[Fic] The Fifth Melody - 1/5
Title: The Fifth Melody
Author: Coley Merrin
Rating: R overall
Pairing: Zhou Mi/Girl!Kyuhyun
Warning: Genderswitch
Summary: A sequel to The Other Side and Special Performance. A couple of years into their marriage, Kyuhyun deals with unexpected urges and family life, and Zhou Mi struggles to take his career to the next level.
*facepalm* I'm back.
A/N: This almost went out the door with the title "Baby Envy." My first concept of a title was "The Fifth Dimension" but it was a little too sci-fi in a story that is clearly... Not. XD (No matter what one might think of pregnancy.) 200 wacky titles later...
A/N 2: This chapter is more or less Department of Backstory. We do get on with it after this, I swear.
***
Part One * Part Two
***
***
Their first date (He supposed it was their first date. The amazing sex, even if they did eat afterward, probably didn’t count.) he had taken her to a movie. He had tried to be charming when he picked her up. And while he bought tickets for them, and drinks, and followed her into the darkened theater.
She had on these jeans that were clearly not new, and this shirt that was almost baggy, but clingy as well, and he could see her ankles above the little flats she wore, and her hair was loose, and her mouth was unpainted and so, so tempting...
And he was sweating like a horse. Trying to make conversation as they sat together, being armchair critics of the previews, until finally, finally the movie started and he could shut up. He wrenched his eyes away from the way her mouth looked around the straw (she hadn’t done that that night, and thinking about how pretty she’d look doing it wasn’t helping)...
She slipped her arm through his, laying long fingers over his tightly clenched knuckles. As his heart tripped and he looked at her, at the little smile on her face as she glanced back, he realized rather frighteningly, It’s the first date and I already want to marry this woman.
He desperately wanted to hold her hand, but he realized there was no way he could wipe off his hand without being rather obvious about it. Still as his fingers loosened in their death grip, she turned his hand and meshed her fingers with his. His sweaty palm didn’t seem to bother her. He really tried to focus on the movie and not the sweet weight of her head against his shoulder (or the fact that he was pretty sure that was a breast snuggled up against his arm) or her thumb tracing his.
But he did breathe easier.
***
On the way back to her apartment, they spoke of the movie, of school. She was primarily a singer, he was taking singing and composing. Her family lived close, and his was in China.
Her fingers were restless against her thighs, and he reached for one as the subway pulled to a stop. It was her stop. They held hands all the way to her door.
He cleared his throat, trying not to shuffle as they stood together.
“When can I see you again?” he blurted. “Er. Ah. I mean. If I can? We could...do something.”
Her face seemed to widen as they stared at each other, a smile pulling the corners of her mouth though her eyes were wide and almost wary.
“We’ll see each other at school tomorrow,” she said softly.
“I know, but... Like a date. Um.”
“You know, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want. We’ve already slept together, and...”
His heart thudded as he pulled her close, drew her up tight, his arms arms wrapped around her, holding her solidly against his body. It was nice, very nice to feel her against him. He didn’t even think of sex at all. Maybe ten percent of the time.
“Is that all right?”
“Yes,” she answered, her voice thick.
“Kyuhyun... This isn’t just about sex to me.”
She was quiet for a moment, her arms moving around his neck. “No, I know. I just... Things change, and you don’t have to feel obligated just because we did it, you know. I won’t hold it against you.”
He heard her mutter, “much,” and the grin nearly broke his face. He pulled her back so he could see her.
“Kyu! I want you to be my girlfriend, and...”
She gasped, laughing a little as he blushed hotly.
“You really don’t want to wait for anything, do you?”
“I’m sorry, I...”
She cut him off with a finger over his mouth. “No. I’m just not used to guys wanting anything from me. They’re never really interested, not if I am. You’re not like those guys are you?”
He shook his head, keeping his eyes on hers. He’d really botched it all up.
“Then you would be my...boyfriend?” She frowned prettily as his brain seemed to expand. “I’ve never really had one. So I’d... I’d like that. Zhou Mi?”
Hearing his name seemed to snap him out of his stupor, and he kissed her earnestly, laughing against her neck like the craziest of men.
“Sorry,” he gasped. “I’ll stop in a second. Oh, Kyu...”
“Laughing is a requirement,” she said severely, stopping his heart before the words and not the tone sank in. “I can’t have a boyfriend who doesn’t make me laugh.”
She jerked against him as he tickled her, her spontaneous giggle bright in his ears.
He kissed her cheek, pulling back. “I have to leave my girlfriend so we can sleep, okay?” he teased, so much more at ease just by the smile in her eyes.
“I’ll see you at school,” she confirmed, and kissed him one last time.
He was a thousand feet tall when he left her building, at least, his face almost breaking with happiness before he tried to compose himself. Riding the subway home with a smile a mile wide would only concern people.
He dreamed of Kyuhyun and sweet kisses.
And the piano bench. (He was a guy after all.)
***
And Kyuhyun had taken an honorary place behind him in class the next day, kicking his butt through the chair every so often just to remind him she was there. And looking totally innocent every time he craned his head around to see.
He didn’t pay a lot of attention in that class.
That afternoon, he showed up to their practice room with his headphones on and a half eaten apple in his hand. He was absorbed in his thoughts, knowing he was a full hour earlier than when Kyuhyun usually showed up. But as he shut the door, looking up, he froze, seeing Kyuhyun at the piano. She had one long, jean-clad leg tucked beneath her, the other dangling. Her hair, in a ponytail, tumbled over her shoulder. All she was wearing was a simple t-shirt and jeans and his hormones exploded as uncontrollably as a boulder down a mountain side.
He had to remind himself that when she had mentioned them and the piano bench, she probably hadn’t meant that they should take use of it the next time they were in the room with it. She absolutely hadn’t.
And because he hadn’t been able to earlier, he bent down, asking for a kiss. Words didn’t describe how thrilled he was when she tipped her face up to his immediately, her full lips pressing generously to his.
“So, I had a thought,” she said, standing as he pulled away.
Sex on the piano bench...? his mind offered, and he swatted at it.
“What’s that?” he asked.
She straightened his collar, and taking off his earphones the rest of the way. “I think we should prepare a duet to sing for the next recital.”
“Oh!” Well that was nearly as good, he consoled himself. “Oh, that sounds like a good idea.”
Her smile spread. “Yeah, I thought so.”
“Did you have a song in mind?”
Silently she handed him the music sheet, and he read over it with interest. It was a love song... That he hadn’t been expecting. He hummed with the notes, getting a feel for the tune. He imagined her smooth, smokey voice joining to his. He closed his eyes, seeing Kyuhyun in the black dress stepping up beside him, singing to him.
