wrote a little thing for my wonderful, beautiful, incredible, and perfect gf @myfortae as a christmas present. it has a focus on jonghyun but it’s pretty soft so if you wanna read it you can, if not that’s fine. enjoy your holidays, guys!
monachopsis
Jonghyun was so pretty when they were sleeping.
There had been many times that Taemin would wake up in the middle of the night, with the stars shining through the gap where the curtains didn’t quite meet and the whir of Jonghyun’s laptop on the desk across the room. They always forgot to turn it off, and it’s white-blue glow made Taemin’s eyes sting when they first opened that night. But after that, after his eyes had adjusted and he could see again, he was greeted with the most beautiful sight of them all. Jonghyun.
Their face was brightly illuminated in the darkness, shining like the moon was glowing directly above them, onto their body. Taemin could feel his lips twitching into a grin. There was such an oddly satisfying feeling that brewed in his chest as he watched Jonghyun sleep. Their eyelids fluttered delicately with every one of Taemin’s breaths that fanned over their face; their pouting lips were still pink with kisses from just before they had gone to sleep, parted in a gentle snore. Usually, Taemin would find that sort of thing annoying, but with Jonghyun… God, Taemin couldn’t imagine anything more calming and lovable.
Taemin let his fingers come to stroke across Jonghyun’s cheek, curling across their warm cheekbone where the heat of their breath was trapped in the blanket pulled tight over their head. Jonghyun always got so cold at night, Taemin never minded letting them take the most of the duvet. Their eyelids fluttered as Taemin’s hand brushed over their temple, then up to tangle in their hair. Ever sensitive to those sorts of touches, Jonghyun let out a little moan, a puff of hot air mixed with a pretty whine that made Taemin’s heart melt. He chuckled, leaning in to press a gentle kiss to Jonghyun’s parted lips. They were too pretty to let the opportunity pass by. Jonghyun whined again, shifting over and furrowing their eyebrows at Taemin’s heavy hand across their face.
“Nmh…” The little noise came from deep in Jonghyun’s throat, a sleep-filled noise shot through with annoyance and something like adoration. Taemin snorted, gently so as not to disturb Jonghyun too much. Even in the deepness of their slumber, Jonghyun was utterly the cutest. But, to be fair, sleep was never too deep with Jonghyun. Taemin could see in the flicker of their pupils against the thin backs of their eyelids, darting back and forth endlessly as they watched their way through their dreams. Jonghyun made another low noise, this time starting to yawn. They stretched their hand up to start brushing their thumb over their plump lower lip. It was a common, sleepy gesture that Jonghyun often made when they were newly-awoken, sleepily-needy, and affectionate. Their eyes didn’t flutter open, but their eyebrows stitched closer together and they grunted.
“Cute noises, baby,” Taemin teased, voice soft and playful, drenched in sweetness. Jonghyun’s body twitched, curling in on itself.
“Nuh, Taemi…” came Jonghyun’s slurred, thick reply. He chuckled again, tightening his grip just slightly on Jonghyun’s hair, just enough for them to feel. A whimper slid from beneath the blankets, followed closely by a shy whining, “Taeminnie!” Jonghyun complained again, surely hiding a pout behind their stroking hand, brushing their thumb more forcefully over their lip. Taemin laughed, pulling Jonghyun a tiny bit closer by their hair and leaning in himself.
“What, Jonghyunnie?” he asked, overly-saccharine and teasing, slowly untangling his hand from where it was buried in Jonghyun’s fading pink locks, black and ice-blue in the semi darkness. He brought his hand down again to run across Jonghyun’s prominent cheeks, and their eyes fluttered shut, nuzzling up into Taemin’s careful touch.
“Not fair, Taeminnie…” they whined, words still merged with sleepiness. Taemin’s heart, if it was possible, became even warmer, filled to the brim with affection for his dozy partner. They were so endlessly adorable, hooded eyes looking up at him with a dark, hazed attraction that usually would be sensual, but in the nightlight, holding each other under the flickering light of stars and the whirring laptop and the eyes of the moon, it was loving. Trusting. Jonghyun’s eyes held all the love that they could muster within them, an expression Taemin could only ever hope to match in repeated words and caring touches and the promise of a bond that was unbreakable.
“I think it’s fair, Jonghyunnie…” he whispered back, the quiet that had surrounded them suddenly crowding with the sound of Taemin’s voice. Jonghyun stopped running their finger over their mouth, tracing the familiar shape of their lips, to pout hugely at Taemin. He was about to let out yet another adoring chuckle, but it became a gasp as he felt the sheets around him tug from his body and curl around Jonghyun instead.
“Leave then,” was Jonghyun’s muffled response. Their grip on the sheets was tight; Taemin tried to tug them back but all he earned was a playful yelp of: “No, Taeminnie. Banished. Out, out, out.” At that, Jonghyun began to peddle their legs desperately, so their cool feet kicked against Taemin’s bare calves. Taemin laughed despite himself and the cold, rolling over and over until he was lay flat against the edge of the bed.
