Jongin was not being overly sympathetic. But then again when was he ever Sehun thought as he frowned up at the ceiling. He was lying on his living room couch, his phone pressed to his ear, his other hand under his shirt resting on his now much too rounded for his liking stomach. Since Jongin wasn’t actually in the room to glare at the ceiling would have to do as a substitute. “But I’m six months pregnant Jongin,” he reminded his best friend, not that he needed the reminder, they saw each other on a daily basis and it wasn’t exactly something that was hard to miss, “who goes out to a college party and leaves their six months pregnant boyfriend home alone?”

“Sehun, you told him he could go.” Jongin said, doing some reminding of his own. “I know you did, I was there. I heard the whole conversation.”

It was true, when Tao had mentioned that Luhan had invited them both to some party he was throwing he’d said he didn’t want to go, not when he wouldn’t be able to drink and that Tao could go without him but that didn’t mean Sehun was any happier about being abandoned by his boyfriend .“Yeah,…” He said trying to think of how to argue the point without sounding like a crazy person. In the end he gave up, Jongin already thought he was crazy anyway so what was the point? “It’s just… he could have said no, you know?”

“He did say no. He said he didn’t want to go without you at least three times.” Jongin pointed out ever so helpfully. “And you kept telling him you felt bad about him missing out because of you.”

“Well I did feel bad.” He really didn’t like it, the fact that not only was he missing out on all the best parts of college now that he was pregnant but that Tao was too. “And I didn’t want people to think I was being a jerk for telling him he couldn’t go. But he could have changed his mind afterwards when everyone was gone. I mean, why would he think I was okay with staying here all night by myself?”

“Maybe because you told him you were okay with it.”

Okay, so Jongin still wasn’t getting it. “Yeah because if I didn’t he’d probably think I was being needy and hormonal.”

“You’re being needy and hormonal right now.” Jongin told him.

“No I’m not.” Sehun protested, trying his hardest not to whine like a child. That was all he needed, Jongin to have an excuse to call him childish too. He was the worst best friend ever. He had no idea why he even put up with him. “I’m just bored.” Yeah, that was totally why he’d called him, it was because he was bored. It had nothing to do with the fact he felt lonely. It didn’t have anything to do with the baby kicking and how it was making him wish Tao was there either.

And suddenly Jongin was sounding a lot more sympathetic. “Look, if you really hate being on your own that much I can come over.”

Obviously his ‘I’m just bored’ had come out sounding a lot more pathetic than he’d intended it to Sehun thought. And he was sorely tempted to take Jongin up on his offer. Having Jongin there would be better than nothing. But there was one problem. “Aren’t you supposed to be having Kyungsoo over?” he asked.

“Yeah, but I can cancel.” Jongin assured him. “It’s no big deal.”

Only Sehun thought it kind of was. “Didn’t you cook for him?” He’d been talking about it for days, how his boyfriend always cooked for him when he was at his place and how he was going to return the favour and surprise him. He’d put a lot of effort into working out what he was going to make and how he was going to make it, looking up recipes, sourcing ingredients, practicing... cooking wasn’t really Jongin’s thing and obviously he’d wanted Kyungsoo to be impressed by how hard he’d tried.

“Yeah, it’s in the oven ready to heat up when he gets here.” Jongin confirmed. “But it’s cool, I can just bring it to yours.”  

“I don’t think bailing on your boyfriend so you can bring the meal you cooked specifically for him over here and then feeding that meal to me is going to go over very well.” Sehun reasoned. “Not when you’ve barely seen him all week.” Jongin had the end of year dance performance coming up (one Sehun would have been preparing for too if he wasn’t currently pregnant, he couldn’t help feeling a little bitter about that) and had had very little time to spend with anyone.

“Maybe not.” Jongin conceded. “But I can still come over if you want.”

And Sehun very nearly gave in. Jongin had offered twice now and no one had made him do it. If Kyungsoo got mad at him it would be entirely his own fault. But then he thought about how he would feel if he hadn’t seen Tao in what felt like forever and he stood him up to go hang out with one of his friends and he stopped himself. He was missing Tao like crazy and he’d only been gone a couple of hours, he couldn’t imagine what it would be like it if it had been a week. “No really, it’s fine.” He told Jongin, trying his hardest to sound like he meant it. “I’m pretty tired to be honest, I’ll probably just go to bed early.”

“Well if you’re sure…” Jongin said not sounding very convinced.

