“Hi! Come on in!” Leeteuk greeted with a smile and moved away from the door to let Henry, Kyuhyun and Kibum inside.

“Sorry we are late, Kibum wanted to make a drawing for Ryeowook,” Henry apologised while setting down the diaper bag by the shoe rack so he could go through it and find the plastic bag with both drawing and present in.

“Did you make a drawing for Wookie?” Leeteuk asked as he crouched down so he could hug the toddler, who in turn nodded enthusiastically with a bright smile. “What did you draw?”

“A giraffe!” Kibum declared happily, his arms full of yellow pen streaks; clear proof of his creativity. Leeteuk grinned back at the proud toddler.

“I’m sure he will love it! Let’s go find him. He’s in the garden with all the other kids,” Leeteuk informed and took Kibum’s hand so they could go through the kitchen to the garden together. Henry and Kyuhyun followed, both infinitely happy with the way Kibum grew more and more outgoing as time passed.

The children were all playing football in the garden while Kangin, Hangeng, Heechul and Key were seated at a garden table filled with cup cakes that were clearly decorated by children’s hands, hot cocoa, coffee for the adults and a children’s keyboard, still in its box, which Kangin was busy studying.

“You did this on purpose, didn’t you?” he asked and directed a scowl in Heechul’s direction at the clearly smug man.

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Heechul replied with a smirk. “But if you happen to go crazy from the replay of the melodies on it, please make sure Leeteuk takes pictures.”

“Oh, shush, Wook loves it! And I will be sure to take pictures,” Leeteuk shot towards the table before leading Kibum down the few stairs to the grass. “Wookie, Kibum’s here!”

“Bummie!” Ryeowook squealed and ran to his friend, quickly followed by an equally squealing Sungmin.

“Happy birfday!” Kibum sang and hugged Ryeowook before looking around with a pout. Kyuhyun immediately hurried down the stairs and handed the toddler the drawing with a smile. “Here! I dwarwed it! It’s a giraffe!”

“Fank you!” Ryeowook squealed and hugged the drawing without even looking at it first. Just knowing that his friend had made it especially for him was enough to make him ecstatic. “Umma, can it hang on the fwidge?”

“Of course. Do you want to help me hang it there?” Leeteuk asked, causing Ryeowook to nod enthusiastically before bounding up the stairs and into the kitchen while Sungmin pulled Kibum with him over to where the other kids and Jonghyun were running around after a football so they could join as well. Leeteuk followed Ryeowook into the kitchen to where the toddler was jumping in front of the fridge. “Up there!”

Leeteuk smiled and lifted Ryeowook up so he could pick a magnet and place the drawing where he wanted between all the other drawings hanging on the fridge. “You are getting too big for me to lift you like this.” he mumbled when Ryeowook was done and he was safely on the ground again.

“No! Not too big!” Ryeowook exclaimed in offense, glaring up at his umma with his hands on his hips, mirroring how his uncle Heechul looked when he was angry.

“Well, if you are not big, then you are small and you know small boys need to go to bed early every day,” Leeteuk reminded seriously, hiding his smile when Ryeowook’s expression turned thoughtful.

“Wookie big,” he decided after a while, nodding to stress the point. Leeteuk grinned and nodded, looking after him as he bolted outside again to join his friends and brothers in their game. He sighed softly, having a hard time getting used to how big Ryeowook was getting. He went to the coffee maker to turn it on, knowing that the coffee pot on the table outside was running low.

“Blink and they’re all grown up with lives of their own,” Kangin said softly from the doorway, stepping into the kitchen and over to Leeteuk, wrapping his arms around his waist.

“I know. I can’t believe how quickly this year has passed. It seems like yesterday I moved in,” Leeteuk mumbled and turned in Kangin’s arms, burying his face in his neck and inhaling the scent that was just Kangin. They stood like that for a while, simply enjoying each other, before Kangin pulled away slightly.

“I actually have something for you,” he admitted with an impish grin, making Leeteuk frown curiously.

“But it’s Wookie’s birthday, not mine,” he argued softly as Kangin let go of him and went to the desk at the end of the counter, pulling out a bright, white envelope from the masses of paper there.

“Doesn’t mean I can’t give you things. Or technically you’ll be giving us something, but... Yeah, open it!” Kangin urged and handed the envelope to Leeteuk with eagerness, only blushing slightly. Leeteuk took the envelope and looked it over curiously, though there was nothing but Kangin’s name and the address of the house on it. He opened it carefully and pulled out the stack of papers, reading the headline before his mouth fell open. “What is this?” he asked, his eyes going misty as he looked at Kangin to make sure it wasn’t some sort of joke.

“It’s the legal papers that give you legal custody over the boys,” Kangin replied softly, blushing a bit more. “You don’t have to sign them if you don’t want to, I mean, I know it’s soon and all, but I just want you to have equal rights and know that you are important to the boys and me. I had my lawyer draft them, so all you need to do is sign them and then the boys are just as much yours as they are mine.”

Leeteuk choked on his tears and all but jumped onto Kangin, clinging to him as he cried from sheer gratefulness and blabbered watery ‘thank you’s. To be honest, it wasn’t something he had thought about; he had been content when they agreed to annul his contract, making him a part of the family that way, so this was more than he had ever dreamed of.

“No need to thank me, Teukie. You are their umma and I want you to have the legal rights of a parent, not just the emotional and practical ones. Even if we were married, you’d come second to Sora in taking care of the boys if anything ever happened to me, just because of stupid laws, and I want you to be first legally, because you definitely are first in any other way,” Kangin explained honestly, holding the younger close and kissing his temple tenderly. Leeteuk nodded to show that he understood, but made no move to pull away. Kangin chuckled and ran his fingers through the smaller’s hair in a soothing gesture.

“Thank you. I.. this means so much. Thank you,” Leeteuk hiccupped when he finally pulled away, drying his eyes awkwardly and looking down at the papers again just to make sure they were still there.

“You don’t need to thank me. And you don’t need to sign them now, it’s okay if you want to read through them first. They pretty much just state that you have custody equal to that of a parent and that you share it with me, but you better read them through. You never know if I put in a clause about selling your organs or something,” Kangin teased, earning him a chuckle from Leeteuk.

“I’ll read them tonight,” he promised and leaned in so he could catch Kangin’s lips in a loving kiss, pouring his emotion and love into it.

“Hey, lovebird