"Chenle stop playing with your food and Lucas you need to put your phone away now." Kun says as he passes the salad over to Mark.

"But, it's yuckyyyy.' 

"One sec gege." 

"No, now. You can text your friends after dinner. Chenle, you haven't even tried it yet. You need to eat it."

Chenle just a small piece of his food before making a face and continuing to push his food around. Ten was grabbing the apple juice from the fridge when he sees that Lucas is still trying to finish his text, so on his way back to the table he reaches over Lucas and plucks his phone out of the unsuspecting boys hands.

"Gege!"

"I'll be keeping that for the rest of the night. You can have it back tomorrow." Lucas just slumps back in his chair pouting. Seeing that the kid isn't eating his food Ten takes a hold of his elbo and pulls him up and out of his chair before guiding him out to the living room.

"Gege stop your embarassing me." Lucas says pulling his arm lose from Ten's grip.

"You are only embarassing yourself right now. Kun told you to do something and you ignored him and now you are pouting like one of the maknaes. You should be setting a good example for the Dreamies. You are 17 years old, but you aren't acting like it. Do you want the Dreamies to learn that it is ok to act like that when they don't get their way, because they saw their hyung act like that?"

"No, gege. I understand what you're saying. I'm sorry."

"Good. Now you're going to go back in there and apologize to Kun and sit down and eat your food. If you continue to act like one of the maknaes then I will treat you like one. Understand?"

"I understand gege." Lucas saying blushing at that threat. "I'll act my age."

"Good. Let's go back in."

"Gege?"

"Yes Lucas?"

"I'm sorry for ignoring you when you told me to do something. I was not setting a good example for the Dreamies."

"It's alright bud. Sit down and eat your food."

As Lucas sits back down Jaemin leans over to whisper to him.

"Did hyungie spank you?"

Lucas gives Jaemin a weird look before responding. "No. Why would he do that?"

"Well, when one of us gets removed from the dinner table it's usually to spank us."

"Oh. No. I don't really get spanked anymore, I'm kind of too old for that kind of thing." Lucas says blushing a little at the casual way Jaemin is talking about this with him, and because he isn't being completely honest.

"Oh. Lucky." Jaemin says before going back to shoveling food in his mouth.

"Chenle, I alredy told you once to stop playing with your food. You need to listen and eat it." Kun says glancing over at the second maknae.

"Butttt it's gross!"

"You need to eat at least half of it."

"It's yuckyyy!" Chenle says pushing the plate away.

"Chenle you have two options, either eat half your food or you can go to bed early tonight."

"Noooo!"

"Then you need to eat half your food. I won't be making you something else, so you might want to start eating."

Chenle glares at him but slowly pulls his plate back over. However, he doesn't touch it. Kun watches him for a moment and decides he will let him be and see if he will eat his food before everyone is done.

"Jisung, sit back down in your chair please." Ten says as Jisung gets up and hops around the room, full of energy.

"Hyungie!! Taeyong hyung is coming back tonight!!"

"I know he is and that is very exciting, but you need to sit back down and finish eating."

"ok." Jisung says hopping back to his seat.

A half hour later everyone has finished eating and is being excused to go play until bedtime. 

"Alright for those of you who have eaten your food, you can go play until bedtime." Kun says dismissing everyone but Chenle, who still hasn't eaten the food on his plate. Once everyone had left the table Kun walks around the table and crouches down in front of the kid.

"What did i tell you about eating your food."

"That I have to eat half of it or go to bed." Chenle says crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. "But it's grossss gege."

"I know you said that already. However you didn't listen to what I told you to do." Kun pulls the kid up from the chair so he is standing. "So now you get to go to bed early."

"But gege! It's too early!"

"Well, maybe next time you need to listen when I tell you to eat your food. Come on." Kun takes the kid by the hand and leads him upstairs making sure he is getting ready for bed. Kun feels kind of bad but he knows he needs to follow through when he tells the kids something, plus it's almost 8 so it's not like he was sending the boy to bed a lot earlier then Jisung. It was really only a little over an hour until his regular bed time.

Kun stood in the maknaes room doorway watching the kid stomp around his room gathering what he needs to get ready for bed.

"Chenle, stop stomping around. It is nobodies fault but your own that you are going to bed early."

Chenle stops just long enough to glare at Kun before stomping his way out of his room. He doesn't get far though before Kun grabs him by the arm effectively stoping him from stomping to the bathroom.

