The next morning, Eunhyuk awoke and sat up to find his and Donghae’s disheveled clothing at the foot of their bed and on the floor. He looked down to see Donghae gently run his fingers down his arm and interlace their hands. “Good morning,” Donghae whispered as a smile formed across his lips.

          Eunhyuk lay back down next to his boyfriend and pulled him closer as he leaned his head against Donghae’s. “We finally got to do it,” Eunhyuk muttered.

          Donghae laughed quietly before running a hand through Eunhyuk’s blonde hair and down his face. “Did you like it?” Donghae wondered.

          “Can we do it again?” Eunhyuk requested as he placed his hands on Donghae’s waist.

          Smiling, Donghae replied “Not right now, but sometime later we can. I’m sure Sungmin will be waking up soon and he’ll want to open his presents.”

          The two sat up before Eunhyuk wrapped his arms around Donghae’s body and kissed his neck. Laying his head on Donghae’s shoulder, Eunhyuk whispered “I love you.”

          “I love you too,” Donghae echoed as he ran a hand up and down Eunhyuk’s back.

          In Heechul’s bedroom, the raven haired teen’s eyes fluttered as the nightmare he was dreaming felt all too real.

          *Heechul’s nightmare*

          Hearing the footsteps from down the hall, Heechul felt his heart pound as laughter became louder. Heechul wanted to run away, but found himself handcuffed to the bed. He struggled against the restraints, but gasped when the door swung open and two men entered. “Well, well, look what we got here,” one of them said as they looked down at Heechul.

          “He’s a pretty one,” the other added. “Definitely worth fifty bucks.”

          Heechul breathed in and out rapidly as he continued to struggle against the handcuffs. Both men laughed since his actions were futile. One man slapped him to make Heechul stop squirming. “Be still you little , and it’ll all be over soon,” he whispered as he started to undo Heechul’s pants.

          “No, get away from me!” Heechul yelled as he kicked the man in the face.

          “Looks like he doesn’t want to play,” the other man informed as his friend wiped blood from his lip.

          “Okay, then we’ll start with your friend,” he suggested.

          Heechul turned his head to see the other man pull Hankyung into the room. He was shirtless, had his hands tied behind his back, and duct tape over his mouth. Eyes widened, Heechul watched the two men push his boyfriend down to the ground. “No, don’t hurt him! Please, don’t hurt him, hurt me instead! Please, stay away from him,” Heechul pleaded.

          Both men turned to face Heechul as one approached the raven haired teen again. “You wanna play nice now?” he questioned.

          “Yes, I’ll do whatever you want, just please don’t hurt him,” Heechul requested.

          “If you’re good, we won’t hurt him,” the man promised as he began to touch Heechul.

          The whole time Heechul was being , he kept his eyes on Hankyung, making sure that the other man didn’t harm him. Heechul’s eyes met his boyfriend’s and he felt a tear run out of the corner of his eye as he lay there silently. When the man was done with Heechul, he turned to his friend. “Alright, go on and have your fun.”

          Heechul saw Hankyung’s eyes widened as he gave a muffled scream against the duct tape. “No, you said you wouldn’t hurt him!” Heechul reminded.

          “I lied,” the man stated. He pushed his hand against Heechul’s head and turned him to face Hankyung. “And you’re going to watch the show with me,” he added with an evil grin.

          Heechul heard Hankyung cry and groan. “Hankyung, please leave him alone! Hankyung!” Heechul cried. “Please, please don’t!”

          The man ripped off the tape from across Hankyung’s mouth violently as Hankyung looked up and locked eyes with the raven haired Korean. “Heechul . . . Heechul,” he muttered as tears ran down his face. “Heechul . . .”

          *End nightmare*

          “Heechul, wake up.” He opened his eyes and panted loudly. Looking over next to him, Heechul saw his boyfriend lying next to him, concerned. “Are you okay?” Hankyung asked as he wiped the tears off his face.

          Lunging forward, Heechul wrapped his arms around Hankyung. “You’re not hurt,” he muttered into his boyfriend’s shoulder.

