp, Yunho latched on, forcefully pulling Jaejoong down onto the lounge, suspended in the air over the top of him.

Jaejoong flailed his arms and legs about, feeling unstable as he rested his full weight on Yunho's body, but he relaxed a little, allowing his own arms to curl around the younger man's head, fingers curled loosely in his hair.

“Joongie!” he murmured into Jaejoong's chest. He sounded fuzzy and happy, and Jaejoong wondered how he could have such a drastic attitude change. He was much closer to how he was before the meeting with Yoochun, when he was like this. But a lot more...affectionate.

“I missed you, Joongie!” he stated, his voice hushed, as though he were revealing some deep secret, someone didn't want Jaejoong to know. Jaejoong wondered absently if that meant that Yunho had disassociated from his sober self. If it might have been Yunho that didn't want him to know this?

“Well you're the one whose been avoiding me, Yunnie.” Jaejoong answered softly, allowing his gaze to bore into the lounge behind Yunho's head, as the younger man crumpled against his midsection.

“I didn't want to, Joongie.” he whined, feeling like he was being blamed for something that wasn't his fault.

Jaejoong knew this was probably playing dirty, but Yunho had provided him with the perfect opportunity to try and fix things between them. Sure, Yunho was very vulnerable and probably quite suggestible right now, he was also here and willingly talking to him. It was the first time in days that Jaejoong saw real recognition in Yunho's eyes, even if it was a little unfocused. He couldn't let this opportunity slip by, or else he might not get another opportunity to try and fix things between them.

“Yunnie? Why were you avoiding me?” Jaejoong questioned, his voice pleading and soothing to try and trick Yunho into explaining.

Yunho struggled a little against him, as though he were torn about what he should say. “I'm not supposed to tell.” he said, but his tone was weak; his words were having a very noticeable effect on him, already.

“But Yunnie, it made me so sad when you started ignoring me. Do you not like me anymore?” he enquired, making sure to pause and bite his lip for full dramatic effect, despite Yunho not being able to see the actions. Even so, his continued shuffling told Jaejoong that he probably knew what Jaejoong had done without having seen it.

“No, that's not it. I love you Joongie. That's why I had to ignore you, he said it'd be for the best if I did. He said that I should do what was best for you.” Yunho explained, miserably. Jaejoong didn't have to ask who the man was that had told Yunho what to do. He kind of wished he'd hit Yoochun again.

Instead he shifted Yunho against him slightly, “Well he was lying. It hurts me when you ignore me, Yunnie. Please don't do it again.” he pleaded, bending down to make sure Yunho would be looking him in the eyes as he spoke.

Without hesitation Yunho answered, “Okay, Joongie. I won't ignore you now.” Jaejoong smiled at him, giving Yunho a hug. He went to stand and leave the younger boy, but something stopped him.

He'd be reluctant to admit it, but in truth he didn't want to let Yunho go again, so easily. It had taken him ages to get Yunho to acknowledge him. He didn't want to walk away from him. Besides, who knew what would happen if he kept drinking; he could end up doing something he would regret later. He could hurt himself or maybe even kill himself. How could he just leave him?

“Come on Yunnie, we're going to bed.” Jaejoong stated, making sure to use his bossy tone, so that the childish Yunho wouldn't try to argue with him over it. He took his hand and led him over to his room.

Though he had to tell himself repeatedly that what he was doing was completely innocent. For someone doing this for Yunho's own good, he knew that he was certainly going to enjoy this far more than he probably should.

- -

Yunho's eyes slid open the next morning, and he immediately wished they hadn't. The bright sunlight crept under his eyelids, harshly burning his eyes. They felt like they were on fire, and he tried to roll about slightly to decrease the amount of pain he was in, but he found his movements were severely restricted.

He blearily opened his eyes to try and work out why, his eyes watering from the effort of keeping them open despite the sudden light, which his eyes had still not adjusted to. He stopped moving as his eyes fell upon a body next to him, that he had at some point curled himself around.

His heart jumped into his mouth, as his stomach dropped. He was praying he hadn't done anything stupid. He knew he was depressed about his conversation with Yoochun. He knew that he wasn't handling it very well, and that he'd been trying and failing to stop paying so much attention to Jaejoong; to see if he really did need to let the older man go. He knew that he'd gone out to drink but the rest of his evening wasn't so clear.

His eyes nervously drifted down to his own body, hoping he wouldn't see anything too traumatic. He'd done this a hundred times before, but that was a long time ago. He wasn't as used to the experience; wasn't as familiar with it as he had been in those days, and now that he had Jaejoong back he hoped he never would become like that again.

