When Wonshik apparates home from the gym, he finds his nice, clean home – courtesy of Hongbin, of course – has been invaded by several strange men. The fact that he knows them does not make this any less horrifying.

 

“What the are you doing here?” He grumbles, setting his bag down next to the door.

 

“Oh, that's nice,” Sanghyuk says, smirking. “Here we are, your best mates, and all we get is a 'what the are you doing here.' Where's the love, I ask you?” He leans over Hongbin – who mouths an apologetic 'I couldn't stop them' – to grab a piece of pizza from the box Taekwoon has perched on his lap.

 

Taekwoon stares at Sanghyuk emotionlessly, somehow managing to convey a great deal of anger without even changing his expression. Sanghyuk only smiles back cheekily, stuffing pizza in his face. This insubordination backfires, however, as his face begins to turn purple from Taekwoon’s non-verbal spell.

 

Hongbin rolls his eyes, aiming his wand at Sanghyuk’s blocked windpipe. He immediately begins spluttering, glaring angrily at Taekwoon, who looks completely unfazed.

 

Inwardly, Wonshik groans. It's going to be one of those nights, where they eat too much pizza, drink too much beer, and then somehow end up at a really ty club at four in the morning without knowing how they got there. This is not what he had planned for tonight.

 

“We brought beer,” Sanghyuk continues, still massaging his throat. He waves a hand at the mess of plastic ring packs and cardboard containers that is probably driving Hongbin crazy. He squints. “There doesn't seem to be much left, though.”

 

Taekwoon rolls his eyes. “That's because you only brought a six pack and you've drunk most of them yourself.”

 

“Hardly proper guest behaviour,” Hongbin chimes in, tossing a can at Wonshik. He catches it absentmindedly.

 

“We’re wizards,” Sanghyuk points out, as if any of them have forgotten. “We can just magic more!”

 

They all stare at him silently for a moment. “You do remember what happened the last time you tried to magic more of something, don’t you?” Hongbin asks, finally.

 

Sanghyuk stares back defiantly, clearly unwilling to concede the point. That, or he really doesn’t think burying them all under a mountain of pizza was a bad idea.

 

“Where're Hakyeon and Jaehwan?” Wonshik asks, attempted to change the subject. He tries very hard to sound casual.

 

“Work,” Hongbin takes a drink from his own can, giving him a level look. He knows why he’s interested, but he purses his lips instead of pursuing it. He looks tired, but then he has done for the past few weeks; work has messed up his sleeping schedule, and Wonshik knows his anxiety is playing up worse than usual. “We’re apparently going to meet them there.”

 

“Sure,” he nods, avoiding Hongbin’s probing gaze. “Well, let me change, and we can get going,” he says.

 

He ignores the troubling little voice in the back of his head that wonders how the mere mention of Jaehwan can invigorate him.

 

***

 

Hongbin slips out of the room to ask his girlfriend if she wants to come with them. He finds her sitting on their bed, reading. She does not look up when he enters the room, but greets him anyway.

 

“The guys and I are going out. Want to come with us?” He asks, sliding his arms around her from the back.

 

She shakes her head, grateful that he cannot see her face. “No, I’m fine. You go and enjoy yourself with your mates.” She turns to face him, hoping her smile is convincing. “I’m not in the mood tonight. Work was a killer.”

 

“Okay,” he smiles back at her, clearly not detecting anything weird. He kisses her, just a quick peck. “I’ll see you in a few hours, hopefully.” He pulls a face. “I don’t really want to stay out too late.”

 

She rolls her eyes. Her Hongbin is not a partier. She pushes him playfully. “Go, before they drag you out of here.”

 

He laughs, eyes crinkling at the corners, and it tugs at her heart to see him so relaxed and carefree. She is all too aware that she might be ruining that sense of contentment soon. “Love you,” he pulls her closer for a proper kiss, this time; he tastes of beer and Doritos, and it makes her feel queasy.

 

She hopes that’s not a sign. “Love you too.”

 

Only when she is sure he has left the house, does she lean under the bed and pull out the plastic bag she has hidden there. With unsteady fingers, she tugs the cardboard box out and takes a deep breath.

“Well,” she says to herself, painfully aware of how alone she is, “it’s now or never.” She opens the pregnancy test in one quick, determined movement.

 

Please be negative, she prays.

 

***

 

The music is the ty, pseudo-house kind that is so popular in muggle clubs, and it’s so loud he can’t hear a thing, but he’s drunk enough to find that appealing. The others are spread out across the dance floor; he can see Sanghyuk bent over a girl half his size, and Hakyeon - predictably - is lost in the music, moving with the rhythm in that practiced, effortless way of his.

