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Yunho, wandering quickly down the main backstage corridor of the AAA Awards, makes a mental note to order some bubble wrap whenever he is next online shopping. Mingi is slowly but surely becoming a bit of a hazard when performing, mostly to himself and to his own safety even though he doesn’t necessarily mean to be, and it’s very simply stressing Yunho the fuck out.
Mingi is already nursing an injury that’s taking a lot longer to heal than their entire medical staff had initially thought it would, and sometimes he still does awake in the middle of the night sobbing softly because it just aches in a way that’s incredibly uncomfortable.
Yunho doesn’t want to see his partner hurt again, no matter what the injury may be or how the younger may get it, and so that’s why his entire life flashed before his eyes when Mingi slipped on the stage around, what must be, fifteen or so minutes ago now.
He had been approaching the Xikers, a group very dear to the hearts of every single Ateez member, jumping around like he usually would, and then he had lost his balance and went tumbling down to the floor. Yunho’s breath had gotten caught in the back of his throat, and he had been so relieved when Mingi got straight back up and continued performing like nothing had happened at all.
But Yunho did keep an eye on him for the rest of their set. He couldn’t help it, he just had to make sure that Mingi was okay. He payed close attention to every single expression on his boyfriend’s face, searching his features for any sign of discomfort or, god forbid, genuine pain. Thankfully, he hadn’t found any by the time they hit their ending poses. The lights dimmed, they left the stage and here they are now.
Mingi appears at the other end of the long corridor, and Yunho immediately stops in his tracks. Mingi blinks, and then smiles brightly as he sends his older boyfriend a wave. Yunho cannot find it in himself to wave back, or to even return the smile. Mingi, who cannot help but feel a little ignored despite being directly looked at by the man he loves, frowns lightly as he drops his hand. His arm hangs awkwardly at his side.
The two watch each other for a moment, and then Yunho remembers how his body works and he begins walking forward again. Mingi does too, meeting the taller halfway. Yunho cradles his boyfriend’s face within his hands, and Mingi appreciates the touch but he knows deep down that he’s most definitely missing something here.
”Yunnie,” he begins carefully, because the other man seems to be scanning every inch of his face and body as if he’s ensuring that a recently delivered parcel isn’t damaged in any way, “baby, is everything alr—”
”You’re going to give me a heart attack one day, Princess,” Yunho tells him as a matter of fact, looking back into his partners eyes. He asks him, “are you alright?”
Mingi blinks in confusion, tilting his head to the side in a way that’s hopelessly endearing. “What do you mean? Of course I’m fine, why wouldn’t I be?”
”Because you fell again,” Yunho says, stomach knotting at the very image, and Mingi’s face very quickly falls into an expression of understanding, “are you sure you’re not hurting anywhere? Maybe the leftover adrenaline from the performance is messing with your pain tolerance?”
A soft, lightly amused, ”Yunnie—”
”Your finger is okay, yes? I saw your hand hit the floor. It’s not hurting you again, is it? I’m sure there’s a medical team around we can see if it is. I don’t mind, Min, if you need to be checked over—”
Another, somewhat useless, attempt at an interruption, “baby, I—”
Yunho’s hands fall from Mingi’s face, and instead they settle on the middle of his arms. Yunho takes a step back in order to see him better, looking Mingi over once again. His eyes are alert, and also slightly wide with growing panic.
“Nothing is broken, right? Surely you’d be in more pain if it is,” a brief pause, “then again the adrenaline. Shit, are you broken anywhere? Do I need to take you to an actual, proper hospital? I’ll do it. I don’t care about the rest of the show. If you need to go, we can go.”
Mingi doesn’t say anything, his own heart beginning to beat a little too quickly beneath his chest.
Yunho asks him again, “does anything feel broken, Princess? Any bone or anything like that?”
What on earth is he going on about? All he did this time was slip over, it’s not like he fell off the stage like he had done at Waterbomb. He fell and he got straight back up again. Mingi had, at least before this moment, pretty much forgotten about the slip altogether. “Uh, no?”
Yunho’s shoulders tense, his breath hitching slightly at the back of his throat. He looks back up into Mingi’s eyes, shaking his head, ”you don’t sound so certain.”
Mingi swallows. ”To be honest with you, Yunnie, you’re kind of beginning to stress me out.”
The older feels his heart ache, and his hands fall from Mingi’s arms. “Oh.”
”Yeah,” the rapper nods small, “just— no more, okay?”
Yunho nods, and guilt begins to creep into his body, “I’m sorry.”
Mingi offers his boyfriend a gentle smile, once again not receiving a mirror of the expression in return. “It’s alright,” he tells him honestly, but Yunho looks down at the floor. The older’s neck is burning red with steadily growing embarrassment.
Yunho hears it when Mingi eventually takes a step closer to him, and he feels as if he can breathe easily once more when a pair of hands come to cradle his face. The cool metal of the finger brace is oddly comforting. Mingi slowly guides Yunho’s head ever so slightly upward so that he can join their eyes. He places their foreheads together, and Yunho’s tense shoulders instantly relax.
”I’m okay,” Mingi whispers to him, a soft promise, “I would tell you if I wasn’t. You know that, right?”
