Xiumin was feeling extremely comfortable and unwilling to open his eyes – a state he'd become unfamiliar with over the past months. Usually, he sought escape from sleep, so it was a bit of a surprise to rouse to the sound of alarm, emerging from the sticky web of sleep without nightmares clinging and dragging him back into the darkness.

He glanced up to find Lily in an uncomfortable position, half propped on her elbow with her hand still buried in his hair. He gently pried her fingers away, turning to shut the alarm off before pulling her down and into his arms to snuggle with her.

He hadn't had a single nightmare and this was the first time he'd slept through the entire night ever since the nightmares had returned. He stared at her sleeping face in wonderment, fingers itching to trace her features; he satisfied himself by holding her tighter and closed his eyes.

True to form, she woke up soon, blinking slowly up at him. He smiled at her condition – for someone who was always so put together, seeing her in this disheveled state was a previlige in itself, one he was sure he was the only one entree to. 'Morning.'

She stared at him for a second before realizing how he was holding her. She tried to pull back immediately but he tightened his arms. 'Stay. We'll get out in a while.'

She looked at him thoughtfully for a few moments before nodding and snuggling into his side properly. Her arm s around his waist hesitantly, lingering a little before wrapping securely. He gave into the urge to play with her hair, tangling his fingers in the luxurious tresses she usually kept tied up. She sighed as his fingers went lower, massaging the back of her neck before cupping his hand around it.

It felt nice, holding her like that. Made him feel normal, gave him the illusion that he was whole, capable of feeling emotions like your average guy. And even though he knew he could never be like that, that it was something he couldn't ever let happen, he could enjoy these moments of delusion.

When they woke up again – he hadn't even realized he'd fallen asleep – the sun was up in the sky and Lily, naturally, was panicking because they had a shop to open in less than an hour, during which she had to make a trip to her apartment, get changed and then rush back.

'You can wear my clothes.' He suggested, unwilling to let go of her comforting warmth, unwilling to move from his position, unwilling to give up the illusion of normality.

'Don't be silly.' She tried to extricate herself, failing again. 'Seriously, let go.'

'Don't want to.' He mumbled, burying his head in her neck. She shivered as his breath fanned across the expanse, then yelped when he placed a soft kiss on the spot. 'What are you doing?!?'

'Kissing you.' He stated the obvious, smiling up at her surprised, reddened face. She glanced away hurriedly, swallowing. 'We have to get up.'

'All in due time,' he muttered, tucking a few loose strands behind her ear with deceptive gentleness before suddenly flipping them around. 'What's your hurry?' He smirked down at her.

'N-nothing.' She stuttered, the vein in her neck fluttering wildly. How… unexpectedly cute.

He leaned in a little bit, carefully observing her reactions; after all, this was the first time they were being so intimate – in the true sense of the word – and he didn't want to scare her off. He would be lying however, if he claimed he was willing to back off. And so, he would take care to convince her if she had any reservations.

As always, though, she was on the same wavelength as him. She held his eyes until the last moment before closing them at the first brush of his lips against hers. A bolt of electricity travelled through him, his heart thudding hard and seeming to jump out of his chest and if he'd been like the other Legends, he would've sworn this was the moment he claimed her.

As it was, he deepened the kiss and kept at it until the need to breathe forced him to quit. He leaned his forehead against her, breathing hard, reveling in the light scrape of her fingernails against the back of his neck.

A moment later, he felt her questing lips find his again and then, he was lost.

……………………………….

The clank of crockery on table made her jump in surprise and she knocked over the bottle, the water dampening all the papers spread out. She yelped, hurriedly trying to clean it up.

'Relax, will you?' Raina patted her shoulder, straightening the bottle and tightening its cap. 'Why're you so jumpy today?'

Lily gave her a strained smile. 'I'm not jumpy.'

'Sure you aren't.' Raina shook her head, heading back out. 'Xiumin said you'll need to serve at the counter today, since Tiffany's not coming.'

Lily nodded. 'O-okay.'

Raina was right, of course. She was way too jumpy and it was all Xiumin's fault. She was feeling way too self-concious, dressed in his over-sized shirt and waistcoat over her black skinnies from last night, hair barely held back because she'd lost most of the pins, and still feeling the press of his lips against hers, hours after the actual touch.

She hadn't had the time to go back to her apartment because they'd been making out. It made her blush – to think she'd spent almost an hour doing nothing but kissing him, tangling her fingers with his hair, tracing over his shoulders and back, his face, twining her fingers with his, feeling his heart thud in time with hers.

For a workaholic her, it was something completely out of character. Doing nothing constructive, just idly kissing each other. It was the laziest she'd been her entire life. And she'd loved every second of it.

