“Hey.”

                Heechul flopped down on the couch next to Leeteuk.  He had changed out of the clothes from his new job into a set of pajamas that were honestly just as feminine.  Leeteuk didn’t react to Heechul’s dramatic entrance, clearly lost deep in thought.  Heechul patiently waited for the other man to look over at him.  When he finally saw him glance over, he smiled, and taking in what Heechul was wearing, Leeteuk couldn’t help but smile too.   

“So you’re seriously going to go with that,” he wondered, referencing Heechul’s new wardrobe.

                Pulling happily at his top, Heechul mused, “I seem to recall on a rainy night not too long ago you said you didn’t care what my clothes looked like.”

                “I said I didn’t care what you looked like,” Leeteuk corrected with a hint of humor, “I said you could change your clothes to Lady Gaga chic.”

                “Aw, you remembered,” Heechul teased, reaching out and pinching his roommate’s cheek mockingly. 

                Leeteuk pushed the hand away with a laugh which faded into a fond smile as he remembered how long ago that day seemed:  that day when Heechul still hadn’t realized they were destined to be family.   He had known all along, of course, or at least he’d sensed it.  What bothered him now was that he couldn’t shake the feeling that they were missing something. 

                “I thought you were playing with Donghae,” Heechul interrupted his thoughts.

                With an exhale of exhaustion, Leeteuk leant back further into the couch.  He closed his eyes as he explained, “We’re playing hide and seek.”

                “Well, you’re not doing a very good job of staying out of sight.”

                “I’m not the one hiding,” Leeteuk revealed, a smile curling across his lips.

                “You evil man,” Heechul laughed.  He could just imagine poor Donghae waiting to be found.  “You need to stop hanging out with me; I think I’m starting to rub off on you.”

                The room fell silent after a moment as Leeteuk slowly sank into expressionlessness, his breathing evening out.   Heechul wondered for a moment if his friend had fallen asleep when Leeteuk asked unexpectedly,

                “So, how’s the new job?”

                “It’s good.”

                Leeteuk opened an eye halfway and let his head fall to the side so he could look at Heechul as he double-checked, “Really?”

                “Promise,” Heechul affirmed genuinely.

                Nodding in drowsy satisfaction, Leeteuk closed his eye once more. 

                “What are you thinking about,” Heechul asked.

                “Lots of things,” Leeteuk admitted, “mostly about sleeping.”

                Without a word, endeared by his sleepy hyung, Heechul scooted closer to Leeteuk and the blonde rested his head against his shoulder.

                “You know,” Heechul said as Leeteuk adjusted himself drowsily, “once Donghae’s in school it’ll be less hectic.” 

                “But I like hectic,” Leeteuk mumbled with a slight whine. 

                Biting his tongue to keep from laughing at this new side of his friend, Heechul continued, “Have you thought about where you want to send him?  Public or private school?”

                “Public,” Leeteuk mused without hesitation.  “I hated private school.  Donghae likes people, he’ll be happier in public school.”

                “That’s what I thought,” Heechul answered.  Leeteuk opened his eyes as he realized Heechul sounded a little bit too satisfied with himself. 

                “What did you do?”

                “I told Yesung to send the school records to the local public school.”

                “You did what?” Leeteuk demanded, sitting bolt upright, his eyes wide with astonishment. 

                “Don’t freak out.”

                “But!...”

                “No buts,” Heechul grinned, “it’s all taken care of.  They accepted the records and they’re expecting you both on Monday.” 

                Leeteuk tried and failed several times to say something, his eyes round with shock.  Monday was in three days.  That was way too soon.  He wasn’t prepared. 

                “It’s one of the first things Yesung and I talked about,” Heechul revealed. “I told you that you don’t have to do everything yourself.  All you have to do is show up at the school with Donghae and pop into the office. The principal will tell you everything you need to know and easy as that our boy’s on his way to a mediocre education.” 

                Still desperately searching for the inevitable flaw, Leeteuk exclaimed, “But he’s a year behind in school already.  We can’t just throw him…”

                “I already took care of that, he’s just going to stay back a year.  It won’t be a problem.”

                 Leeteuk bit his lip.  His mind was already in overdrive, probing all of the cracks in their plan, terrified of the imminent need to present Donghae to the world.  Everything was so safe and easy to control in the apartment.  As soon as he went to that school there was no going back.   

                “What if someone at the school recognizes him?” he asked in horror.

                “They won’t.”  Heechul sounded very confident about that fact.

                “But how do you—”

                “Donghae’s clearly not from around here.  If he was, someone would have recognized him while he was wandering around on the streets for close to a year.” 

                Leeteuk made a conscious effort to slow the rapid pace of his heart and to trust Heechul.  This was, after all, something Heechul was clearly more familiar with.  Yet the perfect situation he’d built for himself felt like it was in free fall and he felt helpless to fix it. The precariousness of their situation now sharply occurred to him and he hated feeling like things were out of his control.  Even more he hated feeling that had things been in his control, he wouldn’t have been able to handle it.