He noted, with some amount of relief that he was still wearing his clothes from the night before. He may have been pleased that he wasn't , but to some extent he was still displeased to be wearing dirty clothes. He would have to go shower and change.

But then his attention drifted back down to the head he saw resting on the same pillow as himself. The dark, silky hair seemed familiar, but he had known many people with dark, silky hair. It could have been any of them. It could have been that he recalled the back of their head from the night before; though why it'd be familiar, he didn't want to linger on.

His eyes drifted further down their body, trying to place where he recognised them from. He noted, with some degree of amusement that the other person was wearing a pair of pale green pyjamas. They were so cute, and they helped take the edge off of the idea that he might have slept with someone the night before.

If he had slept with someone, they clearly had no idea what constituted 'y' clothing. Though this second potential explanation seemed extremely unlikely. Surely, if it had been that unattractive, he would've stripped them, before their the previous evening, and more than likely wouldn't have allowed them to get dressed again afterwards.

So he probably didn't sleep with them.

That knowledge alone brought a relieved sigh from his lips. Still, he couldn't afford to stay in this person's bed. They might wake up soon, and then there would be awkward conversations. He didn't want to deal with that; he wanted to get home. So he carefully extracted himself from the bed, making sure not to jostle the other man too much.

It wasn't until he was standing, planning to leave that he finally took in his surroundings. The door looked familiar. The belongings on the walls looked familiar. A tremor of shock raced down his body, and he turned to face the bed again.

Surely not?

But no, the small face peering over to him, from it's perch on that pillow, eyes still fluttering lightly as their owner dreamed, was familiar. He'd been sleeping next to Jaejoong. He had been huddled around his body.

He quickly ducked out of the room, not wanting the older man to wake up before he did so. He had to hide everything; he had to make it look like he hadn't been there. He had to make it look like he'd done nothing unusual the night before.

It would just freak Jaejoong out to find out that Yunho had snuck into his bed, while he was sleeping. Heck, when Yunho thought about it to himself, he thought it was weird and creepy.

His heart raced as he hurriedly rushed into the bathroom, intent on having a shower to wash the grime of the previous day off of his body. He may have wished that he could keep the smell of Jaejoong's shampoo and conditioner against his skin. He may have wished he could hold onto the feeling of his hair brushing against his cheek; tickling his nose. He would even have treasured the feeling of Jaejoong's hair poking him in the eye, or elbowing him in the face; though admittedly not as much.

The feeling of warmth from another body pressed up so close against his own was still humming on his skin. He wondered if it would ever be possible to sleep alone after that feeling of warmth. It had been so peaceful; truly, he could have just resettled back down and tried to go to sleep. He couldn't ever recall having had Jaejoong's warmth pressed up against his own like that before, in all their years together. Here he was now, after all he'd done being given an opportunity to experience it, and he'd just run out of the room, the moment he realised what he'd done.

But really, if he had snuck into Jaejoong's room last night, while the other boy was asleep, what he'd done was tantamount to theft. Or was it ual harassment? He hadn't touched the other boy, but he knew that harassment didn't have to entail touching; it just had to be against the other person's will, whether they expressed it or not. Jaejoong had been asleep; he hadn't been able to do either; he hadn't been able to express consent. Did that mean that Yunho had him? That was without a person's consent, including if they hadn't been able to express consent, right?

His mind was buzzing. Thoughts of all the things he could be sent to jail for. All the things he could have done to Jaejoong, were circling his mind, making a cacophony of noise as they did so. He didn't want to go to jail. He'd been drunk; he hadn't known what he was doing. If Jaejoong didn't know about any of it, could he still be sent to jail? Even if he couldn't he'd still feel guilty for it, for the rest of his life. That's probably how Jaejoong would find out about what had happened, and then he would be sent to jail.

He barely even registered his shower; he couldn't recall any of it, too consumed by his thoughts to pay it any attention. His attention only noticed what he was doing in so far as the fact that he was in the bathroom at one point, and a moment later, or so it seemed, he was in the kitchen fixing himself something for breakfast.

He was so stunned by the unexpected transition he had to take a moment to check himself. If he'd been going through the motions, it was highly likely he stuffed something up while he wasn't paying attention. But no, he was dry and dressed, his hair was dry; apparently he'd even managed to blow dry his hair, without his noticing. It was only now that the soft thrum of heat from his scalp even registered in his mind. Apparently the only thing he'd done wrong was to use Jaejoong's shampoo and conditioner, because soft tufts of the smell breezed beneath his nose with every subtle shake of his head. Though he had to admit, he didn't really see that move as a mistake; it would be comforting to have that smell hovering around him all day.

