On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Four Calling Birds

Three French Hens

Two Turtle Doves

And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

‘Night, Hyukkie’? Seriously? What was that all about? Hyukjae had a few theories about why Donghae had sent that text, using a nickname that Hyukjae had never even given the guy permission to use. The most prominent theory at the moment was that the man knew it would send Hyukjae into hysterics and cause the poor dancer to lay awake all night with his imagination taking him God only knows where. Donghae must secretly be Hyukjae's arch nemesis.

The doorbell rang out through the house and Hyukjae rushed the rest of the way down the stairs, tossing the towel he had been drying his hair with into the coat closet before opening the door. Donghae stood on the other side with his puffy black jacket and his hands full of bags that Hyukjae assumed contained meat. 

Hyukjae moved out of the way so that Donghae could hurry inside out of the cold and immediately offered to take the burden from Donghae's hands, ignoring the urge to squeal or pass out when their hands ended up touching. This was never supposed to be a crush and now it had turned into a bulldozer, knocking Hyukjae off his feet over the simplest of contact.

"Thank you so much for this. I can't believe I forgot it yesterday. I'm so sorry that you had to come out here so early. I know that Jungsoo-hyung kinda lives out of the way. Did you want to get something to drink before you left?" 

"Well, since I'm here, I might as well stay right?"  Donghae kicked his drenched boots off and pushed them to the side with his foot, dropping his coat over top of them without asking about a closet.

A whole minute probably passed before Hyukjae could figure out how to react. Meanwhile, Donghae was already exploring the first floor of the very large house. "Um, I mean you are more than welcome to stay if you want to." Hyukjae followed Donghae to the end of a long hallway. "There's a small theater in the door to your right if you want to watch some movies," Hyukjae called after the curious guest. 

"Will we even have time to watch a movie with all the cooking?" Donghae turned around to face Hyukjae with a dazzling and impossibly wide smile. Donghae had stopped at a random door with his hand on the knob as he turned back to question Hyukjae. 

"Oh!" Hyukjae finally understood that Donghae intended to actually help cook the meal. "Probably not." His gummy smile showed up. "But you really don't have to help if you don't want to. I could help you get the movie set up before I start though.

It didn't take long for Hyukjae to witness Donghae's cooking inaptitude. He was grateful for the little help that the other man could provide, mostly the company of having someone to talk to and to listen to. After the first 20 minutes or so, Hyukjae was able to feel a little less nervous and actually started getting things done. Donghae mostly sat on the counter and served as entertainment while Hyukjae ran around cutting meat in strips or cubes and adjusting heat on the stove.

"To be honest, I find it a little strange that Jungsoo-hyung wanted to have this dinner thing." Hyukjae started laying vegetables out on a pink, pig-shaped carving board. 

Donghae chuckled from the other side of the stove, his feet bouncing off the cabinets below while he covered poked at a pot of stewing beef with the metal tongs. "You don't know what it's about?"

Hyukjae shook his head as he started slicing a zucchini into little disks. From the way Donghae asked the question, Hyukjae wondered if there was some big reason behind it that Hyukjae had no idea about.

Donghae never clarified though. He just stayed silent, and when Hyukjae glanced up he could see a small smirk on Donghae's lips. The cook dismissed it with a shrug as he moved on to chopping up green peppers. 

"You know they’re ing, right?" 

"GREAT BALLS OF BLUE BALOOGAS!" Hyukjae collapsed to the floor in a crouch as he squeezed one of his hands with the other, hoping that if he squeezed hard enough that cut he just got would be a little less painful. 

Donghae immediately dropped off the counter and squatted down to grab hold of Hyukjae's hands. "Are you okay?" 

Hyukjae had lowered his head in an attempt to squeeze the pain out with his entire body but lifted his eyes up to meet Donghae with an answer. "I'm okay," he finally spoke in a small voice. 

Donghae took hold of Hyukjae's clenched hands and coaxed the man to reveal the injury, but as soon as Hyukjae released the hand that had been hurt, blood dripped to the floor and Donghae was leaning over the sink. 

