It's Bedtime - Family!AU Drabble

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“Appa!! Chan-troll’s my crayons again!”

“Hey! Do you think the pink ones taste like Bacon, Baekhyunnie?”

“Ew. You’re gross.”

Sprawled out across the white carpet centrepiece of the living room were Baekhyun’s battered Disney themed crayons. The assorted crayons were now forming a coloured massacre on their carpet, along with several streaks of saliva. What was once a pink Minnie Mouse’s head crayon was left scattered into pieces on the floor, the coral colour contrasting against the stark white carpet leaving a long smudged trail; and the remainder held possessively in the palms of the culprit.

“These. Are. Mine.” Baekhyun alliterated, sending Chanyeol a death glare as he greedily grabbed onto as many crayons as possible.  

“No. They. Are. Not. ” Chanyeol mimicked, dropping the lost cause that was once the pink Minnie Mouse crayon in the pile of the other neglected colours.

Chanyeol then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and quickly made his way to his brother, grabbing onto his waist tightly. He then began to tickle Baekhyun mercilessly; hoping that this sudden haze of laughter would allow the colours to slip the out of the latter’s clasp.

Fortunately for Chanyeol, Baekhyun dropped his crayons in a messy pile beside him.

Unfortunately, he then grabbed as many pillows as he could from the sofa near them and chucked them violently at his older brother. Chanyeol managed to duck away from each of Baekhyun’s (horrendous) attempts at throwing pillows, and capture his brother in a headlock, pinning him to the ground.

Suddenly in between Chanyeol’s ‘tell me I’m the best and I’ll stop tickling you’ and Baekhyun’s giggling protests, their father walked in; his eyes wide and mouth agape.

“What do you both think you’re doing?” A loud boom echoed from near the door, and both of the boys’ heart’s stopped as they scrambled back onto the carpet, panting for breath.

“I leave you for a minute; no…actually, less than a minute, and then this happens!” Joonmyeon was in between a fit of rage and laughter as he saw the look of fear struck in both of his children and what mischief they were causing. He looked pointedly at the two awaiting for some sort of explanation. When all he could hear were a few sniffles coming from a guilty looking Chanyeol, Joonmyeon inched closer to the mess on the carpet. He cringed as he inspected the damage on their recently-bought-but-now-should-not-have-bought-it-with-kids-around carpet.  

What could he say; his son’s really brought the colour into his life.

Literally.

“S-Sorry abeoji…” Chanyeol mumbled quietly, looking down at his fiddling fingers and nudging a slightly dazed Baekhyun harshly in the ribs.

“I-I tried calling you appa! It’s all Chanyeol-ah’s fault!”

“Me?!” Chanyeol bellowed sounding insulted, he pouted and folded his arms across his chest. Locks of his auburn hair stuck to his forehead, and a cute scowl was hanging off his lips, a few tears b in his glossy eyes; all the tell-tale signs of a temper tantrum.

“Ah, Chanyeol, if you keep making that face it’ll stay like that.” Joonmyeon comforted Chanyeol as he crouched down to his son’s height. He ruffled his son’s light auburn hair lovingly and gave both of his children a small smile. He then took a deep breath and took a quick glance across the room.

Television intact? Check. There’s no way Kyungsoo could live without his morning Pororo.

No marks on the walls? Check, except for the small crack near the book shelf from another one of ‘Baekyeol wars’.

Nintendo Wii unharmed? Check.

Phew.

If there’s anything worse than one child having a tantrum is two children.

Sehun and Jongin are renowned for beating each other’s top scores religiously on Dancing Robot Wars. So without it, Appa Suho (the nickname birthed as the children’s very own Korean ‘Father Santa’) will be getting two, very expensive Christmas wish lists.

But it’s all worth it, to see the smile on your children’s faces, right? It’s all worth the trouble when on the morning of Christmas Joonmyeon see’s his children’s loveable eye-smiles and playful laughter; as they tear into their gifts (which took Joonmyeon forever to wrap, but let’s not pry).

