It wasn’t nearly as simple as just telling Semi to go to sleep, though.  Before half four in the morning, she’d woken up hyperventilating and crying twice, and it wasn’t too long before she felt Xiumin shaking her awake again.

He didn’t say anything, but Semi could sense his annoyance.  It wasn’t until the next time she woke up, forty-five minutes later and choking on her sobs, that Xiumin finally seemed to snap.  He was out of the room at the moment she woke up, though Semi wasn’t in much of a condition to register the glass of water in his hands as she curled up on the pillows, hugging her body to herself.  Xiumin paused by the bed as he downed the glass of water and set it on the bedside table.

“You know what?” he said.  “ it.  Just watching you is making me restless and now I can’t sleep either."

Semi felt the mattress dip, and then, at long last, the reassuring heartbeat was in her ears, and she finally began to relax.  She thought she heard Xiumin swear under his breath, but she was much too frazzled and tired to care.  Instead, she just snuggled up against him, grateful that when she finally closed her eyes, the car and the snow just melted away.

She didn’t really get back to sleep, though.  Xiumin’s steady heartbeat lulled her into a comfortable stupor, but she was still sweating, and even though she was much more relaxed than she had been before and no longer afraid, her skin just seemed to get clammier and clammier.  It didn’t help that Xiumin began tossing and turning, either.

After a while, it got uncomfortably hot with the covers, and she started trying to kick them off.  To her surprise, Xiumin joined in, and their legs got tangled as he pushed the duvet down to the end of the bed.  If she hadn’t been so irritated, Semi might have giggled.

Five minutes later, he was tugging the duvet back up, complaining that his feet were cold.

It went on like that for another good half hour before Xiumin abruptly sat up.

“This is ridiculous,” he said, yawning as he wiped a glistening sheen of sweat off his forehead.  “It’s way too hot in here.”

Semi ended up turning away with a little squeak as he pulled his wife-beater off, looked around for a few moments, and then apparently remembered he wasn’t in his room.

“I’m going to check the thermostat,” he mumbled, getting off the bed.  Semi heard his bare feet padding over the carpet; then the door creaked open and he was gone.

It was another twenty minutes or so before he was back.

“Semi?” he called from the doorway, as if worried she’d fallen back asleep.  Semi sat up.  Xiumin shut the door and switched the light on.

Semi spent several moments blinking at the sudden brightness.  She was pretty sure her face reddened when colour leeched back into her vision and she realised Xiumin was still topless.  For the first time, she was able to fully make out the tattoo on the left of his chest – right over where his heart was – and wasn’t sure if she was fascinated or disturbed by the fact that it depicted the snarling head of a wolf in great detail.  She thought she could make out writing on his abdomen just over his right hip bone, but he had a scattering of bruises in that area and on other parts of his torso.  They weren’t nearly as bad as the mass of bruises that was his left arm, though.

And Xiumin kept in trim, she noticed.  He kept very nicely in trim.

“When you’ve stopped staring,” he said with dry amusement, “I suggest we go out to the balcony.  The thermostat is broken and stuck on twenty-nine degrees, and there’s nothing they can do about it remotely at the police station, so we have to wait until they can send somebody round to fix it manually.  Which might either be today or Monday.”

Thoroughly embarrassed, Semi looked away.

It’s not the first time you’ve seen a six-pack, dopey, she scolded herself.  Jongin and Kris have them too.  Jongin didn’t really like flaunting his, though.  It made him embarrassed, for some reason.

“The balcony will be cold, though,” she mumbled.

“That’s the point.  This is like a sauna – the balcony is like an ice bath.”

“But it’s supposed to snow again soon.”

Apparently, Xiumin didn’t care, because he strode over, seized the duvet, and bundled Semi up in it before she could protest.

“Sometimes the best way to overcome your fears is to confront them,” he said, scooping the bundled girl up.  “Ow.  Okay, maybe it’s best if you walk.  I don’t think I can carry you.”

He dropped her onto the bed again, and Semi surprised him by letting out a little giggle.  She rolled over so that she could face him, but her eyes abruptly dropped to his bruises again and her smile died.

“Jongin said you got into a fight,” she said.

“Yeah.  I won.”

“What were you fighting about?”

“It’s not very important.  I still won.”

“You got hurt, though.”

“Because there were eight of them.”  He paused and gave a sudden grin.  “What, were you worried or something?”

Semi sat up, unwrapping herself from the duvet.  “Your arm isn’t exactly a normal colour.”

“I have a minor fracture just below my elbow on my radius, but it’ll heal.  And speaking of fractures….”  He cleared his throat and his gaze dropped to the hollow of Semi’s neck.  Her hand went instinctively to where the healing fracture was.

“It’s getting better.”

“Does it still hurt?  I noticed painkillers vanishing from the med box.”

“Sometimes.”  Semi yawned, which seemed to remind Xiumin of what he’d originally come back for.