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“Just once, hyung, come on.”
Minho doesn't budge, feet planted firmly in the sand, the waves coming just close enough to lick at his toes from time to time. “I'm not getting in the water, Yongbok.”
Felix pouts at him, and oh no . That's not fair. “Please. Just this one time, and I won't ask you again for the rest of the trip. Promise.” He tilts his head to the side like a puppy. Minho is doomed, though he pretends he isn't and keeps his arms crossed. “Please, for me?”
Well, shit. Now he can't say no.
With a sigh, Minho takes a few steps forward and lets the sea lap at his ankles, then his calves. It's not too cold, but still a sharp contrast to the sticky hot Australian air, and Minho yelps when the next wave catches his knees and splashes around him.
Felix giggles, extending a hand to Minho, who takes it not without grumbling. He lets himself be guided further away from the shore, gasping as the water reaches above the waistband of his bathing suit, only earning himself another giggle from his boyfriend. Minho can feel himself swaying with the waves, the movement both intriguing and unnerving. Thankfully, Felix stops them there and takes Minho's wrists in his hands, turning his back to Minho's chest and winding his arms around his waist.
Minho instantly feels steadier, resting his chin on Felix's shoulder after placing a kiss to his freckled skin. They face the beach in peaceful silence for a while, Minho doing a quick headcount out of habit, only vaguely aware that he's doing it. Jisung managed to challenge Changbin, Seungmin and Jeongin at a beach volleyball match, though none of them are any good at it; Hyunjin has had his ass planted in the warm sand drawing for the best part of an hour; and Chan seems to be struggling with the barbecue, which means either their manager or Minho will have to rescue him in the near future.
For now though, he just enjoys the familiar feeling of Felix pressed against him and lets himself relax.
His mind wanders — to their concert a week prior; to their dinner with Chan and Felix’s families; to the pictures of Soonie, Doongie and Dori his mom sent him last night; to the lazy, lustful morning he spent with Felix today; then back to this beach, its white sands, its blue ocean and the way it’s become a synonym of comfort in mere hours.
Minho’s never been a big fan of water and he doubts he ever will be, but there’s something about the sea that he can’t stay angry at. He’s not sure what exactly it is, but where lakes, rivers and even some pools make him immediately uneasy and a tad fearful, the ocean is calming, like a gentle lullaby that washes his worries away with every wave.
Though, if he’s completely honest with himself, this calm is probably an aftereffect of seeing what being near the sea does to Felix.
Minho loves Felix in every and all situations, but Felix at the beach is a side of his boyfriend he’s still getting to know better and that he can’t get enough of. Korea is home to Felix now; he’s told Minho as such, and Minho can see it, from how comfortable he’s become with speaking Korean, how much he cherishes the friends he’s made there, how much better he is at navigating through Seoul than Minho has ever been, how deeply he thrives doing the job that he loves. But Australia is home . It’s where he grew up, the place that holds all of his childhood memories, the place that speaks his language and that undeniably makes him the happiest in the world. He’d looked impossibly carefree the second the plane had started descending and the first glimpse of Sydney had been visible through his window, and his smile hasn’t dimmed since then. If anything, it got even wider when they arrived at the beach house on their first day of real vacation, nearly bringing him to tears the first time he stepped onto the warm sand.
Minho lets his eyes roam around the beach again, taking in the sight of the members scattered around the sand, letting his vision get out of focus until the shapes merge into something else, until his imagination takes over and conjures the one thing that would make this wonderful, wonderful place even better. The image is so sharp and the joy of it is so poignant, he barely notices himself saying:
“When we have kids, we should come and live here.”
Minho feels Felix's sharp intake of breath as much as he hears it. His chest expands under his palms, warm and strong and familiar. “Yeah?” His voice shakes the smallest bit, but Minho's does too when he speaks again, so he guesses it doesn't really matter.
“Yeah. We could find a place by the beach, with only a small commute to their school. You could teach them how to swim, and we could make bonfires on the weekends, tell them stories under the stars.”
