With only a week until his scheduled delivery date, Luhan was more than a little nervous. Of course with Sehun wearing holes into his floors as easily as he breathed, it was something Luhan was trying not to show. The last thing they needed was the both of them having complete breakdowns over the anxiety associated with becoming first time parents.

Truthfully, Luhan just wished there was someone he could talk to who’d already gone through what he was about to. But none of his closest friends were parents, and even if Baekhyun was due to be a father, Luhan didn’t think he had any more of an idea of what to expect than Luhan himself.

During the years he’d spent in Seoul before meeting Sehun, Luhan had gathered up friends easily. He made them without much effort, a combination of his personality and easy going nature. But few of them were even married, let alone expecting.

That meant that Luhan was charging ahead into unknown territory by himself, and without any advice to lean on.

Against his will, the feeling of being lost and worried made him want to give anything in the world to be able to talk to his mother.

“Forty-two,” Xiumin said.

What Luhan needed, therefore, was a distraction from all the worry. Going into the home stretch Eunji had been very clear about relaxing as much as possible and not getting worked up.

“Forty-two boxes?” Luhan asked.

He was back in his apartment for the first time in what felt like years. He’d split the majority of his time recently between Xiumin and Sehun, bouncing back and forth from one bedroom to the next. But with time passing quickly, he was suddenly realizing how little he was prepared to actually bring a baby home.

Clipboard in hand, Xiumin nodded. “At least here.” He jotted something down on the clipboard, then said, “But don’t forget, Kris said he’s still got at least a dozen boxes of diapers at his place, and I know Tao’s got at least ten that he’s been stockpiling. Plus, didn’t you tell me Suho’s been meaning to bring some by?”

Luhan tried not to fidget at how much of a mess his apartment looked. It was for the necessity of taking inventory, he told himself, eyes moving from the insane amount of boxes and items covering his living room floor, all the way into the kitchen.

“Round up,” Luhan advised. He was grateful to have help. He’d been preoccupied by the bigger items he needed, like a crib and stroller, and only just recently been unsure about the amount of smaller, but equally as necessary items for when Youri came home.

“I’ve got a count in here!” Tao called out, voice carrying from the kitchen.

Kris clarified for them all a second later, “Of formula.”

“Ready,” Xiumin said. “Tell me how many cans.”

Tao’s face came around the corner looking a little white. “A lot.”

They weren’t cans. That was for sure. But instead they were premium bottles of formula that Youri would be eating for the next six months at least. Luhan had been more than a little startled to have an incredible amount of crates show up at his door one morning, filled to the brim with the over priced formula.

“It’s not over priced,” Sehun had argued, and he’d certainly been the one to buy it. “If it’s for our baby, and it’s the best, then it isn’t over priced.”

“There’s like …” Tao made a face. “At least two hundred of them.”

“I think,” Luhan allowed, letting himself drift towards the kitchen, “Sehun is trying to prepare us to not leave the apartment for a couple of months.”

“Huh?” Tao asked. “Are you being serious?”

Luhan gave a tight laugh. “I think I should be grateful that he doesn’t want to hoard Youri up for a year or two. Tao, I think he’ll need a couple of weeks to settle in to having her in his life, but afterwards, he’ll be a little more lenient. And he does have to go back to work eventually, you know.”

“Plus,” Xiumin added, coming close enough that Luhan could see he’d added a couple more numbers to the clipboard including essentials like baby wipes, baby powder, and even some bath supplies. “Babies have very weak immune systems right after they’re born. Youri will build hers up eventually through contact with the outside world, but for the first few months, it’s not untypical for parents to keep their newborns secluded.”

Luhan was impressed. “You’ve been doing your reading.”

“A little,” Xiumin admitted. “Eventually you and Sehun are going to pass out from the sheer exhaustion of trying to take care of a newborn. While you two sleep, I was thinking I’d be the one to watch her. And you’ll feel better if you know that I’m aware of the important things, like helping Youri avoid germs.”

Luhan gave him a firm nod. “You’re her uncle, Xiumin. You know you can see her any time you want.”

Tao demanded, “What about me?”

With an arm dragging Tao back into the recesses of the kitchen, Kris said, “You don’t get to have any unsupervised interaction with Youri until she’s old enough to tell us when you drop her.”

Tao gave a whine of protest as Xiumin said quietly, “It that Lay isn’t here.”