                “Can you just promise me something?” Leeteuk wondered, swallowing against the well of fear rising in his throat.  He felt really stupid, but he needed the reassurance more than he cared about his pride.  “Can you promise that I’m going to be able to do this?”

                Looking Leeteuk dead in the eyes, Heechul asserted, “Hyung, you can do anything.”

                “Ehem?”

                Leeteuk and Heechul spun their heads around to see Kangin standing there giving them a look.  “Not interrupting am I?”

                “Yep,” Leeteuk responded without hesitation then met Kangin’s eyes with a laugh on his face.

                “There’s plenty of room if you want to join though,” Heechul continued, throwing an arm around Leeteuk and putting the other across the back of the couch invitingly.

                “I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit,” Kangin responded, but the corner of his lip twitched as he tried to disguise a smile.

                “What’s up?” Leeteuk asked seriously, breaking out of the joke. 

                “It’s Donghae,” Kangin answered with an amused tone, “I think this is something you’re going to want to see.”

                Curiosity peaked, Leeteuk and Heechul followed Kangin as he walked back toward Donghae’s room.  The larger man paused when he reached the closed door and made sure his roommates were both in position and watching before he pushed the door open.  His eyes remained fixed on them as the door swung into the room.  There was a light on his face as he anticipated their reactions.  Warily, Leeteuk peered into the room. 

                “Oh my God,” he breathed. 

                A small sound of amazement escaped Heechul.

                A catastrophe of blankets and pillows and furniture had overtaken one half of the room.  Blankets were strung across chairs and secured into dresser drawers.  It looked like a well thought out explosion had occurred.  At Leeteuk’s exclamation, a head of brown hair popped out of the bottom of the fort and looked up with a startled expression.  “Hi, hyungs,” Donghae greeted innocently. 

                “Wh—how?” Leeteuk stuttered, finally managing, “When did you have time to do this?” scanning over the admittedly impressive pillow fort that had taken over half of the bedroom. 

                “What did you think I was doing all those times you sent me to my room?” Donghae wondered, somehow shrugging despite the fact that he was still on his hands and knees inside the fort.

                Leeteuk, still stunned, turned to Kangin, who was shaking with silent laughter.  He echoed Donghae’s shrug.  Blinking up at them discerningly, Donghae seemed to be trying to gauge their reactions and said,

                “You can come in if you want, there’s tons of room in here.” 

                Kangin explained, “I don’t think we’d fit.

                “Speak for yourself,” Heechul laughed.  “Move over Donghae, I’m coming in.” 

                Smiling widely, Donghae scooted back and Heechul, with a bit of careful maneuvering, disappeared into the fort.   

                Leeteuk looked helplessly over at Kangin, trying to come to terms with the how torn apart the room was and what his proper reaction should be.  He opened and closed his mouth several times like he was trying to mouth something and Kangin just patted him on the back and said, “Teuk…just let it happen.” 

                Heechul’s voice suddenly came floating back out of the fort, “This is so cool!  He’s actually got, like, a whole mansion in here…” 

                Caught off guard, Leeteuk breathed a laugh, and Kangin, who had left his hand loosely on his roommate’s shoulder as they stared into the room, encouraged the reaction with a little pat. 

                “Hey, Leeteuk,” Heechul’s head appeared at the opening of the fort.  “We should totally make one of these that covers the whole house.” 

                Donghae slid himself under Heechul’s arm so he could also address Leeteuk and said, “Yeah! Oh, and hyung?  You’re really bad at hide and seek.”

                Heechul tried to exchange a knowing look with Leeteuk, but the man with red-blonde hair was trying too hard not to laugh.  “Yeah, I know,” he eventually managed to say.

                Donghae looked up at Heechul and asked, “Do you want to see the back room?” 

                “How do you have a backroom in a blanket fort?” Heechul wondered.

                “I’ll show you!” he insisted, disappearing back inside.  Heechul rolled his eyes affectionately, and turned back around to follow Donghae deeper into the fort. 

                Leeteuk and Kangin both just watched expectantly until Heechul’s voice could be heard saying, “I’ll be damned, this is an architectural marvel.  Hey guys!  There’s actually a back room.”

                “Wow, there was a 5 syllable word in that sentence,” Kangin said back.  He was either ignored or no one heard him.

                Heechul’s voice once more sounded fainter than before, “What the heck is this coat hanger doing here?”

                Suddenly the whole contraption collapsed in on itself, blankets settling down as they were freed from their structure.  Heechul let out a startling yell of surprise and Leeteuk was fully prepared to dive into the collapsing fort until he saw Donghae roll expertly out from the contraption and jump up, looking at the mess with wide eyes.   Heechul, also apparently fine, could be seen sitting in the middle of the former fort, a blanket settled down over his head.  He was now laughing after his initial shock and Leeteuk breathed out a laugh of relief, seeing the humor now that he no longer felt like he was having a heart attack.   