“I’m sure.” Sehun insisted. “I’ll let you get ready, Kyungsoo will be at your door any minute.” And before Jongin could argue any further he murmured a ‘bye’ and hung up the phone. Jongin really didn’t need to worry about him, worrying about him was Tao’s job he thought as he threw his phone onto the coffee table with a huff. Not that he was doing a very good job of it at the moment but still, Jongin had a boyfriend of his own to take care of, he didn’t need to be concerning himself with him. And he hadn’t lied about being tired, he probably was going to go to bed early so it wasn’t as if he’d be very good company anyway.

… … … …

And Sehun did try to go to bed early. There was nothing on tv that was interesting enough to keep his eyes open and the baby had stopped moving around so much so that wasn’t acting as a distraction. But fifteen minutes after crawling under the covers Sehun gave up on trying to sleep. All he could think about was how mad he was at Tao for not insisting harder on staying home and that in turn was making him feel kind of stupid because he knew he was being a total brat, Tao was his own person and he should be allowed to have a social life of his own but Sehun just couldn’t stop himself from frowning in annoyance every time he thought about it. And the baby seemed to think he was being stupid too because he was kicking again and he wasn’t letting up. So with a sigh Sehun had gotten up and headed for the kitchen to grab a glass of water and then he’d thrown himself back onto the couch and settled down to do some more sulking.

He’d finished off the water and was starting to think about getting up to get some actual food to go with it, it had been a long time since dinner and his stomach was merrily reminding him of that fact, but before he could the front door was swinging open and then slamming shut and all thoughts of food were forgotten. Tao was home. Tao was home early. Sehun didn’t know how he felt about that. He’d been missing him since he left but he’d been cursing his name the whole time he was gone too and he wasn’t any less mad at him for leaving. Okay, so he’d left the party early but what did that matter when he shouldn’t have gone in the first place? So instead of rushing to the door to meet him Sehun picked up the tv remote and switched it on.

“Oh good, you’re awake.” Tao said once he’d made it into the living room.

Sehun hummed noncommittally and kept his attention focussed on the screen.

“I thought you might be in bed by now.” Tao continued, his voice closer.

“Well I’m not.” Sehun mumbled still refusing to turn and look at him. He’d quite like to be but he wasn’t and since Tao was part of the reason why he thought his refusal to make eye contact was perfectly justified and he was going to keep it up as long as possible. Tao didn’t deserve his attention, not after disregarding his feelings and going to that stupid party without him.

And then Tao was right beside him, sitting himself down on the couch and Sehun had to make a concentrated effort not to break the resolution he’d just made and turn his head. Just because Tao smelled really good that didn’t mean he had to forgive him. As much as he wanted to snuggle into his side and close his eyes now that he was here it would just have to wait.

“I tried to get away earlier.” Tao said after a moment or two of silence. He sounded a little confused by the lack of response he was getting and Sehun could just imagine the slight crease between his eyebrows that probably accompanied the words.

But no, as adorable as a confused Zitao was he didn’t need to turn and look. “Of course you did.” He muttered bitterly instead. He’d been away for hours, he obviously hadn’t tried very hard.

“I did.” Tao insisted. “But Luhan kept catching me before I could get to the door. You know what he’s like.”

“Hmm.” Was Sehun’s only response. Because it wasn’t as if he could argue with him, he did know what Luhan was like. Luhan was annoyingly persistent and nearly impossible to say no to so if he really had been intent on getting Tao to stay then it was a wonder he’d made it out of there at all.

“I managed to get Minseok hyung on side though.” Tao continued. “He distracted him for me so I could make a run for it.”

“How nice.” Minseok could be pretty inventive when it came to thinking up ways to distract his boyfriend so if Luhan found out what had happened he'd probably be thankful more than anything. It had been good thinking on Tao’s part to involve him in his escape plan really. Not that Sehun was going to tell him that.

“I just wanted to get home, you know?” Tao explained prompting another noncommittal hum from Sehun and another minute or so of awkward silence. He obviously hadn’t wanted to get home that badly or he’d have asked Minseok to help sooner. He’d obviously been more than happy to help himself to the alcohol on offer too because while he was far from drunk his accent was just that little bit thicker and that was a sure fire indicator he’d been drinking. He’d been having a pretty good time without him there it seemed and Sehun was more than a little put out by that. And then Tao was breaking the silence for a second time. “I don’t understand why you’re mad at me. You told me I could go.” He said, clearly frustrated.

And Sehun finally turned to look at him. “Of course I’m mad at you!” he snapped. “Just because I told you to go that didn’t mean I wanted you to! Do you think it was fun for me, sitting at home here alone while you were out having a good time without me?”

