A Cliché Family eighteen   Roo barks and a wail sounds throughout the house. Kibum rushes from the living room where he had been working on his laptop and into the hallway, only to find Taemin clinging to the potted plant, crying, while Roo barks at him. Taemin is standing on wobbly legs, the potted plant the only thing that’s providing him some stability.

Kibum gently pushes Roo away with his foot before he plops down next to the small boy. He doesn’t lift him, only gently removes his tears and soothes him with his voice.

Kibum hadn’t even been thinking about Taemin’s progress. He knew he was crawling, the small child crawling had been causing them all kinds of problems and the apartment had had to be child-secured once again without them even realizing how many troubles that would bring Minho and Jonghyun. But Kibum hadn’t been aware that Taemin was standing on his own with a little help. It doesn’t really come as a shock to him, but rather in small surges of guilt.

He followed Jonghyun and Minho’s development like a hawk, took pictures of everything. He didn’t get to see Jonghyun’s first step but he videotaped Minho’s and now he was about to miss all of Taemin’s development because they have two older sons that demand their attention as well.

Taemin isn’t crying anymore and Kibum just sends him a wide smile as he runs his hands over the boy’s black hair.

“I’ll find the camera,” he says to no one in particular and gets up from the floor, Taemin breaking into a smile and a small bounce when he sees his father again. Kibum returns to the hallway soon enough, camera in hand and snaps a photo or five of his son standing.

Taemin reaches towards something to grab onto and Kibum lends him a hand. Kibum’s hand isn’t stable enough for Taemin to take a small sliding step, however, so he ends up sitting but he’s still smiling.

It’s so unlike Minho who barely tried before he was sure he could walk almost perfectly but Taemin’s trial and error is so cute Kibum feels his heart swelling with pride. He lifts the small boy up and kisses his cheek before he brings him to the living room and puts him down in his lap.

Taemin babbles and waves his arms in big movements as if he’s telling the most exciting tale and Kibum nods and frowns in all the apparently right places because Taemin giggles and keeps going, encouraged by his father’s response.

Kibum laughs when Taemin accidentally hits his cheek in a particularly big arm movement and Taemin joins him in small giggles. Kibum loves Taemin. He also loves the rest of his family, but working home today seems to have been the best thing he has done in months. Having quality time with his youngest son and seeing what he’s going through and what he’s working towards is a blessing Kibum might have been taken for granted. Now he doesn’t anymore.

Roo comes up to t