Tears of the Poor 12/?
Title: Tears of the Poor 12/?
Pairing: Yunho/Jaejoong/Junsu, Siwon/Hangeng/Heechul, Yoochun/Nichkhun/Chansung,
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: They are not mine to run through space, sabotage governments and overthrow evil politicians with.
Summary: With his life threatened on ShinKi, Yunho heads to Doushite, the underdeveloped planet Jaejoong and Changmin are from. The atmosphere is tense, at best. ShinKi is destroying the Doushiten way of life just because of the deep veins of gold running through the picturesque mountains. They don't know who they can trust when it comes to trying to free Doushite from the clutches of a greedy empire.
This is a sequel to the fic: Pleasures of the Mighty.
The pleasures of the mighty, are the tears of the poor. A song will outlive the sermons in the memory. = Kim Jaejoong's tattoos
Poster credit goes to 0xkaiia0x
Part 12: The Travail
Yunho held Junsu’s hand as the two of them followed an irate Jaejoong through the hallways and up staircases of the castle. Yunho wasn’t quite sure what was going on. They had been in the kitchens, and Yunho and Junsu had been lost in each other, and laughing as they ate fruit and licked juice from their fingers. Jaejoong had been discussing plans for the celebration with the kitchen staff.
And then quite suddenly, Jaejoong was at his elbow, grabbing his tunic and yanking him away.
Yunho knew better than to ask when Jaejoong was in a mood like this one. He squeezed Junsu’s hand in reassurance and followed their lover.
They had been at the castle for a week. A week of good food, sex and lots of rest had done wonders for Yunho’s energy. He felt revitalized and relatively normal, and just as strong as he had been before being poisoned.
Jaejoong finally slowed, and then opened a set of wooden doors without knocking. “Shim Changmin, I know you’re in here!”
Yunho stepped into the room, and his eyes widened. It was a library, with shelves and shelves of books that reached to the ceiling. Staircases led up to second and third level balconies. Ladders leaned against the walls. The far wall was all windows, letting in the morning sun. Dust motes sparkled in the ray, and rainbows twisted along the walls and shelves.
Junsu whistled. “Wow.”
Yunho nodded.
“Shim Changmin, you fucker!”
“What?” Changmin demanded from a second level. He leaned on the railing and glared at Jaejoong.
“Why is your kitchen staff asking me to make decisions about this coronation? Why is your interior designer asking me for details on what banners go where? Did the Kims take over your territory without me knowing?”
“Fuck you. They all know you’re really in charge.”
“Fuck you. This is not my castle, and not my responsibility.”
“Funny. Any time you came here before, you always lorded around like it was your castle.”
“Again, fuck you. This is different and I’m different. Go do your fucking job.”
“So you can slack off and fuck your sluts all day?”
Yunho glared at him.
Jaejoong sighed and lowered his head. “Minnie-ah, come on. What is wrong with you?” He lowered his voice. “Where is the Prince that I used to know?”
“Maybe he was destroyed along with everything and everyone else in his castle!”
Jaejoong frowned. “Minnie-ah.”
“Shut up, Jaejoong.”
Jaejoong sighed. “Every meeting you sit at the head of the table, and yet, after the meetings, I’m suddenly in charge. You’re constantly nagging me about traditions; why are you doing this?”
Changmin sighed and turned his back on them. He leaned against the railing, arms crossed. “You’re right.”
“I’m always right, but that’s just you avoiding the question. What’s wrong with you?”
Changmin shrugged and pushed off the railing. He went to a set of spiral stairs.
“Our people are confused,” Jaejoong said as Changmin came down the stairs. “Your interior designer actually asked me whose banner to put first. You need to exert your control. Your kingdom may be the least represented once all the families gather, but the Shim Province is proud and strong. And for all of his life, their prince, their king has been the same.”
Changmin sighed, and to everyone’s surprise, pulled Jaejoong into a hug. “I know, Little Insect.”
Jaejoong smiled and returned the tight hug. “Anything else bothering you, dongsaeng? Anything with a pretty smile and breasts?”
“Fuck you.”
“Not me.”