 

He lost Hongbin a while ago, but he has a sneaking suspicion he and Taekwoon are stood by the bar, drinking beer and casting judgement on everyone else’s dance moves, because that’s the kind of people they are. Too scared to let go and dance lest they’re at it, they hover in the background instead.

 

Jaehwan, however, is different. Always an exhibitionist, he is dancing in that exuberant, slightly ridiculous way of his, and when he pulls him closer so they can dance together he does not pull away. Of course he doesn’t. Any excuse to get closer to Jaehwan is something he’ll snatch up happily.

 

They’re grinding against each other in that jokey, stupid way you do when it’s 2 in the morning and you know you’ve had too much to drink. It’s driving him a little wild, the way Jaehwan brushes up against him, teasing him - so he pushes it, starts moving against Jaehwan the way he would someone he was trying to get off with.

 

To his intense surprise, Jaehwan responds, placing his hands on Wonshik’s shoulders and rolling his hips against the other man’s. For a moment, he is almost too surprised to move, but it does not take long to have him moving his hips with the beat, and when Jaehwan smiles at him - he can’t help himself.

 

He leans in, his arm sliding around Jaehwan’s back to draw him closer. Their lips touch for a brief second, and he is about to pull away, to castigate himself for being so stupid when - Jaehwan kisses back.

 

He doesn't know what's happening. All he knows is that Jaehwan's mouth is against his, his body curving against his, fingers in his hair. It is as good as he'd always secretly dreamed it would be; Jaehwan's mouth is soft without being too wet, lips firm but not too chapped.

 

It's pathetic, but he can feel his legs weakening. He only just has enough wherewithal to kiss back, his arms reaching around Jaehwan's neck, pulling him closer. It only lasts a moment, when Jaehwan pulls back.

 

There is a raw, desperate need inside himself to pull Jaehwan back to him, to re-initiate the kiss and have this go further, but he squashes it down. Jaehwan grins at him, that bright, childlike smile that he finds both somewhat creepy and endlessly endearing.

 

“You're a good kisser,” he compliments him, and Wonshik's mouth gapes for a moment, before he nods dumbly. He can't think what to say. What does this mean?

 

“So are you.” It's flirty, but flirty is something they do well. Flirty is a level he understands, a level he is comfortable with.

 

For something he's wanted since forever, this is not going quite the way he imagined it to. He thought he'd be more confident about this; he thought he would laugh, and grab Jaehwan's shoulder, suggest they take this back to his place and then they'd and it would be so, so good.

 

Instead, it all feels a little...off. He never wanted this to happen in a grungy club at three in the morning, when he's tired and sweaty and not looking his best. He wanted it somewhere fun, somewhere bright and happy and exciting.

 

“Why did you kiss me?” He blurts out, the question as uny as you can get. He doesn't want to ask it – but he needs to, needs to hear that Jaehwan did this for a reason, that he did this because he wanted this – because he wanted him.

 

Jaehwan is unapologetic. “I've never kissed a guy before,” he shrugs, and Wonshik can feel his stomach dropping. “I wanted to see what it was like.”

 

He wants to hate him for it, to punch him for leading him on when it's so obvious how much he wants him – but he can't. Because it almost makes sense. Because he can almost believe that of Jaehwan.

 

***

 

Hongbin has had enough. It’s half 2 in the morning, and he didn’t even want to go out anyway. When he suggests they leave, Taekwoon looks like he might actually cry from relief.

 

“Thank ,” he mutters. “I’ll wait outside,” he says, and walks quickly towards the exit, elbowing people out of the way in an effort to get there as quickly as possible without actually apparating.

 

He spots Sanghyuk a few paces to the right, and taps him on the shoulder. “Me and Taekwoon, we’re off, okay? Tell the others, yeah?”

 

Sanghyuk rolls his eyes. “Going home to your girlfriend, are you?” He jeers, his arm around the tiny red-head from earlier.  

 

He rolls his eyes. “At least I have someone to go home to.” Sanghyuk ignores him, and begins to chant a slurred ditty of his own composing. He doesn’t bother to listen. “ off, you s,” he laughs, as Hakyeon attempts to pull him back by his t-shirt. “I want to go home.”

 

As he staggers towards the coat check, fishing around in his pockets for the ticket, he spies Wonshik, looking pale and slightly shell-shocked. He abandons his quest to retrieve his jacket, and instead follows his best friend.

