Sehun always had a thing for stuffed animals. He wouldn’t admit it, but he got lonely a lot when the members of EXO-M were promoting in China, and he surrounded himself with plush toys in order to comfort himself. The longer he was away from his friends, the more animals he would buy, and soon his bed was overflowing with them. He had one named after each member: a panda for Tao, a wolf for Kris, a bear for Xiumin, a puppy for Chen, a unicorn for Lay, and a sheep for Luhan. Luhan was his favorite, of course, and he slept with it every night.

One evening, he was having an especially hard time coping with his separation from Luhan. The rest of the EXO-M members had called earlier in the day, but Luhan had been out running errands with one of the managers and didn’t get back in time to join the conversation. Sehun sulked for the rest of the day. Eventually, after dinner, a few of his hyungs started to get concerned.

 “Hunnie, are you okay?” Suho asked from the kitchen. “You’ve been looking sad all afternoon.”

“You look kinda dead, actually,” Chanyeol remarked from the couch. “Turn that frown upside down, party pooper!”

“I’m not a party pooper,” Sehun groaned.

“Your face says otherwise.”

Sehun tried to change the subject. “Where’s Baekhyun?”

“Out with Kyungsoo and Kai. Nice subject change, by the way,” he answered sarcastically. “Now tell me what’s wrong.”

With a dejected sigh, Sehun gave in and plopped down on the couch next to Chanyeol. “I’m just a little lonely, that’s all.”

Chanyeol nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, I get that. I mean, if I was away from Baekhyun for too long, I’d be sad too.” When Sehun didn’t respond, his voice softened. “You really miss him, don’t you?”

Sehun sniffled and nodded.

“Hold on, I’ll be right back.” Chanyeol hopped up off the couch and disappeared down the hall. A few moments later he returned, holding a stuffed sheep in his hands. “I brought Luhan for you.”

“Thanks, Chanyeol.” Sehun gratefully accepted the toy and hugged it to his chest. It didn’t take long before a few tears made their way down his cheeks.

Unsure of what to do, Chanyeol rocked back and forth on his feet and patted Sehun’s head awkwardly. This wasn’t the first time that Sehun had been missing Luhan, but Suho usually handled any breakdowns that occurred. Unfortunately, a slam of the front door told him that EXO-K’s leader had just left the dorm, probably to find the rest of the members.

Suddenly, Chanyeol remembered something. He tapped Sehun’s shoulder to get his attention. “Hey, Sehunnie.”

Sehun rubbed his eyes and looked up. “What?”

“You know that EXO-M is coming back to Korea later this week, right? I can’t believe I forgot. They’re going to film a show with us, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Sehun waved his hand dismissively. “That’s what they said the last three times. But the date keeps getting pushed off, and I’m sick of getting my hopes up.” He buried his face in the soft fabric of the sheep plushie. “He’s never coming back,” he mumbled.

“Yes, he is,” Chanyeol reassured him. “I’m sure of it this time.”

Sehun puffed out his cheeks. “I hope you’re right, hyung.”

---

As Sehun expected, the date of the show got pushed back. Again. This time, it was for another three weeks, and that was enough to throw Sehun into an endless pit of depression. Thankfully he was able to hide his sadness well enough around the other members (with the exception of Chanyeol, who watched him with a constant look of guilt plastered on his face). Once he got to the safety of his room, however, he completely unraveled. After a particularly difficult practice later that week, it took all his self-control not to break down and cry in the middle of the living room. As soon as he closed his bedroom door, he the soundtrack of You’re Beautiful as loud as it would go and flung himself onto his bed.

“Luhannie,” he sobbed, searching around for his favorite stuffed sheep. Never in his life had he ever felt more pathetic. There he was, sitting in his room crying, surrounded by a bunch of stuffed toys named after his friends. Some man you are, Sehun thought, blindly searching for the distinctively poofy shape of Luhan Sheep while simultaneously wiping his tears away.  “Luhannie, where are you?”

The stuffed sheep was nowhere to be found. Beginning to panic, Sehun burst out of his room and frantically shuffled down the hall. “Hey guys, I can’t find Luhan Sheep. Have you see—” He stopped mid-sentence when he realized who was sitting in the living room. A group of very familiar guys were seated on the couch, staring at Sehun expectantly. The EXO-K members were across from them, a gigantic smile on each of their faces. Chanyeol’s smile was particularly huge.

“It’s about time you came out of your room,” Chanyeol teased. “I thought you were going to be in there forever.”

“H-Hyungs,” Sehun stuttered. “You’re back?”

