And this was why he hated bringing Yixing with him when he visited his grandmother. There they were chatting away, discussing the merits of using seasonal ingredients in your cooking or something else equally as dull as they chopped the vegetables for dinner and here he was sitting at the kitchen table by himself, bored out of his mind. He’d offered to help but neither of them had much faith in his culinary skills so the offer had immediately been turned down. Then he’d tried to join in their conversation only for his grandmother to talk right over him and change the subject. That was when he’d given up and gone to sit down. If they didn’t want his company who was he to push it on them?

It wasn’t like it was a new thing. Whenever they visited it was always the same, as soon as his grandmother caught sight of Yixing it was like he no longer existed. She completely adored him; she had since he’d introduced her to him little over a year ago. ‘Oh look at those dimples, they’re precious!’ had been the first thing she’d said once the introductions were over much to Baekhyun’s embarrassment and Yixing had nodded politely and thanked her with a smile. And that was all it had taken for Yixing to become her new favourite person ‘He’s a nice boy Baekhyun.’ She’d told him the next time they talked on the phone, ‘You should hold on to him’ and it had been a recurring theme in every conversation they’d had since.

Yixing was just as bad. It was always ‘Hey we’ve both got some time off next week, we should visit your grandmother’ or ‘Maybe we should call her, we haven’t in a while.’ And Baekhyun got it, he did. Yixing didn’t have any family in Korea so it was understandable that he’d taken the opportunity to get close to his. And he knew how close Yixing was to his own grandparents so it made sense that it was his grandmother he got on with the best. But that didn’t mean he liked being relegated to third wheel whenever they were together.

And it was ten times worse now Yixing was pregnant. It was the only thing his grandmother wanted to talk about. He’d expected her to be excited of course, had prepared himself for it being the main topic of conversation. What he hadn’t prepared himself for was being ignored entirely. While she’d asked his boyfriend so many questions about how he’d been feeling and what he’d been doing that Baekhyun had lost count when it came to her own grandson she seemed completely uninterested. The only question she’d asked him in the hour and a half they’d been there already was ‘Did you do something to your hair?’ to which he’d replied ‘Not since the last time I saw you. Why?’ then his grandmother had hummed as if she didn’t quite believe him and that had been the end of that.

He watched as Yixing said something to his grandmother that he couldn’t quite catch and she smiled, patting him on the shoulder. Where was his pat on the shoulder, his kiss on the cheek, his hug? He hadn’t had any of those from her today; Yixing on the other hand had them all and then some. Then his boyfriend was leaving the room and Baekhyun guessed it was the bathroom he was heading for and what he’d been murmuring had been an apology. Apologising for needing to pee was something he was doing a lot of lately. Baekhyun didn’t get why the apology was necessary, if he needed to go he needed to go, that was hardly something you had to apologise for pregnant or not. Yixing always had had better manners than him though so maybe he was wrong. Maybe it was something people did.

“So it’s getting into winter now.” His grandmother said interrupting his train of thought.

He looked up in surprise to find that for the first time that day she was actually addressing him. And she was talking about not Yixing’s pregnancy, not the fact they were going to be parents soon but the weather. “Um, yeah… I guess it is.” He said, caught slightly off guard. “I had to hunt my gloves out the other day.” It wasn’t the most exciting of subjects but he’d take what he could get.

“It is getting cold.” His grandmother agreed. “And now the weather’s changing you need to make sure Yixing keeps warm. I know how forgetful he is so it’s going to be your job to make sure he bundles himself up properly before he goes outside, the last thing that boy needs right now is to catch a cold.”

Baekhyun fought the urge to groan out loud. He should have known it was too good to be true. “It’s not like I’m going to let him wander around in the snow in shorts and a t-shirt.” He told her. He wasn’t an idiot and he didn’t appreciate her treating him like he was.

“And I hope you’re making sure he’s getting enough rest.” His grandmother continued, undeterred by the rather sharp reply. “He keeps telling me he’s fine but he looks tired to me Baekhyun.”

Of course he looked tired; he’d stayed up until two the night before comparing paint swatches and looking up nursery furniture online. Baekhyun had tried to tell him to go to bed but Yixing hadn’t been having any of it. He’d told him in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t a child before turning back to the computer. And Baekhyun hadn’t really been able to argue with him because it was true; he was old enough to make his own decisions. “I have been trying.” He told her anyway. It wasn’t his fault that Yixing never listened to him.

“Well you need to try harder.” She told him firmly as she opened the fridge and started moving things around. She was obviously looking for something but that didn’t stop her from telling him off further. “Carrying a baby is hard work and it’s only going to get harder the closer he gets to his due date. He needs to look after himself. And since it’s your baby too you need to make sure he does.”

