Continuity: Chapter 4
Chen & Kris centric
Warning: IT’S JUST TOO CUTE

#14: Baby Skies (All the Dreams and Hopes in Your Eyes)

Suho pulled Kris aside at the beginning of the third week he was at the Sanctuary to tell him about Chen.

“He’s very sensitive,” He warned in a whisper, though nobody was around and Kris was sure they didn’t have to whisper.

“He had a younger sister," Suho went on, "And he basically watched his parents coddle her while he was ignored. I tried to make up for it, but ever since Sehun and Kai came around I’ve had to divide my time and I think…” he stuttered and breathed deeply. “I think I pushed him away.”

Suho blinked back tears and Kris shook his head. “I’m sure you didn’t—” he started, also in a whisper.

“I did,” Suho insisted. “For him, it must have been like watching his parents with his sister all over again. By the time I realized it, Chen had already started to distance himself.”

Kris hugged Suho gently. “You couldn’t have known,” he muttered. “You’re ten years old for crying out loud, and you have a lot of kids to take care of. Sehun and Kai needed you too, and you did the best you could.”

Suho sighed. “Chen told me he understands that Sehun and Kai need me, but I know it hasn’t gotten better.”

Kris pulled away. “What needs to get better?” He asked cautiously.

Suho winced. “Yeah, remember how I said he was sensitive? He cries really easily. When the kids , when he falls, when it’s really dark and cramped, when he’s hurt or tired or lonely or confused, when he sees spiders…any bug really but especially spiders.”

Kris’ eyes got continuously wider until he finally had to close them because he thought they’d fall out.

“Wow,” he whispered.

“It’s really not his fault, he just never learned how to deal with those emotions any other way,” Suho explained.

Kris nodded, he knew that—it was just a lot to take in, and he had been lucky that his kids hadn’t really cried that often. He wasn’t sure he could handle Chen, but he knew he had to try.

Kris squared his shoulders and mentally steeled himself. “Alright, where is he now?”

Suho shrugged. “Not a clue. Ask Xiumin, he might now.”

/////////////

Kris dragged himself all over the Sanctuary looking for Xiumin, who admitted he had no clue where Chen was; he’d lost track of him shortly after lunch. Exhausted, Kris collapsed in his favorite chair in the library and prayed that Chanyeol didn’t find him. He loved the kid, but he was just too tired.

Then somewhere in the library, someone started screaming.

Kris leapt up, losing a few feathers in the process, and ran down the aisles of bookshelves, finally skidding to a halt in the nature section. Chen was pressed up against one of the shelves, holding his hand and sobbing.

Kris flew over to him and pulled him up. “What happened?” He gasped, searching for blood or bruises. “Did you fall? Are you hurt?”

Chen shook his head. “Spider…I…touched…the spider!!!!” He wailed.

Kris looked around in confusion. A few feet away a book was lying face down on the floor…and it had a drawing of a spider on the cover.

Kris exhaled slowly and forced himself to calm down—Chen had really scared him for a few seconds there. He tried to think of a way to calm Chen down…what to do when a kid had touched a picture of a spider?

Wait, what did people do when they touched something unpleasant?

“How about I take you to wash your hands?” Kris suggested as calmly as he could.

Chen took a few sharp breathes in an attempt to calm down and nodded.

Kris spent a good five minutes soaking Chen’s hands in warm water and scrubbing them. By the end of it there probably wasn’t a single germ left on Chen’s hands, let alone spider leftovers, which was what he told Chen.

Chen had a pretty bad case of the hiccups by that point and he was still crying a bit, so Kris pulled Chen into his lap and hugged him.

“I’m going to take care of you now,” Kris told him. “Any time you have a problem, I want you to come and find me, okay?”

Chen sniffled and wrapped his arms around Kris’ waist, snuggling into him. “Okay,” he whispered tearfully.

////////////////////////

For a while it seemed like Chen tried not to need Kris too much. Kris would walk around feeling like there were eyes on him, and he would turn around to find Chen lurking a few feet behind him, shuffling along like he wasn’t totally obvious. Kris would smile and hold out his hand and Chen would rush over, grab onto him and cling. To Kris, it was painfully adorable, but he knew he still wasn’t getting the brunt of Chen’s emotional needs. The fit over the spider was not an isolated incident, and Kris was always on the lookout for signs of another break down.

