People were throwing rice as the new couple walked past the arch they had custom ordered for the wedding. The grass was green, the sun was shining and everyone was smiles and happiness. Today was a memorable day. One to mark the books of not only the newlyweds but everyone who had a life woven within theirs.  

Hand in hand, the grooms ducked under the onslaught of rice to try and get to the white vehicle that would bring them to the airport and off to their honeymoon. The back was decorated with cans and ribbons, a large sign that marked "Just Hitched!" with cheesy hearts all around in lipstick on the window. It was the ultimate honeymoon transporter and Jonghyun loved every bit of it.  

On their walk out they passed Onew, his large smile broken over his aged face, still the epitome of youth even with his hair brushed back and an older, more mature Hyunjae attached to his hip, swollen with the baby they were expecting any day now. They both threw up their handfuls of rice and waved at them, to which Key and Jonghyun waved back, stopping to give their generous hyung a hug. Without him, this wedding probably would have never happened. On the other side Taemin's mother stood next to Key's mother, who was now in a wheelchair but looking as gorgeous as ever with her hair up and her makeup done, a blanket matching her dress spread across her lap. When she saw them staring at her she released her rice and let the newlyweds come and embrace her, kissing their cheeks and giving their blessings, Taemin's mother doing the same, mentioning how Taemin would have loved to have been there. But in a way he had been, the position of best man on Jonghyun's side having been left empty in honour of the friend they had lost too soon. It had been nearly 10 years since, but he was a strong memory in their hearts and everyday lives.  

The last of their closest friends and family was Jonghyun's side. His father was graying and his mother had aged eloquently. They both held hands as they joined in on the rice tossing. When Jonghyun and Key approached the pair, his mother started to bawl like a child, wrapping him in a tight bear hug and squeezing him. "I love you; I'm so proud of you," she congratulated her only son, bringing Key in afterwards to give him good wishes.  

They had made their rounds. Just at the end, as Jonghyun helped Key into the car before him, he turned to look back at his support group, his eyes scanning specifically for one person. He spotted the tall frame near the edge of the crowd. Tall, silent but smiling, making noise with the noise makers that they had handed out for when there was no more rice to throw. He had his new boyfriend at his side, a shorter man with a deep baritone voice and blue hair. Seunghyun was his name, if Jonghyun recalled correctly.  

When Minho caught Jonghyun's eye he raised a hand to salute him, timid but friendly, the past behind them, the bond of the one they had lost together holding them together and making them closer. The past was the past for them. Together they had rebuilt a friendship and Jonghyun could confidently call him his brother.  

"Babe, you coming?" Key called, leaning across the seat.  

His cat eyes peered at Jonghyun from the open door. He, himself, had one foot on the car, ready to slide in. But he had wanted to take one last look at the crowd of people that had supported them both to this point. Through their graduations, their new careers, the opening of a second shop with Onew, then a third and fourth, through their engagement, and now their wedding. Through better and for worse, Jonghyun was not only tied to Key, but these people. He gave them all a last smile before placing his full attention on his husband.  

"Yeah baby, scoot over." Jonghyun slid in to the seat, closing the door behind them.  

In here, there was less noise. It was muted and became quieter still as their driver pulled from the curb, heading to the airport.  

Jonghyun's hand crawled across the seat to hold onto Key's, bringing his knuckles to his mouth so he could kiss them tenderly.  

"Yah, what's that for?" Key asked.  

"I don't need an excuse to kiss my husband," Jonghyun mumbled, turning Key's wrist to him so he could kiss the soft skin.  

"Oh yeah? So that's your excuse now?"  

"Shush," Jonghyun laughed. He leaned across the space separating them, cupping the back of Key's neck and bringing their lips together. It was a tender kiss, one they savoured. In the back seat of the car, it was just the two of them. For two weeks, it would be just the two of them, and Jonghyun couldn't wait to slide that white suit jacket off of his husband's shoulders and that chemise to explore the skin underneath.  

----  

"Wow," Key breathed as they walked into their room. They were in California for their honeymoon, a dream location for Key who had wanted to come here for as long as he could remember. There had never been a chance between school and business, but Jonghyun had convinced him that two weeks for their honeymoon was the bare minimum that Key could sacrifice. In the end, it was not a bad decision at all.  

