Sometimes Doyoung's work weighs heavy on his soul. At those times he cherishes his family more than ever.

He counts to five in his head when he hears the lock turn in the front door, waiting for the pitter-patter of little feet on wooden floor. A high-pitched voice reciting something unintelligible in a sing-song way comes first, interrupted by the thud of the heavy door falling shut and a moment later comes the sound he has been waiting for.

Jaehyun smiles wide as he turns the heat of the oven top down and pats his hands on his jeans while he turns towards the open entrance between the kitchen and living room. His little girl comes running through a second later, barefoot with her hair in slightly messy pigtails, favourite stuffed bunny in one hand and her red rucksack jostling back and forth on her shoulders as she runs right into his arms.

“Papa papa!” she yells as he wraps his arms around her and holds her, rucksack and all, against his chest.

“Pick me up pick me up,” she demands and hops a little on her feet until he lifts her into the air and settles her against his hip. The four-year-old is a little too energetic for the time of day, but Jaehyun reckons at this rate she’ll tire herself out soon enough.

She lifts the bunny to his face and presses the head against his cheek in an imitation of a kiss and Jaehyun smiles wide once again, putting his dimples on display. Hyoje pokes them, one after the other, and then she wiggles in his arms to be let down.

She runs off again the moment her feet are on the ground, shrugging her rucksack off her shoulders and leaving it in the middle of the kitchen floor.

“Did we forget to teach her manners?” Doyoung muses as he bends down to pick it from the floor, head still turned after their daughter. Jaehyun chuckles and turns back to the stove and putting the heat back on, he stirs the meat around in the frying pan with the spatula.

His husband comes up beside him and rests his head on his shoulder, sighing heavily through his nose as he wraps one arm around his waist.

“Hi,” he whispers and Jaehyun leans his head against his and hums in reply. Doyoung continues to lean against him and breathing deeply and Jaehyun imagines he might fall asleep standing up. He smiles in sympathy as Doyoung seems almost painfully tired, and he can only begin to imagine how gruelling his day must have been to drain him to such an extent.

“Hyoje is very excited today,” Jaehyun says after a while, his tone mostly questioning and Doyoung groans quietly before turning his head into Jaehyun’s neck and pressing a kiss against his skin.

“Her teacher said naptime had been pushed back a little today so that’s why she’s all…” he waves his arm around to imitate their daughter’s energetic flailing, red rucksack knocking against the cupboards.

“Mmm,” Jaehyun hums and sprinkles a little more salt over the sizzling meat, “and the repetition?”

Doyoung breaths in deep through his nose and out his mouth and straightens from his slump, wrapping both arms around Jaehyun’s waist to pull him away from the stove.

“It’s a thing apparently,” he says as he takes Jaehyun’s place. “Now, go hide your drawings before Hyoje ruins them again,” he says and shoos Jaehyun away with a firm pat to his .

Jaehyun’s eyes go wide and he lets out an involuntary squeak when he remembers his sketches still filling every inch of his workspace in the living room and he sets off at a fast walk, hoping against all odds that for once, Hyoje will have left them alone.

He is just in time it seems, as when he turns in the wide archway between the rooms and towards the far-right corner that is his home office, Hyoje is balanced on her knees on his swivel chair, looking over his work with a decidedly mischievous look on her face.

“Nonononono!” he yells as he runs across the floor and she startles like a spooked animal and ducks behind the high back of the chair until only her little fingers gripping the faux leather upholstery is visible.

Jaehyun winces and drops gently to his knees beside the chair, poking his head around the back of it to look up at his daughter with a remorseful pout curling his lips.

“I’m sorry baby, I didn’t mean to yell,” he murmurs and she blinks rapidly at him with her bottom lip jutted out in a big pout. She gets that from him, at least Doyoung says so.

“You know you’re not allowed to play here though.”

She nods a few times, curling together in the chair and looking properly reprimanded. Not a second later she unfurls from the position and jiggles her whole body, fingers once again gripping the top of the chair’s back.