Yunho exhales shakily, feeling his eyes pool with tears. “Yeah,” he admits, “but I just— the last time you fell, Min, you got really hurt and I was worried that it might have happened again.”
”I got straight back up, baby,” Mingi says, “and it wasn’t really a fall. More of a slip.”
”You still ended up on the ground—"
”For like half a second.”
”It doesn’t matter how long it was,” and Mingi’s heart cracks when the taller sniffles softly, “the last time you ended up on the ground, you got badly hurt and you’re still hurting because of it. It’s been months since that accident, and you’re still h-hurt. I thought that you got hurt again. I tried to tell myself that you were okay, and I kept an eye on you for the whole performance, but I— I don’t like it when you fall, I don’t like it when you get hurt.”
Mingi sits with the words for a little bit, and he places a small kiss to the older’s hairline.
”This is so pathetic,” Yunho says, “I’m so sorry.”
”It’s not pathetic,” Mingi shakes his head, “caring about me isn’t pathetic. Don’t be sorry.”
”But you’re right,” the older informs the younger, “you slipped, and you got right back up again. And here I am worried that you broke something.”
”I mean,” Mingi says, “it is a little dramatic, I won’t lie, but you don’t need to apologise for being worried about me. I appreciate that you care so much, you just shocked me with all your questions. I didn’t even really remember the slip happening until you mentioned it here.”
Yunho sniffles softly, and Mingi properly brings his boyfriend into his arms. Yunho doesn’t waste a second in wrapping his own arms around the rapper’s upper body, placing his forehead against the right side of Mingi’s neck in the process.
”Baby, you still think about Waterbomb a lot?”
A whisper, “of course I do.”
Mingi hums small. It’s been months since that performance, and Yunho still blames himself for not be able to prevent Mingi from falling off the stage and fracturing his finger. No matter how many times Mingi tries to tell him that it’s most definitely not his fault, Yunho just can’t seem to entirely believe him.
”I’m not going to go through life unhurt, Yunnie, as annoying or perhaps upsetting as that is. That’s just the truth. Nobody goes through life without an injury of some sort. Most injuries are just accidents, you’ll find.”
”I just w-want to protect you from getting hurt.”
”I know,” Mingi nods, “and it’s a lovely thing for you to want to do but you are human as well, Yunho. You can’t do everything. What happened at Waterbomb wasn’t your fault, and I really don’t like that you’re still blaming yourself for it. I wasn’t looking where I was going and unfortunately walked further than I was supposed to. It’s not your fault your back was turned at the time. You don’t have superpowers, baby, you couldn’t have known that was going to happen.”
Yunho sniffles, “I still think I could have caught you.”
”We’re both over six foot tall and that stage wasn’t very high,” Mingi tells him, “we both would’ve crashed into each other, most likely. One of us being hurt is better than the both of us being hurt.”
”I’d prefer it if neither of us were hurt.”
Mingi tightens his hold on his boyfriend, and he thinks about the irritating brace he has to wear on his finger for another few weeks. “Me too.”
A moment of quiet, and then, “are you really sure that you’re okay?”
”I’m okay,” Mingi promises him, “and, once again, I would tell you if I wasn’t.”
Yunho hums small, and he unwraps his right arm from around Mingi so that he’s can wipe his own tears.
”Maybe I should calm down a bit when performing?”
”No.”
The instant reply shocks him. “Oh?”
”Don’t change the way you perform,” Yunho says, “I love watching you look so happy. I love that you bounce around all the time and I love the passion you have. Maybe just do it more carefully please? Especially if the stage is wet or something.”
Mingi’s heart is warm. “Okay,” he agrees, and he turns his head to the right so that he’s able to place a comforting kiss to the other man’s forehead. Yunho exhales contently, and then he pulls backward.
Their limbs become their own once more, only briefly as Mingi lifts his hands upward to wipe Yunho’s leftover drying tears from his face.
”How’s my makeup?”
Mingi chuckles softly, eyes sparkling with a decade-long adoration, “you still look very handsome, baby, don’t worry.”
Yunho nods small, and finally he smiles. Mingi kisses the centre of his boyfriend’s forehead. When he pulls back, Yunho says to him, “I’m trying with the Waterbomb thing, by the way. Deep down I know that it’s not my fault, but my brain often tells me otherwise.”
”I know,” Mingi nods, “but I’ll be here every time to assure you and remind you that it wasn’t your fault.”
The older takes the younger’s left hand into his right one, and Mingi lets him do so because he knows exactly why Yunho is doing it. His boyfriend’s past words float through his mind: ‘I hold your left hand, Min, so that I know it won’t get knocked again. I hold your hand so you do not get hurt again. I couldn’t stop you from getting injured in the first place, for that I’m still so sorry, and so I’m going to stop it from getting hurt any worse. I keep your hand safe within my hand so that nobody can hurt it, whether accidentally or not.’
Yunho brings their joined hands upward, and he places a light kiss to the back of Mingi’s one. Mingi smiles gently, feeling the centre of his face catch fire. The action makes him feel fuzzy inside. Warm, safe, loved.
