Key would never forget the day he finally brought Taemin home.

It was a particularly sunny day in March, the breeze a little chilly, but the sun kept you just warm enough. He had been too excited - nervous - to sleep, and had developed dark circles, much to his displeasure. But he was much too preoccupied with other thoughts to worry about it for too long, and quickly caked on some concealer.

Jonghyun almost had to drag him out of the house to avoid being late. He had taken over an hour to find an outfit to wear. He shouldn’t wear anything too flashy, nothing to colorful, but not too much black. Maybe something casual – but not too casual? Something a bit dressy?

It’s not that he had been worried what Taemin would think of his clothes (he was only five years old after all), but little things like that had always been important to Key.

But the moment he laid eyes on the skinny, wide-eyed boy with the cutest chubby cheeks had ever seen, nothing else mattered.

He had seen Taemin before – only pictures – and he had already seen how adorable the boy was. But seeing Taemin then, knowing that he was officially their son, had overwhelmed him.

He had kneeled in front of Taemin, tears of excitement swimming in his eyes, and pinched his chubby cheek. Taemin looked shocked, maybe even a little scared, at the action.

Key had quickly learned that it would take time for Taemin to be less timid. It was understandable; the kid had a terrible past. His mother had been a meth addict, and had resorted to selling her own son to pay for her next fix. The police had raided the person’s house days after Taemin had been sold to him, and luckily the boy was fairly unharmed. Extremely frightened and confused, but unharmed.

Key cried terribly after he had heard that story. Not only from sympathy he felt for Taemin, but the rage he had for the boy’s mother. Key simply did not understand how someone could do something like that to a child, their own child at that.

Key had been warned beforehand that Taemin hadn’t spoken a word since the day the police found him, so he did everything in his power to make Taemin feel comfortable.

The boy had been, expectedly, very shy and timid the second he left with Key and Jonghyun. When they were all settled in the car, Jonghyun took the grocery bag he had at the side of the seat and pulled out three bottles of milk. He turned around to face the boy in the back seat, smiling nervously. “I wasn’t sure which one you would like, so I bought strawberry, banana, and regular. Oh and this too,” he continued, giving Taemin a frog plushie along with the milk. Key watched through the review mirror as Taemin gave a small smile. He felt a warmth in his chest he had never felt before, at the sight of the child – his child’s – happiness.

He continued to look at Taemin through the review mirror all the way home, watching as he clutched the plushy to his chest and sipped at the banana milk with a shy smile.

~~~~~

The first time Taemin spoke to them was 2 months after he had come home.

“Umma…,” he had whispered, his voice raspy from not being used for so long.

Key had been making him breakfast, and had just set a plate of pancakes in front of him, when Taemin looked up at him with a blank expression and muttered that word.

Jonghyun and Key had been too shocked to do anything at first, but soon enough, Jonghyun burst into laughter – “He called you umma!” – but Key ignored him, and squealed in excitement, clutching the boy to his chest in a tight embrace.

Later, when he had asked Taemin why he said that, the boy looked up at him and told him like it was the most natural thing in the world, “My umma was never like the other kids ummas, but you are. You’re just like the nice ummas the other boys had.”

Key felt an ache in his chest at Taemin’s words. They were spoken so simply, but they had affected him greatly.

So he took the boy in a warm embrace, “Okay,” he said, voice shaking, “you can call me Umma from now on.”

~~~~~

“Umma!”

Key jumped, coming out of his thoughts, and looked over at Taemin. He sat on the couch opposite of him, eyebrows raised in expectation. “Sorry, Taeminnie, just daydreaming. What did you say?”

Taemin smiled, rolling his eyes. “I asked you what you think Appa is going to say about my hair.”

“Oh he’ll freak out, there’s no doubt about that,” he answered nonchalantly.

Key took in the sight of his now blonde-haired son, just imagining Jonghyun’s reaction. He was prepared for it though. This was something had been planning for a while. Taemin wanted a change before he started high school, and Key had immediately suggested dying his hair.

