"Can you hold my hand while we sleep?"

*  *  *

“Finally!” Kibum shouted as he and Amber answered the front door. “You’re here!”

Jonghyun stepped inside and toed his shoes off. “Better late than never.”

Kibum grabbed hold of Jonghyun's arm and started to drag him further inside of the house. “Come on! I already have my buzz on!~ You’re so slow, Jjongie!”

“You’re going to have to make up lost time,” Amber giggled as she followed behind the two boys.

Kibum lead-more so forced-Jonghyun downstairs where the party was. The newcomer glanced over to his right at the downstairs bar where he saw many different types of alcohol. He then glanced straight ahead, seeing Minho and Sulli sitting on different couches and watching TV.

“Look who finally decided to show his face!” Kibum yelled obnoxiously as he pushed Jonghyun towards Minho.

The pushed male stumbled forward and glared back at Kibum. “Bum, how much have you had?”

“Oh buddy! I don’t know and frankly, I don’t give a ! I feel good!~”

Jonghyun shook his head while smiling. Drunk Kibum was being drunk Kibum.

“Hello Minho,” Jonghyun greeted as he waved his hand. “Hi Sulli.”

“Hey,” Minho replied as Sulli said, “hello oppa.”

Jonghyun walked over to the couch Minho was sitting on and plopped himself right next to him. “What’s up?”

“Watching TV,” the younger said as he pointed at the TV.

Jonghyun hummed in response. “Aren’t we supposed to be getting wasted like Bum and Amber?”

“We could…” Minho started, “but I value my brain cells too much.”

Jonghyun looked over at the younger in confusion then burst out into laughter. “You… You think… you have brain cells?!” he managed to say through his laughter. “You’re kidding!”

“I don’t think you should be the one to talk, hyung,” Minho replied, obviously just trying to pull on his hyung’s leg a little.

Jonghyun quickly stood up in annoyance. “You sober people ! You’re just sitting  here watching TV like two lowly bums! I want to have fun,”  The boy began trotting over to the bar area. “Even if that means I have to watch these two practically each other’s faces off.”

“Glad you decided to join the party! Minho and Sulli are just goody-goodies!” Amber shouted as she watched the whole ordeal with Jonghyun and Minho go down.

Three bottles of soju, four shots of hot , two white Russians, and one shot of whiskey later, Jonghyun was completely drunk. There was no denying it. His speech was  slightly slurred and didn’t make any sense, he was tripping over imaginary objects,  and he was overly-clingy.

“Min-Minho! Have… Did I ever say you are handsome?” Jonghyun slurred out and he sat on said boy’s lap, staring deeply into his eyes while his cheek softly.

Minho sighed and shook the elder’s hand off of him, not wanting the drunk boy’s touch. “No, you haven’t.”

Jonghyun reached his hand back up slowly and resumed what he was doing before the younger made his hand fall. “Skin… you’re soft.”

The older glanced up at Minho’s hair, moving his hand up to the silky locks, running them through his fingers. “Your hair is better than his…”

Minho watched Jonghyun’s actions with a careful eye. “Who?”

“Ducky’s… his hair wasn’t this nice…” Jonghyun said in a disgusted tone and he stared-almost examined-the strands of hair between his fingers.

Minho furrowed his eyebrows together in confusion. “A duck?”

The elder giggled, almost sadly as he continue to stare at Minho’s hair. “No~ Not… duck!  Ducky! “

“Who’s Ducky?”

The elder suddenly halted all his motions and slid off of the younger’s lap onto to the floor. “My song…”

“What?”

Jonghyun tilted his head back and looked up the other boy miserably. “My sadness…”

“Hyung… You don’t make sense,” Minho as he reached down to rub the elder’s back.

“Does anything actually make sense in this world, Minho?” Jonghyun questioned as he leaned back into Minho’s gentle touch.

Minho exhaled deeply. “I don’t know...”

“I feel bad though…”

The younger continued to massage the elder’s back as he began to slowly, but surely, increasingly tired. His hyung has three drunk stages and Minho knew them all. He had only experienced drunk Jonghyun twice and both times had the same three stages of drunk

The first stage was being overly-excited and happy. Jonghyun didn’t care about anything at this point because he was just smiles and joy. He would try to do stupid stunts, like run outside completely , and not care one bit because he thought it was fun.

The second stage was the overly-clingy and sentimental stage. Jonghyun would try to touch and compliment someone he was relatively close to with no end. His touches were never ual in any way, shape, or form; they were touches of adoration and admiration.

The stage stage was the overly-emotional and deep stage. At this point, Jonghyun would contemplate every life decision he had ever made and  decide that he regretted half--if not

more--of them. He would speak his innermost thoughts and feelings, yet a person would never know what he was babbling about because he disguised names and didn’t speak directly. His words would go around the bush instead of in the bush, which always left people guessing what he meant. Since nobody could understand his deep symbolism or selective word choice, he would start to cry and complain about how nobody, not even his closest angels or demons could understand him the way he did.

Right now, Jonghyun was working his way into stage three.

“Why’s that?” Minho inquired.