“Zhou Mi?”
His eyes snapped open. “I like it!” he insisted. Now that he had it in his hands, there couldn’t be anything else. “I think our advisor will like it, too. And if he doesn’t, well. We’ll do it anyway.”
“You do like it then?”
“A lot.” He hadn’t quite decided how he was going to sing a love song to her without betraying what he was actually feeling. It would be a very...meaningful performance.
“Want to go over it?” she asked, sitting back at the piano. “Or did you have something else to work on?”
“I... Anything I have can wait.”
He scooted onto the edge of the bench, glad her eyes were on the sheet music as her fingers pressed the keys. His hand rested easy, natural, on her hip, and they learned the rhythm of the music.
They practiced for a few days like that, getting in a solid hour before she had to run to her next class. She always left with the instruction not to wait, and he blindly followed that the first two times, but the third...
“I want a date!” he called plaintively before she could make it out the door.
Her eyes were bright as she looked up from her bag.
“Will you wait till I’m out then?”
“I’ll see you then,” he told her, grinning to match hers.
She fumbled the messenger bag over her head and waggled her fingers at him before she closed the door behind her. The kiss he blew after her probably glittered.
He sighed. And stared around the room. It was a little uncomfortable waiting for her there alone. He could almost hear her voice ringing, and right there on the floor, they’d...
He wrote a hasty note that he’d be on the bench outside, and left off the fact that it was for the preservation of his sanity and, quite honestly, his physical well being.
It was less than 45 minutes before students began trickling out, signifying the end of classes, and sure enough, she was with them, craning her neck slightly to see over the people around her. He raised his hand and waved (not too enthusiastically, and he’d made sure of that) until she smiled.
Oh, his heart. That smile.
“Ready?” he asked, a bit breathless for no reason at all.
“Yeah!”
He was almost leaning toward her in the desire to reach out and take her hand, but he had no idea what she was comfortable with, what she would like. A part of him said he should man up and go for it, but... Maybe when they were off of school grounds, or...
She made a strange sound as he pivoted, ready to walk with her toward the subway, and when he turned back, she was blushing. Ducking her head to hide it, but blushing. As though there was something she had been expecting. His heart sort of did a jumping jack, and he reached gladly for her. He squeezed her hand with his, not leading her, but letting her know he was there. She was so sweet, so unsure sometimes, belying her sometimes gruff, straightforward manner and biting wit.
“Do you like holding my hand?” he teased almost under his breath, and yelped when she kicked him.
“Well enough,” she said airily. But took the sting out of both her words and actions when she laid her head against his shoulder as they waited for their train.
He swallowed hard, staring at the dark, nearly blank wall in front of him, startled as the signs were obscured as the train came rushing in to a halt.
“Did you have anything in mind that you might want to do?” he asked her, once they’d found a place to hang on to.
“Not really. You?”
“I was thinking... I don’t know. We could get something to eat or go to the music store? And go from there.”
She grinned at him, seeming to deliberately let her body bump into his. “Sounds good.”
He swallowed the rest of his spit. “So where did you want to eat?”
“Anywhere. Did you want Chinese?”
He thought a moment, letting remembered scents and tastes mingle inside his head. “I know a good place we can go.”
The little booth they got was intimate, almost dim, and he felt her ankle brush his leg as she crossed hers.
“How was class?” he asked, thinking this was a better tack than the last one.
“Good. Really long. Sometimes they go so fast, but when you’d rather they be over...”
“It was pretty long waiting outside, too.” And that was the end of that topic, or he’d have to clue her in to him being a bigger pervert than she might otherwise imagine. “The song is coming well, I think.”
She nodded, her mouth full of rice. “Mm-hmm. That’s what I was going to tell you! I saw our advisor in the hall on the way out, and he thought it was a good idea. I wonder if we can’t get someone to give us extra credit for thinking it up ourselves.”
She had a rather mercenary gleam in her eye that made him laugh. And he watched her slender fingers on her chopsticks, her lips around the rim of her glass, the way she cradled her tea cup as though it was the most precious thing.
She moaned, letting her head fall back for a moment and exposing a rather gorgeous length of smooth, pale skin.
“That was so good. We have to come back here.”
“I really like it here,” he said, and was infinitely pleased that she enjoyed it as well.
The waitress came with the check, staying a moment longer than he thought was strictly necessary, speaking to him in a rather coy way.
“She was flirty,” Kyuhyun said when the girl had left. “Seemed to like telling you she thought you were cute.”
“I think she was teasing,” he said, missing the point entirely for a few seconds as he stood. “Wait. You understood her?”
“Most of what she said. I studied Mandarin for a while.”
“I’m going to respond to that in a second,” he said, quickly paying for their meal and tugging her along with him outside. “You never told me you spoke Mandarin!”
“Well, I didn’t really have a chance, and it’s not very...Mm...”
They were sort of on the sidewalk, and people would be gawking, but how could he resist kissing her, right then and there? Kyuhyun, who looked like sin in jeans and a t-shirt, who sang with him, who spoke even a little of the language he had been born to.
Her laughter forced the end of their kiss.
“I’d have told you ages ago, if I thought you’d react like that,” she said, her eyes glinting bright in the lights of the businesses around them.
“Like I need a reason,” he said, and cheered at the bow that caused her mouth to shape. He really couldn’t imagine leaving her yet. Not yet. “Want to see a movie?”
“Sounds good.”
And that time, she was the one who took his hand. My girlfriend, he thought, staring at her short, unpainted nails. How had he managed that?
The movie turned out to be kind of boring.
So they made out instead.
The feel of her hair against his face was such a turn-on. He could have rubbed his cheek against her for hours, just reveling in it. He was discreet, running his hand along her stomach and side as he kissed her, pressing his lips along her jaw, nibbling at her ear. Her hand was on his neck, his hair, the other at his shoulder, urging him, rubbing her nose to his. The movie could’ve been twice as long, he grumbled, as the house lights suddenly started to brighten. It probably wasn’t any surprise what they had been doing. Her lips were reddened, his hair mussed from her hands. He patted both their hairdos down a little bit, and helped her up.
They rode the subway toward her house wrapped around each other. Both of their hands were on a ring, but her arm was solidly around him, and his around her. He breathed into her hair, making little jokes of things or people that they saw.
They ate ice cream bars as they walked along her street, and his hand was a mess because he couldn’t eat it quite fast enough. Though, hers was too, he saw, and he gave her a messy, ice cream grin.
She kissed it off of him before he left for home. And forevermore, ice cream would be a turn on.