Baekhyun wasn’t quite sure what to say to this. It was as if she didn’t think he could look after his boyfriend properly without her help and he resented that. Resented it to such an extent that he wanted to tell her to mind her own business. He knew how much Yixing was going to need his support in the coming months and he also knew he wouldn’t be needing that support if it wasn’t for him; he didn’t need her to point that out. He felt guilty enough as it was.

But before he could open his mouth and tell her to out she was closing the refrigerator door with a huff and taking a step back, grumbling about the fact there wasn’t any milk which was probably a good thing. At least he wouldn’t have to explain to Yixing that like a child he’d been kicked out of the kitchen for back chatting.

“I can go and get some.” Baekhyun offered jumping at the chance to get out of the house before he really was thrown out of the kitchen for saying something stupid.

“No, no I’ll do it.” His grandmother told him. “I need to get a few other things so it’ll be easier if I go. You just stay here and keep an eye on that pot for me.” She said nodding at the stove. “If it looks like it’s going to boil over just turn the heat down a little. You can do that can’t you?”

So not only did his grandmother not think he was responsible enough to look after his boyfriend properly, she also didn’t trust him enough to put him charge of a pot of vegetables without giving him instructions first. That was just great. “I think I can manage that.” He told her doing his best to bite his tongue. And then she was gone leaving him to go back to sulking in peace.

He wasn’t alone for long however, Yixing was soon back in the room and the first thing he said when he walked in was “Where’s your grandmother?”

“She went out to get milk.” Baekhyun replied with a frown. Of course that would be the first thing he asked. And then his mouth carried right on talking without his permission. “You know sometimes I swear she likes you more than she likes me. Next time you should just come by yourself, she probably wouldn’t even notice I wasn’t with you.”

Yixing, who had been making his way back over to the stove stopped in the middle of the room and turned a surprised look on his boyfriend. “Excuse me?”

“Ignore me. It sounded a lot funnier in my head.” Baekhyun said quickly, trying to brush it off as a joke. Why the hell had he said that out loud? He’d just implied that he was jealous of the attention Yixing was getting  from his grandmother of all people. How childish could you get?

“Wait… are you jealous?” Yixing asked, as usual being able to spot one of his lies from a mile away.

Well so much for that plan he thought with a sigh.

“You are.” Yixing murmured when he didn’t respond to the question fast enough.

“No, no that’s not it.” Baekhyun told him, pushing his chair back from the table and standing up. There was no point pretending he hadn’t been serious, not now and he didn’t feel like discussing this with Yixing literally looking down on him. He’d be figuratively looking down on him soon enough and he didn’t think he could handle him doing both. “I’m not jealous… I just… I wish she’d ask me how I was doing too, you know?”

“Yes, I know.” Yixing said simply.

Well that hadn’t been the answer he’d been expecting. He’d been expecting something along the lines of ‘stop being so melodramatic’ because why should she ask him how he was doing? He wasn’t the one who’d had morning sickness that had lasted forever and had only just gotten over it, he wasn’t the one who felt self-conscious because they were putting weight on by the day and there was nothing they could do about it, he wasn’t the one who hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep in ages because they just couldn’t get comfortable anymore. There was absolutely no reason for anyone to be worrying about him, not when Yixing was the one who was suffering. “What do you mean you know?” He asked slowly, maybe he'd misheard him.

“I know she hasn’t asked about your interview yet and that bothers you.” He said.

“Yeah, that’s it.” he agreed because yes it had bothered him a little. A chance for promotion had come up at work and he’d gone for it. And while he hadn’t heard back about it yet it still would have been nice for his grandmother to have remembered about it and asked. So while that wasn’t all it was he was happy to let Yixing think that.

Yixing thought about this for a second before saying “That’s not really what’s bothering you, is it?”

Baekhyun stared back at him in disbelief. What was he, a mind reader now?

“Something’s been getting to you for a while.” Yixing explained obviously realising that he wasn’t going to get a verbal reply out of his boyfriend any time soon. “I don’t know what it is but I can tell something's been on your mind. You’ve been really quiet lately and that’s not like you. And yesterday when Chanyeol called you practically bit his head off and it’s not as of he even deserved it. All he did was ask why you didn’t want to go out last week.”