"I told you to stop stomping. Do I need to give you some smacks to get you to listen?"

"No gege."

"Then you need to walk to the bathroom without stomping." Kun says before letting the kid go and watching him walk across the hall to the bathroom to finish getting ready for bed.

"Alright, under the covers." Kun says watching the boy climb into his bed.

"Gege I'm sorry for stomping."

"It's alright. I love you lele. Sleep tight. I'll see you in the morning."

"Gege?" Chenle says just as Kun is about to turn the lights off and shut the door. 

"Hmm?"

"Taeyong hyungie comes back tomorrow right?"

"Yes, he'll get back in the middle of the night."

"That's good. Sungie misses him a lot. Did you know that?"

"I know. Close your eyes now." 

Once Chenle had closed his eyes Kun turns the light off and closes the door, he leaves it slightly open knowing the youngest 2 don't like when the door is closed all the way. He then heads downstairs and prepares for the fight that is likely to happen when it is nearing Jisung's bedtime. 

As soon as he enters the living room Jisung runs up to him and shoves a picture he had drawn in his face.

"Jisung, Kun can't see what you're showing him if you put it in his face like that." Ten says from his spot on the floor. He and Jisung had been drawing picures together before Kun came back down.

"Oh, sorry." Jisung says taking a step back while still holding the picture up. "See, I drawed this for ap-Taeyong hyungie! See it's me and him playing!"

"Wow! That looks really good Jisung. I'm sure he'll love it."  Kun says before looking at Ten over the boys head and mouthing "appa?".  Ten just gives him a 'will talk in a moment look'.

"I know!" Jisung shouts before running back over to the arts and crafts table, taking out more paper and this time scissors.

"Jisung how about we just color for tonight, you'll be going to bed soon and I don't want there to be a big mess for you to be cleaning up at bedtime."

"Aww ok." Jisung says plopping back down on the ground to continue adding more things to his drawing. "Hyungie, Ten hyungie! Come back and draw with me some more!" 

"Hold on Jisung, I need to speak with Kun really quick. I'll be right back."

"Ok. But hurry! We don't have much time!"

"I'll be quick." Ten says before motioning for Kun to follow him over to Taeyong's office where they can talk in private.

"Did Jisung almost just call Taeyong appa? Did I hear that right?"

"Yes. Pretty quick after dinner he was telling Jeno about appa coming home tonight. Jeno was about to correct him but I signaled for him to let it alone."

"Oh wow. Ok. What do we do?"

"I don't think we should correct him when it happens. We all know Taeyong is a father figure to him and we all know Taeyong hyung has thought about adopting him. I think it would be best if we let hyung know that this was happening. I think it is a clear sign Jisung is ready and wants Taeyong to officially be his dad."

"Ok. I agree. Oh my god. Taeyong is going to have a kid. He's going to be the first one in NCT to actually be a dad."

"I know." Ten says grinning. "That's gonna be a huge surprise when he gets back. I don't think he will be expecting to hear that Jisung was referring to him as dad."

"No probably not. Alright, it's almost 9. "Kun says looking at his watch. "Who's turn is it to get the rugrat to bed?"

"I'll do it, since you got Chenle in bed."

"Alright, thanks."

"Sungie, kiddo, it's time to start putting the markers away and get ready for bed."

"No! Hyungie i need to stay up to see Taeyong hyungie when he gets home!"

"I'm sorry buddy, hyung won't get back until really late, after everyone is asleep."

"I can stay up! He won't mind!" Jisung says walking over to Ten and looking up at him with pleading eyes.

"Here comes a tantrum." Mark says rolling his eyes at Lucas. "Jisung can't you just do as your told for once." 

"I'm not talking to you! I'm talking to Ten hyung!" Jisung says turning around and glaring at Mark.

"Yah." Ten scolds turning Jisung back around to face him again. "Jisung that is your hyung you are speaking to, and Mark you don't need to make comments like that. Go back to your game please."

Mark shrugs before going back to his game with Lucas.

"I'm pretty sure Taeyong hyung would not be happy if he found you still up at 4am. Sorry buddy, you'll see him when you wake up. Come on." Ten takes him by the hand and guides him upstairs, making sure he gets ready for bed.

"Are you sureee I can't wait for him to get home?"