Changmin rolled his eyes and pulled away from Jaejoong’s arms. “Yes, I like her. I do, but--”
“You keeping Doushiten customs is eating at you. And her. She doesn’t smile anymore, and she just sits in her room, because she doesn’t know the language, and Yunho, Junsu and I can’t always be there to help her.”
“That’s because you’re a slut.”
“All three of us are sluts,” Junsu said.
Changmin smiled. “True.”
“Changmin,” Yunho said, “please. She misses you. And if you want to, you can do this as a way to pay me back.”
Changmin raised an eyebrow.
“For getting you away from Yoochun,” Yunho said. “You owe me.”
“You did that to repay Jaejoong’s life debt,” Changmin said.
“Or I did it because I thought you’d join our threesome,” Yunho said with a smirk.
Jaejoong chuckled. “Come on, Legs. You like her; she likes you.”
“I know, I know.”
“We’ve been gone for seven years,” Jaejoong said, putting a hand on Changmin’s shoulder. “We are different. We have different ideals now. Different views on the world. Some are good, some are bad, but you can’t deny love. Ever. There are more questions than answers about what will happen in the future, and that future maybe next year, it may be ten or fifteen years from now. Don’t deny yourself some form of happiness. And don’t deny yourself because of what our people will think. I’m not, and I am a lot happier now.”
“Please,” Yunho said. “She isn’t happy, and I want her to be happy and loved.”
“Is she pregnant yet?”
Yunho shrugged. “I don’t know. But when she is, she’ll need someone to hold back her hair while she throws up every morning.”
“Well, we can’t have her alone when that happens,” Changmin said with another eye roll. He suddenly pulled Jaejoong into another hug.
Jaejoong smiled and hugged him back tightly. “Come on, Legs. Your people need you. Our people need you. And I need you. I miss my competition.”
Changmin pulled his head back and smirked. “You have never been competition.”
Jaejoong stuck his tongue out, and Changmin ducked his head and at the right moment to press their lips together. Jaejoong’s eyes widened in surprise, but he didn’t break from it, taking the opportunity as it was presented, and when Changmin tried to pull away, Jaejoong reached up, tangled his hands in Changmin’s hair, and held his head and shoved his tongue in his mouth. Changmin actually scoffed into the kiss, but didn’t try to pull away and actually kissed Jaejoong back until it was Jaejoong who needed to remember how to breathe.
“Now, we’re even.”
Jaejoong smiled and then laughed. “Okay. We’re even.”
“That was hot,” Junsu said.
“Sure you don’t want to join us later?” Yunho asked.
Changmin made a face. “No offense, but no way. I can kiss Jaejoong because he’s pretty enough to be--” He broke off with a strangled noise.
Jaejoong smirked and twisted the hand he had around Changmin’s cock and balls. “What was that?”
Changmin smiled, slightly strained. “You’re pretty enough to be a woman.”
Jaejoong protested and would have punched him in the balls, but Changmin hugged him again and whispered, “Thank you,” into his hair.
“Come on,” Jaejoong said, pulling away. “It’s almost lunch time.”
Changmin held out his hand, and Jaejoong looked at it for a moment before smiling widely and taking it. The two of them led the way out of the library. Yunho threw his arm around Junsu’s shoulders and followed after them.
At the first cross way, Jaejoong went one way and Changmin tried to go the other.
“Lunch?” Changmin said.
Jaejoong smiled. “We have to go get someone first. It isn’t right for a lady to come to a meal unaccompanied.”
Changmin took a deep breath and nodded and let Jaejoong lead him down the hallway towards their rooms.
Almost there, Changmin broke away from Jaejoong. He took a steadying breath, squared his shoulders and almost stomped over to the door. He knocked loudly. Yunho was sure he didn’t breathe until the door opened.
Yoona looked at him, and then at them, and crossed her arms with a glare. “What?”
Changmin bowed, almost ninety degrees. “A beautiful woman should not attend lunch without an escort. And though I do not deserve your company or your forgiveness, I would be honored if you would allow me to join you for lunch.” He stood straight and held out his arm.
“Did Jaejoong put you up to this?” Yoona asked.
Changmin smiled. “If by that you mean did he smack some sense into me, yes, he did.”
“Hey! I didn’t hit you,” Jaejoong protested.
Yoona did not move and just stared at Changmin with hurt in her eyes.