Maybe it was something Luhan had been taking for granted, assuming that all of his friends would be present for the birth of his daughter. But Youri’s due date was the twenty-first, and it was a known fact that Lay always went home to China in December, only to return to Korea in January. He’d left a few days earlier, albeit with reluctance, and he wouldn’t be back until after Youri had been born.

“But he’s with his family,” Luhan said, and tried not to think of his own parents and cousins who he would never see again. It was different now that he couldn’t see them, as opposed to not wanting to.

But Sehun had been right. Sehun had been absolutely right when he’d told Luhan that he had a new family now, full of people who loved him and accepted him for who he was, and no matter the choices he made.

In time it seemed the sting of being officially disowned would pass, but for the moment, it was still lurking in the back of Luhan’s mind.

“Things are changing,” Xiumin remarked.

That was even more true than Luhan was ready to accept. Because Lay would be in Korea for less than a year more before returning to China to take up a position at his father’s business. And Suho, he’d barely be around long enough for Youri to be born. D.O. was scheduled to head back overseas within a month, Tao wanted to attend graduate school in America, and Chen had been hinting for a while that he’d received more than a couple of job offers from outside of Korea. Maybe with Chen he’d stay for Eunji, or it was possible that he’d go and take her with him.

In any case, things would never be again how they had been, or even how they were now.

“Have you two got things in here?” Luhan asked Tao and Kris. When there were quick calls of certainty, Luhan turned to Xiumin. “Can I get your advice on something?”

He took Xiumin back to his bedroom and pointed to the open suitcase. “So that’s my baby bag. Help?”

“You’re calling it a baby bag?”

Luhan scowled at him. “Don’t judge me for what I choose to call it. Anyway, it’s the bag I’m taking over to Sehun’s tonight for when we go to the hospital. We want to be prepared. I’m scheduled for the twenty-first, but if the baby decides to come early, I won’t have a say in that.”

It was somewhat of a miracle that there’d been no additional cramping, or worse, any contractions. Not since the first time that had landed him in a panic at the hospital. There’d been a couple of false contractions, the kind that were completely normal and not dangerous in the least bit, but after his most recent scare, his pregnancy had been nothing but smooth sailing.

And he was at a point now, with seven days left until Youri’s due date, to be confident that if she came early, she’d be perfectly fine. She was fully developed, and equipped to survive outside him. If he delivered now, she’d thrive.

“Do you think she’s going to come early?” Xiumin asked, looking a little concerned.

Luhan felt assured when he said, “It’s doubtful. Possible, but doubtful. Your sister said that because Youri is my first pregnancy, I’ll probably not deliver early. First pregnancies rarely fall short of term.”

“First?” Xiumin echoed.

“Only? I don’t know.” Luhan shrugged. “I love Sehun. I want to marry him and grow old with him, and maybe have more kids. I’m not writing any thing down officially, but if we keep going in the good direction that we are now, we could have more kids eventually. So maybe you should get on finding someone so my kids will have someone to play with.”

Xiumin rolled his eyes. “I’m … if it was going to be your kid, Luhan, I was ready to be a father. But otherwise? I’m not sure I want kids.”

It was a reminder that if Luhan had been just a bit more lonely, or loved Xiumin just a little different than he did, it could have been them planning for Youri’s birth.

Gently, Luhan said, “You don’t have to decide now. You’re still very young.”

“I still have my enlistment to consider,” Xiumin shot back. “I certainly don’t want kids before then. Have you thought about what it’s going to be like when Sehun has to enlist?”

“No,” Luhan said quickly, and he really hadn’t. Military enlistment was something that Luhan had maybe thought of once or twice since he’d come to Korea. Some of his older friends had been talking about it, but as a Chinese citizen, it was nothing Luhan had ever worried over. Until now.

Because Sehun could get a deferment for a while, maybe even until Youri was much older, but eventually he’d have to go. That would mean two years without Sehun steadily in his life. Two years of being mostly a single parent. Two years without the person he loved. Except for phone calls and short weekends of leave and special occasions.

“I haven’t thought about it,” Luhan said, feeling his chest clench up a little. “Sehun has to go, doesn’t he?”

Xiumin gave a serious nod. “There’s no getting out of it. And honestly, I don’t know how it is in China, but here, you’re not even considered a man until you’ve done your enlistment.”