***
A few days later, they were practicing again, beside each other on the piano bench. They had been to eat after her classes each day, talking on for hours, until the restaurant had closed, and kissing goodnight beside her door. He hadn’t asked to come in.
After their third time through the song, he froze as she turned to him pressing up against his chest. His arm was quick, slipping around her slender waist. She shuddered as he pressed his lips gently to her neck, and that absolutely undid him.
“Kyuhyun...”
At his lower back, her fingers were restless, betraying her quick thoughts. “I think this is some kind of a dream sometimes, but how stupid is that? I’d have to be in some kind of coma to imagine all of this. It’s just unreal. I think I’m a little crazy.”
Him and her, he realized, that was so unreal to her.
“What can I do to make it seem real to you, Kyuhyun?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head.
He touched her cheek, tilting her face up to his.
“What if I told you,” he began, “that the song hits home for me, where you’re concerned.”
She licked her lips, frowning at him. “I’d ask if you were thinking with the wrong part of your anatomy.”
The laugh burst out of him, startling her. “A week ago you thought you weren’t sexy enough to tempt me, and now you think I can only think of that?” (Partly true, he supposed.) “Kui Xian... I think every moment I’m with you I fall deeper in love. Sweet Kui Xian.”
“My mother doesn’t think I’m sweet.”
“That’s okay. I don’t want to date your mother.”
Her lips quirked. “That’s good. Kui Xian? You have a lot of names for me.”
“I’ll call you whatever you want. I want to know you.”
“You realize you’re not making this any more real for me, don’t you?”
He chuckled, squishing her cheeks. “You’re so difficult. You’d better run now.”
“I should tell you that,” she said, a teasing light in her eyes. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. I get into bad moods, and I don’t know how to be a girlfriend, and I hate to clean and...”
He cut her off with a kiss. The things of herself she thought were faults were things they could work around. And probably not nearly as bad as she imagined. So he told her, in the most real way he knew how, that he wanted her. (No, not that way. Just kissing. Though the piano bench taunted.)
(It always taunted, the rest of the time that the room was theirs.)
(He probably should have kept secret whether or not they ever did use it. But they did. At least once.)
***
It took almost two weeks before they slept together the second time. After they had, ah... Sort of jumped into it the first time.
While he was wracking his brain for something to do that didn’t include his place or hers, because he didn’t want to give her the impression that that was all he wanted from her. But then again, he didn’t really want her to think he didn’t want her either. Though the time that they spent making out eclipsed that fear. He snuggled her under his arm on the subway.
“Do you want to come to my place instead of going out tonight? I made something earlier, so we could eat.” Kyuhyun asked.
She elbowed him as he stared at her.
“Yes!” he blurted, and she grinned. That meant they had to get off one stop earlier, so they stood, and his heart started to slow from the race it had started.
Even if they were in her apartment, they would eat. Maybe watch some TV? Explore her music, her keyboard.
She laid out food and plates on her miniscule kitchen table, serving him the warmed food.
“Sorry if it’s not very good,” she said, sitting. “I’m not really known for my kitchen skills.”
It was slow cooked meat, spicy but not too spicy, with fresh rice.
“It’s good.” He’d have said that if it was anything short of rancid, but it was honestly good. He could’ve eaten a bucketful if it meant she smiled at him. “And I’m not just saying that!”
She smirked, her chopsticks poised. “I know. I have functional taste buds, too.”
She had cooked for him. Cooked and served him in her own kitchen, with dirty dishes stacked in the sink and her shoes by the door and papers and pictures held up by colorful magnets on her fridge. It was seeing a whole other side to her, and it was one that he absolutely liked.
And though he offered to help, she shooed him away, putting their dishes into the sink and leading him into the small living room. She snuggled beside him on the equally tiny couch, and the variety show distracted them for the next hour.
“Zhou Mi?” she whispered when it was over and commercials began playing.
“Hm?” he asked, rubbing his cheekbone over the side of her head.
“Did you want to stay the night?”
He stared at the television, his mind fuzzy. Sleep? Sex? What did she mean?
“Um?”
“I just thought it might be nice. Well. It’s been almost two weeks.”
Sex, she meant. Staring at him with nearly black eyes and waiting for his answer.
“If that’s what you want, then I am always up for it,” he said a bit hoarsely. “Kyu... I’d love to stay the night with you.”
It was important, he thought as she pulled him to his feet, hooking his arms around her waist before she guided them both into her mostly tidy bedroom with the unmade bed. Important that she asked him to stay the night, and didn’t just invite him for sex. It meant more, to both of them.
She was every bit as gorgeous as he remembered, as she stripped for him. It wasn’t intended to be as sexy as it was, the simple act of tugging her shirt over her head. But because it was her... The simple white bra against her skin, the way her hip cocked as she undid her jeans, the way her hair slid unimpeded over her shoulder. He stopped her before she could reach behind herself.
“Let me,” he whispered against her neck and felt her shiver.
He felt like the most powerful man on earth.
And with her beneath him, kissing him... He knew how to kiss her now, how she liked it. And he did, moving against her with what he hoped was ungainly grace. Her thigh, the luxurious velvet of it, was perfect under his hand as he guided to help it grip, to control. He felt the purr in her throat against his face, and lost track of time itself, until he lost himself in her.
***
He felt, quite honestly, like a million dollars stretched out in her bed. It was a little narrow, but all the better to be close to her. And that was definitely not a problem, seeing as she had one smooth thigh crossing his, her chest pressed up against his side and her head cradled in the hollow of his shoulder. She sighed as he played with the ends of her hair, and he was content to lay just like this until eternity ended (or until the southern “he” felt energetic enough again).
“Do you ever wonder why I slept with you that night?” she asked.
“Hm?” He let that question trickle in. “Oh, I. Umm. I don’t know?”
She made a sound halfway between a snort and a chuckle. “You’re such a guy, Zhou Mi.”
“Hey, you weren’t complaining about that a little while ago,” he protested. “And I guess I did think about it. I...That you wanted me?”
“That was pretty obvious, I think. But any normal girl probably would’ve gotten dressed and left, even after she saw you were glassy eyed and drooling.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, choosing to ignore that description of him.
“I mean... Guys tend to sleep with girls like that for a little while, but they don’t date them, or marry them, you know? They just see them as slutty. Definitely don’t respect them in the morning.”
“It didn’t feel slutty to me!” he protested.
“You were getting some. You couldn’t possibly have noticed. Anyone I dated before... I don’t know.”
“Tell me, Kui Xian.”
“I don’t know if I should...”
“Tell me,” he urged, scooting down a little so that their faces were closer.
She traced patterns on his shoulder as she thought, and he waited until she was ready.
