Youngjae begins to feel the slight stirring of panic in the pits of his stomach as he stares down into the inside of his backpack. It is empty. It should not be empty. And, frayed around the edges, a small hole is found in the bottom of his bag where Junhong’s surprise bunny seems to have escaped through. Youngjae closes his eyes and breathes heavily through his nose, trying to think of a way to rectify this situation. The bunny has to be somewhere in the house right? If it’s inside, then all they need to do is comb through the house carefully and search for the little animal before daddy Himchan or daddy Yongguk finds it first.

The problem is, Youngjae isn’t entirely sure where and when the bunny had escaped. After he and Kyungsoo had stashed the rabbit and left for the playground, Youngjae had not once checked to make sure that the rabbit was still inside his backpack. So he doesn’t know when the hole was made and where the bunny had gotten out to.

Kyungsoo, who had wanted to witness baby Junhong’s surprise when he received the little gift, had begged and pleaded with daddy Junmyeon to allow him to come over and play for a little bit. After confirming with Yongguk that it would be totally cool, Junmyeon followed behind Yongguk’s car and dropped off Kyungsoo, along with Jongin and Zitao, to play with their friends for a few hours. So Kyungsoo now sits beside his distressed best friend on Youngjae and Daehyun’s bedroom floor, also staring blankly into the rabbit-less backpack.

“It’s gotta be here,” Kyungsoo says, eyes still trained on the empty bag as if he continued to stare long enough, the bunny would rematerialize back to where it should be.

“I dunno,” Youngjae frowns, glancing around his room. “We can look, but we need to hurry before my daddies find it or else I’m gonna get in trouble.”

Kyungsoo heaves a heavy sigh. “Okay then,” he replies, standing up. “C’mon, let’s go.” Kyungsoo reaches out his hands and grabs hold of Youngjae, pulling him up. Yongguk is out on grocery errands and Himchan is in Junhong and Jongup’s room, putting the baby down for nap time. So now is the perfect time to dig through the house without parental interference.

“Let’s check downstairs first,” Youngjae suggests and Kyungsoo nods. They take the stairs quietly and head for the living room where they find Daehyun and Jongin sitting on the couch watching The Penguins of Madagascar. Youngjae walks over to the television and searches behind it while Kyungsoo gets down onto hands and knees and checks beneath the couch. Not even finding dust bunnies behind the TV, Youngjae tries the coat closet next. Kyungsoo stands back up, brushing off his hands, and briefly glances at his brother. Before shoving him down flat on his back.

 “Excuse me~,” he sings, as he rolls Jongin off the couch.

“Hey!” Jongin shouts in surprise as he is unceremoniously dumped onto the floor and glares up at his brother. He then turns his withering scowl on his friend instead as Daehyun bursts into laughter at the expression on Jongin’s face. Kyungsoo pushes up the cushion and, once ascertaining that the rabbit is not squashed under Jongin’s weight, he resettles the cushion back into its place. Kyungsoo then turns his attention to Daehyun who automatically gets off the couch to avoid such indignities.

Youngjae finishes his perusal of the coat closet and returns to where Kyungsoo is checking Daehyun’s side of the couch.

“Nope,” Youngjae furrows his brows and puckers his bottom lip.

“Nope,” Kyungsoo repeats in affirmative, patting the couch cushion back down.

“What‘re you guys doing?” Daehyun asks as he jumps back onto the couch, Jongin huffing as he returns to his seat, miffed at his mistreatment.

“We brought a bunny,” Youngjae replies flatly as he takes Kyungsoo by the hand. “For Junhong. But it got outta my backpack so we’re looking for it.”

“Oh, that was you guys,” Daehyun nods in understanding, before turning his attention back to the TV. “Well, good luck with that.”

Jongin glares straight at the TV in silence, still annoyed.

--

Kyungsoo and Youngjae make a thorough inspection of the entire house, looking through every room except for the one where Himchan is currently putting Junhong to sleep. They pass by Zitao and Jongup in the hallway building a colorful castle of playfoam and head for the backyard.  The two are now outside, Kyungsoo searching in the bushes and Youngjae checking around the lounge chairs by the pool.

“What if the bunny got under the fence and ran away to the neighbor’s house?” Kyungsoo questions, examining the little purple petals of a sweet pea shrub, when his attention is snapped to a loud clang, followed by the sound of splashing water. He quickly looks over to the pool where a small ripple breaks the surface of the otherwise calm water. Kyungsoo feels his stomach drop to a point way past his feet and begins hyperventilating. He rushes over to the edge and looks into the pool where his best friend is slowly sinking to the bottom.

Youngjae is unconscious.

Kyungsoo can’t breathe.

Kyungsoo thinks he’s going to throw up.

For a split second, he contemplates flinging himself after Youngjae. But Kyungsoo can’t swim. And they would just both end up drowning. He panics, breathing erratically and pulling out small fistfuls of hair, when Kyungsoo finally finds his voice and screams. Great, big shrieks loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear. Giant screams of bloody murder, calling for help, anyone please, his friend is dying! The dam explodes, tears now freefalling down Kyungsoo’s cheeks, as he is rooted to the floor. He wants to run inside and find uncle Himchan, he will know what to do, but Kyungsoo is too afraid to have Youngjae out of his sight.

Thinking that he has no other alternatives, Kyungsoo bends his knees and prepares to spring into the pool when Himchan, still in his work suit having had no time to change, runs out of the house. “What is going on?!”

Kyungsoo, tears still streaming and gulping for air, points to the pool. Himchan turns to the direction of Kyungsoo’s finger and, for a second, he feels the world shift as he sways, blackness trying to overcome his vision. Himchan feels his heart trying to break free from his chest, head still spinning as white noise blocks out all other sounds. But a greater instinct overrides the darkness, forcing him into action and lunging into the pool.

--

Kyungsoo continues to cry silently even as Youngjae comes to, Himchan brushing wet hair off his face.

“Oh baby, are you okay? What happened?” Himchan breathes out a sigh of relief as Youngjae pulls himself up into a sitting position. Youngjae blinks in confusion. Why is he wet? And why is his head hurting so, so much?  The last thing he can remember is crawling under the lounge chairs to look for the bunny before everything else turns blank.

Youngjae feels around for the source of the steady pounding, wincing as his fingers move across a small bump forming on the crown of his head. He must have hit it really hard on the way back out of the chair.

“What’s wrong baby?” Himchan’s fingers hover, not knowing where to place them.

Youngjae glances at Kyungsoo, now calming down into small sniffles, hiccups stuttering his breathing in intervals. To tell, or not to tell.

“Hey! What are you guys doing out here? Oh my God, Himchan, you wouldn’t believe what I found in the car just now.”

All three heads snap towards the voice as a thoroughly baffled Yongguk walks out through the back door, carrying bags of groceries in one hand, and a rabbit in the other.

--

“Can we keep it daddy?”

--

Junhong blinks at his new friend for a few seconds before promptly sticking an ear into his mouth.

a/n: i dunno ㅠㅜ these chapters keep getting longer and longer. they started out as drabbles >1000 words but now... /sigh. also this chaprter. i dunno how i feel about it :/