“That ,” Luhan eased out, sinking into a nearby chair. “Really.”

Xiumin cracked a tentative smile. “It’s a duty. And obligation. It’s something that we do so that we can keep the country we love, and the people who we love even more, safe.” He let out a low laugh as he headed to Luhan’s suitcase. “I also kind of think it’s meant to keep pregnancies from happening to people who are too young to handle it. No one really wants to have a baby if they’re going to have to be absent for two years of its life. But hey, I’ve known you for a while, Luhan, and you’re about the least predictable person I’ve ever met. You do what you want and everyone else gets the hell out of the way.”

Luhan tossed a nearby pillow at him. “Flattery. Keep going.”

“Well, you can’t pack for .”

Luhan threw a second pillow, this time much harder. “I said flatter me, my supposed best friend.”

Xiumin sat on the edge of Luhan’s bed and pulled the suitcase closer for inspection. “Luhan, you’ve got enough in here for a vacation to Jeju. You’re going to be in the hospital for a couple of days, and you won’t even get to wear what you want until you go home.”

Luhan insisted, “These are the clothes I’m choosing between. Eunji said I’m going to be incredibly sore when they release me. I’ll get some good medication, but it won’t be easy going. I’m trying to decide between the loosest clothing I have, the shirts with the softest material, or the clothing I like the best, which will give me the most comfort. Not to mention Sehun’s whole family is going to be there when I get to leave with Youri. They’ll take a million pictures and probably some video. I want to look good.”

Xiumin lifted up a shirt and said, “Then we’ll just get rid of this.” He tossed it across the room. “I take this to mean you’re going to be staying with Sehun for the rest of the week?”

“Yep.” Luhan drummed his fingers across his stomach. “In case I go into early labor, I kind of want to be near him. And I want to drive to the hospital with him. I mean … Xiumin, I love him. He’s the father of my daughter. I want to do this with him.”

“Okay,” Xiumin said, but his shoulders were tensed up like he wanted to add something. “Just call me when it does happen.”

Luhan promised, “You know you’ll be the first.”

“Okay.”

Luhan frowned, his tapping fingers stilling. “Xiumin?”

“I just …” One of Luhan’s shirts twisted in his grasp.

“You can say whatever you’re thinking,” Luhan insisted. “You’re my best friend. You can say anything to me.”

Xiumin nodded. “I just didn’t think this was how everything would end. I thought maybe we’d end up together. I thought maybe Sehun would just fade away into the woodwork. I thought maybe even you’d choose not to keep Youri. I thought of a hundred different ways time could pass, and this wasn’t even close to one of them.”

Leaning forward a little on the chair, Luhan wondered, “Is that upsetting to you?”

“Nah.” He held up a shirt that Luhan had forgotten he’d even put in the suitcase. It was one of his eldest pieces of clothing, bought when he’d first started showing, and made of a smooth, light cotton material. When he was still puffy and heavy from having just given birth, it would fit perfectly. And it was a light blue color, something that was highly complementary. “It’s weird,” Xiumin said, “but not bad, how things turned out. Just different.”

Luhan caught the shirt as Xiumin tossed it to him. “If it makes you feel any better,” he said, holding the article of clothing up fully, “of all the ways I imagined my life going, this was the downright best possibility. But I was going to be okay with any of them. Do you know why?”

Xiumin shook his head. “No, but it bet it’s some super emotional reason that you’ll blame on your hormones afterwards.”

“Because,” Luhan said, nose up in the air, “I knew that no matter how any of this all turned out, you’d be there. You’d be there supporting me and helping me with Youri, because that’s who you are and that’s what you’ve always done. That’s why you’re my best friend.”

“Oh, god, don’t start crying.”

The temptation to give Xiumin an obscene gesture was growing strong, but he squashed it down and instead asked, “So you think I should go with this shirt?”

“I think,” Xiumin said, reaching back for it, “you should pack this, a pair of loose pants, a backup outfit, and that’s it for clothing. Honestly, Luhan it doesn’t really matter what you look like when you come out of the hospital.”

“I don’t want to look a hot mess when Youri looks back on all the pictures that are certain to be taken.”

Quickly, Xiumin packed the rest of Luhan’s suitcase for him. “She’s going to make fun of you no matter what you’re wearing. That’s just how it is with kids, they always think their parents are outdated. But when she’s done laughing at whatever you and I think are cool clothes, she’ll appreciate the fact that the pictures were taken after you spent a couple hours in major surgery giving birth to her.”