“The first guy I really dated, all he wanted was sex. He bugged me all the time that it was time, and I couldn’t really be his girlfriend until we did, and that was what was normal. I thought he was full of it, but after a few weeks, he just wore me down. So we did, finally. We went out a couple times after that, and then... He just stopped calling. So I figured he’d gotten what he wanted, or I just hadn’t been good enough. Any of the guys I was involved with after were pretty much the same, not really interested in me.”
Where was the guy, so he could strangle him? Not just for hurting Kyuhyun, because that was obviously what he did, but for touching her too.
“Kyu...”
“So!” she said, clearly bolstering herself. “I’d liked you for a while, and that was okay. I didn’t really plan on acting on it. But I just wanted to see... When I saw the way you looked at me that night, I just... I thought, he wants my body. And I wanted you, so I figured... If we just got it out of the way, you could move on without being interested in dating me, and I wouldn’t have to deal with... Well. You not wanting to be around me any more.”
“Kyuhyun...” What could he say, to this woman beside him who had had only doubts about him. But she had wanted him, liked him, maybe as much as he had liked her. He cuddled her.
“I’m not going to lie to you and tell you I don’t think about sex with you a lot, because, well. I do,” he said, trying for brutal honesty. “But there’s more to it than that. You’re a beautiful, sexy woman, but I really like you. I like talking to you and hearing what’s on your mind. I like how talented you are at the piano, and just listening to you sing makes me shiver. I like your sense of humor and that you aren’t afraid to make fun of me. I like that you’re my friend, too, and not just the person I date. I like sitting next to you and holding your hand, and... I’m kind of stupid in love with you, Kui Xian. You’re Sexy Kyu, too, but... When I think of you in my head, I think of you like that... Kui Xian, with the beautiful smile. You’re worth so much more than that jerk led you to believe.”
She had been squirming in apparent embarrassment the entire time he had been speaking.
“That was quite a speech.”
“Yeah,” he said, a little embarrassed as well now that it was over.
“I think if I wasn’t already in love with you, that would have made me fall pretty close.”
She said it so offhand that it took a moment to register just what she had said. “Really? Then...telling me all of this tonight, was that seeing if I’d stick with you?”
“Kind of. I just...thought you deserved to know.”
He whispered to her in Mandarin, pretty Kui Xian, and snuggled her tighter.
“It’s like someone saw just what I wanted, and made you just for me,” he murmured against her cheek.
“Okay, now that’s just sappy,” she said, laughing and poking him.
“I hope I never hurt you.”
The way she ducked her head against him let him know he’d disturbed her again. Maybe not in a bad way. When she spoke it was low, soft, and it melted straight into his heart.
“I think we’re bound to some day. We’re human after all... But... Thank you.”
He nodded, brushing against her face. “Thank you for being with me.”
The thoughtful humming made him wonder just what comment she was cooking up, and got his answer when she knuckled his belly button. “Thank you for having a marshmallow center I never knew about.”
Should he be offended? Amused?
“Does it taste good at least?” he wondered.
He had to catch her before she rolled right off the bed with laughter.
Did it bother him that she’d slept with another guy? Kind of. But since he was determined to be better than anything she’d ever had, it really didn’t matter much. And the more he saw of her, the more they were together...
The more he was convinced the other guy was the biggest moron on the face of the earth, and that just meant that Zhou Mi was the luckiest. Because the way the world was right then, he didn’t feel like he ever wanted to let her go.
***
It had started pretty innocently, getting her used to having him around. He had stayed over that night, and then a couple nights later she had stayed at his tiny apartment. For whatever reason, and it might’ve been the squeaky floor of the tenant above that tended to wake her up, they seemed more comfortable where she lived.
He started carrying two changes of clothes with him to her place. At first he had found a discreet place on her dresser to leave it, until that had annoyed her, and suddenly he was in possession of his very own Kyuhyun-vacated drawer. It hadn’t taken him long to fill that drawer up, because what if something wrinkled or didn’t match, or...
Then his full array of toiletries got a corner of her counter.
His food in her fridge, and a picture of them put up on it with a ridiculously sparkly, sunshine yellow frame that she claimed reminded her of him though he had no idea why.
He thought he might have gone too far when he suggested switching out her aging dvd player with his.
“Zhou Mi,” she said, a bit resigned. “Why do you pay for your apartment when most of your belongings are in mine?”
He gawked a bit and stuttered, wondering how he was going to answer that appropriately, when he saw the gleam in her eye.
“Kyuhyun? Are you...?”
“I suppose it would be cheaper,” she teased.
“But your parents?”
“They don’t live with me.” Though she realized her flip response wasn’t quite what he’d been wanting. “Look, they’re pretty cool about most things...”
“Your friends?”
“I don’t have any who’d care.”
He was stumped. A part of him was overeager, whispering that he should just propose and make sure she was his and skip the whole moving in thing altogether. And another part screamed that it was way too soon and they hardly knew each other, and she would absolutely flatly refuse him and laugh while doing it. Because he was such a moron.
But, as he snuggled her, he had never slept in his own apartment again.
***
And, four years later, as Zhou Mi watched his pretty, sexy wife hop out of their private bathroom in a half buttoned shirt and no pants, he couldn’t really regret that choice.
“Are you going to grin like an idiot at me, or help me pick out pants?” Kyuhyun demanded. “They’re going to be here soon.”
“I got your pants out already,” he said, and beckoned her close enough to steal a kiss and getting a smile for his trouble.
“Shouldn’t you be watching the food?” she murmured, petting his hair.
“Rice is in the cooker, and everything else is warming in the oven. We’re set.”
“And your sons?”
“Happily wreaking destruction on the block castle I built them. Should I have been an architect?”
She laughed, sliding into the comfortable black pants he’d laid out for her. “That would have been a colossal waste of your talent, don’t you think? You are an architect, a song architect.”
Her hands were squished between their chests as he squeezed her.
“I love you, Kyu.”
She grunted, pushing him back so she could finish buttoning her shirt. “Love you, too. Go make sure they’re not plugging the toilet with those blocks?”
“Mamaaa?” a plaintive voice called through the door. “Hungryyyyy.”
He kissed her. “Your sons are calling.”
“My sons now, huh?”
“When they’re hungry,” he said slyly. “You’ve always had that covered.”
The door buzzed, and he snuck in one last kiss before she pushed at him. “You get the door, I’ll try to get them into their chairs.”
He patted her bottom as he passed, as she gathered one twin and called for the other. And at the door, he opened it with a smile, seeing Siwon’s answering grin, his arm around his wife’s waist. And a third, very important guest, cuddled in the carrier in Siwon’s hand. Their tiny, two-week old baby girl.