It happened not long after the first one. Kris figured he must have missed a few anyway, Chen probably hid them because he was still shy around Kris, but fear tends to change things. Especially when that fear is Kai with a bug.

“KRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!!!!!” Chen wailed in the next room over. Kris jumped, splattering ink over the piece of paper he was supposed to be writing math problems on. It was their break during lessons, when the Teachers would leave the rooms for a bit and they could do whatever they wanted. The seven youngest kids were separated from the older ones in another room. Usually they didn’t see each other until after class ended, and Kris had never stepped foot in the other classroom until that moment when Chen started screaming for him.

Kris rushed into the room to find Chen practically scaling the wall to get away from Kai, who was letting a beetle crawl around in his hand. Upon seeing Kris, Chen pointed at Kai and started yelling.

“HE’S GOING TO DROP THAT THING DOWN MY SHIRT!”

Kai stomped his foot and glared at Chen. “I WASN’T SERIOUS!” He screamed back.

Baekhyun covered his ears and Kyungsoo patted his back. Kris ran over to Kai and pulled him away from Chen.

“Go bring it outside,” he ordered. Kai glared.

“Now, or I will get Suho in here and he will make you,” Kris continued, the unspoken threat that Suho wouldn’t take as kindly to the situation as he did. Kai stalked off and Kris turned back to Chen.

“It’s gone now,” he said gently. “Come down off the shelf.”

Chen clambered down and collapsed into Kris’ arms. “That thing was huge,” Chen gasped, tears gathering in his eyes. “It was huge and I swear it had teeth what if there are more in the Sanctuary?! What if they’re hiding in this room now WHAT IF THEY BITE ME WILL I DIE?”

Kris grabbed Chen’s shoulders and pushed him back. “Look at me,” he commanded. Chen looked up but his gaze was unfocused, and Kris could almost see what Chen was seeing—swarms of beetles crawling all over him and biting.

“It wasn’t a biting beetle, and I’m sure there aren’t any more in the Sanctuary, Chen. But if there were, I wouldn’t let them hurt you.”

Kai came stomping back in. “Alright it’s gone now,” he grumbled. “It was totally harmless anyway. It crawled over your foot and you didn’t even notice.”

“By the Tree,” Kris muttered right before Chen flipped out.

“IT WAS ON ME?!” he shrieked, and he practically flung his shoes across the room. “EW EW EW EW EW!!!!”

Kris wound up being excused from the rest of his lesson. He spent the rest of the class day in with the younger kids, holding Chen on his lap and protecting him from beetles.

////////////////////

Chen didn’t like to be alone, but he didn’t always like to play what the other kids wanted to play. Sometimes he, Kyungsoo and Baekhyun would play together, sometimes they’d even be joined by Sehun or Xiumin, but on some days everyone would do their own thing and Chen would sit on the sidelines, pretending to read a book while really peaking at everyone else who was having fun.

Not any more, Kris thought to himself, striding over to Chen and plopping down beside him.

“Want me to read it to you?” He asked.

Chen nodded and shoved the book in Kris’ lap. He then grabbed Kris’ arm, wrapped it around his shoulders and wormed into his side. Kris didn’t think Chen could get any closer to him if he wanted to.

“Okay,” Kris said, opening the book. “Chapter one—”

“It’s upside down, silly!” Chen laughed.

Kris shook his head. “This is the only way I can read,” he said seriously. Chen snorted behind his hand.

“Chapter one…there once was a tree named Lenny.”

Chen laughed. “This is a book about the migration habits of ducks!”

Kris looked at him, shocked. “That sounds terribly boring,” he gasped. “But no, I’m sure this is about a tree named Lenny! See,” he said, pointing at a line. “It clearly says—”

“Okay, I believe you,” Chen cut in, still giggling.

Kris sighed. “I suppose I can read you a book about ducks if you want…”

“No,” Chen whined. “I want to hear about Lenny!”