“You can’t banish me, Jonghyunnie, this is my bed,” he said, amusement clear in his voice, head lolling to the side to face Jonghyun again. Their glittering eyes, downturned and half-closed with sleep peeped out of a hole in the duvet fort they had dug themself into. “Cute, Jonghyunnie…” slipped from his lips before he could even hold it back and Jonghyun whined again so loudly that it cracked the peace of the night in half, leaving Taemin bare in his mirth, open in the wakefulness of the too-early morning.
“No, Taeminnie. Not fair. You’re banished.” Taemin laughed again, helplessly, before he slowly stretched, dragging his cold body out of bed and into the even colder air of the morning. The bedroom was much, much icier than the bed, where Jonghyun’s warmth was trapped within the sheets even with no blanket, and Taemin stumbled towards his wardrobe, filled evenly with as many of Jonghyun’s clothes as there were of his own, to put on a thermal or something. His legs still trembled with the cold as he pulled on a shirt, but he didn’t mind. He could feel Jonghyun’s eyes following him as he flowed around the room. Once he was done getting changed, and sliding his cold, cold feet into Jonghyun’s slightly too small, fuzzy slippers, he came to sit on the edge of the bed again. Jonghyun ducked their head back under the sheets, but Taemin knew he had all of their attention anyway. In the nicest kind of way, he sort of knew he always did.
“Can I make it up to you, pretty boy?” he asked, hand reaching out to run over the lump of Jonghyun’s form. He couldn’t quite tell what it was he was touching- a shoulder, maybe?- but Jonghyun was sensitive everywhere, so it was no surprise that wherever it was that they were touched they shuddered with their whole body and whined again. Maybe it was the petname that helped with that. Jonghyun loved those. “Can I give my prettiest baby something so you’ll let me come back to bed?” he continued, palm stroking down flat along Jonghyun’s body, down to what he thought was Jonghyun’s hip, though the blankets inflated the part hugely whatever it was, and he started to rub little circles into where the skin would be. Jonghyun keened, high and loud, shuffling closer to Taemin, and Taemin was sure now that he could just slip back into bed and Jonghyun wouldn’t care as long as his hands were on them. He wanted to do something for Jonghyun anyway, another little gesture that would maybe show Jonghyun how much Taemin matched the love he saw in their eyes, could never match in his own.
So, ignoring Jonghyun’s grabbing hands that shot out from beneath the covers to grab at Taemin as he got up again, Taemin slipped out of the bedroom with a quiet hum of “be right back, baby”. He slipped out of his bedroom- their bedroom- into the somehow even colder hallway and then down into the little kitchen so he could cook Jonghyun up some breakfast. It was nothing difficult, just a hot chocolate (the minty flavour Jonghyun had bought impulsively because it was festive despite neither of them really liking mint or hot chocolate too much) and some pancakes Taemin cut sloppily into the shape of hearts (which he may or may not have done simply to eat some of the cuttings). He drenched the pancakes in syrup and strawberries and cherries and some of the strawberry sauce he found in the cupboard that was meant for ice-cream, then he drenched the hot chocolate in whipped cream and marshmallows and the strawberry sauce so they would match. He placed them both on a tray, barely avoiding a disastrous spill, and slowly carrying it back to the bedroom. For all Taemin’s grace, he didn’t trust himself not to ruin his little gift for Jonghyun. He managed to make him way back to the edge of the bed, and he sat down beside Jonghyun.
They didn’t react, and Taemin wondered whether they were sleeping again, but then he noticed the way the sheets shifted a little every now and then as Jonghyun wiggled for attention. So, they were mad at him. Taemin chuckled, placing his hand onto Jonghyun’s waist again and applying just enough pressure onto it to make Jonghyun squirm. They did. Rolling over to face Taemin, Jonghyun peeked out from beneath the sheets again, eyes trained on the tray in Taemin’s lap. They glanced up at him then down at the train again, obviously questioning, and for a moment Taemin wanted to tease and settle into bed to pretend to eat it himself. However, before he could even begin to move, Jonghyun’s face poked out from inside the bundle and they smiled shyly at Taemin.
“What’s that?” they wondered, lips still curled stubbornly into a pout, but it was much more curious and intrigued and hungry than it had been before.
“Breakfast,” Taemin replied sweetly, placing the tray between them, “Breakfast for you, Jonghyunnie. Good morning.” Jonghyun’s eyes widened, pout wobbling on their lips to almost a smile. Taemin pulled at their waist again, gesturing for Jonghyun to get up. They did, sitting up with a little care so that they wouldn’t disturb the breakfast tray beside them. Once they were sat up and Taemin was snuggled up beside them, Jonghyun held their mouth open ready for Taemin to feed them. He did so obediently, fingers low on the fork as he fed Jonghyun some of the soaked pancake so his fingers would brush against their syrup-sticky lips as he fed them. They hummed delightedly at the taste, turning those pretty, loving eyes onto Taemin again.
It wasn’t particularly Taemin’s style but he couldn’t help melting.
“I love you too, Jonghyunnie,” he smiled in reply, though really, there was no need for the words to be said at all.
