Baekhyun turned over, his hand hitting Chanyeol’s face and causing the latter to snort loudly in protest. In his sleepy state, Chanyeol protested to the violence by turning on his side and bear hugging Baekhyun in a death grip. Chanyeol’s hair flicked slightly over his eyes, and was surprisingly un-curly for bed hair. Baekhyun giggled in his mind at the rememberance of the first time he had seen Chanyeol’s baby face, and when Chanyeol had spoken, Baekhyun had looked around expecting to see a middle-aged man hiding somewhere. Instead, he had just turned back to see a very confused wide-eyes looking at him with his head cocked to the side. Then, Chanyeol had introduced Baekhyun to his friend Kris, and Baekhyun swore that they had twin voices.

Baekhyun giggled in his head childishly again, imagining a circus with performers of Kris and Chanyeol amazing everyone with their twin voices. Somehow, he didn’t think that many people would actually go to that one.

Chanyeol sleepily opened his eyes, and Baekhyun watched in fascination as Chanyeol blinked slowly, like he was trying to overcome the weight on his eyes. Chanyeol smiled angelically when he opened them fully, opting to close them again after and pull Baekhyun in for a hug that still squeezed the air out of Baekhyun’s lungs, even after all those years.

‘I wanted to see you before I went back to sleep again.’ Chanyeol’s gruff voice whispered by Baekhyun’s ear causing Baekhyun to shiver. Baekhyun then responded by planting a sweet kiss on Chanyeol’s cheek, and leaning up on his elbows. Chanyeol swiped at Baekhyun, cranky that his warmth was gone, but Baekhyun pulled back just in time to get off the bed and skip to the kitchen.

‘BAEKHYUN~’ Chanyeol called out, and Baekhyun wasn’t sure if it was weird he thought that the deep voice was cute, but he started making breakfast for Chanyeol anyway.

He turned the stove on, looking at the blue flames flicker and hearing the click of the lighter. When the oil had heated up to a good temperature, Baekhyun opened the egg, looking at the bubbling of the white and cringing as he immediately likened it to boils. While waiting for Chanyeol he leaned back and yelped as searing hot metal came in contact with his smooth skin. He knocked the pan onto a tissue which caught on fire, and immediately Baekhyun widened his eyes as the flames threatened to up and burn the wooden cupboards.

He looked around for a fire extinguisher, but couldn’t find one anywhere, and he didn’t know where much was, since it was Chanyeol’s flat.

Like he had before, Baekhyun could only watch as the orange flickering flames destroyed Chanyeol’s countertop and chopping board, and watch the sway while gradually getting hotter from the heat of the flames. He screamed for Chanyeol, and then broke down in tears as the edge of the cupboard burned black from the fire.

Chanyeol, smelling smoke, rushed into the room in his blue pyjamas, got out a fire blanket from behind the toaster and put the fire out in a matter of seconds.

He bent down in front of Baekhyun, who was still crying, the salty water dripping to his mouth, intensifying the experience as he tasted his own tears. Chanyeol’s eyes were immediately drawn to Baekhyun’s untreated wound, and he wet a cloth to take away the heat from the burn.

‘Is it the burn?’ Chanyeol asked the reason behind the tears. Baekhyun shook his head, his eyes screwed up and the tears still dripping just as fast.

‘I don’t care about the flat, I have enough money, I’m just glad you’re safe.’ Baekhyun shook his head again and pointed at his throat, frustrated at himself. Why couldn’t he just have been born normal?

Chanyeol took Baekhyun in his arms, rocking them both back and forth.

‘It’s OK, Baekhyun. It’s not your fault, it’s mine. I wasn’t there when you needed me.’

Baekhyun buried his head further into Chanyeol’s chest.