They had rented a small beach cabin to themselves, just down the street from the ocean, but close enough that they could hear the waves and the laughter of voyaging families. Their view wasn't perfect, but they could see the blue water just beyond the houses close to them. It was beautiful, it was hot, and Jonghyun's shirt was already off, leaving him only in the shorts he had changed into at the airport. Key was a little more modest, sporting a tie-dye tank top over jean shorts that he had rolled at the cuffs to make fall above his knee.  

When Key turned from the window to offer help to Jonghyun – who had graciously carried in both of their suitcases with his carry-on bag, he was met with the lean and toned, tanned chest of his beloved.  

"Wow," he repeated, this time with less wonder and more straight-up appreciation. He crossed his arms over his chest, eyeing his husband up and down. "Took you 2 hours to get your shirt off. That has to be a new record"  

"Hey," Jonghyun defended himself, "I waited till we were in private."  

"Yeah, that's the thing," Key continued, "It's a record for how long it took you. You were always quick to get at the shop."  

Jonghyun snorted. "Okay, so that barely happened. I was never fully shirtless at the shop, even when I was moving heavy orders while you sat on your and read a magazine. There was only one time and that's when I came out of the shower and I didn't know there were going to be four thousand preteen girls in our store."  

"You mean, Onew's store, right?" Key asked, full on teasing now. He raised an eyebrow at the other as he crossed the floor to reach him, his waist being captured by two hands.  

Jonghyun leaned in, placing a soft kiss on Key's lips. "You're right, that one was his store... I haven't been shirtless in our branches yet. So there."  

They laughed together, locking lips once more. This time they were less eager to part for conversation. This wouldn't be the first time they slept together – they had broken that barrier long ago - but it would be their first time as a married couple. Jonghyun had done half the work for Key already by stripping to nothing but his shorts. From there, the clothes came off practically on their own. Key's bare chest became Jonghyun's canvas, pressing stamps in the shape of his lips all over the smooth, pale skin. Key's mouth was a jukebox as his husband played his body like a fretboard.  It was a sweet tangle of breathless exclamations of love and sweaty limbs, with the backdrop being their dream destination set in a fairytale book.  

Nothing could beat this moment and Jonghyun would have lost it on anyone that tried to ruin their moment. When all was said and done he lay out of breath by his lover, the both of them satisfied. Their sticky messes were cleaned up with a couple tissues, now lying side by side on the old bed.  

Neither of them spoke, savouring the intimate moment. Key brushed the loose hairs back into place over Jonghyun's forehead, tracing the birth marks on his body. His fingers danced over the muscles and bones, the ridges in his skin that he had grown so familiar with. To think that they had started as strangers before. Even worse, as enemies. It was almost funny to see how far he had fallen for this lump of a dinosaur.  

Jonghyun's own fingers outlined the delicate curve of Key's cupid's bow, underlining the smooth arc of his cat eyes, following the bulge of collarbone that he had defaced with a kiss too hard. Fingers brushing all the way down to Key's fingers where he laced the digits together, tangling them together and bringing them to his chest over his heart. They really had been through it all together.  

"I love you," Jonghyun whispered, shuffling closer to Key.  

Their bodies lay over the covers, both too hot to actually want to cuddling, but needing it like it was a gene in their blood telling them to get together. Key sighed through his nose, eyes falling shut.  

"I love you too," he replied.  

They shared a sleepy kiss together in the heat of high sun. Jetlagged but happy. Hot and satisfied. This was the perfect way to celebrate a marriage and Jonghyun was excited to continue celebrating it in similar fashion for the next 14 days. For now, though, he would enjoy this early afternoon nap with his lover.  

----  

California had been amazing. The beach had been great – sandy, but great. They had snorkeled off the bay, tried to surf and fallen (many, many times), done all the cliché tourist things, eaten ice cream, bought souvenirs, Skyped their family to let them know how great it was to be out in the sun. It was a true dream come true. And most of all, they got to love each other freely. Their tans deepened enough that whenever they took off their wedding bands a pale ring separated their skin tones, something that Key secretly loved to look at.  

The wedding band was quite simple compared to his personality, a simple silver band, but it was engraved on the inside. It was the date that Key had marked on the note in Jonghyun's notebook. The note that Jonghyun had found that had ultimately enlightened him to the feelings he had been suppressing for Key. It was a very fond date for the both of them, so they had chosen to engrave it on their rings as an inside memory to them both. It was better than any diamond, if anyone asked Key.  

