Mae, 2 Years Old

Nichkhun sighed as he looked at the cookbook in front of him, for what he swore was the fifth time in the past few minutes. Scanning over the page yet again, he noted the instructions printed on the double page spread in his mind, as he spun to face Wooyoung who stood next to him with a frown on his face.

Wooyoung looked haggard, weary from lack of sleep, and yet Nichkhun swore he still couldn’t look any more handsome. He supposed it was a side effect of being deeply in love with one’s best friend - you could never convince yourself they looked bad. Wooyoung certainly never would; he could be wearing nothing but a plastic trash bag and Nichkhun would swear to anyone that he was the cutest guy in the room!

Noticing Nichkhun’s equally exasperated expression, Wooyoung reached out to pat his husband’s shoulder in sympathy, smiling almost painfully. He chuckled, more out of exhaustion than anything, “Khun, honey… Why don’t we just buy her a cake, we don’t have to make it…”

Nichkhun shrugged Wooyoung’s hand away from his shoulder, batting at it in frustration. It would have seemed like an angry gesture to anyone else, but to Wooyoung, it was almost humorous watching Nichkhun get so wound up over baking.

"It’s our daughter’s birthday, Woo. We can’t just buy her any old cake!” His voice raised in pitch, but not quite reaching a whining level since his voice was really too deep for that. “It’s gotta be special.”

As he turned to face the counter top again, and the cookbook that was the origin of all their troubles, he saw Wooyoung roll his eyes at his dramatics. Who knew a simple sponge cake was going to be so hard?!

“Mae’s only two, she probably won’t even remember it! Why don’t we wait until she’s a bit older and then make one?” Wooyoung thought his plan was rather rational until his husband shot a glare at him over his shoulder as he went back to measuring out the flour for their second (and hopefully less disastrous) round of baking. “What?”

“Every birthday should be special for her, Woo.” Nichkhun mumbled, shaking his head almost in disbelief. In the midst of pouring out the flour into a large, plastic mixing bowl he felt long arms wrap around his waist from behind. He yelped a little, spilling some of the fine powder over his arms and hands as he poured, but spun to face Wooyoung once he had finished.

Feeling his back pressed up against the cold, marble counter made him shudder unconsciously a bit. After four years of marriage he’d barely gotten used to the butterfly feeling in his stomach whenever Wooyoung showed him affection, or whenever he touched him for a little too long - on purpose or not! He was still slightly mad, but he couldn’t hold the feeling for too long once Wooyoung became so lovey-dovey towards him.

Wooyoung squeezed the waist he held gently, leaning in to Nichkhun’s face as he spoke lowly, “I know. Every birthday is special. But she’s still so little, Khun and she’ll have plenty of celebrations to make memories with over the years.”

Nichkhun sighed, a puff of air leaving his lungs as he reached up to touch Wooyoung’s face. As he did so, he suddenly grinned evilly, and Wooyoung only caught onto his thoughts as his flour covered palms collided lightly with his cheeks. He cried out in shock, as he felt Nichkhun playfully smear baking ingredients all over his beautiful features cackling to himself all the while.

“That's payback, dear!” The older man laughed, as he caught the sides of Wooyoung’s face with his hands again, restricting his ability to run away. He leaned down and kissed his lips, grinning as their mouths moved against one another.

A benefit of living with Nichkhun, Wooyoung often thought to himself, is that he’s so much fun…

Almost since they had started dating, the two men had always gone out of their way to prank the other person, with the scale of the pranks getting bigger each time. Often, they recruited the other members of 2PM to help, which always produced exciting (and sometimes questionable) results. Things had only managed to escalate even further since they had married and moved in together for the first time since they had left the dorms.

Wooyoung eventually pulled away from Nichkhun’s lips briefly, mumbling as his eyes stayed closed in bliss, “Well, I think it's going to taste okay this time.”

Nichkhun laughed, “How can you even tell? I’ve only put butter and flour in so far…”

Wooyoung leaned closer, if it was even possible, “Because your food is always delicious.” He then added, whispering, “Just like you,” as he reconnected their lips without giving Nichkhun a chance to splutter out an embarrassed response.

Nichkhun, unable to respond verbally, instead lowered his arms from Wooyoung’s face to his neck, loosely wrapping his arms around it to give him better leverage over Wooyoung - even though it was him trapped between the counter and the warm body that was currently lovingly smothering him.

Slowly moving their lips together, matching a rhythm they had learned through kissing each other a lot over their years together, they momentarily forgot about the cake that lay unfinished behind them.  That was, until they heard a cute yell coming from another room in the house.