“It’s almost time,” Luhan replied, feeling like it was a dream. “I can’t believe it.”

“Neither can I,” Xiumin said, righting the suitcase and setting it to the side. “But in a lot of ways, it’s been a long time coming, too. Now, let’s go check in on those dorks in the kitchen. For all we know Kris has abandoned ship and Tao’s eating his way through whatever you still have in there.”

“I’m sure he’s already passed on, if that’s the case,” Luhan joked. “Most of the food in there is spoiled now.”

Xiumin gave him a hand up and said, “I’ll make sure your place is stocked before you and Sehun bring Youri back here. It’ll be one less thing you need to worry about.”

As far as best friends went, Luhan was certain that he’d really lucked out.

The next few days, in a way, were like a test run for Luhan. He was growing ever more convinced that he and Sehun were heading towards living together. Eventually, Luhan had a sinking suspicion, they’d be at a level where they were ready for marriage, too. So now Luhan felt as if they were testing the waters, seeing if they could live together for a significant amount of time. The next few weeks especially would prove if they had it in them.

It was a little scary how easy the first days were.

Luhan had half expected them to be stumbling over each other, learning boundaries that they didn’t know existed. Not to mention their personal ticks. Luhan knew he could be difficult with how particular he liked certain things, and for as in love with Sehun as he was, there was still a lot to learn about him.

But oddly enough, or maybe just because they were seemingly in the honeymoon phase of their relationship, they flowed together so easily in a way that was confounding at times.

The liked the same kind of music, preferred the same types of foods, and had internal clocks on seemingly the same schedule. Neither one of them could cook a dinner meal, but they always tackled breakfast together, and had lunch with each other every day when timing permitted.

At night they’d watch TV for a few hours, and Sehun would rub his feet. In the morning Luhan would hand Sehun a cup of coffee before they each worked on their individual projects. Luhan was tackling his sketches for Kai’s gym, and Sehun was remodeling the bedroom that would eventually be Youri’s.

Sehun said so easily, “You’re amazing and I love you.”

Luhan believed him.

It was kind of like a fairytale, and the days before the twenty-first were some of the best.

Luhan, though, with that anxiousness for the birth persisting, left the house no more than once or twice a day. He usually had lunch with Sehun at a nearby restaurant, but for the most part, he was happy to lounge around, his back killing him and the pressure on his hips unbearable at times.

It wasn’t until a few days before he was scheduled to head to the hospital when he had to leave for any real amount of time, and without Sehun.

“You sure you want to go all the way out to Kai’s?”  Sehun asked, car keys in hand. “I’ll take you out there if you want, but you know I get nervous when you just go to the bathroom.”

Luhan wrapped himself up in a heavy winter coat and asked, “You watch me go to the bathroom?”

“You’re so funny,” Sehun said dryly. “I mean I get nervous when you’re out of sight. You could go into labor at any second.”

The scarf came next and Luhan said, “Kai needs me to show him what I’ve finished so far. They completed the first part of construction already, and I need to make sure my designs are copasetic with his expectations.”

“Copasetic?” Sehun grinned and leaned over to help Luhan with his scarf. “Everything you produce is beautiful. But I still don’t see why you need to go all the way down there.”

Luhan insisted, “Kai can’t bring the studio to me. And I need to physically see the space. Trust me, it makes a difference in how I’m going to execute my work. I just need a couple of hours, and maybe I’m letting myself become too easily cooped up in here.”

“That’s not a bad thing,” Sehun said, his hand cupping Luhan’s heavy stomach through the jacket. “You’re so close to our delivery date. Could you just … stay here instead? I won’t go prematurely gray then.”

Luhan laughed and reached for the front door’s handle. “You’d stuff me in bubble wrap right now if you could.”

Sehun followed him out the door, his hand a comforting weight on Luhan’s back as the wind battered them almost immediately. “You’re not wrong,” Sehun chuckled.

“That should scare me,” Luhan said, and he was so very thankful it hadn’t rained in a couple of days. “But I find you oddly endearing. I must be in love. There’s no other excuse.”

Sehun snuck a kiss as he moved past Luhan quickly, reaching the car door before him and opening it.