          “Of course I’m not,” Hankyung said as he hugged Heechul closer. “What happened?”

          “I had a horrible dream; remember a few weeks ago when my mom told me that she would’ve made you have for money too? Well I had a dream that I saw you get and I couldn’t do anything about it, I couldn’t help you,” Heechul cried as he buried his face in Hankyung’s neck.

          Hankyung shushed him quietly before kissing his face. “That will never happen Heechul. No one will make you e yourself again, and no one will hurt either of us,” he quietly promised. “I’m so sorry you had a nightmare. I wish I could protect you in your dreams.”

          “I saw them hurt you, they made me watch,” Heechul sobbed as he closed his eyes.

          Hankyung stayed silent for a few moments as he let his boyfriend cry. He knew that Heechul had childhood trauma that he would probably never get over, but Hankyung was not going to let that keep him from loving Heechul. After a minute, he wiped the tears away and whispered “It’s okay Heechul; it’s not real, it’s just a dream. Dreams can’t hurt you and they can’t hurt me. Now c’mon, let me dry your tears and we’ll go downstairs so you can open up the other present I got you for Christmas.”

          Heechul looked up at Hankyung. “You got me something else?”

          “Yes, and you’re worth every penny,” Hankyung replied as he kissed his boyfriend’s forehead.

          Inside Yesung and Sungmin’s room, the blonde woke up and shook his boyfriend. “Kyuhyun, wake up, it’s Christmas,” Sungmin whispered.

          Opening his eyes, Kyuhyun smiled as he wrapped his arms around Sungmin’s warm body. “I know, go wake up Yesung and Ryeowook, and we’ll go downstairs,” he suggested.

          Once all the couples were awake, they headed downstairs to find Leeteuk and Kangin waiting for them. “They took a lot longer than I expected,” Leeteuk whispered to his spouse.

          Kangin wrapped an arm around Leeteuk before saying “Well they are teenagers, they like to sleep.”

          “Okay, who wants to go first?” Leeteuk asked.

          “I wanna give Sungmin his present first,” Kyuhyun replied. He reached under the tree and pulled out a box before giving it to his blonde boyfriend.

          Sungmin opened it up to find two things. Gasping, Sungmin exclaimed “A bunny, you got me a bunny!”

          “It’s just a stuffed animal though; I noticed you took a lot of interest in them when we played with them a few months ago, so I got you a little pink one. Hopefully one day I can buy you a real one,” Kyuhyun explained. “And I got you that new videogame we were looking at the other week at the mall. I thought we could play it together later.”

          Sungmin leaned forward and kissed Kyuhyun’s lips. “You’re the best,” he stated. “Now I wanna give you your present.”

          Handing Kyuhyun a little bag he had, Sungmin watched Kyuhyun open it up and pull out a videogame. “Oh my God, Minnie, you got me StarCraft for the game system? It’s only been available for the computer for a long time,” Kyuhyun said, in awe of his gift.

          “They had it on sale at in a mall store, and I know it’s your favorite game, so I got it for you,” Sungmin muttered as he blushed.

          Kyuhyun kissed Sungmin before replying “I love it Minnie, thank you.”

          “My turn,” Eunhyuk called as he handed Donghae a little package from underneath the tree.

          Donghae opened it up and felt tears well in his eyes. “You bought me Titanic on Blu-Ray?” he asked.

          “Well it is your favorite movie,” Eunhyuk reminded.

          “We are not watching that damn movie again!” Kyuhyun protested. “It’s long and too ing emotional!”

          “Now Kyuhyun,” Sungmin muttered as he took his boyfriend’s hand.

          “I don’t know if I’m gonna top that or not,” Donghae replied as he handed Eunhyuk a small bag.

          The blonde pulled out two pairs of handcuffs. “What are those for?” Leeteuk innocently wondered.

          Eunhyuk looked over at Donghae. Seeing his boyfriend grin the way he did made Eunhyuk realize what their true intentions were for. Blushing intensely, Eunhyuk looked at Leeteuk and lied “I’m thinking of being a cop.”