"Eh?" Hyukjae looked down at his own hand and was able to see that the cut was not too bad. The bleeding would stop in just a moment. Mostly it had been the shock of Donghae’s question and then the shock of pain that had him on the floor. He stood up to grab a dish towel and wrap it around the injured hand when he heard Donghae wretch into the kitchen sink.

Rolling his eyes, Hyukjae tied the towel tightly and inspected the cutting board to make sure that none of the blood had gotten near the food. When he turned around, Donghae was splashing water against his face and rinsing his mouth out with the faucet. Hyukjae let a small giggle slip out as he leaned against the counter. "Are you okay?"

Still a bit pale, Donghae looked over his shoulder with a bit of a pout. "No one needs to know about this."

"Mm." Hyukjae nodded playfully. "Only if you if agree to help me finish the meal. Everything depends on you now, Lee Donghae." Hyukjae's voice took on a mock seriousness. "The meal is in your hands." His little pun made the redhead laugh at his own joke again with a snort. 

Donghae joined in this time. "Ah, are you okay though? I mean, do you need to go to the hospital? Get stitches?"

"Nah," Hyukjae shook his head. "I'll be fine. I just don't think cutting onions would be very pleasant right now." 

The brunette nodded his head and took a step closer toward Hyukjae. "Are you sure you're okay? I can take you to the hospital if you really need to go. I'm capable of that much at least."

"I promise, I'm fine." Hyukjae grinned. "Wanna see?" He then extended his hand and acted as if he was about to remove the towel and show Donghae the gruesome cut. 

"No thanks!" Donghae backed away quickly, turning his head to the side just to make sure he didn't see any more blood, his eyes squeezing shut. 

"Alright, alright. I’ll be nice. Seriously though, I need you to help me do the cooking now." Hyukjae pushed his lips out into a pleading pout. "Pretty please." 

"Ah, yes! Do not fear, Lee Donghae is here!" He lifted up the knife that Hyukjae had just nicked himself with and struck a Statue of Liberty pose. "Just make sure you tell me what to do, because I have no idea how to cook all this. Well, I have no idea how to cook pretty much anything."

"That's not really the reason we're having the dinner." Donghae was carefully peeling the dried skin from the outside of the onion. 

"Hm?" Hyukjae looked up at Donghae from his seated position on the floor. He had been examining the wound but quickly covered it again so that Donghae wouldn't get squeamish and barf all over tonight's dinner. 

"I mean those two really are ing but that's not why we're all having dinner." Donghae looked down at Hyukjae. 

The boy on the floor pulled his knees up to hide his face as he groaned, "Yah! Please don't say it like that."

"Like what?" Donghae set the onion on the cutting board and crouched down beside Hyukjae. His voice was full of amusement, and Hyukjae knew that Donghae knew exactly ‘what’. 

"Yahhhh." It was more whine than anything else. 

Donghae toddled closer and lowered his already rather deep voice. "You mean," he was so close that Hyukjae could feel the other man's body heat, or maybe that was just Hyukjae about to burst into flames on the kitchen floor, "ing?"

Staying silent seemed the best option and coincidentally was the only thing Hyukjae could manage at the moment. He couldn't even swallow after hearing that word in that context from that mouth. 

And the next thing Hyukjae heard was the tapping of the knife against the wooden board. He looked up with a blink to see that Donghae had already resumed his task. Unsure if it was a good thing that Donghae had been kind enough to not tease Hyukjae further or just not interested enough to continue the course, Hyukjae leaned his head back against the door of the cabinet and stared ahead. His cheeks were still hot, but weren't they always these days?

"It's actually because the upcoming drama I'm in has selected one of Leeteuk-hyung's compositions to be the opening song. It's titled Four Calling Birds, and is expected to be a huge asset to ratings. So we're all just celebrating together." Donghae spoke as he continued to slice and dice, stealing glances that Hyukjae caught in his peripheral vision.

First, it was Sungmin that called. "I won't be able to make it back to Seoul by dinner tonight. The shopping trip in Busan took a little longer than I planned.”