Luhan had thought for quite some time that Sehun would become unbearable. If the eighth month had been any indication, Luhan expected to be smothered intensely by Sehun all through his ninth, resulting in mass amounts of annoyance in all likely hood.

But for some reason, though Sehun still made quite a show of being overprotective, he’d let off somewhat. He was more than willing to let Luhan make his own choices without questioning them, and he was more accepting of what Luhan did when he didn’t agree.

Maybe therapy really was working for Sehun. He did seem to have a much better handle on his anger, his insecurities, and he undoubtedly was better at expressing himself.

“Think of this like a good thing,” Luhan suggested when Sehun climbed in the car, starting it right away and turning the heater on. “I’ll get to leave the house for a while, which prevents me from going stir crazy, and you’ll have time to get all your Christmas wrapping done.”

It was funny how Sehun looked sharply to the road.

“You haven’t finished all your Christmas shopping yet, have you?”

Luhan wasn’t one to judge. When he’d made his decision on what to do for Sehun for Christmas, and what to get him, it had been so with the knowledge that he was going to be cutting it very close. He was barely finished now, and not wholly satisfied that he’d had to rush himself.

“I finished!” Sehun protested, sneaking a look over to Luhan. “I’m just waiting on something. That’s all. Anyway, I’ve got time. I’ve got almost a week.”

“Plus an extra half day,” Luhan pointed out. “You finally agreed to go with Suho’s parents to church for Christmas morning, remember.”

“Yeah,” Sehun said a little gruffly. “But only because you made me.”

“I didn’t make you.”

Luhan hadn’t forced Sehun to agree at all. He’d merely pointed out that the next few Christmases were going to be especially prickly for Suho’s family, and how having Sehun there would ease some of the pain.

“I didn’t know Jae,” Luhan had told him, “but he really sounded amazing. If he was half as amazing to you, as he sounds to me, then I can’t believe you’re even contemplating not doing this for his parents. They were your parents too, in the eyes of the law. They might still consider you their son-in-law. At the very least, they probably still love you. And isn’t Suho always saying you do things for family that you nrmally wouldn’t, simply because they’re family?”

That was what Suho had done for him. Even if the tie between Suho and Youri had been fragile in the very beginning, Suho had acknowledged her. He’d gone out on a limb to support Luhan with his pregnancy. He’d show interest, care, and called Youri family. There was no way Suho hadn’t still been hurting from the loss of his brother and niece when Luhan had shown up pregnant. There was no way that wound hadn’t still been festering as if it were brand new. But he’d done for Luhan anyway, because he’d recognized Luhan as family.

“I said I’d go,” Sehun said, sighing loudly as he steered them deeper into Seoul. “It’s just, by the time Christmas rolls around you’ll be home from the hospital with Youri. She’ll only be a few days old and I don’t want to have to leave you.”

“Ah,” Luhan said lightly. “Don’t worry about that. While you’re off finding serenity through religion--”

Sehun gave a loud snort.

“--Xiumin, Tao and Kris are going to come over.”

Sehun tensed. “You’re going to let them all around Youri?”

Slowly, Luhan pointed out, “They are her uncles. There isn’t one of them who wouldn’t lay down on a wire for her.”

Scoffing, Sehun said, “I don’t mean it like that. I know they’d do anything to protect her. I’m more worried about … their cleanliness.”

Luhan laughed so hard he physically hurt. And it was a good laugh.

“Just because you mean to sterilize yourself in buckets of sanitizer, doesn’t mean my friends need to.”

“Hopefully I won’t be sterilized from that,” Sehun cut back quickly.

Luhan put a hand on Sehun’s thigh gently. “They’re smart, Sehun, and they’ve already been coached on this. They know if they want to handle Youri they’ll have to wash their hands, and they know not to come near her if they think they’re coming down with anything. Protecting her also extends to that.”

“All right,” Sehun said eventually. “I trust your judgment with them.  Just don’t tell Chen? He’ll be upset I let your friends come over and not mine.”

Luhan leaned lazily back in his seat. “If he does, just tell him it comes down to Chen having his family here, and my friends not.”

“Tao and Kris aren’t going home?” Sehun inquired. “What about Xiumin? He is actually Korean.”

“Xiumin’s parents,” Luhan said, shaking his head, “haven’t been in Korea for years. They didn’t even come to his college graduation. They’ve never prioritized Xiumin, or Eunji for that matter. That’s why Xiumin and I have spent most of our Christmases together. Actually, we’ve spent them all together.”