“Please,” Changmin whispered. “Just to lunch, and then I will leave you alone if you don’t want me to bother you anymore.”
“Fine,” Yoona said and hooked her arm through Changmin’s.
Changmin smiled widely at her and led her past the others. Jaejoong reached up and smacked Changmin on the back of the head.
“Ow! What the hell?”
“You tell her I smacked you, then I sure as hell am going to smack you.”
Changmin rubbed his head. “Bastard.”
“You deserved it,” Yoona said.
Changmin pondered her, smiled, and said, “Yes, I did.”
-}|{-
Changmin spent most of lunch teaching Yoona words in Doushiten, how to ask for a certain kind of food, and all the words for plate and fork and cup. Yunho paid attention, because he did know a lot of the words, but not all of them, and forming Doushiten into coherent sentences was still beyond him.
After lunch, when the interior designer went right to Jaejoong to ask a question, Jaejoong pointed at Changmin and said, “This is his castle. Not mine. Ask him.”
The interior designer looked at Changmin, back at Jaejoong, and Jaejoong raised an eyebrow, and then man jumped like Jaejoong had smacked him and hurried over to where Changmin was sitting.
“Finally,” Jaejoong muttered. “I like being in charge, but that was getting ridiculous. Let’s go upstairs and celebrate Changmin getting his head out of his ass.”
Junsu giggled. “Celebrate, huh?”
Jaejoong smiled and leaned over to press a kiss to his cheek. “Yes. Celebrate.”
“Hey Little Insect!” Changmin shouted.
Jaejoong looked over at his smirk. Himchan, Daehyun, YoungJae and Zelo stood next to him. “What?”
“We’ve been challenged.”
Jaejoong’s spined stiffened minutely, and Yunho was sure that he was the only one who saw it.
“Challenged?”
Himchan smiled, and said something that Yunho did not catch. Except snow.
Jaejoong laughed, and turned to Yunho and Junsu. “What do you guys think? Wanna go play in the snow?”
Junsu’s eyes widened in the childish delight that Yunho loved to see.
“We can warm up later,” Jaejoong said.
It took a little while to procure winter gear that fit them all. Meena assured them that before the end of the winter they would have their own coats and pants and boots. They dressed in underclothes, a light shirt, fur-lined pants, a heavier tunic and then fur-lined coats, gloves, boots and hats. Yunho’s coat was dark brown, Jaejoong’s a lighter shade, and Junsu’s almost blond.
Yoona had been wearing a brown coat before Meena rushed away, shouting about remembering something. She returned with a blue suede coat with a grey, fur-trimmed collar. It fit Yoona almost perfectly. Meena caught sight of Changmin, and went off into rapid apologies and tried to take the coat back.
Changmin smiled, caught Meena’s hands and bowed over them with a kiss to the wrinkled skin. “It is okay, Meena. She looks beautiful in it.”
Yoona tilted her head in question, and Changmin took a deep breath. “That coat belonged to my youngest sister.”
“Do you want me to take it off?”
Changmin shook his head. “You look beautiful in it, and I like to think that my sisters would have adored you.”
Yoona smiled.
Himchan led the way out the side doors of the kitchen. Yunho had to stop on the cobbled walkway and blink for his eyes to get used to the sudden bright light. Junsu barreled past him, chasing after Jaejoong. To Yunho’s surprise, Yoseob, Dongwoon, Yesung, Hyunseung and Shindong were already outside and playing in the snow.
“Doushitens versus the Shinki Bastards,” Changmin said in both languages.
Yunho laughed, and balled up a handful of snow and threw it at Jaejoong. He missed and hit Zelo, but it was the catalyst to start the snowball fight. Yunho took a snowball to the face and sputtered snow from his mouth. He glared at his Doushiten lover. Jaejoong smirked, turned and joined his countrymen.
“This is not fair at all,” Shindong said. “This is the first time we’ve even been in a snowball fight.”
“So what?” Junsu said and threw some snow at Daehyun. “It’s fun.”
Changmin attempted to shield Yoona from the onslaught, until she took a handful of snow and smashed it in his face. Yunho and the others laughed at him, and he staggered away from her with a growl. The next snowball that hit her was from his hands. The other Doushitens didn’t throw snow at Yoona, so Yunho decided to help her out and turned his barrage of ice missiles to Changmin. Which Jaejoong noticed and sent just as many snowballs at Yunho.