 They continued cooking, Hyukjae's heart nearly leaping out of his chest, shattering through his sternum like a rock thrown through a glass window, when Donghae reached his arm in front of Hyukjae to grab something from the other side of the counter. The man could have easily walked around to the other side of Hyukjae, who had moved to sitting on the granite surface instead of the ceramic tiled flooring. It wasn't just an arm extension in front of Hyukjae. It was across his lap.  

"Have you ever been to New York?"

Hyukjae shook his head, keeping all his breath inside in an effort to prevent his lungs from collapsing.

"I'll be filming there for a while in March." 

Then Kyuhyun, who had been chosen to sing Leeteuk's composition among a few other songs on the OST, sent a text message to Donghae about some sort of World of Warcraft emergency. 

"If you're free on the 23rd, you should really stop by CSW Galleria and check out the Christmas Showcase. I know you're similar to Jungsoo and prefer those ballad guys like Kyuhyun, but you might have fun." Hyukjae was adjusting nobs on the stove to help control the temperature when Donghae had started to fail at this task. 

"You work for CSW, right? Will you be singing something for me?" Donghae gave a toothy grin as he stirred one of the soupy dishes that simmered in the pan. 

"Pshh." Hyukjae dismissed the idea of him singing with a laugh. "I've choreographed a few of the dances and will be leading one of the performances though."

Donghae's playful attitude vanished, and he waited until Hyukjae made eye contact with him. "You want me to watch you dance?"

Hyukjae's red hair was pale in comparison to the shade of his cheeks. His mouth was dry and Donghae's brown eyes were making it hard for Hyukjae to process what that question meant. The wording was too obvious, and Hyukjae's heart dropped down a few ribs to rest in the middle of his stomach. Dancing was very personal for him. He rarely performed in front of an audience. When he first asked the question, he intended it just as small talk. His mind had naturally drifted to this topic. Now he was second-guessing himself, wondering if he had actually just hoped to have Donghae sitting in the audience, eyes on him, as he moved his feet across his own stage. Did he want Donghae to see him at his best? 

"I, yeah, I mean, I just think that maybe you would have fun at something like that, possibly or something. You don't have to. I mean, don't feel obligated. It's not like, I mean, it would be cool, but I don't want you to feel like you have to. You're probably really busy and stuff--"

"I'd love to."

When they started emptying contents from pots and pans to bowls and plates, Donghae received a call that Heechul had to fill in on a show and would be recording late, unable to make it to the dinner. They both shrugged it off and figured that Jungsoo and Donghae were the main two to celebrate that night. Heechul was only coming for the dessert that Jungsoo had planned. 

"What do you mean you've never had a strawberry? What is wrong with you?" Hyukjae stood with a sauce-soaked spatula raised in the air as he stared incredulously at the freak in front of him. 

Donghae burst out laughing so forcefully that it came out in snorts and rasping inhales. Hyukjae held his stance and look of disbelief as his eyebrows raised higher in waiting for an answer. "I just don't like sweets, Hyukkie." There's that nickname again. "--so I've never bothered to eat one."

Hyukjae missed the first part of that last part when his heart thumped back up through his throat at hearing that cute little nickname in Donghae's slight Mokpo accent. He found himself wondering how the actor disguised that twang when working. 

"Seriously?" Hyukjae frowned, his bottom lip pushing up the top forcefully. "This really has to change." The sweet-toothed man had already started to rummage through the fridge in search of his well-hidden stash of strawberries, only the most fantastic fruit known to man. Twenty seconds later and he pulled out the plastic carton half-filled with the reddish-pink berries, his matching gums bearing witness to the excitement contained in this one treat. 

With a sigh, Donghae held out a hand. "Alright, hit me."  It wasn't that he hated sweets. They just never had much appeal to him. He had never really thought of eating or not eating a strawberry. He wasn't unwilling. It just hadn't happened yet. Some things are like that.