                He looked down at Donghae standing a few feet away and tried to share a smile with him but stopped when he saw that the boy was still staring with terrified eyes at the collapsed fort.  He was breathing heavily and his eyes held a familiar, distant hint.  Leeteuk froze.

                Heechul, the only one still laughing, reached up and pulled the blanket off of his head, quickly swiping at his disheveled hair.  It took a moment before he spotted Donghae’s wide eyed expression and immediately sobering he asked,

                “You okay?”

                The look remained on Donghae’s face as he said a little too faintly, “I’m fine.”  He didn’t sound convincing and his shoulders rose and fell noticeably with each heavy breath.  Heechul patiently looked at Donghae, holding the blanket he’d taken off of his head in his arms. Leeteuk forced himself to stay back and let the two carry out the conversation. 

                “You screamed,” Donghae said distantly, his eyes had slid from the fort to Heechul.

                “I was just surprised,” Heechul explained gently. “Sorry about your fort.” 

                Shaking his head, the boy swallowed hard, slowly coming back to reality.  He assured, “That’s alright…” but again he repeated, “you screamed and the roof…” he trailed off.

                Kangin caught Leeteuk’s eye and they both looked concernedly at each other for a moment until Leeteuk decided it was alright for him to intervene.  

                He started to step forward but was surprised to see that Heechul had extracted himself from the fort and sat down in front of Donghae.  He took the boy’s hands and met his brown eyes steadily, assuring, “I’m okay.” 

                Donghae started nodding, and seeing this, Heechul continued, “And you’re okay, right?” Donghae continued to nod.  “Then there’s nothing to be worried about, ya?” Taking a deep, steadying breath, Donghae nodded a final time.

                Sensing his moment had come, Leeteuk stepped to Donghae’s side and put his hands on the boy’s shoulders, turning him toward himself. 

                Asking with his eyes, he made sure that he was back with them.  He still seemed a little shaken up but he attempted a small smile.

                “I’m thinking we should all go watch a movie, what do you think?” 

                Donghae nodded and wrapped his arms around Leeteuk’s neck.  Leeteuk returned the hug for a moment then let go, allowing Donghae to head off toward the living room.  Kangin the boy’s head as he moved by and then looked back into the room.  Leeteuk and Heechul had barely moved.  The three exchanged a set of worried looks, before Leeteuk broke the silence.

                “That was the look I was telling you about,” he said quietly.  This had been the first incident since that first night two weeks before.  He had hoped it would be the last, a side effect of the change of environment. 

                “I feel awful,” Heechul sighed, rubbing a hand against the back of his neck. 

                “Don’t,” Leeteuk said firmly, “you didn’t do anything.”

                “It almost looked like he wasn’t even seeing any of this,” Kangin said in a low voice, glancing down the hallway to make sure Donghae was gone.

                “He wasn’t,” Heechul said, eyes downcast. 

                Sensing that this was one of those times that Heechul really knew what he was talking about, Leeteuk prompted, “How do you know?” trying not to sound skeptical but curious.

                He didn’t say anything for a long moment, then eyes still on the floor he explained vaguely, “Yesung used to do that,” nearly muttering, his voice was so quiet. 

                “What?” Leeteuk asked, half because Heechul was talking so softly and half because he just wasn’t sure what else to say. 

                “Forget about it,” Heechul sighed, getting up.  “Let’s just go watch that movie with him.  We shouldn’t leave him for too long.  And just make sure the movie has no really loud or jumpy parts.”

                Heechul went off the same way as Donghae and Leeteuk and Kangin, left alone, exchanged one final glance, before Kangin gestured that they should follow.  Sighing heavily, Leeteuk turned off the light and took a few lethargic steps, allowing Kangin to take his shoulder and lead him the rest of the way.

A/N Okay so I decided to rearrange what was going to be in what chapter.  SebApples convinced me the story broke better this way and I think she's right. SO! This is less plot development and more moment driven, but I promise next chapter, because of the reordering is going to move the plot and make up for it.  It's now going to end on sort of a cliff hanger and then new character in Chapter 20.

This also means I don't have my fluffy "KANGIN IS HOME and gets to act all Appa to Leeteuk's Umma" moment in this chapter... XD  So that will open the next chapter. 

Again Subscribe if you want to know when I'm going to randomly update. Comment/critique/write a haiku if you feel like it XD <3  And you know...I don't have the biggest fan base here...but I definitely have the best.  So thank you all SO MUCH for being awesome <3  This chapter is dedicated to each and every one of you <3  ALL MY LOVE! <3

P.S. If it was confusing, this takes place the same night as last chapter.