“Wonshik - Wonshik!” He calls, and Wonshik turns, looking surprised to see him.

 

“Hey,” he says, attempting to smile. “You off?”

 

“Yeah,” he nods, trying to get his head to stop spinning. “You okay?”

 

Wonshik seems to be struggling with something. He is quite clearly drunk; his pupils are wide, his cheeks red. If he were sober, he might simply shake his head and say it’s nothing - but drunk, his inhibitions lowered, he spills it out easily. “Jaehwan just kissed me.”

 

Hongbin blinks. This, he did not expect - Wonshik kissing Jaehwan, yes, but Jaehwan kissing Wonshik? Not something he thought was in the realm of possibility. He can feel dread settling in the pit of his stomach. “He...what?” He asks carefully.

 

“Well, I sort of leaned in first, but then he took it further,” Wonshik says in a rush, and Hongbin nods. He can feel his lips thinning in disapproval. “I didn’t mean to kiss him, we were just dancing, and then he - well he kissed me back, so I couldn’t stop and...yeah.” He sounds like a lovestruck teenager, and Hongbin is seized by a sudden urge to storm back into the club and wham Jaehwan with an extremely painful curse.

 

“Right. Well,” he sighs, a deep, long-suffering sigh that he reserves only for Wonshik. “You were drunk. It’ll all blow over.” He clamps a hand on Wonshik’s upper arm. “Let’s just go home and forget about it, yeah?”

“But I don’t want to forget about it,” Wonshik says in a small voice.

 

Of course he doesn’t. For a brief, regrettable second, he considers wiping Wonshik’s memory. Then he remembers how truly terrible he is at that spell, and focuses on trying to drag Wonshik out of the club. “You don’t have to,” he says shortly. “But it’s probably best if you leave Jaehwan alone for a bit.”

 

Wonshik does not look convinced; in fact, he has that stubborn I’m-going-to-do-what-I-want-whatever-you-say look on his face, but Hongbin ignores him and walks up to the counter. He hands over the token and takes his coat with both hands. “Come on, Wonshik. It’s too late for any of this .”

 

***

When Hongbin stumbles into his bedroom at three in the morning, having wrestled Wonshik into his own bed, Seph is still awake, cross-legged in bed. The muggle pregnancy test has been magicked out of existence, but she can still see the two positive lines in front of her eyes.

 

“What’s up?” He asks, as he tumbles into the bed. The words come out a little slurred. Wassup.

 

She will never know why she blurts it out; she wasn’t intending to tell him until she’d had time to process it herself. “I think I’m pregnant.”

 

The words seem to shock him into sobriety. “What?” His voice is not slurred any more; it is sharp and shocked. Any thought of Wonshik and his stupid kiss with Jaehwan disappears in the face of this potential disaster.

 

She bites her lip, already regretting telling him. There is no way she can take this back, and even if he does forget it in the morning, it won’t change the fact that she is pregnant. “Pregnant - I think I’m pregnant.”

 

Wow, this has really put the kibosh on any late-night , a crass voice in the back of his mind says. He shakes his head. “How do you - did you take a test?” He swallows, head spinning. “Are you sure?”

 

“My period was late, and I’ve been feeling really sick, so I - I took a muggle test,” Seph looks just as horrified as he feels. “I took two and they were both positive. I haven’t been to a healer, or a doctor, or anything, but I imagine they’re just going to tell me the same thing,” she adds miserably, “I’m pregnant.”

 

“But - how?” He asks, though of course he knows how. He was there. He knows how to make a baby.

“The contraception must have failed,” she says, sounding even more miserable, if that’s possible. “I don’t know.”

 

A small, guilty part of him is almost angry at her for springing this on him so late at night, when he is drunk and cannot handle this - but the saner part of him knows that it is not her fault, that she has obviously been sitting here all night, alone, and scared - and that it is partially his fault. It takes two to make a baby, after all.

 

He pulls her down into bed with him, the ceiling spinning as soon as his head hits the pillow. She lies still, not curling up against him as she usually does, and he feels a pang of worry. “Go to bed,” he whispers, holding his arms out. Hesitantly, she rolls closer, wrapping her arms around him. “We’ll think about it in the morning.”

 

***

 

When Wonshik walks into the bathroom, desperate for a piss, he finds a very unwelcome sight - Hongbin on his hands and knees, scrubbing the bathtub as if his life depends on it.

 

He sighs. “Hongbin, what the hell are you doing?” It’s six in the morning. No sane person should be cleaning at six in the morning. Not that Hongbin is sane.