He couldn’t picture his life without it, let alone, without them. 

Joonmyeon settled out of his daze, and looked back at the pair.

Squirming nervously, the pair looked at one and other, as if to prompt to who was going to be the first to speak and beg their Appa to not scold them.

“I-I only wanted to play with them, dongsaeng.” Chanyeol turned to Baekhyun, hey; maybe a few formalities will make appa proud and ease the telling-off.

“But you weren’t playing Chanyeol hyung! You ate Minnie!” Baekhyun accused, mockingly.

Their father only looked at them amusingly, wondering as to how on earth his little kids got so much energy. Just as he was about to scold Chanyeol about how dangerous lead poisoning is, and remind Baekhyun that Chanyeol didn’t mean to maliciously murder little Minnie, a rather sleepy looking Kyungsoo scuffled into the room. In between his forearm and his chest, was a small Pororo plushie. He looked irritated as he glared upward to the three, and (tried to angrily) stomp (but failed) towards Joonmyeon; pulling down at his father’s shirt.

“Appa! I’m tired.” Kyungsoo whined, whilst rubbing his eyes sleepily.

“You” He pointed to the duo “…too loud.”  

“Sehunnie on…my bed…Jongin-ah singing…badly… time to... sleep…” Kyungsoo mumbled incomprehensibly, yawning at each interval drowsily. He tugged down at Joonmyeon’s shirt repeatedly until his father gave in and picked his son up. Kyungsoo’s rested his head on Joonmyeon’s shoulder, as Joonmyeon shifted slightly to make the latter comfortable. Soft breaths turned into gradual snores, and Kyungsoo fell into a deep sleep, his eyes clasped tightly into thin lines as he dreamt.

Joonmyeon let out a soft sigh.

It’s not every day Kyungsoo would act clingy, because he didn’t like to bother his father unlike Sehun and Jongin; who would always be by papa’s side when they weren’t too busy ‘looking after’ Kyungsoo, (even though the pair were a few years younger than Kyungsoo).

But the events from earlier today, when the family went to visit the Zoo and Kyungsoo found out real penguins could not really talk (proving Pororo a fraud), took its toll on the child.

For Kyungsoo, it was almost as bad as when he found out that the tooth fairy wasn’t really swapping money for his tooth under the pillow at night. It was one fateful night where Kyungsoo awoke to find his appa (instead of the tooth fairy) carefully switching his tooth for something shiny– Joonmyeon’s explanation afterwards meant for a lot of hot chocolate and Pororo re-runs.

For the multiple times Joonmyeon had crushed Kyungsoo’s dreams, he would always try to make up for it.

It would usually be when the others were away, where Sehun and Jongin both have dance classes after school, Baekhyun goes to the Seoul singing club and Chanyeol goes to scouts with his best friend Kris; leaving Joonmyeon and his little Soo together.

It’s not favouritism when you love them all equally.

But Joonmyeon couldn’t deny that daddy’s little good boy held a certain spot in his heart.

They would take long walks in the park and visit the bakery nearby, smelling the wonderful aroma of freshly baked bread and cinnamon as they walked by.

Sometimes when they get back from grocery shopping, both father and son try and concoct new recipes for shortbreads and cakes. Kyungsoo always gets to the spoon. So it’s inevitable that Joonmyeon gets stuck with the washing up. But they both would make time to decorate the cakes, where Kyungsoo would sometimes experiment with intricate icing designs, and appa would stick to an occasional zigzag pattern.

Joonmyeon always wonders where his son’s get their talents from.

However, time slows down whenever Joonmyeon would catch the look of longing in his sons eyes, as Kyungsoo would wait patiently for his cakes to rise in the oven. He would watch intently as the cakes rise and fall, calling his daddy the magician who cooks up ‘Food Magic’, with Kyungsoo as his little magician’s side-kick.