In the end, though, experience won out, and the Shinki Bastards gave up, calling for a truce. Yunho collapsed in the snow, and Jaejoong fell into his lap. They pressed wind-cold chapped lips together for a moment. Junsu was still laughing with the Doushitens, and Zelo and YoungJae were showing him how to roll the snow into a giant ball.
“They’re making a snowman,” Jaejoong said.
A sudden gust of wind had them all shivering. The Doushitens looked up, and Changmin met Jaejoong’s eyes with a frown. After a moment, they all continued with their fun.
“What?” Yunho asked.
“There’s another storm coming,” Jaejoong said.
“How can you tell?”
Jaejoong shrugged. “Practice. Should we go inside and I can show you some other skills I’ve gotten better at with practice?”
Yunho laughed and nodded. “Sounds like a great idea.”
Once inside the kitchen, they were surrounded by women and divested of their soaked outerwear and given warm drinks. Yunho thanked the women, but did not feel warm until much later, when they managed to steal away and warm each other up in front of a roaring fire, and then again, in a bed covered in thick blankets.
-}|{-
The storm hit during the night, rattling the windows with wind and seeping cold in through the stone walls. Despite the cold, and the need to walk around in heavy coats and sleep with more than two blankets, hunkering down and waiting for the storm to wait was better in a castle with walls to block the wind than a cave where snow could blow in at any time. And as Jaejoong proved after their snowball fight, there were always pleasurable ways to stay warm.
Yoona’s coat: http://img0.etsystatic.com/011/0/6291264/il_340x270.450002244_luc9.jpg
The boy’s coats: http://img.alibaba.com/img/pb/616/286/515/515286616_603.jpg
Part 13: The Threats
Part 11: The Talk
Part 10: The Table
Part 9: The Treat | Part 8: The Tub | Part 7: The Tribe | Part 6: The Terrain | Part 5: The Trail | Part 4: The Transformation | Part 3: The Tunnels | Part 2: The Trap | Part 1: The Trip
.
Pairing: Yunho/Jaejoong/Junsu, Siwon/Hangeng/Heechul, Yoochun/Nichkhun/Chansung,
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: They are not mine to run through space, sabotage governments and overthrow evil politicians with.
Summary: With his life threatened on ShinKi, Yunho heads to Doushite, the underdeveloped planet Jaejoong and Changmin are from. The atmosphere is tense, at best. ShinKi is destroying the Doushiten way of life just because of the deep veins of gold running through the picturesque mountains. They don't know who they can trust when it comes to trying to free Doushite from the clutches of a greedy empire.
This is a sequel to the fic: Pleasures of the Mighty.
The pleasures of the mighty, are the tears of the poor. A song will outlive the sermons in the memory. = Kim Jaejoong's tattoos
Poster credit goes to 0xkaiia0x
Part 12: The Travail
Yunho held Junsu’s hand as the two of them followed an irate Jaejoong through the hallways and up staircases of the castle. Yunho wasn’t quite sure what was going on. They had been in the kitchens, and Yunho and Junsu had been lost in each other, and laughing as they ate fruit and licked juice from their fingers. Jaejoong had been discussing plans for the celebration with the kitchen staff.
And then quite suddenly, Jaejoong was at his elbow, grabbing his tunic and yanking him away.
Yunho knew better than to ask when Jaejoong was in a mood like this one. He squeezed Junsu’s hand in reassurance and followed their lover.
They had been at the castle for a week. A week of good food, sex and lots of rest had done wonders for Yunho’s energy. He felt revitalized and relatively normal, and just as strong as he had been before being poisoned.
Jaejoong finally slowed, and then opened a set of wooden doors without knocking. “Shim Changmin, I know you’re in here!”
Yunho stepped into the room, and his eyes widened. It was a library, with shelves and shelves of books that reached to the ceiling. Staircases led up to second and third level balconies. Ladders leaned against the walls. The far wall was all windows, letting in the morning sun. Dust motes sparkled in the ray, and rainbows twisted along the walls and shelves.
Junsu whistled. “Wow.”