          “Oh that’s wonderful,” Leeteuk agreed. Eunhyuk felt his heart pound as he placed the handcuffs back in the bag.

          “Okay, Heechul, I got this for you,” Hankyung informed as he handed Heechul his present. Excitedly, the raven haired teen opened up his gift. Inside there was cat necklace. This made Heechul laugh quietly and remember the little cat they’d seen a few months ago. “Wait, there’s one more.”

          Heechul watched Hankyung pull out another small box from behind his back. He opened it up to show Heechul a silver ring. “What’s this?” Heechul wondered.

          “It’s a promise ring; this is to show my promise to you that I will be there for you through anything, and that I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be with you forever if that’s what you want,” Hankyung explained as he slipped the ring on his boyfriend’s finger. “That’s my promise to you Heechul.” The raven haired teen smiled before kissing his boyfriend.

          “Thank you Hankyung, that means a lot to me,” Heechul replied.

          “Yesung, these are for you,” Ryeowook said as he handed the dark haired teen his gift.

          Yesung opened up the package and found the present. “Oh sweet, turtle bed sheets; thanks Ryeowook, these will go great on my bed, I do like turtles,” he thanked before kissing the brunette’s cheek. “Let me go get your present.”

          Standing up, he walked into another room. “My present is in another room?” Ryeowook asked the others.

          “Yes, he had to keep it in the garage last night,” Leeteuk confirmed.

          Ryeowook popped his head up when he heard a yipping sound. The brunette dropped his jaw as a Tea-Cup Yorkie scampered into the room and up to Ryeowook. “A puppy,” he said happily as he picked up the tiny creature.

          Yesung walked in with a smile and sat back down beside his boyfriend. “Do you like him?” he asked.

          “He’s so tiny,” Ryeowook replied as the Yorkie his nose. “I love him, he’s so precious.”

          “Well I know you always wanted one, and I asked your mom if I could get you one, and she said yes, so I did,” Yesung stated.

          Ryeowook kissed Yesung’s lips. “Thank you so much, he’s perfect.”

          “Just like you,” Yesung added as he rubbed Ryeowook’s back.

          Later that afternoon, while Kangin and Leeteuk prepared Christmas dinner, Kyuhyun and Sungmin played their new videogames, Yesung and Ryeowook played with the new puppy, and Donghae and Eunhyuk were in the living room watching Titanic together. Heechul and Hankyung were upstairs in Heechul’s bedroom drinking hot tea and sitting in bed together.

          “Hankyung, there’s something I want to give you,” Heechul said. “I’ve been working on it for about a month now.”

          “Okay,” Hankyung replied as he took another sip of his drink.

          Heechul walked over to his notebook and pulled out a piece of paper. “I wrote you something; a poem,” he informed.

          “That’s really sweet Heechul; will you read it to me?” Hankyung requested.

          Sitting next to his boyfriend, Heechul read aloud “It’s called After a Minute:

          Pain, that’s all I feel,

          That’s all I am.

          No one saves me,

          No one hears me scream.

          Men hurt me,

          Over and over and over.

          I pray it will end,

          That God will strike them down,

          Or send an Angel to save me.

          After a minute the hurt stops,

          The man leaves me a crying mess.

          Years have passed,

          My Angel still hasn’t come.

          Then I meet him.

          He makes the pain go away,

          He makes me feel safe and loved.

          He touches me gently,

          Whispering that he’ll protect me.

          His lips meet mine,

          And after a minute I realize,

          I’ve found my Angel.

          This is how I feel about you Hankyung; I feel like you were sent to me to keep me safe and show me what love was, and I’m so thankful that you came into my life, you’ve been the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

          Hankyung wrapped his arms around Heechul. “That was beautiful Heechul; thank you for being with me, I love you so much, and every time you look at your promise ring, I hope you know that,” he replied before kissing his boyfriend gently. “Merry Christmas my love.”

          “Merry Christmas Hankyung,” Heechul whispered as they kissed once more.