In the early hours of the morning the sweet melody of Minuet flowed through the house bringing a beautiful start to the brand new day. The sun was beginning to peek through the curtains lighting up the household. The sound of Henry’s passionate piece slipped under the doors of each bedroom waking his family members like a lovely alarm clock.

Heechul, however, did not find the early morning wake-up charming in the slightest. When the sound hit his sensitive mother ears, waking him instantly, he felt the need to go downstairs and strangle his first born son in the most loving manner. Since murder was highly frowned upon he settled for rolling over in bed to look at the alarm clock. 5:56AM. In a swift motion, he grabbed it and threw it across the room, where it hit the wall with a loud bang.

He was definitely going to kill Henry.

Groaning loudly, he pulled the pillow over his head to block out the noise but it was useless. The sound of the violin echoed off the walls as if it was a force of life determined to wake everyone in the house.

“Make him stop,” Heechul complained sleepily, kicking Leeteuk in the leg. His boyfriend merely mumbled incoherently but did nothing to cease the music and in that moment Heechul regretted ever allowing Henry to take violin lessons as a child. Who knew that he would turn out to be some child prodigy and grow up to practice for twelve hours of the day starting at first light?

Sitting up in bed, Heechul ran a hand through his messy, long black hair. He yawned tiredly and looked next to him where Leeteuk was sleeping soundly, having become immune to this sort of rude awakening. Heechul could only wonder how he did it and was sort of relieved that Henry didn’t live with him because he would go insane if this happened every single morning.

Minuet continued and Heechul sluggishly crawled out of bed and shuffled into the bathroom. The door was adjacent and the light had been left on but when he entered he found Kibum right where they’d left him passed out on the floor. He bent down and pressed his hand against his son’s cheek, still feeling the warmth of fever. Feel guilty now that he’d gotten a couple hours of sleep Heechul gently shook Kibum’s shoulder to wake him.

“Kibum. Wake up, sweetie,” He said in a loud whisper. When Kibum began to rouse Heechul helped him sit up. “Come on, let’s get you to bed, baby.”

Kibum, lethargic and confused, allowed himself to be half-carried into the bedroom and dumped into the soft bed. Heechul had to do most of the work, picking up Kibum’s legs and moving them onto the mattress before pulling the thick blankets up to his chin, tucking him in all snug. Once he was settled, Heechul crawled over him and burrowed under the blankets like a mole. He threw his arm over Leeteuk’s waist and snuggled up to him, breathing in his alluring scent.

It had been a very long night and if he hadn’t been so exhausted he would have felt ashamed of himself for what they’d done to poor Kibum. In their defense he was a teenager that should have been able to take care of himself at that point and leaving him to sleep on the bathroom floor wasn’t that cruel. At least that’s what they told themselves when they had abandoned him for their heavenly comfortable and warm bed at three in the morning.

Kibum had been up all night spending most of it in the bathroom getting violently ill. They had taken turns staying up feeding him ice chips and telling him stories to get him through the night. Heechul was hoping that it was only a twenty-four hour stomach bug but only time would tell. He also wished with all his might that a sick child was the only problem he had to deal with because that was easy to take care of: give them a barf bucket, pop them some Tylenol, and let them sleep it off, but he knew that wasn’t the case here.

Hiding in bed all day wasn’t the answer to all these problems but he was determined to stay there for quite awhile longer. His time with Leeteuk was precious and he wanted to take it for all that it was worth even if there was a child in bed with them.

“Babe,” Heechul whispered, kissing Leeteuk’s ear.

“What?” Leeteuk murmured sleepily.

“I love you,” Heechul answered softly, nuzzling into Leeteuk’s neck.

There was nothing more in life that he wanted than to wake up holding the love of his life every morning instead of being limited to the various weekends. Some days he thought about leaving the kids with Hongki for a week or two just so he could stay with Leeteuk. Family wasn’t supposed to be divided like this.

When enough time had passed that it was acceptable to be awake Heechul found himself in the kitchen nursing a cup of coffee. He stood in front of the large bay window watching two squirrels chase each other around the backyard and thinking about how he wanted to handle the situation going on between his children.

“I think we should talk with Key,” Heechul said softly as Leeteuk came behind him and wrapped his arms around his waist.

“About his eating disorder?” Leeteuk replied quietly, kissing the back of his neck. Heechul had told him all about what Key had said during the many hours they were awake last night.

“Yes,” Heechul confirmed, leaning back against his boyfriend.

Leeteuk kissed his neck again before pulling away. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. If it’s something he wants to talk about he would tell us, but since he hasn’t it probably means that it’s a painful subject for him. I think that as long as he continues to eat properly we have nothing to worry about.”

“I know but these things worry me,” Heechul sighed, sitting at the table. He leaned against his hand and stared at Leeteuk when he sat down across from him. “You should have heard him talking last night. He basically projected everything that he went through at some point in his life. But you’re right. Key is strong and smart, that’s probably how he survived whatever disorder he suffered from.”

Leeteuk smiled and reached over to pat his hand. “I think Key will be just fine. He’s very healthy and knows how to take care of himself. Now he’s learning to let other people take care of h