And although he was satisfied with the outcome, he felt a twinge of regret. A black-haired, bowl-cut Taemin had been simply adorable, but he felt that his son needed something a little more mature before entering high school.

But now, as he stared at Taemin’s shiny blonde hair that seemed to match perfectly with his sparkling eyes and bright smile, he couldn’t help but think Taemin looked a little too gorgeous. He didn’t need any erts harassing his son….

“Oh Key you didn’t tell me you were having a friend ov- What the hell?! TAEMIN?!”

Key was so wrapped up in his thoughts, he didn’t notice Jonghyun enter the room. He watched for a moment as his lover paced back and forth, raging about their son’s hair.

“He fourteen years old Key! He’s too young for this ! Why would you-“

Key sighed, standing up and grabbing Jonghyun’s face, before he shut him up with a kiss.

“Ewww! Umma!”

Key pulled away, laughing. He ruffled Taemin hair, “Hey, I’m helping here, Taeminnie.”

Jonghyun had immediately calmed, but shot Key an irritate glance.

“Jjongie, calm down baby…It’s not a big deal. Kids dye their hair all the time. He’s going into high school, let him rebel a bit,” Key teased. “Besides, he looks gorgeous, doesn’t he?” They both looked to Taemin, who shot Jonghyun an innocent, blinding smile.

“That’s exactly what I’m worried about…”

~~~~~

Key cried when he dropped Taemin off on his first day of high school.

Taemin stepped out of the car, turning around to give him a sympathetic smile. “I’ll be OK, I promise. Don’t cry, Umma.”

Key ceased his tears until Taemin shut the car door, waving at him with a huge grin on his face as he made his way through the gates of the school.

As soon he was out of sight, Key drove around the corner, parked, and continued to cry his eyes out.

He knew it was stupid of him to act like such an emotionally unstable drama queen about all this, but he couldn’t control himself. The fact that Taemin was growing up seemed to just hit him, and he didn’t think he could handle it.

He could still remember the times when Taemin was seven years old, and he would run into their room, clutching his frog plushie and crying over a nightmare. He would jump on the bed, right between them, and Key and Jonghyun would kiss both of the boy’s cheeks. They would all cuddle up together, and he would be asleep almost instantly.

And although Key could still see the innocent, child-like charm in Taemin, he was growing up too fast for Key to handle.

~~~~

Taemin’s Freshman year flew by fast, and he adjusted quite nicely. He was a shy kid by nature, but many people took a liking to him, and he slowly opened up.

The summer before his Sophomore year, Key couldn’t help but notice the random giggles coming from his room. He knew no one was in there with him, but he would open the door to check, only to find Taemin texting.  When Key asked, he would smile brightly and say he was talking to his new friend he met before summer began.

But Key knew better. Nobody giggled like that when they talked to their friends.

“He has a crush, so what?”

Key scoffed, “Aren’t you supposed to be the overprotective Appa?”

Jonghyun smirked, “Actually, it’s the opposite. You’re the overprotective Umma and I’m the cool Appa.”

“Yeah right…”

It wasn’t until his 2^nd year of high school started was Key absolutely sure that something was going on.

A month after school had started back up, flowers were delivered to their door. His first thought was that Jonghyun was being spontaneously romantic, and he grinned coyly. He was confused to see that they weren’t actually his favorite flowers, but instead a beautiful bouquet of lilies, but he had simply assumed Jonghyun was changing it up a bit. Except when he glanced at the card, it wasn’t his name he saw.

“Oh,” Taemin exclaimed, walking into the room, sipping banana milk, “Did Appa send you those?”

“No…,” Key looked at him, raising his eyebrows, “They’re for you.”

Taemin’s mouth fell open in shock, and he dropped his milk, running to Key’s side to stare at the bouquet in awe. “M-Me?”

Key nodded.

“Who are they from?”

“It doesn’t say.”