Yunho nodded.
“Shim Changmin, you fucker!”
“What?” Changmin demanded from a second level. He leaned on the railing and glared at Jaejoong.
“Why is your kitchen staff asking me to make decisions about this coronation? Why is your interior designer asking me for details on what banners go where? Did the Kims take over your territory without me knowing?”
“Fuck you. They all know you’re really in charge.”
“Fuck you. This is not my castle, and not my responsibility.”
“Funny. Any time you came here before, you always lorded around like it was your castle.”
“Again, fuck you. This is different and I’m different. Go do your fucking job.”
“So you can slack off and fuck your sluts all day?”
Yunho glared at him.
Jaejoong sighed and lowered his head. “Minnie-ah, come on. What is wrong with you?” He lowered his voice. “Where is the Prince that I used to know?”
“Maybe he was destroyed along with everything and everyone else in his castle!”
Jaejoong frowned. “Minnie-ah.”
“Shut up, Jaejoong.”
Jaejoong sighed. “Every meeting you sit at the head of the table, and yet, after the meetings, I’m suddenly in charge. You’re constantly nagging me about traditions; why are you doing this?”
Changmin sighed and turned his back on them. He leaned against the railing, arms crossed. “You’re right.”
“I’m always right, but that’s just you avoiding the question. What’s wrong with you?”
Changmin shrugged and pushed off the railing. He went to a set of spiral stairs.
“Our people are confused,” Jaejoong said as Changmin came down the stairs. “Your interior designer actually asked me whose banner to put first. You need to exert your control. Your kingdom may be the least represented once all the families gather, but the Shim Province is proud and strong. And for all of his life, their prince, their king has been the same.”
Changmin sighed, and to everyone’s surprise, pulled Jaejoong into a hug. “I know, Little Insect.”
Jaejoong smiled and returned the tight hug. “Anything else bothering you, dongsaeng? Anything with a pretty smile and breasts?”
“Fuck you.”
“Not me.”
Changmin rolled his eyes and pulled away from Jaejoong’s arms. “Yes, I like her. I do, but--”
“You keeping Doushiten customs is eating at you. And her. She doesn’t smile anymore, and she just sits in her room, because she doesn’t know the language, and Yunho, Junsu and I can’t always be there to help her.”
“That’s because you’re a slut.”
“All three of us are sluts,” Junsu said.
Changmin smiled. “True.”
“Changmin,” Yunho said, “please. She misses you. And if you want to, you can do this as a way to pay me back.”
Changmin raised an eyebrow.
“For getting you away from Yoochun,” Yunho said. “You owe me.”
“You did that to repay Jaejoong’s life debt,” Changmin said.
“Or I did it because I thought you’d join our threesome,” Yunho said with a smirk.
Jaejoong chuckled. “Come on, Legs. You like her; she likes you.”
“I know, I know.”
“We’ve been gone for seven years,” Jaejoong said, putting a hand on Changmin’s shoulder. “We are different. We have different ideals now. Different views on the world. Some are good, some are bad, but you can’t deny love. Ever. There are more questions than answers about what will happen in the future, and that future maybe next year, it may be ten or fifteen years from now. Don’t deny yourself some form of happiness. And don’t deny yourself because of what our people will think. I’m not, and I am a lot happier now.”
“Please,” Yunho said. “She isn’t happy, and I want her to be happy and loved.”
“Is she pregnant yet?”
Yunho shrugged. “I don’t know. But when she is, she’ll need someone to hold back her hair while she throws up every morning.”
“Well, we can’t have her alone when that happens,” Changmin said with another eye roll. He suddenly pulled Jaejoong into another hug.
Jaejoong smiled and hugged him back tightly. “Come on, Legs. Your people need you. Our people need you. And I need you. I miss my competition.”
Changmin pulled his head back and smirked. “You have never been competition.”
Jaejoong stuck his tongue out, and Changmin ducked his head and at the right moment to press their lips together. Jaejoong’s eyes widened in surprise, but he didn’t break from it, taking the opportunity as it was presented, and when Changmin tried to pull away, Jaejoong reached up, tangled his hands in Changmin’s hair, and held his head and shoved his tongue in his mouth. Changmin actually scoffed into the kiss, but didn’t try to pull away and actually kissed Jaejoong back until it was Jaejoong who needed to remember how to breathe.