Jonghyun closed his eyes, focusing on the wonderful feeling on his back and his own words. “Well, things… they should make sense, but they don’t… You never… re-really know the full reason why things… something happens… There should be simplicity.”

“Simplicity?”

The elder hummed audibly. “Yes… so someone could know something fully instead of being… left to ponder all the real reasons in their mind… Left alone to be consumed from the inside out.”

“Self-destruction?”

“Precise…” Jonghyun’s words were interrupted by his own yawn, “...ly. That and thinking alone isn’t good… that’s part of why I feel bad.”

“Why else do you feel bad?”

“For not speaking the full truth... For not doing what I knew was right… For being too selfish… For not fighting… For letting my demons win...”

The younger remained quiet for a few long moments, letting the fresh information soak in and trying to understand what any of what Jonghyun said meant.

“Ducky… My song… My sadness…  Simplicity… Left alone… Self-destruction… The truth, what’s right, being selfish, not fighting, and letting my demons win…”

Minho glanced down to look at Jonghyun, whose head was hung to the side, eye closed, and mouth slightly open. “Hyung…”

“Mmm…”

“Do you want to go to sleep?” Minho asked softly as he continued to watch how Jonghyun was trying, absolutely miserably, to not fall asleep.

Jonghyun opened his eyes partially and set his head on the inside of Minho’s thigh. “Mmm…”

“Okay, let me help you up so we can walk to the guest bedroom…”

Minho slowly began to stand up, supporting Jonghyun with the hand that was still placed on the elder’s back while using his free hand to grab hold of the elder’s hand and carefully pulled him up into a standing position causing Jonghyun to groan.

Minho let go of Jonghyun’s hand and wrapped his arm around the shorter’s waist.

The tired male was leaning heavily against Minho , while he practically dragged the stumbling mess into the guest bedroom.  The younger hit the light switch with an elbow as they walked through the door.

The two boys eventually both made their way to the bed, where Jonghyun quickly plopped his body onto the mattress, forcing Minho to let go of him.

“I need to go use the bathroom quick, then I’ll be right back. Make yourself comfortable while I’m gone,” Minho whispered into the shorter’s ear before exiting out of the room.

Jonghyun glanced down at his legs, noticing they were still covered by his pair of jeans. He rolled his head back and groaned.  “Goddamn pants.”

He reached his hands down to the button of his jeans and began to fumble with the button until it popped open. He quickly ped his fly  and sighed in content. “Now… off.”

Jonghyun leaned back on his shoulders, as he raised his legs in the air. He moved his hands up to the helm of his jeans and began pulling them off. “Ehhh… get off…”

He managed to pull them down to his mid-thigh after a  good minute or two of fighting with the denim.

He sighed and dropped his legged back down onto the mattress. “I give up.”

“What are you giving up?” Minho asked as he walked into the room wearing  a loose t-shirt and baggy shorts.

“Pants… help me…” Jonghyun whined as he kicked his legs up and down.

The younger chuckled as he made his over to the bed. “Hold onto your boxers so I don’t accidently slip those off too.”

The older grabbed onto the helm of his boxers and he lifted his legs in the air again.

Minho grabbed purchase onto the bottoms of the pant legs and pulled them off easily, setting them on the ground.

The taller turned the light off and laid down in the bed next to the shorter. He covered them both up before saying a quick, “good night.”

“Night… thanks,” Jonghyun mumbled.

“You’re welcome, hyung… Good night.”

A good half hour passed and Minho had already fallen asleep, but Jonghyun was still awaken, even though he was extremely tired.

He sighed and poked Minho’s cheek. “Minho…”

He poked it again. “Minho…”

He felt the younger stir under the blanket. “It’s working!”

“Minho, Minho, Minho, Minho, Minho, Minho~”

“What?” came the grumpy and husky response.

Jonghyun scooted himself closer to the boy he was previously poking and annoying. “Can we cuddle?”

“What? Why?”

“Because I can’t fall asleep unless I cuddle with something.”

“Fine.” Minho flipped over onto his back, allowing Jonghyun to scoot even closer and set his head on Minho’s chest.

“Now go to sleep…”

Another five or so later, Jonghyun still couldn’t sleep. “Minho…”

“Mmm…”

Jonghyun sighed in relief. The other boy was still fortunately awake. “Would it be okay if… Can you hold my hand while we sleep?”

“If that means you will sleep…”

The cuddly boy smiled and he reached over the other’s stomach and held his hand gently in his own, lacing their fingers together.

The two boys fell asleep, hand-in-hand.

_______________________

Hello, this is your author typing. 7/19/2014. This chapter had 1,777 words. I actually posted this chapter ahead of schedule... I planned on posting this on 7/23/2014 because I think a chapter every two weeks is nice. Just so you all know, I didn't edit this well, so if you see any errors, please tell me. Also, if you have questions, please feel free to ask.^^

This chapter's theme was: "Can you hold my hand while we sleep?"

I'm open for any thoughts, opinions, feedback, compliments, constructive criticism, corrections, and etc. that you all have to offer! It can only improve my writing. I wanted to have a lot of writer-reader interaction with this fic so I'm replying to every comment and thanking every single subscriber!~ PLEASE COMMENT!