 

“Cleaning the bath,” Hongbin rolls his eyes, “what does it look like I’m doing?”

 

Wonshik narrows his eyes. His bladder is so full it’s starting to hurt. “I know what you’re doing. I just don’t know why you’re cleaning like a muggle. You’re a wizard. You could have it done in five seconds.” Which would save him from dancing on the spot like a lunatic. “And who cleans at this time in the morning?”

Hongbin waves off the muggle comment. “I can’t sleep.”

 

Usually, Wonshik would ask why he couldn’t sleep, and they’d have a lovely, intimate chat about feelings, but right now, he is so desperate for the toilet, he could quite happily throttle Hongbin. However, that would be cutting his nose off to spite his face. He knows he wouldn’t survive without him.

 

He lowers himself down onto the closed toilet lid instead. “Why can’t you sleep?” He asks, aware that he sounds as about as enthusiastic as a child being forced to go to school.

 

Hongbin shrugs, mutters something non-committal, and continues scrubbing. He refuses to look him in the eye, and that’s how Wonshik knows it’s something bad.

 

He jigs his leg up and down in an attempt to keep from pissing himself. “Seriously, mate,” he says, trying to sound as if he cares, which is inordinately difficult right now, “what’s up?”

 

He gets a sigh in return, as Hongbin leans back, setting his sponge down. He stares down at his knees for a moment, before sighing again, longer this time. “I might have ed up a bit,” he confesses.

 

That much is obvious. Hongbin has a habit of cleaning at odd hours in the morning when he’s going through some sort of emotional turmoil. “Yeah?”

 

Hongbin turns to look at him, gnawing on his bottom lip. His under-eye circles are huge. “Seph’s pregnant.”

 

Wonshik can feel his eyes widening. Suddenly, his need for the toilet is forgotten in the face of this very surprising news. “You weren’t - this was an accident?” He doesn’t know why he’s asking. From the look on Hongbin’s face, this was quite obviously a mistake.

 

His best friend nods, and picks up his sponge again, aggressively scrubbing the already-clean surface. “I am really not ready for this,” he mumbles, “really, really not ready.”

 

“What are you going to do?” Wonshik watches as Hongbin attacks a particularly stubborn stain that has proved itself - over the course of a year - to be immovable. They both know it is futile, but it doesn’t stop Hongbin from swearing quietly to himself.

 

“No idea,” Hongbin replies shortly. “We’ve never really thought about having kids.”

 

Wonshik is honestly surprised. He thought it was just something people did - even he’s thought about it, and the chances of him having kids any time soon is slim to none. It’s not like he’s ever going to have them biologically; the idea of sleeping with a woman, for him, is laughable. The “Really?” slips out without his permission.

 

Hongbin stops cleaning to glare at him. “What?” He says defensively. “It’s not like everyone’s kid-friendly. I’m not Taekwoon.”

 

Wonshik will give him that. He is not, in fact, Taekwoon. It would take a vat of Polyjuice Potion, and possibly acting lessons for that to ever become a possibility. “You don’t have to love kids to be a good dad,” he offers, “you just have to like your kid. And I’m pretty sure that you would.”

 

“That’s only if we keep it.” Hongbin very deliberately keeps his gaze directed away from Wonshik, but he can hear the fear in his voice.

 

“Does Seph want to?” That is the question - because whatever Hongbin wants, it’s not his body. He’s not the one who has to deal with actually carrying it.

 

“She doesn’t know.” He nibbles his bottom lip again. “We’re sleeping on it for now.”

Wonshik gives him a look. “This is not sleeping.”

 

Hongbin snorts. “What was I supposed to do, lie there, staring at the ceiling like a mug?”

 

He really wants to say yes, that is exactly what he should be doing, because then he could have relieved himself without incident, and also, he wouldn’t know about this and therefore wouldn’t be experiencing second-hand panic on Hongbin’s behalf. But that would be unfair, and a little bit mean. “I guess not.”

 

They fall silent for a moment. “What are you doing here, anyway?” Hongbin asks eventually, the fact that Wonshik isn’t just here for an early morning chat having finally dawned on him.

 

“Needed the loo.” Wonshik shrugs.

 

“Oh.” Hongbin stands up awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ll - I’ll leave you to it.” He stumbles out of the room, almost tripping over the doorway.

 

“Hongbin?” Wonshik calls. Hongbin turns to look at him, questioningly. “It’ll be okay. You guys will figure it out.”

 

His best friend gives him a wan smile in response. “I hope so.”

