Sehun comes home to the sound of laughter.

The most distinctive is that of Jongin’s, the younger of his infant twin sons. His giggles are high pitched, breathy, and come out in sporadic bursts- probably because Minseon is tickling him, if her soft chuckles are anything to go by. Just by the sound, Sehun is already smiling widely with just a step into his home, despite the kind of terrible day he’s had at work.

He slides off his shoes and imagines Jongin’s faced scrunched up with a big smile, sleepy eyes curved happily, and his chubby legs kicking out as he lays sprawled on his back, Minseon’s fingers pressing into his sides. Minseon’s pink bangs have probably fallen in her eyes, her ponytail making waves of hair cascade down the front of her shirt as she smiles even wider, revealing more of her gummy smile, every time Jongin laughs. Kyungsoo, Jongin’s older twin, is probably watching on with big eyes and four fingers shoved in his mouth. He’s still recovering from some kind of stomach bug so his eyes are probably red and watery from crying. His hair is probably a mess from his nap in the afternoon, and maybe even more of a mess if Minseon kept ruffling through it.

“I’m home,” he calls out as he steps into the living room. Minseon, who’s sitting on the ground with her back propped back against the couch turns her attention from Jongin to look up at him and instantly her warm brown eyes light up.

“Sehun,” she sighs, and she’d probably hold her arms out for him if Kyungsoo was not currently occupying one hand, by choosing Minseon’s fingers to ease his teething pains with, and if Jongin wasn’t taking the other, latching onto three fingers and refusing to let go of them.

He quickly slips out of his tight jacket and takes off his stifling tie before leaning down and kissing Minseon. He’d probably lift her off the ground and spin her around in a hug if there weren’t two infants clinging to her so she stays rooted to the ground.

Kyungsoo notices he’s in sight and immediately begins to whine, letting go of Minseon’s finger in order to hold his hands up for Sehun, who happily picks him up off the ground and holds him close to his chest. Kyungsoo naturally presses into the crook of his neck, tiny hands clinging where they can reach at the collar of Sehun’s dress shirt. His breathing is still a little uneven, almost unnoticeably so; if Sehun hadn’t spent so many nights watching Kyungsoo’s chest rise and fall as he falls asleep, he wouldn’t notice anything was different. Feeling Kyungsoo against him and not in tears from being sick eases the anxiety in his chest.

Minseon stands, straightening out her pajamas before she picks up Jongin off the ground. She has to stand up on her toes just to even reach Sehun’s cheek, but she tugs him close and kisses the corner of his lips. “Did you have a good day?”

Sehun nods, wrapping a free arm around Minseon and trying to bring her as close as he can, and it’s definitely awkward with a kid in each of their arms but he manages somehow. “How has Kyungsoo been?”

Minseon’s eyes glaze over briefly as she runs her fingers through Kyungsoo’s hair, her wedding band flashing before it disappears. “He’s been good for me today,” she says, her smile vague as her eyes meet Kyungsoo’s. And as if he knows they’re talking about him, he smiles before hiding it shyly in Sehun’s chest. “I think in another day or so he’ll be okay.”

Sehun naturally smiles, hiking Kyungsoo up his hip and trying to tip his son’s face up to look at him. “You haven’t been giving mama too much trouble, have you?” he says in the sickly sweet voice he reserves for his sons. Kyungsoo looks up at him and smiles, two tiny baby teeth gleaming where they stick out from his bottom gums.

Minseon smiles and leans up to kiss him again. “We’ll see how much better he’s gotten with dinner, won’t we?” And she leads him over to the kitchen table where there’s only Chinese takeout prepared for them, because they’re so busy trying to feed two finicky infants that they tend to forget about feeding themselves. But still, Sehun doesn’t mind because it doesn’t matter what they eat because he’s still happy to see Minseon at the end of the day.