That had been hours ago, her mind still clouded by sleep and the comforting warmth of his body, his arms secure around her. Now, wide awake and thinking clearly, she couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes.

She'd been hiding inside the office for who knew how long, jumpy and more than a little disoriented because her mind had kept wandering back to the morning and looking at him didn't help at all. Her eyes kept getting snagged by his lips when he talked and she kept losing focus.

But she couldn't hide in here forever. Besides, she'd spent all the time in the office concentrating – quite forcefully – on all the mails she needed to reply to, the sponsors and offers for expansion. Surely she could go and face him now, right?

Wrong. She blushed soon as her eyes landed on his back and she fanned her face, hoping to appear unruffled by the time he turned around. Forcing herself to ignore his presence, she slid behind the counter to help Raina fill the orders. The rush hour kept her busy long enough that she almost forgot about her discomfort.

'Tiffany broke up with Kai.' Raina, for once, had abandoned her staring-at-Lay to talk to Lily. 'Mei texted me a while ago.'

Lily sighed sadly. Poor Tiffany… maybe they'd broken up last night and that's why she'd been crying so much. She just hoped her friend would be okay. Tiffany wasn't one to give in to tears easily but she'd been crazy about Kai – anyone could see that.

'She must be upset.' Lily put the cup underneath the pipe and filled a shot.

'Very… you wanna go later to cheer her up?'

'Sure.' Lily nodded,'I'll talk to Xiumin…'

'Talk to me about what?' The voice behind her made her jump and she spilled the coffee all over the floor and herself. 'Woah!!!' Xiumin exclaimed, holding her still. 'Easy there…' 

'Geez, what is wrong with you?' Raina eyed her suspiciously. Lily didn't reply because she was way too focused on the way his chest pressed against her back, his hands on her waist and crap, there she went blushing again.

'Don't…' she stopped Raina when the girl bent to wipe the floor. 'I'll clean it up. You handle the customers.'

'You sure?'

Nodding, she waved her off and tried to disengage herself from Xiumin surreptitiously. His fingers buried into her waist before loosening and he turned her around. 'You okay?'

'Fine.' She didn't look at him, still a little warm around the ears. 'Sorry about your shirt, I'll go change and wash it.'

'There's no need…' She didn't wait to hear his words, quickly slipping past him and almost running towards the stairs.

Xiumin watched her run away and sighed dejectedly. She'd been hiding inside her office the entire day and he was beginning to miss her familiar figure bustling around. So he'd told Raina to ask her to join them. Plus, he liked seeing her in his clothes, his shirt loose around her lithe figure – gave him a sense of entitlement. But now, she'd rushed off and was going to change…

Unbidden the image of her taking off that shirt slowly flashed through his mind and he felt a little hot around the collar. Fanning his face, he glanced around and met Raina's sparkling-with-mischevious-understanding eyes. 'I'll mop the floor,' she told him cheerily, 'since there aren't that many customers around. Why don’t you go help her?'

Nodding his head, he followed her steps and climbed upstairs, feeling his heart beat faster with every step.

Lily straightened quickly when she saw him enter. She'd been leaning against the table, his shirt opened partway, one hand clutching the edges together, the other raking through her hair as she tried to calm her racing heart. This was beyond ridiculous – you'd think she'd never kissed him before, the way she was acting – this was Xiumin, for heaven's sake.

'Xiu…' She began, not sure what she'd say but knowing she needed to get this awkwardness out of way. Her words, however, didn't get a chance to form as he quickly closed the distance between them and yanked her in for a hard kiss.

This was what she'd been craving all this time, she realized as pleasure swamped her, loosening the knot in her stomach. No wonder she'd been feeling so edgy.

He didn't let up his relentless pace, one hand tangling with her hair – and destroying all her efforts at keeping it tied up – the other sliding down her back to pull her closer into his embrace. She was panting when he did let her go and she stared up at him, dazed.

He smiled a little, tracing his thumb over her swollen lips before leaning down to capture again. Her arms came up to wrap around him as he kissed her languidly, turning them around so her back was against the wall. His hands went for the shirt, ing it slowly.

She shivered when his hands slid underneath the parted cloth to touch the warm skin, fingers the silken softness. He dragged his hands over her curves slowly, deepening the kiss when she gasped. When he reached her shoulders, he slid the shirt off and it fell down, billowing before it landed in a gentle heap at their feet. Her hands looped around his waist, pulling him closer against her and he gave into the kiss with everything pouring out of him.