 

***

 

Hungover, and feeling faintly queasy, Hongbin hurries to the nearest potioneer’s, blushing furiously as he asks the cashier where they keep the pregnancy tests.

 

She stares at him for a moment, and then, very loudly - and very unnecessarily - asks one of her colleagues to show him. He can feel his face burning; he begins to understand why Seph begged him to do it this time.

 

The test itself takes five minutes of awkwardly waiting outside of the bathroom as Seph tries to figure out what to do, and then standing and staring at a murky grey potion for a further two minutes. When it turns a pearlescent blue colour, they know they’re ed.

 

Seph is unable to tear her eyes away. She taps the surface of the potion with her wand, hoping against hope that this is some kind of glitch, but nothing happens. It stays that stupid blue colour.

There’s no avoiding this now. Three tests can’t all be wrong.

 

Hongbin swallows, his Adam's apple bobbing spasmodically. He looks at her. “What do we do?” He asks, sounding fearful.

 

“I don't know,” she mumbles, still staring at the potion in horror.. “I have no ing idea.”

 

Neither of them are sure how they got into this mess. They are both very good with contraception, mostly so they could avoid this exact situation. Neither of them are ready for a baby, and neither of them are the kind of people who can just roll with it without having massive panic attacks.

 

Seph can feel one coming on now, and when Hongbin's fingers interlink with hers, she squeezes them tightly. “It must have been the injection,” she her lips, her face pale.

 

She decided to go with the muggle injection, because remembering to take regular doses of medicine is not her forte. It seemed simple. One injection, and she'd be free to have as much unprotected with her boyfriend as she liked!

 

Apparently not. She would never have let Hongbin forgo the if she'd known this would happen.

 

“Maybe it's a false positive,” Hongbin says feebly.

 

She stares at him, unimpressed. “This is the third test I've done. They can't all be wrong!”

 

“We can hope, can't we?” He sound surprised by the loudness of his own voice. She squeezes his hand again – she knows he didn't mean to shout.

 

“We can, but I don't think it's going to do anything...” She clears . “I can't believe this.”

 

She really can't. She’d only done the test to reassure herself that her missed period was just late. They were supposed to be safe – they were supposed to be being adult, and organised, and in control. But no. Somehow, despite having chemicals injected to stop this kind of thing, she's pregnant.

 

“How long do you...you know,” Hongbin's voice is very scratchy, “how far along do you think you are?”

 

Seph shrugs. Her head aches, and she feels almost as if she is not really here and that this is happening to someone else. “Well, I had the shot about seven weeks ago, and I wasn't pregnant then, so...”

 

He nods. “A month, then?”

 

feels very dry. It's not like they bought that fancy test, where you can find out you're pregnant two weeks later, or something. It's got to be a month or more.

 

Hongbin decides to ask the obvious question. “Do we keep it?”

 

She doesn't look up. It's not as if their relationship is new, or in trouble; they've been together for years now, and to be honest – she knows this is pretty much it for her. Whatever might happen in the future, she knows that – right here, right now – Hongbin is right for her. He makes her happy, he makes her laugh, and yes, the is more than alright. It helps that he's pretty, too.

 

But a baby? It’s not something they’ve ever really discussed. Neither of them have ever been particularly broody. It’s never been an outright no - but it’s never been a definite yes, either. Monetarily, they'd just about scrape by – especially with her new promotion – but emotionally? They'd be ed. Hongbin can barely go a week without a panic attack, and she’s not much better.

 

This is not the environment you want to bring a baby into.

 

“I don’t know,” she mutters, because she doesn’t. She has absolutely no idea what she wants to do with this potential child. “We could always give it to Taekwoon. He loves kids,” she jokes, trying to lighten the mood. It doesn't really help. She still feels sick.

 

“That is an option, though, isn't it.” Hongbin looks like he is seriously considering this; she is slightly alarmed. This feeling, however, recedes, when he says: “I mean, he'd always be up for babysitting.”

 

They fall silent again, both turning it over in their minds. There’s no escaping it, no pushing it under the rug and hoping it goes away: they actually have to face this, head on, something neither of them are very good at.

 

There’s really only three options, she thinks. They keep it, abort it, or get it adopted. None of them seem particularly attractive. “We’re financially secure, so… I don’t know.” She sighs. “I would feel guilty getting an abortion. But part of me thinks it might be the best idea.”

 

“I wouldn’t judge you,” he says immediately. “I promise.”

 

“And I love you for it,” she takes a deep breath, “but I think...we should consider it. I think we should go see a doctor or a healer and just - think about it.”

“Okay,” he says gently, “Okay.”