madamteatime
Summary: Yunho tells Changmin he loves him every day
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Some days it's easy to say.
He wakes to Changmin curled up beside him and nothing on their schedules but each other. Yunho rolls over and presses his nose into the back of Changmin's neck and breathes him in, and the scent is like home. Changmin makes a small, sleepy sound but doesn't wake, so Yunho moves higher and brushes his lips against the curve of Changmin's ear.
"I love you," he whispers.
Changmin's eyes flutter. He stirs in Yunho's arms, rumpled and flushed with sleep, and when he turns to face him his lips curl in a sweet smile.
"Good morning to you too," he mumbles.
Yunho can't resist him. He cups Changmin's face in one hand and presses their lips together. It's a soft, dry brush but Changmin shudders against him and arches up and Yunho smiles into the kiss. After all these years he's figured out the things that make Changmin gasp and ache with pleasure, and nothing gets him weaker than being kissed soft and slow. Yunho noses into the hollow of his throat and leaves gentle kisses there, and Changmin's fingers curl in his hair with a sigh.
They don't say much else for the rest of the morning.
- - -
Some days it's harder to say.
Changmin is on the warpath, tearing through their apartment and calling Yunho a slob, a cretin, a buffoon who can't do simple things like put his shoes away and clean his dirty dishes. Yunho stands in the doorway and tries not to get in his way, half scared, half embarrassed because nothing Changmin's complaining about is untrue.
He slinks into the laundry room a while later, where Changmin is glaring at the washing machine like it's personally offended him. Yunho has never empathized more with an inanimate object.
"Three loads," Changmin growls. "I just did three loads of laundry and there's another in the corner and honestly how do you ever have anything clean to wear?"
"Why do you think I steal your clothes so often," Yunho jokes, trying to lighten the mood. It's the wrong thing to say – the full force of Changmin's glare turns on him.
"You are unbelievable. You will never change. I don't have to put up with this," Changmin rants. "I'm leaving, I'm getting my own place where I don't have to pick up after a grown man who can't keep his own space clean, it's a miracle you manage to keep yourself clean – "
Yunho's eyes widen. He grabs Changmin's sleeve before he can stomp past him. "Don't leave," he says.
"Why shouldn't I," Changmin sneers.
"Because I love you."
Changmin snorts and pushes past him, but he doesn't leave.
- - -
Some days it's almost impossible to say.
Changmin is cold and Yunho is colder, and he can't even remember what they fought about except that it was ugly and he knows he will regret it in the days to come. They avoid each other backstage and only speak when they have to, and the tension makes their staff excuse themselves from the room as quickly as possible.
"Changmin," Yunho says.
Changmin doesn't look at him. Yunho grits his teeth.
"Changmin I love you," he forces himself to say.
"You know you say those words so often they're starting to lose all meaning," Changmin says coolly.
Yunho's temper flares. "Yeah well you say them so rarely I'm starting to wonder if they're even true anymore," he snaps.