At long last, they parted again and he leaned his forehead against hers, feeling more than a little uncomfortable. Getting her shirtless wasn't a good idea, since there was nothing he could do about it. Even if he was willing to go that way – and he totally was – there wasn't enough time. Raina could only handle the shop by herself for so long.

'Get changed.' He muttered, pulling himself back just enough that she could slide out. She nodded, starting to bend to pick his shirt. He stopped her. 'I'll take care of this. Go.'

She vanished into the bedroom and he took the time to calm himself down before picking up the discarded shirt and throwing it in with the rest of the laundry.

…………………………..

Raina mopped the floor, then took the broom back and slid behind the counter so she could take the orders. The rush hour had ended a little while ago but a lot of customers were still showing up and she barely had time to think as she dashed around, trying not burn her hands while she filled the cups and took them around the shop.

Still, she was beginning to wonder if sending Xiumin after Lily had been a good idea. What if they totally forgot about her, struggling alone in the shop, while they had fun? Not that she didn’t want Lily to have fun – the girl could use a lot of it, she was so uptight – but still, they had a shop to manage.

She bumped into furniture more often than not as she dashed around, a lot of customers eyeing her apprehensively as she literally ran about to manage everything at once.

'Take it, take it, take it!!!' She yelped at the last order, almost dropping the hot tray – because she'd somehow managed to spill boiling water on the metal and it was burning her hands. The guy picked his cup and jumped out of the way before she dropped it on top of him. She dashed back to the counter and let it go, sighing with relief and rubbing her burning palms together to ease the sting.

'Whew!' she sighed, leaning her hip against the counter.

'Anyone left?' She asked the shop at large and earned a resounding 'No' in reply.

'Just get behind the counter and don't move.' The advice came from one of the old regulars, who'd been observing her critically. 'We can't have you destroying the entire place.'

She smiled sheepishly and ducked her head with an obedient, 'Yes ma'am,' making everyone laugh. She slid into her usual spot, sitting down with a sigh and rubbing her reddened palms against her jeans; she'd put on the burn medicine once she caught her breath.

Which wasn’t going to be any time soon because Lay decided he had to lean over the counter to grab her hands and she could peek right inside his low-necked tank top and she felt like a erted old man because she was enjoying the view way too much. Blushing a little, she dragged her eyes up, stopping to admire his collarbones and neck before his voice made her look up.

'Hmm?' She hadn't heard what he'd said because frankly, those collarbones were really really pretty and okay, she was going to stop now. 'Yeah…?' She quizzed, hoping it was the correct answer.

'Okay.' He gave her a sweet smile and let go of her hand. She wondered what she'd agreed to when he slid off the stool and started walking away. Then stared in surprise as he headed towards the storage room and came out a couple of minutes later, an apron thrown over one shoulder and the first aid box in his hand. He slid next to her behind the counter and put the box next to her, then took out the medicine and started applying it across her palms, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

She felt a strange tingling in her palms but ignored it because hello, her crush was holding her hand – she was having strange tingly feelings all over. He started wrapping the bandages around her hands, carefully snipping off the edges and applying the tape to keep it in place.

'There. Does it feel any better?' He looked at her, brown orbs glittering with concern. She nodded slowly, not comprehending the question at all. He gave her another sweet smile. 'Alright, you rest. I'll take care around here.'

She nodded again before his words registered. 'Wait, what?'

'Don't worry.'

Frankly, he was worse at it than her – forgetting orders, getting confused – but he looked so cute that no one, her or the customers, had the heart to stop him. He was sincerely trying, that much was obvious, and by the time Xiumin and Lily came down, all the customers were engaged self-service because it was useless to expect him to remember anything.

As the two owners realized the situation and went around trying to make amends – after forcing Lay back in his seat – Raina noticed something. Her burns weren't hurting at all. Sure Lay had applied the medicine but a burn rarely went away that easily and sting always remained – she should know, she was always sporting one. But that thought went away soon as it registered because she got busy teasing Lily about Xiumin.

'He's wearing your lipstick.' She pointed out when Lily denied her accusation that they'd been making out, ignoring the work and being extremely unprofessional. Lily blushed to the roots of her hair because he kind of was. 'Shut up.' She told Raina smartly, 'Or I'll go to Tiffany by myself.'

Pouting, Raina desisted.

………………………………

A/N

Okay, I'll admit that my Xiumin feels got the best of me here and frankly, the entire purpose of this chapter was to have Lily and Xiumin make out *u* ... and have Lay run around in a cute apron, trying to remember coffee orders :3 he's adorable, isn't he? 

(Just imagine if the apron was pink OwO oMg, my hearteu :3:) 

Oh well, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as well. Would really appreciate some feedback, so do comment :) 

Until next week then :) bye