Separating quickly, for fear that their daughter would walk in on them doing more than her little eyes could ever take, Wooyoung coughed awkwardly as he eyed the doorway expectantly. As expected, Mae came pitter-pattering around the corner, teddy bear in hand.

As she walked slowly into the kitchen, still wobbling uneasily a little bit, she stared up at her parents with large brown eyes that were full of wonder as she took in their messy, flour covered appearances. She looked first at Wooyoung, who bent down to meet her level and cocked his head questioningly at her, and then at Nichkhun, who still stood leaning against the counter.

“Papa, play with me!” She whined cutely, looking at her father who was closest to her. Her eyes widened pleadingly, a look that resembled a puppy dog, one that Wooyoung could never resist. She the bear out towards him with both hands.

“She gets that look from you.” Wooyoung would always point it out, noting the similarity between his daughter’s face and Nichkhun's own irresistible pout that he would sometimes use to persuade Wooyoung to do something. “You’ve taught her well, dear,” he would chuckle. Of course, Nichkhun would deny the fact that she had picked up on his mannerisms so easily.

She whined again, a bit impatient and yet still cute, “Papa!”

Nichkhun laughed from behind them as he approached, “Woo baby, why don’t you leave this to me and take Mae to the park for a bit?” He gestured to the cake, which was supposed to be a surprise, so he hoped she hadn’t seen it already. He made himself believe that she was probably too short to see the top of the counters in any case, but his messy hands and apron might just give it away.

Wooyoung nodded, taking one of his daughter’s tiny hands into his own. He asked sweetly, his voice having a higher intonation than when he talked to adults, “Would you like to do that?”

Their daughter nodded excitedly, and it didn’t take long before she was already tugging on his arm to hurry him along. Wooyoung shook his head in amusement at her excitable mood, “Wait and let papa clean up first,” he chuckled, shooting playful dagger looks at his husband behind him, remembering the prank he had just pulled.

“Stay with me a while, huh?” Nichkhun smiled, receiving a great big toothy grin from his child in return. She made a higher pitched squeal, like she did when she was overly happy, and Nichkhun lifted her into his arms.

He waited in the hallway, bouncing Mae up and down as she let out little gurgles and childish laughs, and he held her smiling proudly all the while at his little girl. Just before Wooyoung came back, she looked up at him from where her head rested on his shoulder.

“Daddy?” She asked, in a small voice.

Nichkhun hummed in response, continuing to gently bounce her in his arms as he waited for Wooyoung to appear fresh-faced and in new clothes.

She raised her head, and loudly proclaimed, “Love you!”

This made Nichkhun's paternal instincts go into overdrive as he cooed at the boldness of her statement, “You do? Aw, darling, I love you too.” He hugged her securely.

Spending time with his family was always a sure fire way of getting rid of his stress, and he only wished that there was someone with a camera who could always film these special moments and save them as precious memories. At that particular moment, however, Nichkhun was surprised to find out that there actually was, when he heard a camera shutter click from his side.

“You two look so adorable like that,” he could hear the grin Wooyoung wielded before he saw him, his voice carrying an elated tone. As he turned to face him, Nichkhun saw him raise his smartphone again, taking another bunch of pictures.

“We should capture more memories like this,” Wooyoung smiled. Nichkhun couldn’t help but agree more with that.

After he put his phone away, the younger man took his daughter from Nichkhun, pulling funny faces at her as he did so. He motioned towards the other man, saying, “Say goodbye to daddy,” as he held her arm, making her wave with a small movement.

Nichkhun laughed, bending to kiss his child’s forehead gently. He looked into her eyes, his eyebrows raised as he said, “Behave for papa, please.”

Mae nodded her head, affirming his words. Nichkhun knew he didn’t really have to say it, since she rarely had tantrums. She was a kid with a brilliant temperament.

He stood up straight, and now he was face to face with Wooyoung, who was smiling at him as he held onto their child. He looked at Nichkhun expectantly, with a mock pout on his lips. It wasn’t quite as good as Mae's (or Nichkhun's. for that matter), but it was still effective.

“Do I get a kiss too?” He asked, tilting his head in a cute gesture, attempting to mirror the mannerisms of the child in his arms.

The little girl giggled at her father’s silly behavior, and Nichkhun reached a hand to tickle her affectionately as he pecked his husband on the lips quickly. As he leaned back, he whispered lowly, hoping his daughter couldn't hear him.

“Take a few hours out, if you can, so I can finish up here,” he tried not to mention the cake directly, still determined to pull of the surprise. Wooyoung nodded at him, smiled and left, leaving Nichkhun alone with his project.

Well, this is going to be fun… he thought, sighing as he made his way back the kitchen, shaking his head at his own preposterous ideas, with a small smile on his lips.