Feeding Kyungsoo and Jongin is nearly an hour long event. Kyungsoo is a finicky eater, and Sehun feels like begging Kyungsoo to just take some of the carrots; he imagines it’s still the stomach bug talking, but Kyungsoo is adamant about not eating until Sehun coaxes him with mashed bananas. Jongin has no problem smearing mashed carrots and potatoes all over his face and chest rather than eating the food. Minseon eventually gets him to eat the potatoes, and Jongin smiles widely when Minseon cheers for him for eating properly. Minseon also has to remember to feed herself and Sehun, and jokingly tells Sehun he’s a good boy when he takes the first bite of noodles off her fork.

(He sets out ice cream in a bowl for them to share while they’re cleaning up the kids and makes sure to wipe ice cream on her cheek in retaliation.)

When Minseon has put the food away and has washed all the dishes, Sehun offers her the shower first. “I can give the kids a bath if you want to shower,” he says. He leans down and kisses her, mapping the plush of her lips with his own until the high pitched squealing behind him is too loud to ignore. Minseon laughs, pecking his lips and taking off first for the bathroom (making sure to slip off her shirt and unhook her floral bra, Sehun’s favorite, in front of him).

Sehun finishes wiping Jongin’s and Kyungsoo’s mouths and clothes before he takes one in each arm and carries them off to the bath. He doesn’t even bother changing out of his work clothes because as soon as he turns the faucet on, he’s got two infants waddling around the bathroom, trying to escape the water and he’s too occupied to even remember he hasn’t done laundry yet and he’ll probably need these clothes for tomorrow. Kyungsoo comes to him first as soon as he calls, fingers in his mouth as he waddles into Sehun’s open arms. Minseon is just stepping into the shower as Sehun wrestles Jongin’s clothes off of him and sets him into the bathtub next to his brother. Jongin instantly transforms from a stubborn infant to an absolute angel when the bubbles get poured in and he’s got something to distract him.

Sehun dumps a few bath toys into the tub and absentmindedly hums as he cleans a wiggly Jongin first and then Kyungsoo. He feels Minseon’s eyes on him, trying to grab his attention- and it would be working if Jongin would quit wiggling every time Sehun puts the washcloth to his skin. But even if he catches a break and he could turn his eyes away from his sons for two seconds, Minseon is turned around to show him the expanse of her back (which is still a torturous sight).

“We really won’t get much sleep tonight if you keep doing that,” he says, a smile tugging at his lips. He just barely catches the sound of the breath Minseon in over the sudden fit of giggling Kyungsoo goes into as soon as Jongin picks up a handful of bubbles and dumps them atop his head.

“Oh Sehun, I swear,” Minseon says. “Finish bathing our first kids and then we can think about having more.”

Sehun washes the last of the soap off Kyungsoo’s body, smiling so wide it almost feels a little silly. Kyungsoo is smiling back at him. “Kim Minseon, you won’t be saying that as soon as I take off my clothes and come into the shower with you.”

Minseon is quiet, and Sehun ends up laughing. He turns to look back at Minseon and finds her sticking her tongue out at him through the foggy shower door. He knows they can’t actually shower together, but he quickly strips down and climbs into the shower and kisses Minseon, hands sliding down her sides and settling on her hips. The shower water is hotter than Sehun likes, but all that matters is Minseon in his arms and feeling her wrap her hands around his neck and settle against him, slipping her tongue between the seam of his lips and deepening their kiss. Sehun is so lost in it all, he’d missed his wife so much during the day, that his heart twists a little when the sounds of Jongin and Kyungsoo splashing in the bathtub starts to filter through the shower.

Minseon leans up and pecks his lips before she has to untangle them. “Okay, okay,” she says, stepping out of the shower and drying herself off to the sound of the twins’ laughter. “Bath time’s over so lets get you two troublemakers dressed.”

She quickly throws on pajamas and dries off the boys one at a time, then takes one into each arm to get them ready for bed. It gives Sehun time alone to shower, and it’s a nice break, but he finds that he misses Minseon too much and so he quickly finishes his shower and grabs his pajamas just as crying erupts from the room nextdoor.

Jongin is holding himself up against the frame of his crib, tiny fingers clutched around the wood frame and innocent eyes peeking over the edge (and his mouth latched to the edge of the frame and Sehun should really tell Jongin to stop putting things in his mouth). Minseon is holding Kyungsoo, bouncing the crying infant on her hip and patting his back. Sehun can hear her humming, her eyes glassy in the dim lighting of the room as she focuses on Kyungsoo.

