In the middle of welcoming customers, a smile here, the passing of whatever sweet they had ordered, a thank you for their patronage, Kyuhyun had found himself staring at the man who sat cross legged on the loveseat across from him. He watched as he took a sip from time to time of his cup of water. Watched the way his face lit up as he had spotted something from outside of the window he was next to that was happening. Watched the shy smiles he kept giving himself because of whatever had caught his eyes. Watched as the soft wings on his back moved ever so lightly passing the seat transparently without much effort and the way his halo had seemed to tinker as Zhou Mi’s head moved about.

Eunhyuk had startled Kyuhyun a few hours into Zhou Mi’s visit as he had given the younger man a cup of hot chocolate just the way Zhou Mi had loved it when he was alive. He was given a soft nod and he gulped as he had started to make his way towards the man he had once loved.

Zhou Mi’s gaze quickly landed upon Kyuhyun as he had been approached. He noticed the drink on Kyuhyun’s hands and took it gently from the man and had given his thanks and a soft smile. Just the way that Kyuhyun remembered. The way Kyuhyun treasured.

“You’ve done wonders with this place, Kui Xian.”

Kyuhyun couldn’t even manage to reply to the man as he simply took a seat in front of him. He had so many questions to ask of the older man. With his gaze, he was trying to capture everything that he had once known as Zhou Mi. Everything seemed in correct order. Those hands that he had loved to wrap with his, that neck that he had enjoyed laughing into and kissing, those eyes that had always been so telling and soft, that mouth that he had worshiped so…

“... busy today?”

Blinking and being shaken out of his thoughts, Kyuhyun apologized to Zhou Mi and asked for the question to be repeated.

“Are you busy today after work?” Zhou Mi’s smile had never faltered. Kyuhyun had always admired this of him. It was a beautiful sight after all.

He had taken a few moments to try to think if he had anything to do today and, not being able to find a solid excuse, Kyuhyun shook his head in reply to the question. With the way that Zhou Mi had brighten up at the answer, he had to excuse himself to get back to work. Or so he said. He had mostly wandered back into the kitchen to lean against the wall as he had done plenty of times before when he first met Zhou Mi. He was clutching at his heart and breathing erratically.

“Are you going to be okay?” Eunhyuk asked as he had stopped working on the dough for his next batch of sweets.

Kyuhyun had mustered everything inside of himself to nod at his best friend. “It’s surreal and I don’t know what’s going on,” he admitted.

Taking a quick glance outside and watching Zhou Mi smile happily into his drink, Eunhyuk pat at his friend’s shoulder. “What did he say?”

“He just wanted to see if I was free later.”

“So, is he going to just stay here until we close shop?”

Kyuhyun shrugged his shoulders, “probably.”

“Should I tell him to go?”

Eunhyuk saw the look of distress in Kyuhyun’s eyes at that question. Like he had asked a forbidden question. He himself had known just how badly his “death” had taken a toll on him and he knew that his friend was probably, amongst all the confusion, elated beyond words to have Zhou Mi around again.

“Just get back to work then,” Eunhyuk told Kyuhyun as he went back to kneading the dough.

With a nod, he had wandered back behind the cash register. He plastered on a now fake smile since he had to go on with his day and not let his heart waver as much as he knew it was doing this very moment.

*****

Kyuhyun had waved Eunhyuk off as he was closing the shop for the day. He noticed how his friend had been standing near Zhou Mi. A hand behind his head and what seemed like tentative words were shared between them before he turned his back and proceeded to lock properly for the day.

When he had met up with Zhou Mi, he noticed that he was looking up at something.

“You changed the name…” Zhou Mi uttered softly.

Kyuhyun nodded and crossed his arms against his chest as he stood there knowing that Zhou Mi still had more to say to this matter. Yet with the silence that flowed between them, he had to clear his throat to get the other’s attention. He noticed the pensive look on Zhou Mi’s face as he lead them to his parked car.

“New car?”