"I'm sure. Now we need to whisper to make sure we don't wake up Chenle." Ten pushes the door to the bedroom open and leads jisung over to his bed and tucks him in. 

"I love you. Hyung will be here when you wake up."

"Ok. Love you too."

By 11pm all of the boys were in bed asleep, and Kun and Ten were finally able to head to bed themselves. The house was quiet, except for the quiet padding of little feet making their way downstairs and into the kitchen.

Chenle flipped the kitchen lights on and slowly made his way around the room gathering what he needed to make some ramen. Once he had everything he needed he pulled the little stepping stool over from the corner and began making himself dinner. He tried to make as little  noise as possible, however there is a reason he is not allowed to cook by himself. He doesn't know how to use the stove properlly. 

It didn't take long before the ramen was smoking and the smoke detector started to go off. Once the smoke detector went off Chenle knew he was busted. He heard loud footsteps and crying coming from upstairs.

Ten and Lucas were running around gathering all the kids, while Kun was taking charge and having them get all the kids outside until they figured out what caused the smoke alarm to go off.

"APPA!!!" Jisung screamed running out of his room. Lucas quickely grabbed him while trying not to let the screams for appa distract him from making sure the kids got out alright. "APPA! I WANT APPA!!"

"Shh I know. It's ok." Lucas says trying to calm the screaming kid down.

"Where is Chenle!" Ten yells running around trying to locate the boy, since he was not in his bed.

"Zhong Chenle!" Ten hears not 10 seconds later come from the kitchen. It takes him a moment to realize the smoke alarm had been turned off. He quickely makes his way over to the kitchen now that he knows Chenle was found.

It doesn't take him long at all to figure out the cause of the smoke alarm going off and why Kun was shouting. 

"Umm I'll go get the others and let them know it is safe to go back to bed.." Ten says backing up, Kun can handle this by himself.

"Lucas you can bring the kids back in now."

"I want appa!" Jisung cries!

"I'll take him Lucas. Why don't you get the others back to bed." Ten says gently taking the crying boy from Lucas's arms.

"Gege why was the smoke alarm going off?" Renjun asks before heading back inside.

"Chenle was cooking."

Renjun's eyes became comically wide. "Oh. Rest in peace Chenle."

Mark slaps Renjun over the back of his head on his way inside.

"Everyone straight to bed, no detours." Ten says as he continues to rub the maknaes back slowly calming the boy down. "You hear me Renjun? No stopping at the kitchen on your way."

"Aww come on gege! I just want to see how much damage there is!"

"The only damage you'll see is to your if you don't mind me." Ten says giving Renjun a firm look.

"On second thought my bed is calling my name." Renjun says jogging in the opposite direction of the kitchen and heading upstairs, making Mark snort.

It took Ten a while to get Jisung to calm down enough for him to even try and put him back in his bed. Meanwhile downstairs Kun is dealing with Chenle, who is crying and still standing on the little step stool. Kun had arleady turned the stove and smoke alarm off and was now taking deep breaths, trying to calm down. After taking several deep breaths he walks over to the child.

"Are you hurt?" He asks looking Chenle over.

Chenle shakes his head, crying. Kun stares at him for a moment before picking him up off the stool and walking over to the kitchen table and taking a seat. He then places Chenle on his feet inbetween his legs and holds his arms so he can't go anywhere.

"You should be in bed sound asleep and you know you are not allowed to cook without supervision. Why, why would you do this?"

"I was hungry." Chenle says looking at his feet.

"You should have ate your dinner then. I told you, you were not going to get something else to eat. You put yourself and everyone else in danger by cooking by yourself late at night. You are lucky the smoke alarm was working."

I'm sorry gege."

"Sorry isn't going to cut it this time. This is very serious. I need you to understand that. You could have  gotten seriously hurt or burned the place down. This is why you are not allowed to cook without an adult."

"I'm sorrrry!"

"You know you aren't allowed to cook without an adult but you chose to ignore that rule, putting yourself and others in danger, which has earned you a spanking with the brush."

"Noooo!" Chenle says trying to pull away from his hyung's grip on his arms.

"Oh yes. Go upstairs and get me the brush please."

"Gege!"

SMACK

"Now Zhong Chenle."

Chenle turns and walks upstairs crying as he walks into Taeyong's room and grabs the brush. He glares at it before heading back downstairs and walking back into the kitchen. He stops however just inside the doorway.