It really wasn’t fair that his marshmallow center was that weak.
***
Author: Coley Merrin
Rating: R overall
Pairing: Zhou Mi/Girl!Kyuhyun
Warning: Genderswitch
Summary: A sequel to The Other Side and Special Performance. A couple of years into their marriage, Kyuhyun deals with unexpected urges and family life, and Zhou Mi struggles to take his career to the next level.
*facepalm* I'm back.
A/N: This almost went out the door with the title "Baby Envy." My first concept of a title was "The Fifth Dimension" but it was a little too sci-fi in a story that is clearly... Not. XD (No matter what one might think of pregnancy.) 200 wacky titles later...
A/N 2: This chapter is more or less Department of Backstory. We do get on with it after this, I swear.
***
Part One * Part Two
***
***
Their first date (He supposed it was their first date. The amazing sex, even if they did eat afterward, probably didn’t count.) he had taken her to a movie. He had tried to be charming when he picked her up. And while he bought tickets for them, and drinks, and followed her into the darkened theater.
She had on these jeans that were clearly not new, and this shirt that was almost baggy, but clingy as well, and he could see her ankles above the little flats she wore, and her hair was loose, and her mouth was unpainted and so, so tempting...
And he was sweating like a horse. Trying to make conversation as they sat together, being armchair critics of the previews, until finally, finally the movie started and he could shut up. He wrenched his eyes away from the way her mouth looked around the straw (she hadn’t done that that night, and thinking about how pretty she’d look doing it wasn’t helping)...
She slipped her arm through his, laying long fingers over his tightly clenched knuckles. As his heart tripped and he looked at her, at the little smile on her face as she glanced back, he realized rather frighteningly, It’s the first date and I already want to marry this woman.
He desperately wanted to hold her hand, but he realized there was no way he could wipe off his hand without being rather obvious about it. Still as his fingers loosened in their death grip, she turned his hand and meshed her fingers with his. His sweaty palm didn’t seem to bother her. He really tried to focus on the movie and not the sweet weight of her head against his shoulder (or the fact that he was pretty sure that was a breast snuggled up against his arm) or her thumb tracing his.
But he did breathe easier.
***
On the way back to her apartment, they spoke of the movie, of school. She was primarily a singer, he was taking singing and composing. Her family lived close, and his was in China.
Her fingers were restless against her thighs, and he reached for one as the subway pulled to a stop. It was her stop. They held hands all the way to her door.
He cleared his throat, trying not to shuffle as they stood together.
“When can I see you again?” he blurted. “Er. Ah. I mean. If I can? We could...do something.”
Her face seemed to widen as they stared at each other, a smile pulling the corners of her mouth though her eyes were wide and almost wary.
“We’ll see each other at school tomorrow,” she said softly.
“I know, but... Like a date. Um.”
“You know, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want. We’ve already slept together, and...”
His heart thudded as he pulled her close, drew her up tight, his arms arms wrapped around her, holding her solidly against his body. It was nice, very nice to feel her against him. He didn’t even think of sex at all. Maybe ten percent of the time.
“Is that all right?”
“Yes,” she answered, her voice thick.
“Kyuhyun... This isn’t just about sex to me.”
She was quiet for a moment, her arms moving around his neck. “No, I know. I just... Things change, and you don’t have to feel obligated just because we did it, you know. I won’t hold it against you.”
He heard her mutter, “much,” and the grin nearly broke his face. He pulled her back so he could see her.
“Kyu! I want you to be my girlfriend, and...”
She gasped, laughing a little as he blushed hotly.
“You really don’t want to wait for anything, do you?”
“I’m sorry, I...”
She cut him off with a finger over his mouth. “No. I’m just not used to guys wanting anything from me. They’re never really interested, not if I am. You’re not like those guys are you?”
He shook his head, keeping his eyes on hers. He’d really botched it all up.
“Then you would be my...boyfriend?” She frowned prettily as his brain seemed to expand. “I’ve never really had one. So I’d... I’d like that. Zhou Mi?”
Hearing his name seemed to snap him out of his stupor, and he kissed her earnestly, laughing against her neck like the craziest of men.
“Sorry,” he gasped. “I’ll stop in a second. Oh, Kyu...”
“Laughing is a requirement,” she said severely, stopping his heart before the words and not the tone sank in. “I can’t have a boyfriend who doesn’t make me laugh.”
She jerked against him as he tickled her, her spontaneous giggle bright in his ears.
He kissed her cheek, pulling back. “I have to leave my girlfriend so we can sleep, okay?” he teased, so much more at ease just by the smile in her eyes.
“I’ll see you at school,” she confirmed, and kissed him one last time.
He was a thousand feet tall when he left her building, at least, his face almost breaking with happiness before he tried to compose himself. Riding the subway home with a smile a mile wide would only concern people.
He dreamed of Kyuhyun and sweet kisses.
And the piano bench. (He was a guy after all.)
***
And Kyuhyun had taken an honorary place behind him in class the next day, kicking his butt through the chair every so often just to remind him she was there. And looking totally innocent every time he craned his head around to see.
He didn’t pay a lot of attention in that class.
That afternoon, he showed up to their practice room with his headphones on and a half eaten apple in his hand. He was absorbed in his thoughts, knowing he was a full hour earlier than when Kyuhyun usually showed up. But as he shut the door, looking up, he froze, seeing Kyuhyun at the piano. She had one long, jean-clad leg tucked beneath her, the other dangling. Her hair, in a ponytail, tumbled over her shoulder. All she was wearing was a simple t-shirt and jeans and his hormones exploded as uncontrollably as a boulder down a mountain side.
He had to remind himself that when she had mentioned them and the piano bench, she probably hadn’t meant that they should take use of it the next time they were in the room with it. She absolutely hadn’t.
And because he hadn’t been able to earlier, he bent down, asking for a kiss. Words didn’t describe how thrilled he was when she tipped her face up to his immediately, her full lips pressing generously to his.
“So, I had a thought,” she said, standing as he pulled away.
Sex on the piano bench...? his mind offered, and he swatted at it.
“What’s that?” he asked.
She straightened his collar, and taking off his earphones the rest of the way. “I think we should prepare a duet to sing for the next recital.”
“Oh!” Well that was nearly as good, he consoled himself. “Oh, that sounds like a good idea.”
Her smile spread. “Yeah, I thought so.”
“Did you have a song in mind?”
Silently she handed him the music sheet, and he read over it with interest. It was a love song... That he hadn’t been expecting. He hummed with the notes, getting a feel for the tune. He imagined her smooth, smokey voice joining to his. He closed his eyes, seeing Kyuhyun in the black dress stepping up beside him, singing to him.