He hadn’t wanted to go out last week because he didn’t think leaving Yixing at home while he went out and got drunk with his friends would be fair. He could have said that to Chanyeol he supposed but snapping at him for asking when he’d told him to drop it had seemed easier. Because no matter how he’d phrased it Chanyeol wouldn’t have understood. He didn’t have a baby on the way; he didn’t know what it was like to have that sort of responsibility hanging over you. And again instead of saying any of this out loud he decided to go with pretending nothing was wrong. “I’ve just been a bit tired.” He shrugged.

And Yixing just carried right on with the creepy mind reader thing. “It’s got something to do with the baby, hasn’t it?” he guessed, his hand going to rest on the swell of his stomach as it often did now when he talked about their baby. It was as if he was reassuring himself that it really was there. The furrowed brow though, that wasn’t as expected. He looked concerned and Baekhyun automatically felt guilty. And the words Yixing said next only made him feel worse. “You don’t have to pretend to be happy about this if you’re not. It’s only going to make things worse for everyone in the long run.”

“That’s not it.” Baekhyun was quick to tell him, horrified that Yixing could think such a thing. They hadn’t planned this baby but that didn’t mean he didn’t want it. When Yixing had told him he was pregnant shock had immediately been followed by elation. Whenever he thought about their future settling down and starting a family was what he pictured, and yes he’d thought they’d have been married for a couple of years before their first kid came along but that hadn’t made the his excitement when Yixing told him the news any less genuine. “I’ve never been happier.”  He told him and it was true. Yixing however looked unconvinced and the only way he could think of to fix it was to tell him the truth. “It’s just… well… that doesn’t mean I’m not scared.” He said, his face colouring with shame at the admission. Yixing was not the person he should be telling this to, he had enough on his plate right now, he didn’t need yet another thing to worry about.

But there was no one else he could tell, that was the problem. Chanyeol wasn’t the only one who wouldn’t get it, none of his friends would. None of them had kids and as far as he knew none of them were planning to have them anytime soon. It wasn’t something he felt comfortable talking to his parents or his brother about either, not when they’d already made it perfectly clear that they thought he was rushing into things. He didn’t think he could handle the inevitable ‘I told you so’ that would follow. The only person left to tell after that had been his grandmother and he’d been planning to do just that, going to her with his problems wasn’t a new thing for him, when he’d been younger and wanted someone to vent to she’d always been his first choice. She’d listen, she’d offer advice but she’d never judge. He supposed that was part of the reason he’d been sulking over all the attention she’d been lavishing on Yixing. He couldn’t admit to being freaked out about the baby when she’d basically appointed herself Yixing’s chief protector, she’d probably hit him.

And sure enough Yixing looked even more worried now, biting his lip and taking a hesitant step forward as if he was afraid any sudden movement might make Baekhyun bolt. “You are?” he asked tentatively.

“Yes, I am absolutely terrified” Baekhyun breathed, finding that now he’d said it aloud he couldn’t stop everything else that had been on his mind from spilling out too. “You know your twelve week scan? That was amazing, it was but what we were basically looking at was a blob on a screen. But at your last scan they turned the monitor and there was a baby in there, with a proper little button nose and five fingers on each hand, he covered his eyes with them like he was embarrassed we were watching, remember?”

“Like she was embarrassed.” Yixing amended. He was totally convinced they were having a girl, so much so that he’d insisted that finding out the gender would have been pointless.

“He… she… it doesn’t matter.” Baekhyun continued. He’d started now so he may as well keep going. “The point is it made me see things differently. I know we’ve known about the baby for months but it's not really seemed real. And now it does seem real and it scares me because I don’t think I’m ready for that kind of responsibility. I mean come on, the majority of the time I act like a five year old.”

“There’s a difference between acting immature and being irresponsible.” Yixing pointed out. “And you’re far from irresponsible.”

Baekhyun begged to differ; he’d once bought a chinchilla instead of paying his phone bill. Granted that had been a long time ago but if that didn’t scream irresponsible he didn’t know what did. And talking of animals, “Dogs.” He blurted. “Dogs are not babies.”

“No, they’re not.” Yixing agreed. He was looking at him as if he’d gone completely mental. Baekhyun didn’t really blame him, the statement definitely needed some elaboration if he wanted it to make sense.

“I mean dogs I can handle.” Baekhyun explained. “As long as you feed them and walk them and occasionally groom them they’re fine. Looking after a baby though is so much more complicated. It’s something I don’t have the skill set for yet and I don’t want to be a crappy father. I don’t want to let you down.”

“You’re not going to let me down.” Yixing said.