But from the way Taemin stared at the flowers with a giddy smile, Key guessed that the boy knew exactly who had sent them.

~~~~

One day, not too soon after that, Taemin came home from school and rushed to his room without even greeting Key. Key stared after him in confusion. Usually Taemin would burst through the door, beg for a snack, and continue to tell Key about the “perfect Hyung” at school (Taemin had finally admitted to Key that he did in fact have a crush).

“Taemin-ah!” He yelled, knocking at his bedroom door, “Are you OK?”

He heard shuffling coming from the room, and something falling, before Taemin answered, “Y-Yes, Umma.”

His voice sounded shaky, almost as though he had been crying, and Key instantly became more frantic. “Taemin! Are you crying? Let me in!”

“I’m not!”

Taemin didn’t cry much, but when he did, he wasn’t very good at hiding it. He held it in for so long, that when he did cry, it was uncontrollable.

“I’ll call your Appa to come here and have him break the door down if I have to! You know I will!”

It was silent for a moment, before Key heard the click of a lock and the door slowly opened. Taemin peeked outside with red-rimmed eyes, and Key immediately pushed the door open and took the boy in his arms. Taemin returned the embrace, and clutched at Key shirt. “Oh baby, what happened? Why are you crying?” Key asked, pulling away to wipe the tears from his face. Taemin winced and Key pulled his hands away.

He gasped as he finally got a clear look at Taemin’s face. A giant, purple bruise had formed on his cheek. Key felt his blood boiling, and immediately jumped to millions of conclusions in his head. “Oh my god! What happened? Taeminnie! Who did this to you?!”

Taemin sniffed, “N-No one. I- I ran into the door on my way out of school. I didn’t want you to see it, because I knew you would freak out like you are right now. But- But it started to hurt a lot worse on my way home, and I couldn’t stop crying.” Taemin hung his head and wiped at his runny nose with his sleeve.

Key wasn’t quite sure if he believed him, but he didn’t want to push him when he was already so upset, so he led him into the bathroom and treated the bruise.

~~~~~

“Mr. Kim, could you please come down to the school? Your son has been in a fight.”

“WHAT? WHO THE HELL HURT MY BABY?! WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?! IS HE OK?! I SWEAR-“

“Mr. Kim! Please, just come down to the school and we will discuss what happened.”

Key hung up, and threw his phone at the wall, watching as it broke into pieces. He regretted soon after, realizing he couldn’t call Jonghyun. But the stupid phone was soon forgotten and he rushed out the door, jumped in his car, and screeched out of the driveway. He was sure he had broken about 20 traffic laws on his way to Taemin’s school, but truly, he didn’t give two s. His baby was hurt and that was all he cared about.

When he finally arrived, he was muttering curses to himself as he walked in the door. He hurried to the principal’s office, and pushed the door open, “Where’s my Tae-baby?!”

 “Umma~” he heard the boy whine. He turned to Taemin sitting next on one of the hard plastic chairs, next to a rather tall boy. Key gasped at the sight of the blood-soaked rag Taemin held to his nose. His hair was disheveled, clothes torn, and arms covered in bruises. The tall boy next to him looked, if possible, even worse. But Key paid no attention to him, and rushed to his son, kneeling in front of him. “Oh god! What happened honey?! Are you OK? ! Of course you aren’t! You’re bleeding!”

“Umma!” Taemin silenced him. “I’m OK, I promise. I just- I-“

“Ah Mr. Kim! That was quick,” Key turned around to see the principal approaching him.

Key stood up, nostrils flaring in anger, “What the hell happened to my Taeminnie? I’ll kill whoever did this to my ba-“

“Actually Mr. Kim, from what I’ve heard, Taemin threw the first punch.”

Key blanched, eyes widening at the principal’s statement. He turned to Taemin, only to find the boy hanging his head. “Taeminnie, is that true?” Taemin nodded. “Why? Why would you start a fight?”

Taemin looked up at him, his eyes glistening. “Th- They said…they said bad things about you and Appa.”

Key was once again shocked into silence. He felt his chest ache with pride at the thought that Taemin had defended him, but he also felt absolutely terrible that his baby had gotten hurt because of him.

“Oh Taeminnie…” he whimpered, kneeling in front of the boy once again to take his hand.