“Now, we’re even.”
Jaejoong smiled and then laughed. “Okay. We’re even.”
“That was hot,” Junsu said.
“Sure you don’t want to join us later?” Yunho asked.
Changmin made a face. “No offense, but no way. I can kiss Jaejoong because he’s pretty enough to be--” He broke off with a strangled noise.
Jaejoong smirked and twisted the hand he had around Changmin’s cock and balls. “What was that?”
Changmin smiled, slightly strained. “You’re pretty enough to be a woman.”
Jaejoong protested and would have punched him in the balls, but Changmin hugged him again and whispered, “Thank you,” into his hair.
“Come on,” Jaejoong said, pulling away. “It’s almost lunch time.”
Changmin held out his hand, and Jaejoong looked at it for a moment before smiling widely and taking it. The two of them led the way out of the library. Yunho threw his arm around Junsu’s shoulders and followed after them.
At the first cross way, Jaejoong went one way and Changmin tried to go the other.
“Lunch?” Changmin said.
Jaejoong smiled. “We have to go get someone first. It isn’t right for a lady to come to a meal unaccompanied.”
Changmin took a deep breath and nodded and let Jaejoong lead him down the hallway towards their rooms.
Almost there, Changmin broke away from Jaejoong. He took a steadying breath, squared his shoulders and almost stomped over to the door. He knocked loudly. Yunho was sure he didn’t breathe until the door opened.
Yoona looked at him, and then at them, and crossed her arms with a glare. “What?”
Changmin bowed, almost ninety degrees. “A beautiful woman should not attend lunch without an escort. And though I do not deserve your company or your forgiveness, I would be honored if you would allow me to join you for lunch.” He stood straight and held out his arm.
“Did Jaejoong put you up to this?” Yoona asked.
Changmin smiled. “If by that you mean did he smack some sense into me, yes, he did.”
“Hey! I didn’t hit you,” Jaejoong protested.
Yoona did not move and just stared at Changmin with hurt in her eyes.
“Please,” Changmin whispered. “Just to lunch, and then I will leave you alone if you don’t want me to bother you anymore.”
“Fine,” Yoona said and hooked her arm through Changmin’s.
Changmin smiled widely at her and led her past the others. Jaejoong reached up and smacked Changmin on the back of the head.
“Ow! What the hell?”
“You tell her I smacked you, then I sure as hell am going to smack you.”
Changmin rubbed his head. “Bastard.”
“You deserved it,” Yoona said.
Changmin pondered her, smiled, and said, “Yes, I did.”
-}|{-
Changmin spent most of lunch teaching Yoona words in Doushiten, how to ask for a certain kind of food, and all the words for plate and fork and cup. Yunho paid attention, because he did know a lot of the words, but not all of them, and forming Doushiten into coherent sentences was still beyond him.
After lunch, when the interior designer went right to Jaejoong to ask a question, Jaejoong pointed at Changmin and said, “This is his castle. Not mine. Ask him.”
The interior designer looked at Changmin, back at Jaejoong, and Jaejoong raised an eyebrow, and then man jumped like Jaejoong had smacked him and hurried over to where Changmin was sitting.
“Finally,” Jaejoong muttered. “I like being in charge, but that was getting ridiculous. Let’s go upstairs and celebrate Changmin getting his head out of his ass.”
Junsu giggled. “Celebrate, huh?”
Jaejoong smiled and leaned over to press a kiss to his cheek. “Yes. Celebrate.”
“Hey Little Insect!” Changmin shouted.
Jaejoong looked over at his smirk. Himchan, Daehyun, YoungJae and Zelo stood next to him. “What?”
“We’ve been challenged.”
Jaejoong’s spined stiffened minutely, and Yunho was sure that he was the only one who saw it.
“Challenged?”
Himchan smiled, and said something that Yunho did not catch. Except snow.
Jaejoong laughed, and turned to Yunho and Junsu. “What do you guys think? Wanna go play in the snow?”
Junsu’s eyes widened in the childish delight that Yunho loved to see.
“We can warm up later,” Jaejoong said.