Kris smiled as he continued with the story. He’d done this for Tao when he was younger, and it never failed to cheer him up. it was comforting to find out that he could use this tactic on Chen too.

//////////////

There was one thing that Chen was never afraid of, though it scared almost anyone who watched him.

Kris was the only one who could accompany him anymore, because he wouldn’t try to hold Chen back or tell him it was too dangerous.

“Here comes a big one!” Chen hollered, grinning at Kris over his shoulder. “Are you watching?!”

Kris nodded. “I’m watching,” he yelled back from the doorway of the Sanctuary.

Chen turned his face towards the sky, not at all bothered by the rain even as it stung his eyes and cheeks.

Chen seemed to be able to sense the lightning, and just before it flashed across the sky he raised his hand. Two jagged bolts lit the yard, one from the sky and one from Chen’s hand.

“That was amazing!” Chen screamed over the thunder. “Did you see that?”

Kris nodded. “It was fantastic! You’re getting so good at this!”

Chen raised his arms and spun around, grinning at the sky. His hair was plastered to his face, his clothes were soaking wet and had it been anyone else they might have been fearful for their lives. But not Chen. Never Chen. This was his element. This was his playtime and his strength, this was what he lived for.

Chen abruptly stopped spinning and ran over to Kris.

“What’s up?” Kris asked as Chen grabbed his hands.

“Come out with me,” Chen pleaded. “Just for a minute, it’s safe right now.”

Kris almost asked if Chen was crazy. He wasn’t gifted with Lightning, he could be seriously injured if he got struck. But Chen was smiling up at him and tugging on his hand, and his eyes were positively sparkling. How could Kris say no to him?

“Just for a minute,” he warned before he stepped out of the shelter of the doorway. Immediately he was soaked from the rain, but he paid no attention to it. It was just water after all, his clothes would dry. Chen pulled him into the middle of the yard and pointed up.

“Tilt your head back and spin,” he commanded.

Kris looked up. The sky was almost black with clouds and he could see the rain coming at him. As he slowly started to turn it almost looked like the clouds were swirling around in the sky.

Chen grabbed his hands and made him spin faster, until they were almost running. It was surreal, watching the clouds spin and the rain swirl down and the trees around the yard sway angrily in the wind until finally Kris stumbled away. His head was spinning and he felt like he was about to puke, but…

“Isn’t it fun?” Chen yelled as he threw his arms around Kris’ torso.

Kris hugged Chen so tightly he lifted him off of his feet. “It’s the best,” he yelled back.

////////////////

“Kris?”

“Mmfghrgh.”

“Kris…”

Poke. Shake.

Kris rolled over and half opened one eye. Chen was standing next to his bed, clutching his pillow and looking at him with impossibly wide eyes.

“Oh, come on then,” Kris muttered half intelligently, scooting over a bit to make room. Chen threw down his pillow and scurried under the sheets as fast as he could. He wrapped his arms around Kris’ waist and buried his face in his chest.

“Nightmare?” Kris asked, absently petting Chen’s hair.

“Nope,” Chen whispered, his voice muffled in Kris’ shirt. “I just missed you.”

Kris grinned. “I missed you too. Now go to sleep.”

“Okay,” Chen said happily. He s his hands under the back of Kris’ shirt and Kris jumped.

“You’re always really warm,” Chen muttered.

“And you’re always cold,” Kris grumbled, making no move to push Chen away. “Goodnight my little ice cube.”

“Goodnight.”

Kris had almost fallen asleep again when Chen shifted in his arms, pulling back slightly.

“Kris?”

“Mm?”

“I love you.”

Kris smiled and without opening his eyes tugged Chen back. “I love you too.”

OH MY GOODNESS I THINK MY TEETH ARE GOING TO ROT FROM THE SWEETNESS ADFGHJKL Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ

So there’s my Daddy!Kris drabble. I liked it so…maybe more later.

I think you all know what the title was inspired by (Kiss the Baby Sky, Tohoshinki). It’s my most favorite song ever (clearly I mean I named tumblr after it) and I wanted to title this drabble after a lullaby, and I saw one called “Baby Skies” and well…you can imagine what I immediately thought of.

I know that’s not how the lyrics go but I do what I want.