“Who said I was having a good time?” Tao snapped back, his eyes hardening. “I mean I tried to because you told me to, remember? ‘It’s fine, go without me. I want you to have fun.’ That’s what you said, but it was hard.”

“Well good because I didn’t mean it.” Why hadn’t Tao realised that? If he had they wouldn’t be arguing right now. If he had then he wouldn’t be fighting the urge to strangle him.

“Then you shouldn’t have said it.” Tao told him which a reasonable argument.

 It was just a shame Sehun wasn’t in the mood to listen to reasonable. “I was trying to be nice.” He told him. “Did you want me to act like a controlling and tell you you couldn’t go in front of our friends? Because next time I can definitely do that.”

“I didn’t realise it would get to you that much.” Tao bit out. “If you want to go out and drink and party like you used to then you can do that as much as you want once the baby’s here, I don’t care. You can do what you want, I’m not going to stop you. But there’s no reason for you get so angry about the fact that I can do it now just because you can’t. It’s petty and it’s stupid.”  

And Sehun was momentarily rendered speechless. Tao had just called him petty. Petty. He thought he was angry with him because he was jealous. That wasn’t it at all, yes he missed being able to socialise with his friends the way he used to but he was dealing with that. He knew he couldn’t go back to how things were now that he had a baby to think about and to think that Tao thought he was too childish to realise that, well it really stung. “That’s not what I meant.” He said at last, the words quiet. He could feel a lump forming in his throat and he tried to swallow it down. Now was not the time to let his hormones get the better of him. “I didn’t… this isn’t about… I didn’t want to be there, I wanted you here.” He admitted, his voice cracking ever so slightly. "I missed you." So much for keeping his hormones under control he thought as he felt tears start welling in his eyes. He was terrible at keeping his emotions in check now that he was pregnant, it was embarrassing.

 “Oh.” Was Tao’s only answer at first, the scowl leaving his face only to be replaced by a look of surprise.

And if it had been any other time Sehun would have echoed that ‘oh’ back at him and glared because ‘oh’ was a ridiculous response to that statement. This time however all he could manage was sniff and a croaky “I know it’s stupid.’

“No, no it’s not.” Tao told him, finally getting a grip of the situation. “It’s really not. I was thinking about you too, the whole time. It was always more your thing that it was mine, the whole partying thing. It wasn’t the same without you.”

“But that’s different.” Sehun argued, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand and trying to bring his tears under control. There was absolutely no reason for him to be crying like a child over this. “Wishing I was there is not the same thing as me wallowing in self-pity just because you left me alone for a couple of hours. I was being pathetic.”

“No you weren’t.” Tao said gently, brushing away a tear he’d missed with his thumb. “If you’re a little all over the place at the moment then it’s understandable, it’s probably just…”

“Don’t say it.” Sehun said, finally managing to summon up a glare.

“Hormones.” Tao finished sounding far too amused for Sehun’s liking. “Come on, you know it’s true. You wouldn’t have missed me half as much without them magnifying things.”

“Maybe not.” Sehun conceded because it wasn’t as if he could deny it, they’d definitely played a part. There was no way he’d have ended up in tears like that if they hadn’t so it wasn’t much of stretch to say they were to blame for how much he’d been missing Tao earlier. “It was still kind of pitiful. Imagine if you’d had to leave for a whole day, a week even… I’d have been a total mess.”

“I wouldn’t leave you alone for that long though, would I?” Tao reasoned, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze. “I’d probably end up a mess too by the end of it.”

“That’s kind of sad.” Sehun told him, managing a faint smile. “I mean at least I have an excuse, you just…” but before he could tease his boyfriend further he noticed what he had in his other hand. “Is that bubble tea?” he asked. How had he not noticed that before?

“Uh… yeah.” Tao said with a nod. He seemed a little thrown by the rapid change of subject but Sehun was too focussed on his discovery to care.

“It’s not chocolate.” He said next, and that was honestly a surprise to him. Tao only had one cup in his hands and he wasn’t stupid enough to buy bubble tea for himself and forget to buy him any so it was probably a peace offering. But chocolate had always been his go to flavour, why had Tao ordered something different?

“No it’s Lychee.” Tao told him, holding the cup up so he could see it better. “Is that okay?”

“Of course it’s okay.” He hadn’t had to buy him anything, complaining because he hadn’t brought him the flavour he wanted would just be plain rude. And to be honest he’d gone off chocolate a little the last few weeks, Lychee would be a nice change.