A large juicy berry was dropped from Hyukjae's slender fingers into Donghae's fleshy palm as one watched the other in mounting anticipation. Hyukjae almost hoped that Donghae would be disgusted by the strawberry, thinking perhaps that would make the gorgeous man less mind-numbingly enchanting. 

Donghae stretched his lips back from his teeth as he bit carefully, halfway down the strawberry. Hyukjae giggled at the strange method, but fell into a serious state as he concentrated on reading Donghae's reaction. "Well, it's not half bad."

It was actually when Hyukjae set the third plate down at the table that he heard the house phone ringing. He could tell just from the ringtone and shot a glance at Donghae. They mentally placed bets on whether or not this was Jungsoo calling to cancel as well. Too bad they both bet for the same side, because without a loser, there was no money in the pot. 

"He says he has to stay at the studio for another couple hours and told us to go ahead and eat. Apparently, we are rescheduling for tomorrow and he'll just have it catered." Hyukjae picked back up that third plate and accompanying utensils, returning them to the kitchen, unable to frown in a moment like this. 

"Well, then I guess it's just you and me," Donghae took the items from Hyukjae and set them on the counter before grabbing two glasses of mineral water and meeting Hyukjae back at the table. 

Hyukjae waited until Donghae had made his way back before taking a seat. Seeing as the 'small’, informal dining table was still actually quite large, they had ended up with two place settings directly across from one another, leaving a whole length of table empty. It didn't seem empty to Hyukjae though. With Donghae sitting across from him, the entire room was filled to the brim.

Despite the below freezing temperature outside, Hyukjae felt that it was more than warm enough. Not uncomfortable, but noticeably warm. He could only hope that it was the house's heating system and not his own blushing again.

"Well, we might as well enjoy all this food since we worked so hard for it." Donghae laughed at what might have been his attempt at a joke and started to cut all of his own food into small pieces like a mother does for a little child.

Seeing Donghae treat his food in such a way reminded Hyukjae of how his parents had always required the family to pray before dinner. He hadn't really done this since he had left, but now he felt as though everything depended on it. Maybe he hadn't been saying grace before a meal because even when he lived with Jungsoo, the two never had time to sit down to a meal together like this, as a family. Not that Donghae was family, but Hyukjae couldn't help the impulse. It was almost as though he was being ordered to pray by some higher being as he folded his hands  in his lap and bowed his head with eyes closed, muttering a quick 'thank you for this food, bless everyone, amen'. When he opened his eyes, at first he was afraid to see how Donghae reacted to the random act of religious habit. Much to his surprise, Donghae was in the act of opening his own eyes and lifting his head. A quick closed-mouth smile in Hyukjae's direction and the brunette was already digging in. 

The first ring started when Donghae lifted the first bite to his mouth. He froze with fork en route, looked at Hyukjae, and then continued the movement of his hand toward his mouth, ignoring the call.

"Shouldn't you get that?" Hyukjae blinked before taking his own first bite. The meal had turned out more than okay. It could have just been the memories of how it was made, but everything about this meal was tender, sweet, flavorful. 

"I'd rather just eat." Donghae spoke around a mouth full of meat. 

Hyukjae tried not to smile. It would be weird to smile over something like that, right? What man wouldn’t rather eat than talk on the phone?

About ten minutes later, the ring started again, and both men paused.

"Excuse me." Donghae got up to retrieve his phone from the other room, having left it on the kitchen counter, leaving Hyukjae to hypothesize about what this call could be. 

"Really?!" Hyukjae could hear Donghae's question from the other room. It was loud and excited. Hyukjae knew that it must have been good news, something Donghae had been hoping for. "Ah, right now? I'm actually in the middle of something though. Can't we reschedule for tomorrow?" 

Curious, Hyukjae couldn't help but get up from his seat and slowly head to the kitchen. 

"Tonight's the only time?" The excitement was gone and replaced with disappointment. 

"You should go," Hyukjae whispered from the doorway of the kitchen. He had spoken without realizing. Whatever was going on, it seemed like a one-time chance that Donghae really shouldn't have to miss. 

"Hold on," Donghae spoke into the phone before looking up at Hyukjae. "What about dinner?"