Sehun asked, “What about Kris and Tao?”

“Kris’s parents barely remember he exists,” Luhan said, wondering if there was a trend in his closest friends. “They’re obsessed with their business and Kris wrote them off a long time ago. He hasn’t spent a Christmas with them since he was a minor. Tao’s a different story. His parents dumped him in Korea on purpose.”

“Are you serious?”

Luhan winced and said, “Tao’s got extended family here in Korea, and his parents jumped at the chance to drop him off so they could go off and enjoy their lives without responsibility. Tao’s been in Korea since he was in high school. He hasn’t had a Christmas with his parents since before then, and he’ll be graduating college in a couple of years. The four of us spending Christmas together is a tradition now, and Lay has always gone home to China for the winter break.”

“Okay, okay,” Sehun said, risking a glance over at Luhan. “You’ve got me. Bring your friends over to ooh and aww at our amazing baby while I sit in church and try not to fall asleep.”

“Thank you,” Luhan said indulgently, leaning over to kiss his mouth. “Now, I only plan to be out at Kai’s for a couple of hours. Are you planning on hanging around like a creeper while we talk about things you don’t understand, or are you going to go do something productive?”

They were coming up quickly on Kai’s studio when Sehun said, “I could go tell Suho that you agreed to take him up on his very generous offer.”

Luhan tried not make a face. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate his offer …”

Sehun offered to finish for him, “It’s just that he was an to you and now you can’t trust that he won’t screw you over.”

Luhan held up a finger. “Firstly, Suho wasn’t an . He hurt my feelings, but not because of the things he said. I was more hurt that he didn’t let me explain myself, that he shut me out, and that he believed I was capable of doing something which goes against the very essence of who I am. But also … it seems like a handout. I don’t need a handout, Sehun. My parents just dumped a very large sum of money on me. I don’t need anyone feeling sorry for me because of whatever reasons.”

“You’re not getting a hand out,” Sehun said right away. “If you don’t accept Suho’s offer, one of two things will happen. Either that house will sit empty, and he’ll have to pay for it to be that way, or he’ll loan it out to one of his many cousins who are … untrustworthy, to say the least. Suho and Jae were pretty much the cream of the crop. Everyone else, and I’ve met them, is the kind of family you hope doesn’t show up for the family gathering.”

“Are you sure he doesn’t want to sell?” Luhan was pretty unsure. “It seems like he’ll be staying in America for a couple of years at least, and that’s if he doesn’t find something that makes him want to stay.”

Sehun shook his head slowly. “That house is important to him. His parents helped him buy that house when he was still working his way up in his company. Jae lived with him there for a while when he was in college, and honestly, that’s the house that I first met Jae at. Suho was having a small get together and I was the friend of a friend who tagged along. That’s the house where Jae told Suho he was pregnant, and I believe Suho when he says it’s the house he wants to have a family in. He won’t sell.  Even if that means the house sits vacant or gets abused by his cousins. He won’t sell for anything.”

“I like my apartment,” Luhan said.

“It’s small,” Sehun offered gently. “And Youri is going to be small for a while too, but what happens when she starts tottering around? God, what happens when she starts crawling? You’re on the third floor and the square footage is--”

“I was kind of thinking,” Luhan interrupted, his heart beating harder, “that by the time Youri can crawl … you and I …”

They eased to a stop at a red light and Sehun turned to look at him with a surprised face. “You thought what?”

His palms sweating, Luhan said, “I was thinking… hoping, actually, that by the time Youri is crawling around and getting into things, that we’d only have to baby proof one house. The one house we’re all living at.”

There. He’d said it. He’d said what was practically a declaration of intent. He wanted to live with Sehun in the near future. He wanted to share a house and cohabitate.

And for good measure he said, “I want that to be the house you just bought. You know, with the room you’re renovating right now for Youri.” When Sehun finished his work it was going to have a closet twice as big as it had been, a bay window that would let the morning light in spectacularly, and hardwood floors instead of the beige carpet it currently had.

“You want to move in?” Sehun asked, his voice at a whisper.

“Eventually,” Luhan said. “In six months? Nine? Whenever the time is right.”

And if that was something Sehun wanted as well, then what was the point of moving into Suho’s house?