It took a little while to procure winter gear that fit them all. Meena assured them that before the end of the winter they would have their own coats and pants and boots. They dressed in underclothes, a light shirt, fur-lined pants, a heavier tunic and then fur-lined coats, gloves, boots and hats. Yunho’s coat was dark brown, Jaejoong’s a lighter shade, and Junsu’s almost blond.
Yoona had been wearing a brown coat before Meena rushed away, shouting about remembering something. She returned with a blue suede coat with a grey, fur-trimmed collar. It fit Yoona almost perfectly. Meena caught sight of Changmin, and went off into rapid apologies and tried to take the coat back.
Changmin smiled, caught Meena’s hands and bowed over them with a kiss to the wrinkled skin. “It is okay, Meena. She looks beautiful in it.”
Yoona tilted her head in question, and Changmin took a deep breath. “That coat belonged to my youngest sister.”
“Do you want me to take it off?”
Changmin shook his head. “You look beautiful in it, and I like to think that my sisters would have adored you.”
Yoona smiled.
Himchan led the way out the side doors of the kitchen. Yunho had to stop on the cobbled walkway and blink for his eyes to get used to the sudden bright light. Junsu barreled past him, chasing after Jaejoong. To Yunho’s surprise, Yoseob, Dongwoon, Yesung, Hyunseung and Shindong were already outside and playing in the snow.
“Doushitens versus the Shinki Bastards,” Changmin said in both languages.
Yunho laughed, and balled up a handful of snow and threw it at Jaejoong. He missed and hit Zelo, but it was the catalyst to start the snowball fight. Yunho took a snowball to the face and sputtered snow from his mouth. He glared at his Doushiten lover. Jaejoong smirked, turned and joined his countrymen.
“This is not fair at all,” Shindong said. “This is the first time we’ve even been in a snowball fight.”
“So what?” Junsu said and threw some snow at Daehyun. “It’s fun.”
Changmin attempted to shield Yoona from the onslaught, until she took a handful of snow and smashed it in his face. Yunho and the others laughed at him, and he staggered away from her with a growl. The next snowball that hit her was from his hands. The other Doushitens didn’t throw snow at Yoona, so Yunho decided to help her out and turned his barrage of ice missiles to Changmin. Which Jaejoong noticed and sent just as many snowballs at Yunho.
In the end, though, experience won out, and the Shinki Bastards gave up, calling for a truce. Yunho collapsed in the snow, and Jaejoong fell into his lap. They pressed wind-cold chapped lips together for a moment. Junsu was still laughing with the Doushitens, and Zelo and YoungJae were showing him how to roll the snow into a giant ball.
“They’re making a snowman,” Jaejoong said.
A sudden gust of wind had them all shivering. The Doushitens looked up, and Changmin met Jaejoong’s eyes with a frown. After a moment, they all continued with their fun.
“What?” Yunho asked.
“There’s another storm coming,” Jaejoong said.
“How can you tell?”
Jaejoong shrugged. “Practice. Should we go inside and I can show you some other skills I’ve gotten better at with practice?”
Yunho laughed and nodded. “Sounds like a great idea.”
Once inside the kitchen, they were surrounded by women and divested of their soaked outerwear and given warm drinks. Yunho thanked the women, but did not feel warm until much later, when they managed to steal away and warm each other up in front of a roaring fire, and then again, in a bed covered in thick blankets.
-}|{-
The storm hit during the night, rattling the windows with wind and seeping cold in through the stone walls. Despite the cold, and the need to walk around in heavy coats and sleep with more than two blankets, hunkering down and waiting for the storm to wait was better in a castle with walls to block the wind than a cave where snow could blow in at any time. And as Jaejoong proved after their snowball fight, there were always pleasurable ways to stay warm.
Yoona’s coat: http://img0.etsystatic.com/011/0/6291264/il_340x270.450002244_luc9.jpg
The boy’s coats: http://img.alibaba.com/img/pb/616/286/515/515286616_603.jpg
Part 13: The Threats
Part 11: The Talk
Part 10: The Table
Part 9: The Treat | Part 8: The Tub | Part 7: The Tribe | Part 6: The Terrain | Part 5: The Trail | Part 4: The Transformation | Part 3: The Tunnels | Part 2: The Trap | Part 1: The Trip
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