"Come on Chenle. The quicker you walk over here the quicker we can get it over with and you can get back to sleep."

"But I don't want a spanking!"

"Well you should have thought of that before you almost burned the place down trying to cook."

"But gege! Can you just use your hand?"

"What is the consequence for putting yourself or others in danger young man?" 

"A-a bare bottom spanking with the brush."

"Mhm. Come on. Don't make me come get you."

Chenle slowly takes baby steps over to Kun. Once he is in arms reach Kun takes him by the hand and gently leans him over his lap. Once he has him situated he starts without warning, laying down smack after smack on the boys thin pajama bottoms.

SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK

After delivering 9 spanks with his hand he pulls the crying kid onto his feet before pulling his pajama bottoms and underwear down and leaning him back over his lap. He then immediately holds Chenle's hands behind his back so he can't reach back.

"We're almost done, I'm giving you 10 with the brush and then it's over."

Chenle just cries some more, knowing he can't change his gege's mind. Kun picks up the brush and brings it down, wasting no time.

SMACK SMACK  SMACK SMACK SMACK 

"Ahhhh gege! Pleaseee!"

"We're almost done."

SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK

As soon as  he lands the last 5 spanks, he puts the brush to the side and pulls the sobbing kid onto his feet. As soon as Chenle was on his feet, he pulls his underwear and pajamas back up before throwing himself into Kun sobbing.

"Shhh we're all done."

"It hurts!"

"I know. I hope you learned your lesson."

"I did. I promise, I'll never cook again!"

"You can cook, but you need to have an adult with you."

"Ok." Chenle rests his head on Kun's shoulder exhausted.

"Let's get you back to bed. It is way to late for any of us to still be up." Kun stands up and carries the boy up to his room.

Upon entering the maknaes shared room they find Jisung still awake in Chenle's bed.

"Hey, why are you still up?" Kun asks carrying Chenle to his bed.

"I needed to make sure Lele's ok." 

"Jisung." Kun sighs puttig Chenle in his bed, tired and ready for bed himsslf.

"I'm ok Sungie."  Chenle interupts wrapping his arms around the younger. Jisung doesn't reply but he pokes Chenle in the , making Chenle wince.

"Liar." Jisung says making Chenle blush.  "Kun hyungie, you're a meanie." Jisung says glaring at Kun.

"I deserved it Sungie." 

"Hmmph. Hyung since i'm already awake, can I stay up and wait for hyungie to get home?"

"Nope. We already went through this. Go to sleep both of you."

"If you let me stay up, you won't be a meanie anymore."

"I guess I will continue to be a meanie then. You need your sleep, it is already way to late for either of you to still be awake. Now close your eyes. Taeyong hyung will be here when you wake up."

"But-"

"Sungie stop it before you get in trouble."

"But, I wannna wait for hyunngg!"

"Jisung,  I'm done fighting you on this. If you want to keep arguing then you're going to be in trouble and I'll have to tell hyung that you were refusing to go to sleep."

Jisung lays there for a moment pouting before deciding he didn't want Taeyong to come home and immediately be told he wasn't behaving himself. He wants to play and cuddle with his hyung when he gets home not be in trouble with him, so finally Jisung settles down.

"I'm sorry hyungie."

"It's alright. It's 1am, your tired. Close your eyes." Kun waits for both boys to close their eyes before leaving and closing the door most of the way.

By the time that Kun and Ten woke up in the morning Taeyong was already in the kitchen making breakfast.

"Good morning." Taeyong greets placing some bacon on the table.

"Good morning hyung. What time did you get home?"

"Oh around 2:30am. So interesting thing, when I came to make breakfast this morning there was a burnt pot of ramen on the stove and the brush laying next to it. Kind of a weird way to make ramen if you ask me." Taeyong says giving them a knowing look.

"Oh, guess I forgot to clean that up last night. It was just so late." 

"So what happened? I'm gonna guess Chenle tried cooking?"

"How did you know it was him?" Ten says shocked.

"I made the no cooking without an adult rule specifically because Chenle likes to cook."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Well Chenle didn't want to eat his dinner so I sent him to bed early. He snuck back downstairs after everyone was asleep and tried to make himself a meal. The smoke alarm went off scaring everyone and I'm sure you can figure out the rest after that."