“I think his stomach still hurts,” she murmurs, and Sehun can read the sadness in her face because Kyungsoo had been laughing and smiling just moments before but now had come the painful reminder that he was still sick and they couldn’t do anything to take away the pain any faster.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he says, briefly running his fingers through his hair. He kisses her cheek and makes her look up at him, trying to calm her down. “Kyungsoo is getting better and you know that.”

Minseon nods, and just as she opens to speak Jongin begins to cry from his crib. Sehun smiles sheepishly and kisses her chastely before going to pick up Jongin. Jongin has fat tears streaming down his cheeks, purely from hearing Kyungsoo still crying, but his hiccuping sobs start to quieten as soon as he’s in Sehun’s arms.

“Don’t cry,” he whispers, wiping Jongin’s tears with his thumb. He kisses Jongin’s cheek and gently pats his back. “We’ll go get medicine for Kyungsoo, okay? He’ll be all better in no time.”

It seems to get Jongin to calm down a bit, and Sehun ushers Minseon to calm down before he steps out of the kids’ room and into the kitchen. Jongin has stopped crying as soon as Sehun had given him his favorite blanket he’d left in the living room. Sehun watches as Jongin snuggles into his chest, thumb in his mouth and blanket clutched in his tiny fist, and his eyes stare up at him intently. Jongin is minutes away from sleeping, even if Kyungsoo can still be heard crying from the kitchen.

He shushes Jongin to sleep, watching as his son’s eyes blink shut. He does his best to get Jongin as deep into sleep as he can, feeling some of the anxiety gripping his chest when Kyungsoo’s sobs finally begin to soften, before he steps back into the bedroom. Minseon is sitting on the rocking chair in the corner, humming softly and patting Kyungsoo’s back. It makes Sehun think that just a year ago, they were just like this- where Minseon was in the rocking chair and heavily pregnant with their two boys, humming to them softly, while Sehun had stood and watched for a moment. That time almost feels like a lifetime ago but Sehun’s heart swells with the thought of how much things have changed in their lives and memories of finishing the baby room, holding his sons for the first time, Kyungsoo and Jongin saying ‘baba’ and ‘mama’ for the first time, their first giggles and smiles and how tightly they grip his fingers now. And they’d had so many sleepless nights but Sehun would sleepily, deliriously, kiss Minseon and tell her he loves her no matter what. It all feels kind of weird to think about now, but he glances over at Minseon and he can tell she’s thinking of the same thing.

“I brought the medicine,” he whispers, handing the bottle off to Minseon and simultaneously trying to rock Jongin to sleep. It takes a lot of coaxing but Kyungsoo stops crying enough to take the medicine, and it only takes a few more minutes before there are only tiny hiccups leaving his lips. Minseon finally smiles, staring down at Kyungsoo while she wipes off his face. Sehun just watches on in awe.

“I think we’re getting this parenting thing down,” he whispers. Minseon laughs a little. She pulls her hair off her shoulder and stands up from the rocking chair, coming over to kiss Sehun.

“You say that now, but as soon as Jongin starts walking you’ll be bawling and telling him to stop growing up so fast.”

Sehun huffs because okay, so what if it is true- he’s a big baby and he’s not ready to have two full grown boys who could stand up and wobble right out the door. But they’re still pretty good parents, in his opinion.

He sets Jongin down in his crib, smiling at the sight of Jongin’s lips parted and his thumb hanging out of his mouth and his pretty eyelashes casting tiny shadows on his chubby cheeks. “We’re doing a pretty good job,” he whispers, wrapping his arm around Minseon’s waist and pulling her against his side.

“We are,” she says, kissing the corner of his lips and then reaching over the crib to run her fingers through Jongin’s hair. Kyungsoo is already asleep against her, but she seems content holding him for just a little longer. “We are doing pretty good so far.”

Sehun kisses the top of her head and thinks that no matter what kind of turn their lives take in the future, he’s sure he’ll have Minseon by his side to work through it together.