It wasn't until he sat down at the bench, breakfast in front of him, and glass of orange juice raised to his lips that Jaejoong's bedroom door opened. Out padded the sleepy-eyed Jaejoong, still clad in his mint green pyjamas. His hair was all over the place, but he'd never looked more cute. Yunho gagged as he drank his juice, welcoming the distraction as an excuse to drag his eyes away from the other man.

“Good morning Yunnie. You're up early for a weekend, aren't you?” he enquired amicably, moving around Yunho and into the kitchen itself, in order to fetch himself something to eat or drink, Yunho wasn't entirely sure. “Mmhm...I had to... want... go... food..” he mumbled to himself, face flushing slightly at the image of Jaejoong snuggled up next to him in bed less than an hour before.

Jaejoong frowned slightly at the response, glancing at Yunho directly across the island bench. “Don't tell me you're going back to not talking to me, I thought we discussed this last night.” he sighed, displeased.

Yunho's eyebrows quirked, puzzled, “We did?” he asked.

Jaejoong's frown melted at the question, “Yes, we did. You said that you'd stop ignoring me from now on.” he explained.

Yunho frowned, trying to recall those words. They felt vaguely familiar but he couldn't be sure whether he said them, someone else them or he'd just imagined them. “Did I?” he asked, annoyed; he was sick of feeling confused, and not knowing what was going on.

“Yes, right before we went to bed.” Jaejoong answered him, simply. But something lit up in his eyes; something Yunho interpreted to be dark amusement. “You don't remember what happened last night, do you?”

Yunho considered lying; telling him that he recalled the entire thing. Telling him that he knew all about the conversation and his promise. But the moment he raised his eyes to meet Jaejoong's, glowing with mirth, the words morphed, “No, I don't. Not really anyway.” he stated, deflated.

Jaejoong's eyes were sparkling even more at the answer, “Well then you probably got a bit of a shock this morning then. No wonder you got up so early.” he stated, amused. Jaejoong had taken him to his room. He had been invited in. He wasn't going to get charged with anything.

The relief from these revelations was immediate, and rather than complaining about all the anxiety he'd had to endure while Jaejoong was still asleep. All that came out of his mouth were mumbled exclamations of “Oh thank God! I thought I was going to die in prison!”

Jaejoong's eyebrows quirked at the comment. “Prison? Why would you go to prison Yunho? Unless your hands were somewhere they weren't supposed to be when you woke up?” he demanded, eyes flashing at the implied accusation. Yunho knew that if it were true, Jaejoong would murder him; he wouldn't have to worry about the penal system.

“No, no of course not. We were barely even touching one another, when I woke up. I wasn't sure what I was going to prison for, it could have been ual harassment or maybe , I wasn't certain. Whatever it is they charge you with when you sneak into someone else's bed while they're asleep.”Yunho explained, sheepishly.

Jaejoong rolled his eyes, but the look he sent the other boy was fond. “You idiot. You need a victim who will complain to the police that you did something wrong, before you can have a trial, let alone get sent to prison.”

“Yes, and that would have been you.” Yunho replied, exasperated.

“Why would I complain to the police?” Jaejoong enquired, an innocent look plastered across his features. As he walked out of the kitchen.

“Oh gee, I don't know, maybe you wouldn't have liked me creeping into your bed while you were asleep?” Yunho responded, exasperated and infuriated that Jaejoong was teasing him about this.

“I wouldn't have been complaining, even if it were true.” he stated, wiggling his eyebrows in as suggestive a look as he could manage. Unfortunately, the look was kind of ruined by his cute pyjamas, but it was still enough to make Yunho's cheeks darken, as the older man made his way down the hall to the bathroom.

“You're pyjamas .” he tossed, spitefully, grasping for something he could say to the older man's retreating back. It wasn't true, but it still let him have the last word in their discussion. Surely that was worth the lie, if it meant that it could lessen Yunho's humiliation.

Jaejoong didn't say anything in return, but he made sure to throw one of the lounge cushions at Yunho, when his back was turned. The pillow ended up no where near him, hurtling across the island and hitting the front of the stove, and the bathroom door clicked close, telling Yunho that Jaejoong knew that he had missed.

He couldn't help the snickers that snuck between his lips at the action, as he observed the pillow, resting on the floor of the kitchen.

Stuff what Yoochun said. He wasn't going to try and block Jaejoong out like that again. It clearly didn't do either of them any good.

Besides, he'd found out exactly what he had been dying to know after Yoochun's words. Everything else he could forgive, but now he knew the truth of that statement as well; he could let Jaejoong go if he had to; but he would never want to.