"I see. I'm sorry the kids were causing so much trouble for you guys."

"Eh, we expected it, we were prepared for it."

"I appreciate you staying with them."

"Of course hyung. Any time." Kun says smiling

The room was silent for a moment, Ten and Kun seemed to be having a whole conversation without saying anything and it didn't take Taeyong long to notice it.

"What? What's with those looks?"

"Well it's just that, last night Jisung said something, at first we thought it was a slip up but then when the smoke alarm went off he kept saying it..." Ten begins

"Saying what? Guys spit it out, you're making me worried."

"Appa. At first he almost called you appa when he was talking about you coming home and he was really excited but then when the smoke alarm went off he was screaming that he wanted appa."

Taeyong sits down in one of the kithen chairs in shock.

"He..he called me appa?"

"Yeah."

"Are you ok hyung?" Kun asks worried.

"Yeah. I'm just shocked. I wasn't expecting you to say that. I thought you were going to say he picked up swearing or something."

"Oh haha no. I think maybe he wants you to be his dad."

"Wow. Ok. I mean I have been thinking about adoption in the future, in case that is something that he would want and was ready for. I didn't want to make that big of a change in his life so quickely. I do think of him as mine, as my son. I would love to be his appa."

"I think you should probably talk to him about it."

"Yeah. I'll add it to the list of things I need to do now that I'm home. I need to get more information on the boys backgrounds because obviously the files I have are missing a lot of information. I need to talk to Jaemin about what we learned about his past, and I need to talk to Jisung about adoption.

"If you need our help just let us know."

"Oh that reminds me Jungwoo was asking me about babysitting jobs while on tour. What do you think Kun?"

"I think Jungwoo would do a good job and it would get him some pocket money. I'm sure he was asking because he wants a new phone and Yuta and I told him he had to buy it himself."

"Alright, I'll keep him in mind if I ever need a babysitter."

"Hyunnngggg! Your home!" Jisung shouts running into the kitchen and straight into Taeyong's arms.

"Hey kiddo! Did you miss me?" Taeyong asks lifting the kid up into his arms.

"Yeah! So much!"

"Did you behave for Kun and Ten?"

"Uhuh!" 

"Oh yeah?" Taeyong asks giving the boys bottom a pat.

"Umm, mostly?"

"Right." Taeyong says rolling his eyes. "Are you hungry?" 

"Not really. I think Chenle is though." Jisung says pointing to the entrance of the kitchen, revealing Chenle who is peeking around the corner.

"Come on Chenle, I made waffles and bacon."

Chenle looks at him and slowly shuffles into the room and over to his seat at the table. Once he was sitting Jisung sits down next to him and Taeyong puts food on their plates.

"So Chenle, do you and I need to go over kitchen safety and the rules about cooking again?"

"No hyungie." Chenle says wiggling in his seat.

"You're lucky I'm not gonna bust your too. You better not do that again."

"Yes, hyung."

"Good eat your food."

Over the next 10 minutes all of the boys slowly made their way down to breakfast. Once everyone was seated Taeyong clears his throat to get everyones attention.

"You boys are lucky I'm not grounding you all for your behavior while I was away. You all owe Kun and Ten an apology."

"I'm sorry I caused trouble hyungs." Mark says blushing at the scolding.

"I'm sorry gege's." Renjun says bowing.

"I didn't really do anything that bad." Jeno says before changing his comment after Mark smacks him over the back of the head. "I mean, I'm sorry for my behavior Ten hyung, Kun hyung." Jeno says causing Lucas to snort.

"I'm sorry hyungies. I'll behave better next time." Haechan says bowing to hide the fact that he was trying not to laugh at Jeno.

"Sorry for causing trouble and making you guys worry." Jaemin says going over and hugging the two.

"I'm sorry about last night Kun ge and Ten ge. 

"I'm sorry for...uh well most days." Jisung says glancing at Taeyong to see what his reaction is, Taeyong just smiles gently at the kid.

It's alright. It's in the past."

"Alright let's eat. I've been gone far to long and i've missed my boys, plus I may or may not have brought back something for each of you. So let's eat, so I can show you guys what I brought back."

"OOO presents!!" Jisung and Haeachan shout before shoving their food in their mouths.

Taeyong rufles their hair before taking a seat and joining everyone. The tough conversations can wait for tomorrow. For now he was going to enjoy spending the day with his boys.