“Spin me spin me,” she says and Jaehyun can’t possibly say no anymore. He pulls the chair a little away from the desk and spins her slowly in it, laughing along while she shrieks in delight.

After a minute of spinning and singing the same verse of Eensy Weensy Spider over and over, Jaehyun finally plucks his daughter out of the chair and into his arms, pressing a kiss against her cheek before placing her on her feet.

“Go wash your hands now, it’s almost dinner,” he says and she skips off, starting up again with singing and doing the complimentary spider dance with her fingers.

Jaehyun quickly gathers his sketches together into a plastic case and hides them away in the top drawer of his desk, happy that they aren’t covered in colourful pencil markings. Hyoje claims she only wants to colour them because they’re so pretty, but Jaehyun is convinced they have spawned a devil in the making. She wouldn’t have ruined his work as many times as she has unless it was done on purpose.

Desk cleaned, he makes his way back to the kitchen where Doyoung is portioning rice onto plates and singing quietly to himself. Jaehyun sidles up behind him and wraps his arms around his thin waist, hooking his chin over his husband’s shoulder to watch him work.

It’s nice that they can share in the work like this, Jaehyun remembers their first year of dating when Doyoung would always make him cook, claiming that he was no good at it himself. He wasn’t exactly happy with him when the truth came out that he could work his way around a kitchen just fine.

These days they stick to the rule that whoever is home first, cooks. Though Jaehyun prefers to work from home rather than the office, so he ends up doing most of the cooking anyway.

Doyoung’s hands still their work when Jaehyun’s warm body press up against him and he leans his head back a little to rest their cheeks together and closes his eyes.

“Bad day?” Jaehyun whispers against the corner of his mouth, though the answer is obvious. Doyoung sags against him, the spoon abandoned on a plate as his fingers curl around Jaehyun’s forearms and he pulls the younger’s arms tighter around himself.

“Heavy,” he murmurs and Jaehyun hums in sympathy while he plants small kisses over Doyoung’s cheekbone and against his ear and down the length of his neck.

“I love you,” he whispers against Doyoung’s shoulder and then they separate as the pitter-patter of bare feet rounds the corner into the kitchen and their daughter’s loud voice, still singing that one verse about the spider, breaks the somewhat somber mood.

“Dinner time,” Doyoung says, chipper and energetic in front of their child, and while he sets the table, Jaehyun lifts Hyoje into her chair and tells her with false sternness and too much laughter to “be a good girl and sit still”.

Dinner long-since eaten, colouring over and done with and teeth brushed to gleaming perfection, Hyoje is finally asleep in her bed. With the nightlight shining springing dolphins on the walls and ceiling and Mr. Bunny clutched in her arms, Jaehyun leaves her alone, a warm smile of nothing but absolute love and adoration shaping his mouth.

In the living room, he finds his husband sitting in the middle of the sofa, head leant against his clenched fist with his elbow balanced on the back of the sofa, near asleep.

He straightens a little when Jaehyun’s weight moves the sofa cushion, and opens his arms to pull the younger into them.

“You’re the one falling asleep, I should be holding you,” Jaehyun protests mildly, but Doyoung shakes his head.

“Let me hold you,” he whispers and there is a serious need in the way his forehead furrows. Jaehyun smiles at him, feels it wither as he doesn’t know what he can say to make Doyoung feel better, and curls down to lean against Doyoung’s chest, humming contently when the elder’s arms wrap around him.

“You just want to use me as a headrest,” Jaehyun jokes when Doyoung leans his head on top of his and feels a little relieved when his comment draws a tiny laugh from his husband.

They sit together in silence for a long while, Jaehyun curls his legs up on the sofa and wraps his arms around Doyoung’s waist and he almost thinks Doyoung has fallen asleep, before his quiet voice breaks the stillness around them.

“I thought you went into the office today?”

Jaehyun hums and then he whines a little and finally he lets out a disgruntled huff and Doyoung laughs breathily again. Jaehyun often complains about his colleagues, but most of it is only air. They are all, what he calls it when he is being sentimental, life-long friends after all.

