Baekhyun’s tiny feet moved a hundred miles an hour as he scurried after Chanyeol. Every single place Chanyeol went to, Baekhyun followed. Only, it took far more effort for him to move about the house than it did the other. Occasionally, he would stumble or trip over his blanket – a cape, as he called it, that he had refused to take off.

For each step Chanyeol took, Baekyun took twelve. It was hard work keeping up with a giant – even if they themselves did not think they were one – but Baekhyun didn’t mind putting in the extra effort. He wanted to help Chanyeol out as much as possible.

Out into the laundry they went, Baekhyun hot on Chanyeol’s heel. He was focusing so hard on trying to keep up that when Chanyeol stopped suddenly, Baekhyun collided with his half with a quiet ‘oof’. With a roll of his eyes, Chanyeol couldn’t help but smile at Baekhyun’s determinedness to help.

“Here,” he said, passing a single face washer to Baekhyun. “Carry this, please.”

“Okay!” Baekhyun chirped, taking the washer from Chanyeol’s hand.  Backing himself against the wall, he waited for Chanyeol to unload the dryer and fill the washing basket with clothes.

Without a word, Chanyeol hoisted the washing basket to his chest and started out of the laundry once more. Baekhyun scampered after him, doing his best to keep the –rather large, to him at least- piece of fabric from touching the ground.  That proved to be quite a task and, by the time he finally caught up to where Chanyeol waited for him in the kitchen, he was out of breath.

“Tired?” Chanyeol asked as he scooped Baekhyun and the face washer up in one hand, placing them both on the kitchen table. “Doing laundry is a lot of work.”

“No!” Baekhyun insisted, puffing his chest out. “I am good at helping, Mister Giant! I am good at laundry, too!”

“Okay,” Chanyeol chuckled, busying himself with folding towels. “Can you fold the face washer for me, please?”

“Of course!”

Baekhyun narrowed his brows in determination as he tried to mirror Chanyeol’s movements. He lined up the corners, did everything he could, but the face washer was too big for him to fold.

“I’ve got this,” he insisted as he tried, again and again. But each time, the face washer was anything but folded.

In one swift movement, Chanyeol tugged the face washer out of Baekhyun’s tiny hands. One flip, two flips. It was folded as neatly as the rest.

“There we go,” Chanyeol said, passing the neatly folded manchester to Baekhyun, who stared at it with a blank expression. “Good job, Baek.”

“I…” Baekhyun began. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Of course you did,” Chanyeol explained, his mind working fast to spare the others feelings. “If you hadn’t started folding it, I’d of never been able to finish it.”

“But-“

“But nothing. It’s all of your hard work, Baek. Be happy about it. You’re a great help.”

Baekhyun’s eyes lit up the moment those words reached his ears and he smiled happily.

“Thank you,” he chirped, proud. “I like helping Mister Giant with things!”

A blanket of steam covered the bathroom, the condensation that clung to the walls occasionally caught the light and shimmered. Baekhyun hugged the hem of his cape close to him and looked around the bathroom in wonder.

“There we go,” Chanyeol said, dipping a single finger into the bathroom sink. “Is that too hot for you?”

“Um,” Baekhyun began, cautiously making his way to the rim of the sink, his bare feet slipping and sliding on the steam-covered bench, making crossing the short distance far more difficult that it should have been.

Making sure his cape was far out of the waters reach, he leaned over the side of the sink and dipped his hand into the warm bath that Chanyeol had run for him.

“It’s perfect,” he said.

“Alright,” Chanyeol nodded. “I’ll be out in the lounge room if you need me.  I have some things I need to do.” When Baekhyun made no move to get undressed, Chanyeol laughed. “You need to take your cape off when you have a bath, Baek,” he said. “Everything else, too. Don’t worry, I’ll be outside.”

Turning to leave, Chanyeol stopped when he heard Baekhyun’s soft voice call out to him once more.

“Mister Giant?” he asked and Chanyeol sighed inwardly. He should have known that Baekhyun was always going to ask questions.

“Yes?”

“Um … “Baekhyun began, pondering what he was going to ask. “Do you have any bath toys I can play with?”

“Oh, er …” Chanyeol frowned in thought. He was pretty sure he had a rubber ducky somewhere in his bathroom, one that he had kept since he was very young. But where did he put it? Checking the three draws on the far side of the sink cabinet, he then tried the small cupboards, and sure enough, there was the tiny yellow rubber ducky from his childhood, stuffed away in the farthest corner of the cupboard.

Scooping it up quickly, he dropped it into the sink.

“There,” he said with a small nod at Baekhyun who was hugging his cape close to him once more. “That’s about all I have, sorry.”

Baekhyun’s eyes lit up the moment he saw the duck.

“Ducky!” he grinned, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Thank you, Mister Giant!”

“You’re welcome. Remember, I’ll be in the lounge room if you need me.”

“Okay!”

Baekhyun splashed around happily in the warm water; the basin was so deep, it was like a swimming pool. Baekhyun beamed at the thought. The bottom looked so far away, maybe he could dive down to touch the bottom.

Swimming was tiring work, so after a good ten minutes, Baekhyun decided to tread water, intrigued by the vastness of the bathroom.  Chanyeol’s rubber bath duck bobbed along the surface of the water casually, bumping into Baekhyun’s tiny shoulder.

“Oh,” Baekhyun murmured, snapping out of his daydream. “I’m sorry Mister Ducky.”  Kicking his legs quickly, Baekhyun moved himself out of the rubber bath duck’s way, watching as it bobbed along.

“Mister Ducky?” Baekhyun asked, lying backwards into the water, his arms stretching out to help him float. “Do you have a cape too?” 

Chanyeol sat on the couch in the lounge room, his head bowed and shouldered hunched in concentration. A messy pile of various fabrics sat on the couch beside him and, in his lap was a sewing kit.

Again and again, he would prick his fingers with the sewing needle. Again and again, he would make a mistake. But Chanyeol was determined to get the final few things made for Baekhyun by the time he had finished his bath.

Deciding that rising early in the morning to make a start on some of the clothes was a good idea, he had hidden all traces of his project when Baekhyun had awoken, keeping Baekhyun busy all through breakfast by asking him questions.

(“So how much would you like for breakfast, Baekhyun?” he had asked.

Baekhyun had pondered this for a few moments before replying – but not answering, per se. “Once, I was so hungry that I ate four whole strawberries!” he threw his hands into the air in an attempt to show just how big his appetite was.

“Not much, then …” )

Putting the final touches on the tiny jacket, Chanyeol’s ears pricked at the sound of Baekhyun’s voice. Who was he talking to? Getting to his feet, Chanyeol walked quietly down the hallway, resting his ear against the bathroom door.

“Mister Ducky?” came Baekhyun’s tiny voice through the bathroom door. “Do you have a cape too?”

Chanyeol snorted. Of course he was talking to the duck.

“I have a cape and I like it very much! Mister Giant gave it to me, he is very kind.”

At these words, Chanyeol felt the corners of his lips tug upwards into a small smile.

“Maybe Mister Giant can give you a cape, too? I think it would suit you!”

Shaking his head, Chanyeol made his way back into the lounge room. Folding the tiny clothes in a neat pile, Chanyeol couldn’t keep the smile from his face.

This would be a wonderful present for Baekhyun to say thank you for helping him with the house work. Chanyeol laughed. With so much leftover fabric, he might even make Baekhyun’s new friend, Mister Ducky a cape, too.