Taemin now had tears streaming down his cheeks, and Key almost didn’t notice the tall boy next to him place a comforting arm around him. “Th- They called you disgusting…f-fags,” Taemin spat the word out like poison, “and said it was unnatural f-for you t-to be my p-p-parents. They said w-we were d-disgusting f-freaks for a family…”

Key had hoped with everything he had that this day would never come. He knew that their family was…different and he had waited for the day when Taemin would have to take for it. But he had never expected it to go to this extent. And now he knew for sure where that bruise a couple of days before had actually come from…

“I just- I lost control, and hit one of them, b-but there were too many and it- it hurt so bad. Minho hyung,” he said, motioning to the boy next to him, “came across us, and j-jumped in to help me.”

Key finally really looked at the tall boy, taking in his large eyes and long dark hair, and it suddenly hit him that this was Taemin’s crush; the boy he had been talking about for months.

“Oh Taeminnie, I’m so sorry,” Key stood up and took his son into his arms, not caring if the blood stained his shirt. “Some people- they just…don’t understand. But…I think I have the most perfect family on this earth. Me and your Appa, we fight about stupid things like regular parents don’t we?” Taemin nodded. “We yell at you for leaving your clothes all over the floor, and losing your things all the time like regular parent, right?” he heard Taemin let out small chuckle through his tears and nodded again. “And we all love each other despite all the things that annoy us, right?” Taemin nodded slowly once again. “Then I think that makes us a damn great family. They’re just jealous that they don’t have an overprotective Umma like me, and a cool Appa like yours.” He smiled when he heard Taemin giggle. Taemin pulled out of the embrace, and gave him a sweet smile. “I love you, Umma.”

Key felt his heart swell, “Umma loves you too, Taeminnie.”

After Key had discussed everything with the principal, he realized that there wasn’t any way of getting Taemin out of some kind of punishment. The principal was an understanding man, but he had no choice but to suspend both Taemin and Minho for two days. The other three boys had been given a strict lecture and had been suspended for ten days.

Key didn’t mind much; he wasn’t going to send Taemin back to school until he was fully healed anyways.

Just before Key led Taemin out the door, he saw his son turn around to give Minho a smile. Minho returned the smile, giving him a small wave. Key stopped and Taemin gave him a questioning glance. “Hey kid,” Minho looked at him in surprise, “Thanks, you know, for- for defending my Taeminnie like that.”

Minho smiled widely, nodding his head, “No need to thank me,” Key was surprised to hear the deep voice come from the tall boy’s lips. “I just wish I could have done even more damage to those jerks.”

Key laughed, “I like the way you think, kid.”

~~~~~

“Taemin! You’re date is here!” Key sneered.

“Coming!”

Key scowled as he watched Taemin give Minho a dazzling smile before he took his hand, and walked out the door. He shouted a goodbye, not even bothering to hug his Umma before he left.

Key may have gotten used to the idea that his Minnie was actually dating someone, but just because he had no problems with Minho, didn’t mean he liked the arrangement.

He leaned back onto the counter, pouting as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“Come on, yeobo, don’t be so grumpy about this. Minho is a nice kid,” Jonghyun stepped close to him, and wrapped arms around his waist from behind.

“I don’t care,” Key continued to pout, but relaxed in his lover’s arms. “I don’t like my baby dating anyone.”

“Everything will be fine, Key. I actually really trust Minho to take care of Taemin.”

“I guess…”

“Wait,” Key exclaimed, pulling away from Jonghyun and turning around to face him. “This is all your fault!”

“What? How?”

“You gave him that stupid frog plushie when he was little, and he’s been obsessed with it his whole life!”

“And?”

“Have you seen Minho?! He looks like a ing frog! Oh god, look what you’ve done to our son! Now he has some weird obsession with fr- Hey come back here, you !”

Jonghyun just continued to walk away laughing.

~~~~~

A/N: Lol the ending was just goofy but whatever, this was really just for fun :p

I always liked reading fics with Key & Jonghyun as Taemin's parents x) So thought I would try it.