Humming, he unlocked the car and stepped inside of it gesturing Zhou Mi to do the same. The ride was quiet except for Zhou Mi’s musings about the changes in the town and the soft music playing in the background. It had taken them no more than a half an hour to get to Kyuhyun’s apartment. He watched as questions kept building up in Zhou Mi’s face as he lead him into the building. Opening the door to his place, he stepped aside to let the older man go in first.

Zhou Mi remained standing for a few seconds outside of the apartment, looked at him questioningly and proceeded to walk into the unfamiliar place. He had taken an interest of the things displayed in the living room as Kyuhyun had excused himself into his kitchen to make them both a cup of tea. He grazed the living room slowly as he took in the details of what seemed to be Kyuhyun’s new life. Pictures over the mantel that showed off what seemed like places Kyuhyun had gone to. Some had him inside with his friends, laughing or silently judging them in the background. Stopping in front of a familiar picture and picking it up gently between his hands, he had to hold back his emotions as he stared at the picture of two hands that were intertwined as matching bracelets twinkled happily at him from it.

“Tea’s ready,” he suddenly heard from behind him as he placed the picture back to its place and wiped a tear from his eye before looking back at Kyuhyun who was sitting in his sofa and cradling his drink with both hands.

“Thank you,” he uttered as he took a seat in the same sofa yet with a safe distance between them. “It seems like there’s been a lot of change in your life.”

“Well, time has passed,” Kyuhyun muttered quietly into his drink more so than to Zhou Mi.

“Four years,” he mumbled as took a sip of his drink as well. He noticed how inquisitive Kyuhyun had seemed and he himself had a lot of questions and a lot to say yet he couldn’t find a way to get anything out of his mouth.

“Why are you here?”

Zhou Mi sighed and put his drink down on the coffee table. He had wanted to reach over to take Kyuhyun’s hand in his. To hug the man he had still loved so passionately and soak in the scent that was the Kyuhyun he had known. Everything was different. Yes, time had passed and he was deadly afraid of it all but here he was sitting right in front of the love of his life and his heart couldn’t help but ache for far too many reasons.

“For you.”

“What’s with… those?” Kyuhyun eyed his wings and halo before landing back to meet his gaze.

His wings had dropped as he was contemplating what to say as Kyuhyun did in fact notice them. “You can see them?”

Kyuhyun nodded into his drink as he continued to watch the movement of the wings.

“Only those who have had brushes with death are able to see them…” Zhou Mi confessed. He noticed how Kyuhyun had faltered in taking a sip of his drink and looked down at his lap.

“After your… death… I had decided one day to leave the country. I found myself in Australia. Foreign to everything and with minimal English to get me by. I decided to go swimming in the ocean one day. Everything was fine up until I got carelessly caught up on a current. I struggled to get myself back to decent area on my own but, well, you know how extremely out of shape I was in general…”

Zhou Mi dipped his head lightly as a signal of understanding what Kyuhyun meant.

“I remember fighting for a long while to get back to the shore and nothing after that until I was in an ambulance and was brought back up. I was told that I had been difficult to resuscitate but there I was. You know what the strange thing was out of that entire ordeal?”

Zhou Mi shook his head.

“I dreamt about you while I was 'dead'. We were in a strange place and you were in a very nicely colored suit. You were so distressed about my being there and you were in tears and holding on to my hand protectively… I wanted to remain there forever…”

The look on Zhou Mi’s face was one of the hardest ones that Kyuhyun had ever tried to decipher in their lives together. It wasn’t like they had had enough time with one another but Kyuhyun had figured that he had known every single corner of Zhou Mi’s train of thought. Yet, in that moment, he clenched his fists tightly and fought with himself internally so that he could lean into Zhou Mi, hug him and wipe away that look of off his face. Heart wrenching was a bit of an understatement if he had to use a word to describe it.

Kyuhyun had to get up from his seat and put distance between the two. Picking up the now empty tea cups, he chose to stay behind the sink and clean them to clear his mind.