They all nodded. All…five of them?

“Where’s Luhan?” Sehun asked, his voice wavering. “Did he not come back with you guys?”

“I heard my name!” a happy voice piped in from behind Sehun. He spun around and found himself face-to-face with Luhan, who happened to be cradling Luhan Sheep in his arms. “Hey, Sehunnie.”

“Luhan.” Sehun blinked. Then reality hit him. “Luhan!” he practically screeched, springing forward. He landed with his arms around Luhan’s waist, dragging them both to the ground. They hit the ground with a loud “oof” and the surprise sent Luhan into a fit of hysterical laughter. Sehun was hugging him like a koala and refused to let go, even once they hit the floor. Tears were still dripping down his chin, but he didn’t care. Luhan was back. Nothing else mattered.

Luhan shook his head and brushed Sehun’s messy bangs out of his eyes. “Did you miss me?” he asked playfully, carefully wiping a few tears from Sehun’s eyes.

“You have no idea,” Sehun sniffled. He pulled Luhan in even closer and buried his forehead into Luhan’s chest. “I had to name a stuffed animal after you and sleep with it every night to keep myself sane.”

“Ah, so that’s what this is,” Luhan mused, picking up the stuffed sheep from where he had dropped it. “I thought it looked like me.”

“Nahh, you’re cuter,” Sehun replied as he slowly collected himself and got up off of Luhan.

“Nahh, you’re cuter,” Chanyeol mimicked from behind them. Sehun froze and his eyes widened into embarrassed saucers. He had completely forgotten about the other members being in the living room. When he turned around, Chanyeol flashed him a quick thumbs-up and winked suggestively. Sehun resisted the urge to throw Luhan Sheep at his face.

Chanyeol ignored Sehun’s death glare and turned towards Luhan. “So, Luhan-hyung,” he began, “why don’t you tell Sehunnie why you’re here?”

Luhan smiled and nodded. “The show got rescheduled to this week! They were able to find enough staff that wasn’t on strike to pull off the episode. Which means…” He slung an arm over Sehun’s shoulder. “We’ll be here all week!”

“Are you serious?” Sehun exclaimed. His smile was so wide that it seemed to take up half his face. “That’s great!”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile that wide,” Chanyeol pointed out with a mischievous chuckle. “You look kinda crazy.”

“You’re one to talk,” Sehun retorted. “You’re the king of crazy smiles.”

“Yeah, but I work it. And actually, I am the king of the Hunhan castle. Captain of the Hunhan ship.”

“What’s Hunhan?” Luhan asked rather cluelessly.

Sehun waved his hands in front of his face. “Nothing, nothing. Uh, it’s getting late. Shouldn’t we be getting to bed?” He looked around at his hyungs expectantly. They had all been watching the scene in front of them unfold with amusement on their faces, and they didn’t try to hide it as they all nodded in unison. Sehun wanted to run away and hide his embarrassment, but at the same time he didn’t want to leave Luhan. “Um, Luhanni—Luhan?”

“Yeah, Hunnie?”

“Where are all you guys staying? Did you rent out your old dorm again?” he asked, biting his lip. It was getting late and he knew that everyone had to leave soon.

“Yeah,” Luhan answered. “The managers are waiting for us there. But,” he lowered his voice, “they gave me the all-clear to stay here tonight if I want to.”

Sehun answered by nodding frantically. Actual Luhan would be ten times better to cuddle with than Luhan Sheep.

All Luhan had to do to signal the others of their plans for the night was turn towards them and blink a few times. They had expected that the two of them would want to sleep together, so they quickly said goodnight and sent them off towards Sehun’s room with a few obnoxious whistles.

Sehun had never felt more safe than he did curled up next to Luhan. The two spent a good half an hour catching each other up on what they had missed in each other’s lives through quiet whispers, and spent an equal amount of time complaining and ranting about their busy schedules. Eventually, Sehun began to doze off in Luhan’s arms. It was taking a significant amount of effort for him to stay awake, and his babbling was becoming nonsensical and slurred.

“Shhh,” Luhan quieted him. “Go to sleep. I’ll be here in the morning.”

Sehun yawned and looked up at Luhan with sleepy, half-lidded eyes. “Promise?”

Luhan wrapped his arms around Sehun’s waist and softly kissed his forehead. “Promise,” he whispered, watching fondly as Sehun drifted off to sleep. He laid there silently for a while, staring at the sleeping boy in front of him, until he finally closed his eyes and dozed off as well, Sehun still tightly held in his embrace.