“Zhou Mi?”
His eyes snapped open. “I like it!” he insisted. Now that he had it in his hands, there couldn’t be anything else. “I think our advisor will like it, too. And if he doesn’t, well. We’ll do it anyway.”
“You do like it then?”
“A lot.” He hadn’t quite decided how he was going to sing a love song to her without betraying what he was actually feeling. It would be a very...meaningful performance.
“Want to go over it?” she asked, sitting back at the piano. “Or did you have something else to work on?”
“I... Anything I have can wait.”
He scooted onto the edge of the bench, glad her eyes were on the sheet music as her fingers pressed the keys. His hand rested easy, natural, on her hip, and they learned the rhythm of the music.
They practiced for a few days like that, getting in a solid hour before she had to run to her next class. She always left with the instruction not to wait, and he blindly followed that the first two times, but the third...
“I want a date!” he called plaintively before she could make it out the door.
Her eyes were bright as she looked up from her bag.
“Will you wait till I’m out then?”
“I’ll see you then,” he told her, grinning to match hers.
She fumbled the messenger bag over her head and waggled her fingers at him before she closed the door behind her. The kiss he blew after her probably glittered.
He sighed. And stared around the room. It was a little uncomfortable waiting for her there alone. He could almost hear her voice ringing, and right there on the floor, they’d...
He wrote a hasty note that he’d be on the bench outside, and left off the fact that it was for the preservation of his sanity and, quite honestly, his physical well being.
It was less than 45 minutes before students began trickling out, signifying the end of classes, and sure enough, she was with them, craning her neck slightly to see over the people around her. He raised his hand and waved (not too enthusiastically, and he’d made sure of that) until she smiled.
Oh, his heart. That smile.
“Ready?” he asked, a bit breathless for no reason at all.
“Yeah!”
He was almost leaning toward her in the desire to reach out and take her hand, but he had no idea what she was comfortable with, what she would like. A part of him said he should man up and go for it, but... Maybe when they were off of school grounds, or...
She made a strange sound as he pivoted, ready to walk with her toward the subway, and when he turned back, she was blushing. Ducking her head to hide it, but blushing. As though there was something she had been expecting. His heart sort of did a jumping jack, and he reached gladly for her. He squeezed her hand with his, not leading her, but letting her know he was there. She was so sweet, so unsure sometimes, belying her sometimes gruff, straightforward manner and biting wit.
“Do you like holding my hand?” he teased almost under his breath, and yelped when she kicked him.
“Well enough,” she said airily. But took the sting out of both her words and actions when she laid her head against his shoulder as they waited for their train.
He swallowed hard, staring at the dark, nearly blank wall in front of him, startled as the signs were obscured as the train came rushing in to a halt.
“Did you have anything in mind that you might want to do?” he asked her, once they’d found a place to hang on to.
“Not really. You?”
“I was thinking... I don’t know. We could get something to eat or go to the music store? And go from there.”
She grinned at him, seeming to deliberately let her body bump into his. “Sounds good.”
He swallowed the rest of his spit. “So where did you want to eat?”
“Anywhere. Did you want Chinese?”
He thought a moment, letting remembered scents and tastes mingle inside his head. “I know a good place we can go.”
The little booth they got was intimate, almost dim, and he felt her ankle brush his leg as she crossed hers.
“How was class?” he asked, thinking this was a better tack than the last one.
“Good. Really long. Sometimes they go so fast, but when you’d rather they be over...”
“It was pretty long waiting outside, too.” And that was the end of that topic, or he’d have to clue her in to him being a bigger pervert than she might otherwise imagine. “The song is coming well, I think.”
She nodded, her mouth full of rice. “Mm-hmm. That’s what I was going to tell you! I saw our advisor in the hall on the way out, and he thought it was a good idea. I wonder if we can’t get someone to give us extra credit for thinking it up ourselves.”
She had a rather mercenary gleam in her eye that made him laugh. And he watched her slender fingers on her chopsticks, her lips around the rim of her glass, the way she cradled her tea cup as though it was the most precious thing.
She moaned, letting her head fall back for a moment and exposing a rather gorgeous length of smooth, pale skin.
“That was so good. We have to come back here.”
“I really like it here,” he said, and was infinitely pleased that she enjoyed it as well.
The waitress came with the check, staying a moment longer than he thought was strictly necessary, speaking to him in a rather coy way.
“She was flirty,” Kyuhyun said when the girl had left. “Seemed to like telling you she thought you were cute.”
“I think she was teasing,” he said, missing the point entirely for a few seconds as he stood. “Wait. You understood her?”
“Most of what she said. I studied Mandarin for a while.”
“I’m going to respond to that in a second,” he said, quickly paying for their meal and tugging her along with him outside. “You never told me you spoke Mandarin!”
“Well, I didn’t really have a chance, and it’s not very...Mm...”
They were sort of on the sidewalk, and people would be gawking, but how could he resist kissing her, right then and there? Kyuhyun, who looked like sin in jeans and a t-shirt, who sang with him, who spoke even a little of the language he had been born to.
Her laughter forced the end of their kiss.
“I’d have told you ages ago, if I thought you’d react like that,” she said, her eyes glinting bright in the lights of the businesses around them.
“Like I need a reason,” he said, and cheered at the bow that caused her mouth to shape. He really couldn’t imagine leaving her yet. Not yet. “Want to see a movie?”
“Sounds good.”
And that time, she was the one who took his hand. My girlfriend, he thought, staring at her short, unpainted nails. How had he managed that?
The movie turned out to be kind of boring.
So they made out instead.
The feel of her hair against his face was such a turn-on. He could have rubbed his cheek against her for hours, just reveling in it. He was discreet, running his hand along her stomach and side as he kissed her, pressing his lips along her jaw, nibbling at her ear. Her hand was on his neck, his hair, the other at his shoulder, urging him, rubbing her nose to his. The movie could’ve been twice as long, he grumbled, as the house lights suddenly started to brighten. It probably wasn’t any surprise what they had been doing. Her lips were reddened, his hair mussed from her hands. He patted both their hairdos down a little bit, and helped her up.
They rode the subway toward her house wrapped around each other. Both of their hands were on a ring, but her arm was solidly around him, and his around her. He breathed into her hair, making little jokes of things or people that they saw.
They ate ice cream bars as they walked along her street, and his hand was a mess because he couldn’t eat it quite fast enough. Though, hers was too, he saw, and he gave her a messy, ice cream grin.
She kissed it off of him before he left for home. And forevermore, ice cream would be a turn on.
***
A few days later, they were practicing again, beside each other on the piano bench. They had been to eat after her classes each day, talking on for hours, until the restaurant had closed, and kissing goodnight beside her door. He hadn’t asked to come in.