“Hansol and Ten and the new interne, mmm … Injun! are working on a project together and Ten got really loud so I ditched them.”

Doyoung hums as well and plants a kiss on the top of Jaehyun’s head, and then silence stretches between them again. As he is contemplating if he should turn the tv on or not, Jaehyun tightens his arms around his waist and nuzzles his cheek against his bone while breathing in deep through his nose. He is preparing to say something difficult, so Doyoung leaves the remote where it is, only inches away from him on the sofa.

“Can you tell me about it?” Jaehyun asks, understanding that Doyoung can’t always talk about his work.

“Yeah,” Doyoung breathes and tightens his arm around Jaehyun’s shoulder when his husband moves to sit up.

“Stay,” he orders and Jaehyun stills, falling back against his chest.

“It’s a new case,“ Doyoung starts once Jaehyun has settled again, leans his cheek on the younger’s head and closes his eyes.

“Do you remember that news story a few months back? About a family that walked in on a robbery in their home and the father and teenage son was murdered?”

Jaehyun nods his head against Doyoung’s shoulder and raises one hand to curl around Doyoung’s nape, fingers sifting comfortingly through the short hair there.

“Well, I’m representing the wife. We’ve spent all day going through the evidence and reading her statements and I just.” He stops suddenly and breathes out once, hard, making a sound as if he is in pain.

Jaehyun wants to pull him into his arms and hold him tightly against his chest, but Doyoung obviously needs to feel Jaehyun safe in his arms right now, so instead he curls more into him and presses his mouth hard against the thudding pulse in Doyoung’s neck.

“I started thinking about what I would do, if that happened to me. If I lost you, and Hyoje I … I don’t think I could take it.”

Jaehyun can’t take it anymore and sits up in Doyoung’s arms and pulls him as close as he can, presses their mouths together in a close-lipped kiss and runs his hands through Doyoung’s dark hair.

“Then don’t think about it,” he says firmly, smiling a little as he applies his parenting experience to his husband’s woes.

“We don’t think about things that make us feel bad. I’m right here, Hyoje is safe, asleep in her bed.”

Doyoung smiles gratefully at him and presses their mouths together once more before pulling Jaehyun down to lean against his chest once more.

“I really just want to use you as a headrest,” he says and they share a quiet laugh, more at ease than before. Saying things out loud is always the easiest way to let them go.

Doyoung reaches for the remote this time and switches the tv on, turning the volume down immediately until it is nothing more than a murmur of background noise.

They are halfway through a late-night movie when a tiny figure in a turquoise night gown appears beside the sofa, bunny plushy clutched in one fist and big eyes blinking tiredly at them.

“Daddyyy,” Hyoje whines and shuffles across the wooden floor to stand before them and places one little hand on Doyoung’s outstretched leg.

“What are you doing awake sweetheart?” Doyoung asks and takes her hand in his, rubbing his thumb over the back of it.

“Can’t sleep,” she sniffs a little and then tries to climb into their laps. Jaehyun sits up and helps her, settles her over his thighs and wraps his arms around her before he leans back against Doyoung.

“Hmm, should we watch a movie then?” he whispers and she nods quickly, breathing in deep and raising her shoulders to her ears as she tries her best to smile around a yawn.

“What movie then?” Doyoung asks and pushes Hyoje’s hair out of her face.

“Big Hero!” she yells and Jaehyun laughs out loud and cuddles her closer into his chest, poking her belly with a finger until she giggles.

“Not Frozen?” Doyoung says, and Jaehyun can swear there is a shadow of a pout on his face.

“Nu-uh!” their daughter tips her head back to send her daddy a look full of disbelief and Jaehyun giggles a little more when Doyoung hums in disappointment.

Doyoung reaches for the small control to the apple box and for only the second time that week, searches up Big Hero 6 in their movie library.

“You can watch Frozen in your free time,” Jaehyun teases once Doyoung has pressed play and the elder huffs a laugh and sinks a little lower in the sofa and gathers his family close into his arms.