Moment’s like these really were the greatest.

Well, that is until Joonmyeon finds his shirt drenched by Kyungsoo’s drool. Yeah. That was a kick in the balls back to reality.  

“Okay, boy’s” He starts, hushing his voice to a whisper.

“Let’s go to sleep.” He concludes.

‘I’ll get uncle Tao to fix this up; hopefully his “Clean it off just as fast as Wushu” business will be useful for once.’ Joonmyeon thinks, singlehandedly writing the task in his to do list on the desk near the door to the living room.

Yes, to do list.

Because kids are too stressful and Joonmyeon doesn’t have the time to try and remember his grocery list when Sehun is too busy filling the trolley up with bubble tea; whilst, Jongin would be whining about a new action figure and Chanyeol and Baekhyun would disappear, only for Kyungsoo to find them; harassing a poor ajumma near the dairy aisle.

Baekhyun gives his appa a goodnight kiss on the cheek and scurries of to his bedroom, but not without giving Chanyeol a bruising punch on his way out. To this, Chanyeol asks for appa to kiss it better, and hand in hand they walk to Chanyeol’s room –which is beside Baekhyun’s. In the midst of balancing Kyungsoo on one arm, Joonmyeon tucks Chanyeol into bed with his other, placing a small kiss onto his son’s forehead before wishing him goodnight. He flips the light switch off before closing the door behind him gently.

Then he moved on towards Kyungsoo’s room, a little further down the hall, right opposite Sehun and Jongin’s shared bedroom. Joonmyeon glides his palm onto the knob of the door, but soon find that the door is locked from the other side.

“Sehun? Jongin?”

No answer.

“Boys? Will you open the door for appa, please?”

No answer, except Joonmyeon swears he can hear a few hushed whispers.

“I’m counting to three…one…two…”

Suddenly, an outburst of giggles comes from the other side and the sound of a chair moving away from the door gets louder.

“Th-”

Joonmyeon is cut off when both Jongin and Sehun pull him into the room by his free arm.  

Joonmyeon stumbles into the room, gripping Kyungsoo tightly as he walks toward his bed. As he lays Kyungsoo down onto his bed and tucks him in, giving him a goodnight kiss on his cheek, he looks up at both Jongin and Sehun. The latter’s both looking up at their father enthusiastically.

“Come on…” Joonmyeon whispers as he smiles, grabbing hold of both of the boys by their hands and leading them out of Kyungsoo’s room.

Suddenly Joonmyeon remembers that Kyungsoo is afraid of the dark, and so he quickly paces back into the room to put the mood light on and exits the room; making sure to switch the light off and close the door behind him quietly.

Naturally Sehun and Jongin’s palms find Joonmyeon’s, and their appa leads them to their shared room opposite Kyungsoo’s.

Sehun and Jongin are skipping ahead and getting their pyjama’s ready for the night. As the youngest of the five, Sehun and Jongin are still in-training for when it comes to bedtime.

“Apapa!” Jongin whined, “pick me up, pick me up.”

Joonmyeon picks Jongin up from behind under his arms, placing him on a small ladder next to the sink. Sehun follows soon after, jumping onto the shared ladder and grabs both his and Jongin’s tooth brush from the placeholder.

“Here ith your toothbruth” Sehun shoved a red polka dotted tooth brush with a little bugs bunny toothpaste smeared on the bristle towards Jongin, and began brushing his own teeth, with his own Tasmanian-devil themed brush.

“Remember boys, up and down, side to side and around the edg-…”

“-Blegh!” Jongin spat his toothpaste out and rinsed his mouth quickly, dropping his toothbrush on the ledge of the sink.

“…and then spit it out” Joonmyeon sighed, whilst rubbing his forehead with his index finger and his thumb.

Their appa then picked Jongin’s sticky toothbrush up from the ledge, and washed it out thoroughly. He cleaned Sehun’s too, and told his sons’ to rinse out their mouths properly.