After their third time through the song, he froze as she turned to him pressing up against his chest. His arm was quick, slipping around her slender waist. She shuddered as he pressed his lips gently to her neck, and that absolutely undid him.
“Kyuhyun...”
At his lower back, her fingers were restless, betraying her quick thoughts. “I think this is some kind of a dream sometimes, but how stupid is that? I’d have to be in some kind of coma to imagine all of this. It’s just unreal. I think I’m a little crazy.”
Him and her, he realized, that was so unreal to her.
“What can I do to make it seem real to you, Kyuhyun?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head.
He touched her cheek, tilting her face up to his.
“What if I told you,” he began, “that the song hits home for me, where you’re concerned.”
She licked her lips, frowning at him. “I’d ask if you were thinking with the wrong part of your anatomy.”
The laugh burst out of him, startling her. “A week ago you thought you weren’t sexy enough to tempt me, and now you think I can only think of that?” (Partly true, he supposed.) “Kui Xian... I think every moment I’m with you I fall deeper in love. Sweet Kui Xian.”
“My mother doesn’t think I’m sweet.”
“That’s okay. I don’t want to date your mother.”
Her lips quirked. “That’s good. Kui Xian? You have a lot of names for me.”
“I’ll call you whatever you want. I want to know you.”
“You realize you’re not making this any more real for me, don’t you?”
He chuckled, squishing her cheeks. “You’re so difficult. You’d better run now.”
“I should tell you that,” she said, a teasing light in her eyes. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. I get into bad moods, and I don’t know how to be a girlfriend, and I hate to clean and...”
He cut her off with a kiss. The things of herself she thought were faults were things they could work around. And probably not nearly as bad as she imagined. So he told her, in the most real way he knew how, that he wanted her. (No, not that way. Just kissing. Though the piano bench taunted.)
(It always taunted, the rest of the time that the room was theirs.)
(He probably should have kept secret whether or not they ever did use it. But they did. At least once.)
***
It took almost two weeks before they slept together the second time. After they had, ah... Sort of jumped into it the first time.
While he was wracking his brain for something to do that didn’t include his place or hers, because he didn’t want to give her the impression that that was all he wanted from her. But then again, he didn’t really want her to think he didn’t want her either. Though the time that they spent making out eclipsed that fear. He snuggled her under his arm on the subway.
“Do you want to come to my place instead of going out tonight? I made something earlier, so we could eat.” Kyuhyun asked.
She elbowed him as he stared at her.
“Yes!” he blurted, and she grinned. That meant they had to get off one stop earlier, so they stood, and his heart started to slow from the race it had started.
Even if they were in her apartment, they would eat. Maybe watch some TV? Explore her music, her keyboard.
She laid out food and plates on her miniscule kitchen table, serving him the warmed food.
“Sorry if it’s not very good,” she said, sitting. “I’m not really known for my kitchen skills.”
It was slow cooked meat, spicy but not too spicy, with fresh rice.
“It’s good.” He’d have said that if it was anything short of rancid, but it was honestly good. He could’ve eaten a bucketful if it meant she smiled at him. “And I’m not just saying that!”
She smirked, her chopsticks poised. “I know. I have functional taste buds, too.”
She had cooked for him. Cooked and served him in her own kitchen, with dirty dishes stacked in the sink and her shoes by the door and papers and pictures held up by colorful magnets on her fridge. It was seeing a whole other side to her, and it was one that he absolutely liked.
And though he offered to help, she shooed him away, putting their dishes into the sink and leading him into the small living room. She snuggled beside him on the equally tiny couch, and the variety show distracted them for the next hour.
“Zhou Mi?” she whispered when it was over and commercials began playing.
“Hm?” he asked, rubbing his cheekbone over the side of her head.
“Did you want to stay the night?”
He stared at the television, his mind fuzzy. Sleep? Sex? What did she mean?
“Um?”
“I just thought it might be nice. Well. It’s been almost two weeks.”
Sex, she meant. Staring at him with nearly black eyes and waiting for his answer.
“If that’s what you want, then I am always up for it,” he said a bit hoarsely. “Kyu... I’d love to stay the night with you.”
It was important, he thought as she pulled him to his feet, hooking his arms around her waist before she guided them both into her mostly tidy bedroom with the unmade bed. Important that she asked him to stay the night, and didn’t just invite him for sex. It meant more, to both of them.
She was every bit as gorgeous as he remembered, as she stripped for him. It wasn’t intended to be as sexy as it was, the simple act of tugging her shirt over her head. But because it was her... The simple white bra against her skin, the way her hip cocked as she undid her jeans, the way her hair slid unimpeded over her shoulder. He stopped her before she could reach behind herself.
“Let me,” he whispered against her neck and felt her shiver.
He felt like the most powerful man on earth.
And with her beneath him, kissing him... He knew how to kiss her now, how she liked it. And he did, moving against her with what he hoped was ungainly grace. Her thigh, the luxurious velvet of it, was perfect under his hand as he guided to help it grip, to control. He felt the purr in her throat against his face, and lost track of time itself, until he lost himself in her.
***
He felt, quite honestly, like a million dollars stretched out in her bed. It was a little narrow, but all the better to be close to her. And that was definitely not a problem, seeing as she had one smooth thigh crossing his, her chest pressed up against his side and her head cradled in the hollow of his shoulder. She sighed as he played with the ends of her hair, and he was content to lay just like this until eternity ended (or until the southern “he” felt energetic enough again).
“Do you ever wonder why I slept with you that night?” she asked.
“Hm?” He let that question trickle in. “Oh, I. Umm. I don’t know?”
She made a sound halfway between a snort and a chuckle. “You’re such a guy, Zhou Mi.”
“Hey, you weren’t complaining about that a little while ago,” he protested. “And I guess I did think about it. I...That you wanted me?”
“That was pretty obvious, I think. But any normal girl probably would’ve gotten dressed and left, even after she saw you were glassy eyed and drooling.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, choosing to ignore that description of him.
“I mean... Guys tend to sleep with girls like that for a little while, but they don’t date them, or marry them, you know? They just see them as slutty. Definitely don’t respect them in the morning.”
“It didn’t feel slutty to me!” he protested.
“You were getting some. You couldn’t possibly have noticed. Anyone I dated before... I don’t know.”
“Tell me, Kui Xian.”
“I don’t know if I should...”
“Tell me,” he urged, scooting down a little so that their faces were closer.
She traced patterns on his shoulder as she thought, and he waited until she was ready.