“We could get a dog.” Felix sounds as breathless as Minho feels. “Take it on a walk along the beach in the mornings before the kids wake up. Drink our coffee on the porch when the sun is done rising, go shop for groceries at the market just inside of town during the day.”
“D’you think Channie-hyung would want to be our neighbour?”
Felix laughs, and Minho can barely breathe from how much he wants to spend the rest of his life treasuring that sound. “I think he and the others would want to live close by so they can babysit their nephews and compete over who’s the coolest uncle.”
Minho giggles. “They’d make teams for sandcastle contests and end up burying the kids in the sand until Channie-hyung remembered to be an adult.”
He can already see it. Two kids running around in the sand, playing with each other and laughing in their childish glee. A big, gentle dog, who looks over them and plays with them, spraying water everywhere when it gets out of the ocean. Felix, relaxed as he is today, standing not too far from them and reminding them to put sunscreen on. And Minho can see himself too, which is perhaps the craziest part of all this. He can see himself on that beach with Felix, their children, their family, and he can see himself feeling like this is exactly where he's supposed to be, even if it's thousands of miles away from everything he's ever known. Like this is exactly the place he's meant to become a husband and a father in.
This is Felix's home, and he can picture it becoming his own too.
Felix turns to face him, throwing his arms around his neck. The tip of his nose is red from a day-old sunburn, his freckles are the darkest Minho has ever seen them, and his eyes shine with the same indescribable feeling that fills up Minho's chest. He's the most beautiful thing Minho has ever had the chance to see, and he loves him so much he doesn't know how to say it.
“Are you serious, hyung?”
Minho nods, throat too thick with emotion to say anything else. They’ve talked about starting a family before, but it was always in passing, comments thrown here and there. This feels different. More serious, more committed, yet somehow no more scary. It’s the opposite, actually. Minho feels blissfully lightheaded from the mere idea of this domestic life with Felix.
“Would you really? Move back here with me?”
“We can legally get married here, no?”
Felix makes a noise that can only be described as a whine, and he leans forward to knock their foreheads together like he physically can’t help himself, eyes fluttering closed. “Minho-hyung.”
“Yongbok-ah.” Minho winds his arms tighter around Felix’s waist, bringing their bodies closer . He’s not sure if the heartbeat he’s feeling echoing in his chest is his own, Felix’s, or the both of them in tandem.
“Moving to another country isn’t easy, hyung,” Felix murmurs as he opens his eyes and locks gaze with Minho again, the slight edge in his voice showing that he speaks from experience, and that he still feels the hurt of it to this day. “Are you really sure you’d want that?”
“You did it for me. For all eight of us. You've had to live in my part of the world, away from your home, for all of your career. It's only fair that once we can afford it, I do the same for you.” Before Felix can say anything else, he continues. “And I want to see you happy, Yongbok. I want you to be happy all the time, and there’s no place in the world I’ve seen you look happier than here. I like this place, and I love you. So yes, I’m willing to make such a big change if it means you’ll smile like this everyday, if it means I get to marry you for real, and it means I get to raise a family with you the way I’ve wanted to all this time.”
Felix bites his lip like he always does when he’s trying not to cry. Minho lifts a hand to gently untuck it from his teeth, though he feels just as close to tears. He cups Felix’s jaw, running the pad of his thumb on his freckled cheekbone, mapping out the shape of his face like he’s done countless times before.
“Tell me you mean it.”
It's a faraway, nearly impossible dream for them, with the career they've chosen. “I mean it.”
One of Felix's hands slips into his hair. “God, I love you so much,” he whispers, the sound nearly drowned under the low rumble of the waves. Then he kisses Minho, hard and passionate and so full of hope Minho feels weak at the knees. He kisses back just as strong.
It'll be a while before they can start thinking about making this a reality, and that's okay. They have group members and fans to take care of still. But until then, it doesn't hurt to believe that it can happen, to believe that this beautiful beach could be their forever.