He sounded pretty sure of himself but Baekhyun didn’t feel any better. In fact he felt worse because Yixing was obviously delusional. “You’re expecting me to ensure the survival of another human being.” He reminded his boyfriend. “I’m definitely not cut out for that. Do you know how hard it is for a new-born baby to regulate their own body temperature?” The more he thought about it the more agitated he could feel himself getting. Maybe talking about it hadn’t been such a good idea after all. "It’s nearly impossible so it’s going to be up to us to make sure he or she doesn’t freeze or overheat. And I know you, throwing on an extra blanket when it’s cold is something you’d do without thinking. Looking after others is what you do best. But me, leave me in charge and I wouldn’t realise it was too cold until it was too late and our baby would end up with hypothermia.”

“I think that’s a little overdramatic.” Yixing reasoned. He looked like he was having a hard time deciding whether he should be amused or disturbed by the fact Baekhyun was approaching an emotional breakdown and it had been brought on by blankets.

But Baekhyun was too far gone to let that stop him. “And what if the baby gets ill and you’re not around? How will I know? I won’t, he’ll start crying and at first I’ll think it’s because he’s pining after you because really, who wouldn’t? And then I’ll think ‘Hey, he might be hungry’. Then if feeding him didn’t work I’d check his nappy or try and get him to sleep. ‘What if he’s ill?’ will be the last thing to cross my mind and by the time it did a trip to the doctor woudn’t cut it, we'd probably end up in the hospital and…”

And Yixing wasn’t listening to him. He was staring at a spot somewhere above his right shoulder, his eyes slightly unfocussed. “The baby moved.” He mumbled after moment or two of silence and Baekhyun sighed.

That was hardly news, “He’s been moving for weeks.” He reminded him. He usually found the way Yixing zoned out whenever he felt their baby wriggling around to be ridiculously adorable but they’d been in the middle of quite a serious conversation. Zoning out in the middle of a serious conversation was kind of rude.

“She…” Yixing said softly, still looking distracted. “And I know. But this was… she really moved. It wasn’t a flutter or a twitch, it was a nudge.”

Okay, well that was news. Yixing had been feeling movement for weeks now he hadn’t felt anything strong enough to be classified as a nudge or a kick much to Baekhyun’s disappointment. “Like a nudge someone else could feel?” he asked to clarify, looking speculatively at Yixing’s rounded belly.

“Maybe.” Yixing mused his hand frozen where he’d felt the baby move. Then his expression cleared and he was grabbing Baekhyun’s hand and shoving it under his shirt “There,” he said, placing it against the bare skin of his stomach and holding it firmly in place, “that’s where I felt it. Maybe she’ll do it again.”

“Okay.” Baekhyun said bemusedly, a little thrown by how quickly the mood had changed. Less than a minute ago he’d been approaching a panic attack at the mere thought of looking after a baby and now he was waiting to feel that same baby move against his hand with bated breath.

And he didn’t have long to wait. It was the tiniest of bumps against the palm of his hand, if he hadn’t been looking out for it he probably wouldn’t even have noticed but it was enough to have him grinning like an idiot.

“You felt that?” Yixing asked sounding a little giddy himself.

“Yeah, yeah I did.” Baekhyun told him, totally awestruck. That had been his baby he’d just felt move under his hand. He’d just felt his son or daughter move for the very first time, it was a big moment. And at that thought his smile quickly faded. “Okay so that was pretty cool.” He admitted. “But that doesn’t change the fact I’m going to be the worst dad ever.”

“No you’re not.” Yixing told him, refusing to loosen his grip on his hand. “And do you know how I know that?”

There was no way he could know that but Baekhyun decided to humour him. “How?” he asked.

“I know because you’re scared.” Yixing told him. “Being scared shows you want to get it right.”

Baekhyun found himself reluctantly thinking that that Yixing was onto something. That was all he wanted to do, get things right, so maybe it was okay to worry a little. “I’m sorry, I was being…” he started to say intending to apologise for being to stupid but before he could get the words out he noticed something that had him saying “Oh !” and dropping his hand as he took a step towards the stove.

His grandmother had given him one job and one job only, and that was to not let the pot boil over ad he’d managed to mess it up. She was going to kill him.  

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

AN: So this would have been up earlier if the N key on my keyboard hadn't broken. But it did so yeah... it wasn't.

Anywho this is for horadoribabe who asked for something set at Baekhyun's grandmother's house. There's not a lot of his grandmother and again it didn't turn out anything like I thought it would, there was meant to be cute and there was meant to be funny but it ended up just being about Baekhyun having a freak out over nothing. I hope you like it anyway.

And here's what my to do list looks like now:

Kaixing for mitsuka501
Baekhun for kookiehs
Xiuhan for KspazzingFangirl
Chenhun for itoexo
Taoris for samoyed
Seho for painkillerxxx
Krishun for mitsuka501