“The first guy I really dated, all he wanted was sex. He bugged me all the time that it was time, and I couldn’t really be his girlfriend until we did, and that was what was normal. I thought he was full of it, but after a few weeks, he just wore me down. So we did, finally. We went out a couple times after that, and then... He just stopped calling. So I figured he’d gotten what he wanted, or I just hadn’t been good enough. Any of the guys I was involved with after were pretty much the same, not really interested in me.”
Where was the guy, so he could strangle him? Not just for hurting Kyuhyun, because that was obviously what he did, but for touching her too.
“Kyu...”
“So!” she said, clearly bolstering herself. “I’d liked you for a while, and that was okay. I didn’t really plan on acting on it. But I just wanted to see... When I saw the way you looked at me that night, I just... I thought, he wants my body. And I wanted you, so I figured... If we just got it out of the way, you could move on without being interested in dating me, and I wouldn’t have to deal with... Well. You not wanting to be around me any more.”
“Kyuhyun...” What could he say, to this woman beside him who had had only doubts about him. But she had wanted him, liked him, maybe as much as he had liked her. He cuddled her.
“I’m not going to lie to you and tell you I don’t think about sex with you a lot, because, well. I do,” he said, trying for brutal honesty. “But there’s more to it than that. You’re a beautiful, sexy woman, but I really like you. I like talking to you and hearing what’s on your mind. I like how talented you are at the piano, and just listening to you sing makes me shiver. I like your sense of humor and that you aren’t afraid to make fun of me. I like that you’re my friend, too, and not just the person I date. I like sitting next to you and holding your hand, and... I’m kind of stupid in love with you, Kui Xian. You’re Sexy Kyu, too, but... When I think of you in my head, I think of you like that... Kui Xian, with the beautiful smile. You’re worth so much more than that jerk led you to believe.”
She had been squirming in apparent embarrassment the entire time he had been speaking.
“That was quite a speech.”
“Yeah,” he said, a little embarrassed as well now that it was over.
“I think if I wasn’t already in love with you, that would have made me fall pretty close.”
She said it so offhand that it took a moment to register just what she had said. “Really? Then...telling me all of this tonight, was that seeing if I’d stick with you?”
“Kind of. I just...thought you deserved to know.”
He whispered to her in Mandarin, pretty Kui Xian, and snuggled her tighter.
“It’s like someone saw just what I wanted, and made you just for me,” he murmured against her cheek.
“Okay, now that’s just sappy,” she said, laughing and poking him.
“I hope I never hurt you.”
The way she ducked her head against him let him know he’d disturbed her again. Maybe not in a bad way. When she spoke it was low, soft, and it melted straight into his heart.
“I think we’re bound to some day. We’re human after all... But... Thank you.”
He nodded, brushing against her face. “Thank you for being with me.”
The thoughtful humming made him wonder just what comment she was cooking up, and got his answer when she knuckled his belly button. “Thank you for having a marshmallow center I never knew about.”
Should he be offended? Amused?
“Does it taste good at least?” he wondered.
He had to catch her before she rolled right off the bed with laughter.
Did it bother him that she’d slept with another guy? Kind of. But since he was determined to be better than anything she’d ever had, it really didn’t matter much. And the more he saw of her, the more they were together...
The more he was convinced the other guy was the biggest moron on the face of the earth, and that just meant that Zhou Mi was the luckiest. Because the way the world was right then, he didn’t feel like he ever wanted to let her go.
***
It had started pretty innocently, getting her used to having him around. He had stayed over that night, and then a couple nights later she had stayed at his tiny apartment. For whatever reason, and it might’ve been the squeaky floor of the tenant above that tended to wake her up, they seemed more comfortable where she lived.
He started carrying two changes of clothes with him to her place. At first he had found a discreet place on her dresser to leave it, until that had annoyed her, and suddenly he was in possession of his very own Kyuhyun-vacated drawer. It hadn’t taken him long to fill that drawer up, because what if something wrinkled or didn’t match, or...
Then his full array of toiletries got a corner of her counter.
His food in her fridge, and a picture of them put up on it with a ridiculously sparkly, sunshine yellow frame that she claimed reminded her of him though he had no idea why.
He thought he might have gone too far when he suggested switching out her aging dvd player with his.
“Zhou Mi,” she said, a bit resigned. “Why do you pay for your apartment when most of your belongings are in mine?”
He gawked a bit and stuttered, wondering how he was going to answer that appropriately, when he saw the gleam in her eye.
“Kyuhyun? Are you...?”
“I suppose it would be cheaper,” she teased.
“But your parents?”
“They don’t live with me.” Though she realized her flip response wasn’t quite what he’d been wanting. “Look, they’re pretty cool about most things...”
“Your friends?”
“I don’t have any who’d care.”
He was stumped. A part of him was overeager, whispering that he should just propose and make sure she was his and skip the whole moving in thing altogether. And another part screamed that it was way too soon and they hardly knew each other, and she would absolutely flatly refuse him and laugh while doing it. Because he was such a moron.
But, as he snuggled her, he had never slept in his own apartment again.
***
And, four years later, as Zhou Mi watched his pretty, sexy wife hop out of their private bathroom in a half buttoned shirt and no pants, he couldn’t really regret that choice.
“Are you going to grin like an idiot at me, or help me pick out pants?” Kyuhyun demanded. “They’re going to be here soon.”
“I got your pants out already,” he said, and beckoned her close enough to steal a kiss and getting a smile for his trouble.
“Shouldn’t you be watching the food?” she murmured, petting his hair.
“Rice is in the cooker, and everything else is warming in the oven. We’re set.”
“And your sons?”
“Happily wreaking destruction on the block castle I built them. Should I have been an architect?”
She laughed, sliding into the comfortable black pants he’d laid out for her. “That would have been a colossal waste of your talent, don’t you think? You are an architect, a song architect.”
Her hands were squished between their chests as he squeezed her.
“I love you, Kyu.”
She grunted, pushing him back so she could finish buttoning her shirt. “Love you, too. Go make sure they’re not plugging the toilet with those blocks?”
“Mamaaa?” a plaintive voice called through the door. “Hungryyyyy.”
He kissed her. “Your sons are calling.”
“My sons now, huh?”
“When they’re hungry,” he said slyly. “You’ve always had that covered.”
The door buzzed, and he snuck in one last kiss before she pushed at him. “You get the door, I’ll try to get them into their chairs.”
He patted her bottom as he passed, as she gathered one twin and called for the other. And at the door, he opened it with a smile, seeing Siwon’s answering grin, his arm around his wife’s waist. And a third, very important guest, cuddled in the carrier in Siwon’s hand. Their tiny, two-week old baby girl.
It really wasn’t fair that his marshmallow center was that weak.
***