They were three weeks back from their honeymoon now, though, and back to business. That meant they had stores to manage. All the studying they had put into their majors really had helped. They had studied business and management, with a few scattered electives in there to help broaden their educational horizons – and that was a direct quote from the academic advisor. Well, Key had broadened his horizons into a class called in the media and all he had seen was a gross underrepresentation of major groups of people. But that was a conversation for another day.  

Today Jonghyun and Key were in the main store, the one where they had met. Onew was in his office – a new extension they had added when remodeling and expanding the initial location – and Key and Jonghyun were handling the floor. This building was now three times bigger, meaning they had two employees working beneath them. One was a teenage boy in high school called Daniel, he had started working here around the same time as Kelly Oh, a college student. Both of them were better than Jessica who had been fired not long after everything had settled down from Taemin's funeral.  

Key was the manager, along with Jonghyun, and they each handled their own branches at the stations across town. Today they had sent their assistant managers to work on their behalf while they catered to the store here, organizing an event to announce the launch of Key's skincare and makeup line that they'd been designing and working on for nearly three years now.  

It had to be perfect, and everyone knew that because Key never let them forget.  

"Listen, I want the catering table to be lined here with the wall of notebooks. The skin care is going to be set up in the front on the right, and the makeup on the left, but further in. Lindy, are you listening?" Key snapped. His nerves and stress had been higher than normal lately and everyone around them was suffering for it. The two weeks in California had been great, but they maybe should have planned things better before the wedding. It had kind of slipped all their minds that they would have to come back and dig into the eye of work again the moment they did. "Launch is in 3 weeks; we don't have to dawdle," Key groaned, going back over his explanation with Lindy, pointing out each place with his pen.  

From where he was in the store, Jonghyun snorted. "You know, he hasn't changed one bit since I met him," he noted to Daniel.  

The young boy looked at him, always seeming a bit awestruck whenever the elder recognized him. "R-really?" He asked.  

Jonghyun nodded, hauling up the box of Hello Kitty merchandise from the back room to bring it out to the main floor where he would have to try and set it up between customers that Key somehow managed to skillfully avoid without batting an eyelid. It was a little trickier for the other employees. Jonghyun and Onew especially. Jonghyun due to his bulk, and Onew well... It was just his condition.  

Speaking of which...  

The older man came barreling down the stairs – still living in the condo above the store (though that had been renovated as well to make way for his growing family and wife) -, holding a phone to his ear. "Out of the way!" he called, waving an arm wildly so everyone would catch the hint.  

Key looked up from where he was planning, as shocked as the rest of the people in the store at the scene.  

"Hyung, what's wrong?" Jonghyun asked, quickly setting his box down on the counter. "Is it Hyunjae?"  

Onew barreled down the last step, nicking the postcard stand and sending it flying in a way so reminiscent of the past. "Can someone please move that damn thing?! It's been 10 years! Hyunjae is in labour! Her water broke during mommy yoga!" He shouted, slipping on a postcard as he tried to get to the door. "Please move that thing!" It was the last thing that he said before stumbling out onto the street, racing to where his car was parked, a car seat half buckled in back since he had never understood how to install it and Hyungjae had told him to leave it until she came home and well... Now it was there.  

Everyone was a bit awe struck that this was happening. Even the clients were kind of murmuring quietly as they stared at the trail of dust that Onew had left in his wake. It only hit Jonghyun minutes later that Hyungjae was in labour, and that was his sister. He definitely needed to get his moving. "Key!" He called, but his husband was already sliding his sweater on and coming to meet him at the counter.  

"I'll drive," Key offered, grabbing their car keys off the hook behind the cash counter. "And I better see those postcards back on the rack before I get back, Daniel."  

The teenager squeaked out a yes as the older couple left the store. Another adventure.  

---------------------------

Author's Notes: This story was written 7 years ago in 2011 when I was a young and dumb 16/17 year old. Today I am still a dumb 23 year old but I wrote a new epilogue to this story. I reread this fic of mine (shaking my head at my stupidity the whole way) and read all your amazing comments and was inspired to write a final part to this whole thing. This is a four part epilogue and it is completely done and written so I will be uploading it in 4 parts! 

I hope you all enjoy - old readers and new. And if you read this story 7 years ago and are seeing this now, surprise. 

This was also hard to write with Jonghyun's passing this past winter. I don't think I will be writing any SHINee fanfic for the next long while. We need time as a fandom, and I as a huge blingbling and shawol, to recover from this tragedy. 

RIP JONGHYUN. You worked hard.