As the fresh minty smell in the bathroom lingered, Joonmyeon called for his sons to tip toe as far as they could whilst keeping their mouths open.

It was time for inspection.

“Open wide”

Joonmyeon checked for any pieces of their latest meal – macaroni and cheese –and when he certified that their mouths were clean enough (for kids) he sent them back on their way to their room.

“Come on appa, you promithed to read uth a bedtime sthtory”

“Yeah! Sit next to me!!”

Both boys quickly pulled their father into their room, Sehun fumbling behind to close the door, as Jongin snatches a few books from the shelves. From a few options from The Three Little Pigs all the way down to Red Riding Hood, he managed to pick Tarzan.

“Daddy…?” Sehun started but was soon cut off as Jongin grabbed Joonmyeon’s hand and gestured him toward the little seat beside their bunk-bed, pushing the book upward toward Joonmyeon.

He took the book from his son and began to sit down on his seat, but not before Jongin tugged at his wrist.

The younger then pointed to his cheek and pouted at his father.

“Where’s my goodnight kiss, appa?” Jongin whined as he tried tiptoeing up.

Joonmyeon crouched down and enveloped his son with his long arms wrapping them around Jongin’s waist; giving him a light kiss on his forehead.

He then picked Jongin up, and threw him into the air whilst holding his arms out, sending Jongin into a bubble of squealing laughter; as he caught him from the fall, and let him down carefully onto the carpet.

Sehun trailed behind quietly and took his spot on the bottom, as Jongin airily climbed up the stairs to the top bunk.   

Joonmyeon chuckled slightly at Jongin’s antics and failed to notice the sadness in Sehun’s eyes. He then sat down on his seat, whilst holding the book and glanced at the title.

“Tarzan? Really?” he looked up at Jongin hysterically, to which Jongin replied with a few giggles. He then looked at Sehun, who was lying down on his bed with his arms crossed, starring at the ceiling.

“Sehun-ah sweetie, what’s wrong?” Joonmyeon looked at Sehun with concern, and put his palm on the latter’s forehead to check whether he was ill, but the younger flinched from the action.

The look of hurt was written on Joonmyeon’s face, but short lived when sounds of scuffling and low murmurs were coming from the opposite side of the door. Suddenly an intrusion of three boys comes barging through. Chanyeol was sporting a wide grin, as Baekhyun was rubbing his nape sheepishly, and Kyungsoo could barely manage to keep his eyes open.

“Boys?” Joonmyeon questioned, turning his attention away from Jongin and towards the others.

“…Why aren’t you in bed?”

“W-we couldn’t…*yawn*…sleep” Kyungsoo murmured, rather unconvincingly as he trudged towards the bed climbed up to Jongin’s side; the Pororo still clutched in his grasp, as Jongin weaved his arm around Kyungsoo’s waist.

Joonmyeon smiled at the affection, but looked at Sehun again and his smile slightly faltered with a look laced with worry.

“Baekhyun was eavesdropping and he told me you’re reading a bedtime story!” Chanyeol’s voice boomed, interrupting Joonmyeon from his thoughts about Sehun.

Joonmyeon turned to Baekhyun and flashed a bright smile.

“I guess this is going to be our new tradition then.” Joonmyeon said, gesturing for both boys to come away from the door and into his arms.

The pair jumped forward into Joonmyeon’s arms, as their father hugged them both tightly. He sighed contentedly as they took their seats on the carpet, cross-legged.

Joonmyeon quickly scans the blurb of the book, and coughs a little to exercise his story-telling voice.

“Tarzan is a young orphan who was raised by apes. One day, he meets Jane, and finds that he is human. Follow the journey, where Tarzan must make the decision to which family he should belong to…”

Joonmyeon can hear the stifled yawns, and looks up to see his son’s droopy eyes.