“I was going to get you chocolate.” Tao said as he handed the cup over, “But then I remembered you’d sort of gone off chocolate and I thought maybe it would be better to get you something else.”

And Sehun froze, straw halfway to his mouth. “You did?” he asked. He didn’t think he’d mentioned it to Tao but maybe he had and it had slipped his mind.

“Yeah, I mean there’s still a whole carton of chocolate milk in the fridge,” Tao reminded him, “and we bought that two days ago. It usually wouldn’t last more than two hours with you around never mind two days.”

So he was right, he hadn’t mentioned it to Tao, Tao had worked it out all on his own. “Oh.” Not only had Tao noticed the fact he wasn’t so keen on chocolate any more but he’d remembered it and acted on it.  It was incredibly sweet of him. So sweet of him in fact that Sehun found himself fighting back tears for a second time.

And Tao was immediately frowning in concern. “Hey, no, don’t do that.” He said, a hand going to Sehun’s shoulder as he tried to meet his eyes. “If I got it wrong I’m sorry, I can go back and get you chocolate. I can probably make it down there before the place closes.”

Sehun quickly shook his head. “You didn’t… it’s not….” Were the only words he could manage to get out and then the tears were falling properly. He hadn’t meant to make Tao feel like he’d done something else wrong. He’d come home early because he’d missed him, he’d bought him bubble tea on his way back, he cared about him enough to notice the little things like his sudden dislike for chocolate milk and remember them, he was an actual angel. And to think he’d been mad at him. He was an idiot.

Tao’s frown deepened. “Come here.” He said with a sigh and he took the cup of bubble tea from Sehun’s hands and placed it on the table so he could wrap an arm around his shoulders and pull him into his side. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” he asked gently.

“I don’t know.” Sehun mumbled, his face colouring in embarrassment. “It’s just nice, that you… noticed and I…” Oh god, he was sobbing so much that he couldn’t get a sentence out. It was ridiculous. “I hate this.” He groaned burrowing in closer to Tao’s chest.

“Sssh.” Tao told him, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. He brought his free hand up and started running it up and down Sehun’s bare arm in a bid to sooth him. “I know you do. But the baby will be here soon, it won’t be long until you’re feeling more like yourself.”

And that was exactly the problem Sehun realised. He didn’t feel like himself. He wasn’t usually so sensitive and he definitely wasn’t used to feeling so vulnerable. It was unsettling. And if it was unsettling for him then it was probably unsettling for Tao too. “Thank you.” He told him, feeling a little more in control now after Tao’s reassurances. “For putting up with me. I know I’ve been hard work lately.”

“You don’t have to thank me.” Tao protested.

Sehun ignored him. He did need to thank him, he’d been putting up with his mood swings for months now, he definitely deserved a thank you. So with that thought in mind Sehun pushed away from Tao’s chest and slid one hand around to the nape of Tao’s neck and brought his mouth down to meet his.

“What are you…” Tao started to ask but Sehun didn’t let him get any further, tugging him closer and kissing him harder.

“When I said I missed you,” he mumbled against his mouth, his free hand making its way down to start work on the button of Tao’s jeans “well I meant it.”

He was half expecting Tao to push his hand away to be honest, he’d been sobbing into his shirt two minutes ago after all, if Tao thought now wasn’t the time he wouldn’t blame him. And he did push his hand away, he broke the kiss too but it wasn’t for the reason Sehun had expected. Instead of widening the gap between them and trying to talk to some sense into him Tao hooked a hand under Sehun’s thigh and tugged, settling him securely in his lap. “I missed you too.” Tao assured him with a hint of a smirk, and then it was his turn to pull Sehun into a kiss, his hand working it’s way up Sehun’s neck and his fingers tangling in his hair and Sehun found himself biting back a moan. They hadn’t done this in far too long he realised, he’d been feeling kind of self-conscious lately, finding any excuse the last few weeks to stick to cuddling. He was tired, that was the one he used most often and Tao always bought it. He’d been scared things would get awkward now that he was so visibly pregnant but with Tao tugging on his hair while he worked his mouth against his he couldn’t bring himself to care. Add to that the fact that Tao was gripping his thigh through pyjama pants like that, hard enough to leave marks, well it was pretty obvious Tao didn’t care either he thought as he began working on the buttons of his boyfriend's shirt, all thoughts of out of control hormones and tears totally forgotten.

~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~

Taohun for ILuvSkyDragon! I know it took forever but I hope you like it.

The list:

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