Sehun was moving so fast Luhan barely registered him leaning over the center consul of the car to kiss him deeply. “I love you,” he mumbled against Luhan’s lips. “I want to marry you and have more kids with you and I’m terrified I’m going to scare you off by saying that, but it’s true.”

Luhan’s hand gripped tightly at Sehun’s leg as he pushed himself up into another kiss, savoring the way Sehun sighed happily against him.

A car horn blasted from behind them and Sehun jerked back with a heavy flush.

“How about we start with easing ourselves into living together? Luhan suggested. “We’ve always said we want to do right by Youri. We should want to do right by ourselves, too. No mistakes. Or at least as few mistakes as possible.”

Sehun let off the brake and they were zooming off toward Kai’s studio.

Sehun asked, “You did hear the part where I said I love you and I want to marry you and have more kids with you, right?”

“I did,” Luhan responded, a happy grin on his face. “You didn’t hear me say I was against it, did you?”

Almost giddy, Sehun said, “No. I mean … no. I just … didn’t expect you to take it so well. That’s a scary thing to hear from a guy that you’ve only known for nine months … more like six if we want to be completely honest here.”

Some people, Luhan knew, met their soulmate and fell instantly in love. Some people knew each other for days before getting married. There were some connections, and Luhan liked to think the one he had with Sehun was included, that transcended time.

“We’ll get there eventually,” Luhan said, and fully believed the words he spoke. “Because I love you and you love me, and when people love each other this much, and work so hard at making each other happy, good things happen in the end. Even if there are missteps along the way.”

They had to be sure and deliberate in the steps they took towards their future. They had to be careful. But they would get there. It was going to happen.

“Don’t let Kai work you too hard,” Sehun said once he pulled into the parking lot. “And please try to stay away from some of the construction that’s going on. Should you be wearing a hard hat? Make sure you get a hard hat from Kai.”

Luhan laughed and leaned over for a parting kiss. “The major construction is already complete, Sehun. Stop worrying. I won’t be going into any places that require hard hats. I’m here to look at the extensions and new rooms that I’ll be responsible for. Now, remember, I said it’ll take me a few hours. Do you want me to call you when I’m done?”

It seemed like Sehun was even more affectionate as he a hand down the back of Luhan’s neck, their words from earlier softening him completely. “Yeah. Call me whenever you’re ready to go. I’m going to go see Suho. I have to tell him why it’s pointless for you to take him up on his offer.”

“Try not to sound too smug,” Luhan said, and he paused to enjoy the sensation of Sehun’s fingers. “And drive safely.” He gathered up his bag, his sketches safely inside, and heaved himself out of the car. With only a brief wave to Sehun he started his way towards the studio.

Kai was at the door waiting for him. He pushed it open and ushered Luhan through quickly, remaking loudly, “I can’t believe you came down here.”

Luhan pulled slightly at his scarf, which had tightened up almost to the point of choking him, and gave a quick look around the lobby of the studio. There were a couple of people loitering around, some of them dressed for the cold weather outside, but others not so much. There had to be a class starting soon.

“I won’t have a chance again for a long time,” Luhan said, holding his bag up. “I’m set to become a father in a couple of days, and the recovery period is going to be pretty extensive after that. I’ll be out or a couple of months before I’m able to get any real work done. I need to see the building.”

Kai gestured for Luhan to follow him. He said, “All the major construction is finished. What you see in terms of rooms and buildings, is what you’ll have to work with. There might be some minor modifications, but as soon as you’re ready to get started, nothing will have changed in a major way from now until then.”

“I did some preliminary sketches,” Luhan said, feeling more than a little winded from the walk to the studio, no matter how short it had been. “I want you to look at them and tell me honestly what you think. I’m a very fluid artist. I like to take input form my clients and modify the outcome of whatever I produce. But I have to warn you, I’ve been extra inspired with the pictures you sent me. I think you’re going to like what I came up with.”

Flashing him a thumbs up, Kai said, “Of that I have no doubt. Let’s swing by my office and look at those sketches. We’ll get something warm to drink, and then I’ll show you the first new sections of the studio. How does that sound?”

Luhan mirrored his gesture. “Lead on. I figure we only have a couple of hours before Sehun’s worry balloons out of control and he shows up to start nagging you about how long I’ve been up on my feet.”

Kai chuckled. “Got it. This way.”