”I love you,” Yunho tells him, and Mingi will never grow tired of hearing those words.
”I love you too.”
Yunho suddenly chuckles softly, and Mingi is left a little confused until Yunho tells him, “I’m going to need to cover you in bubble wrap before every performance, I think.”
Mingi chuckles softly too. “If it puts your mind at ease, then of course you can. Just— just under my outfits only, yeah? I have a reputation of always looking good to uphold. Don’t really know how a bubble wrap outfit would go down.”
Yunho smiles fondly, the expression making Mingi’s heart leap. “You will always be beautiful to me, bubble wrap and all.”
Mingi hums in great appreciation, the compliment like music to his ears. Mingi then remembers something he said earlier, and he wants to quickly clear up his meaning. “When I told you earlier that it was dramatic to be worried that I broke a bone by slipping—”
Yunho sighs softly. “Min…”
”I didn’t mean it,” Mingi tells him, “not entirely, not in the way you might think I meant it. It’s obviously far-fetched that I would break a bone just by slipping a small distance, especially since I caught myself before even properly hitting the floor,” only the right side of the lower half of his body touched the stage, “but I want to clarify that your feelings and worries are completely valid, yeah?”
Yunho nods.
”Please don’t ever think that I would try to dismiss your feelings or concerns as being just ‘dramatic’. I would never. You had every right to be worried about me. I care about what you have to say, Yun. I care a lot about both the good and the bad things that go through your head. Always.”
The older carefully squeezes the slightly shorter’s hand. “I know,” he nods, “I know that you care, and I also know that you wouldn’t dismiss me. Thank you for clarifying, though.”
”Of course,” Mingi nods, “just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.”
Yunho smiles, and he giggles softly when Mingi leans over to place a kiss to the side of his head. Yunho turns his head to close the gap between them properly, placing his lips over the lips of his boyfriend, and the kiss is one they both melt into with ease. Yunho’s free left hand settles against the back of Mingi’s head, keeping him close, and Mingi’s arm wraps easily around the hips of his boyfriend. Mingi drags him closer, and Yunho goes gladly.
Their kiss continues, and for a moment they forget where they are until they hear a loud gag echo down the corridor. They separate both immediately and completely, even though there are only six people who it could’ve been. Their performance set finished, and so everyone who isn’t a member of Ateez is either sitting in their seats or are wandering around the venue somewhere that isn’t backstage.
They look towards the source of the sound, and they find Wooyoung stood there with a rather forced-innocent expression on his face. He gasps softly, looking around the room as if he wasn’t the one to gag.
He tuts, shaking his head, “now who on earth did that?!”
Mingi’s gaze narrows a little.
Wooyoung asks him, growing nervous, “Wooyoungie leave?”
The rapper confirms with a light nod of his head, “Wooyoungie leave.”
”Okay,” he says, and he spins around on his heel, “bye Dads!”
Mingi and Yunho watch him leave, both a little uncertain on how they feel about what he’s just referred to them as. Wooyoung turns right and disappears, but he disappears so quickly it’s almost like he’s being dragged away. Matching giggles fill the air— Wooyoung found San.
Yunho asks, “so we have a son now?”
”Not if it’s Wooyoung.”
Yunho rolls his eyes, and Mingi turns to him because he sees the action out of the corner of his own eye.
Mingi says, “if we have a son together in this group, it’s definitely Jongho.”
But before Yunho can even properly consider, Mingi begins speaking:
”But actually the Xikers are our children, I’ve decided.”
Yunho questions, “when did you decide that?”
“Like a couple of weeks ago, I think.”
”Well how many—”
Mingi raises his eyebrows as if to tell him that question is ridiculous and the answer is obvious.
Yunho’s eyes widen a little, “all of them?”
”Yes.”
”All ten?”
”Yes, Yunnie,” the rapper nods sharply, “all ten. We’ve been very busy.”
”Uh, yeah, clearly.”
Mingi smiles, and Yunho’s body relaxes before he smiles back. Suddenly the rest of the world exists again, the appearance of their friend and the mentioning of other friends helping to pop the bubble of privacy they had once had around them. They’ve probably got five minutes max before Hongjoong sends out a search party for them.
”Shall we—”
Mingi says with a shake of his head, “I don’t want to.”
”I don’t either,” Yunho responds, “but in a few hours it’ll be just the two of us and then we can do stuff.”
“Is that secret code for sex?”
”You are so gross,” Yunho cringes, but then he takes a step closer to his boyfriend and kisses his cheek, “of course it is.”
Mingi’s small, victorious ‘yes’ is perhaps a lot more endearing than what it should be. Yunho watches him fondly, allowing the younger to take his left hand into his right one. The rapper basically pulls Yunho down the corridor, claiming that the quicker they reunite with their band, the quicker the day will go and therefore they will get to go home in what feels like the blink of an eye.
Yunho doesn’t question this logic, he just allows himself to be pulled into the room in which the other Ateez members are gathered. He goes to sit beside Mingi, but the rapper instead pulls him down into his lap. It’s cute… until Wooyoung gags for a second time and once again acts as if he doesn’t know who has done it.
The ironic part? Wooyoung is sat on San’s lap.