“You named it Darling.”

Kyuhyun stopped in the middle of cleaning the second cup. The conflict inside his head was reaching proportions that were too high and instead of indulging Zhou Mi with an answer, he proceeded to finish off his task. Once done, he turned around to spot the the saddened eyes of his companion and he had to gulp down his feelings as he leaned back against the counter.

“You changed everything about your life and yet the location remained the same and you added that word…”

Kyuhyun sighed as he rubbed his head, “it’s getting late. I assume you don’t have anywhere to go, right?” He watched as Zhou Mi swallowed whatever he had wanted to continue to say and headed towards the bedroom, took out some clothes for himself and Zhou Mi and excused himself to jump into the shower.

Too many questions where on the tip of Zhou Mi’s tongue. He had chided himself because he knew he had no right to question anything in Kyuhyun’s life. Not now at least. Everything made sense, how Kyuhyun had seen his wings and how, for some reason, he was okay with everything. It had been explained to Zhou Mi that this second chance was meant to be either a blessing or a curse but he was also told that he was meant to be there without fail.

As Kyuhyun wandered out of the shower, not long after entering, with his pajamas and wet hair, he stared at Zhou Mi who was changed and sitting on the edge of the bed. “My sofa’s too small for you and I’m afraid I don’t have any proper bedding for guests. You can sleep in my bed if you don’t mind.”

Zhou Mi had jiggled his head a bit too enthusiastically and it brought a chuckle out of Kyuhyun as he wandered towards the right side of the bed, pulled the covers and wormed his way under them. Doing the same in the opposite side of Kyuhyun, Zhou Mi made extremely sure that he put enough distance between the two of them.

Turning off the lamp right next to him, Kyuhyun bid Zhou Mi a good night and turned his back to the man and attempted to fall asleep without any other words shared between the two.

It was weird, being able to sleep in the same bed with Zhou Mi once again. He wasn't sure what the circus rolling about in his stomach really meant. Not right now. He had laid with his back turned from his ex lover. Feeling time crawl by as he was unable to catch up with sleep. Turning to his other side, he quickly saw the clear outline of Zhou Mi's body. His breath caught in his throat and he had felt his arm, clearly not attached to his brain, reach out towards the other man. Noticing what he was about to do, he quickly pulled it back with a barely audible gasp and cradled it against his body as he felt silent tears roll down his cheek.

Zhou Mi had been awake as well and as he felt the sudden jerk of the bed because of Kyuhyun, he had known that the other was currently crying. He knew this of Kyuhyun especially when he often silently cried himself to sleep.

*****

Zhou Mi's internal clock had been extremely in tune with the rising of the new days since he had returned. Sitting on the bed as he rose, he saw how Kyuhyun's dead to the world sleep left him with his mouth slightly open. Zhou Mi smiled at this sight. It was one of the many he had adored about this man. As he stood up, he also noticed how the covers were mostly off the Kyuhyun who clearly clung close to his body and made sure to cover him properly. He noted how the man had seemingly relaxed under the warmth and Zhou Mi took the opportunity to steal a kiss which he softly planted on the top of Kyuhyun's head.

It would take Zhou Mi some time to get things to a place where he could enjoy the company of his love without care. He felt there was something he must do first in order to accomplish this and he was just waiting for the orders to come from high above so that he could get his life back quickly.

A/N: (Yes, it was Sweet Smiles and changed it to Darling Sweets. I needed to have a more concrete name to it or something)

It’s confusing when you have a story in your head and yet whatever’s ahead is not as visible as you would want it to be. This one is like that. I’m sure it won’t be too long yet I’m not exactly too sure where it will go. In the mean time, I’m staring at my other Qmi and scolding myself because it’s just there waiting for me…

I went to KCON this last weekend. I saw Super Junior live. It was surreal… If you’d like to read about my adventures, you can click here and do so. Thank you for sticking by with this fic D: -S