As he presses on with the story, making sure to mimic each of the character’s voices, even though his children are half-asleep, he lowers his volume to ensure he’s not disturbing anyone. He wouldn’t admit it, but he likes how the children would be lulled to sleep with the sound of his voice. Bedtime stories are something he could get used to.

Soon, the whole room is filled with sounds of heavy breathing and sniffles, with the occasional loud snore – compliments to Chanyeol. Joonmyeon carried each of his son’s to their rooms, and tucked them in; not forgetting those all-important bedtimes kisses.

Some would go easily like Kyungsoo, others, like Baekhyun would hold on to Joonmyeon tightly even as he is in his bed. It would take 15 minutes of slow prying, and little kisses for Baekhyun to be fully deep in his sleep. Not forgetting to mention his small smile, as Joonmyeon closes his door.

Any other father would presume that the night was over, and enjoy a little celebratory wine after putting his kids to bed, but Joonmyeon was unlike any other father.

Joonmyeon had five different kids, with five very different needs.

And he loved them all, and their problems.

To Joonmyeon it seemed as if Sehun was upset, but he couldn’t quite place his finger on it. From previous experience, Joonmyeon found that Sehun always needed a little sweet persuasion to talk to his appa about important matters. So before going to the duo’s room, he grabbed a pack of Oreo’s and placed it beside a small glass of milk on the counter.

As he entered the room, he could hear the sound of Jongin’s soft snoring, but unusually, not of Sehun’s sharp little breaths.

He then crouched down to the height of the bottom bunk, and lightly tapped on Sehun’s cheek.

“Sehun-ah honey, Sehun…” Joonmyeon gently cooed.

“Go away.” Sehun huffed as he shuffled to turn around in his bed, his back facing Joonmyeon’s front.

Joonmyeon could feel a sharp pang in his chest, but he ignored it as he picked Sehun up and placed the boy’s waist over his shoulders. The latter couldn’t help but giggle, as his father tickled him relentlessly once they reached the kitchen.

“Want a cookie?” Joonmyeon asked with a little mischievousness glittering in his eyes.

Sehun’s eyes opened until they were as round as saucers.

“Really?!” He whispered excitedly.

“…our secret!” Joonmyeon winked as he waved the chocolate brown with the white filling cookie in-front of Sehun’s face.

Just as soon as Sehun’s fingers brushed the Oreo’s edges, Joonmyeon raised it higher into the air, shaking his index finger at the other.

“Uh, uh, uh…” Joonmyeon mocked playfully, “Tell me what’s wrong first?” his voice changing with a tinge between curiosity and concern.

“Do you love Jongin hy-hyung more than me, appa?” Sehun’s voice began to break slightly, as his eyes began to look runny.

Joonmyeon looked at him sternly and dropped the cookie on the counter. He then grabbed a hold of Sehun and squeezed his gasping son tightly, tears forming in his eyes too.

“Sehun.” Joonmyeon released his son and picked the Oreo up again, before offering it to Sehun.

“You are the little glue that brings us all together.”

“Just like a jigsaw puzzle, you make sure that all the pieces are together.” “No-one could live without their glue, just how I could never live without you.”

No matter how oddly it sounded, that was truth that came from Joonmyeon’s heart. Sehun wiped away a few tears with his palms, and tore his Oreo in half.

“Thith ith for you appa”

“If I’m the glue, then you will be the jigthaw puzzle box.”

It was an unorthodox resolution, but then again, this was an unorthodox family.

Joonmyeon wiped his eyes with his thumb as he held Sehun on his arm. Sehun had his arms around Joonmyeon’s neck, and as Joonmyeon slipped into his bed. They both slept, peacefully, in each-other’s arms.

The glue and the jigsaw puzzle box.

Altogether, with the pieces that made this family, it made one hell of a weird jigsaw puzzle, but I guess, that’s what they were.

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Please tell me if I'm getting any Korean formalities wrong - I did not mean to offend anyone if I did - oh, and don't forget to comment because I want to know what you think! :)