Warning: Has not been edited for mistakes.

Changmin is worth loving.

Victoria finds herself thinking this when she sees him carrying their baby around their house gently, whispering against the baby’s cheeks when he plants small kisses, and mostly when Changmin passes out exhaustively in bed when the day is finally over.

And then when she raises Joy into her own arms, cradling the baby softly, she can’t help but feel a little guilty.

She’s a little less selfless than Changmin, she thinks, because she still isn’t entirely trusting of him.

In fact, when Changmin smiles at his daughter—their daughter, now— and, perhaps it’s just Victoria, dotes on the baby girl a little more, Victoria feels flustered. Even now, now that Wendy is no longer an obstacle, she does not feel secure.

Yet, when Changmin ends the night by holding Victoria close in his arms, refusing to let her leave the bed when the children fuss, and does everything in his power to protect her from everything in the world that can hurt her, she finds herself falling deeper and deeper in love with him.

Her mother says she’s stupid; stupid for not believing in Changmin, stupid for bringing the baby girl home.

However, her father never says anything of the sort to her. Maybe it is because he, as a man, understands.

“Qian,” her father once said, “if you hold a man’s heart too tightly, he will suffer; if you hold a man’s heart too loosely, you will suffer. If his heart belongs to you, no matter how tight or loosely you hold on, he will never stray. Changmin has not only given you his heart, he’s given you his soul. Tell me, what do you do with a man’s soul?”

She had cried then, and her father had held her close in his arms.

“You hide it,” he whispered to her. “You place it deep in your heart and cherish it until the day you die.”

“What are you thinking about?”

Victoria watches as Changmin sleepily blinks at her, shifting in the bed so that he can get a better look at her face. Slowly, she smiles, leaning forward and resting her forehead against his shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” He asks, and the longer the silence, the more worried he gets.

Eventually, she brings up the courage to speak to him. Victoria says, “Changmin, let’s get married.”

At her words, Changmin feels his entire world stop. If he thought breathing was an issue without her, he only now learned that she knew how to steal his breath away in more ways than just one. “R-really?”

She nods and pulls away to look him in the eyes. “I’ve been thinking about how I can be better at loving you. All I’ve been doing lately is hurting you—with words, with actions, with everything that I could possibly hurt you with—but I don’t want to hurt you anymore.”

“Qian…”

“I need to make it all up to you,” she tells him very seriously. “I have to use the rest of my life to make up for everything I’ve done to you.”

Because Changmin doesn’t see her selfishness, nor does he sees her unreasonable ways. Victoria knows that Changmin has only ever seen the good in her and she’s thankful, so thankful, that Changmin can love someone as imperfect as herself.

And he sits up from the bed, fingers trembling when he reaches out to cradle her small face in his hand.

“I thought…” he stutters breath shaky and eyes disbelieving. “I thought you’d never want to marry me again.”

Victoria bites down on her lip, staring back into his eyes.

“I’ve been so afraid of asking you again; scared you would reject me just like last time. I thought you’d never let me marry you. I thought….”

Perhaps there were hundreds and thousands of thoughts that flooded his mind when it came to Victoria, but none of them prove correct when he basks in the affection she is showing him now.

She was never in the wrong but she felt apologetic towards him anyways.

“We don’t need to hold a ceremony…” she says to interrupt the dawning silence, “we can just—”

Changmin breaks into a smile and takes a deep breath. “Of course we do!” He exclaims, pulling her into his arms and falling over onto the bed. “I’m going to make you the happiest, most beautiful bride!”

She complains a little about his weight and shoves him away when he tries to kiss her with his sleepy and clumsy lips, but the warmth in her stomach is about to burst from within her. Their children were sleeping soundly beside them until Changmin began shouting ecstatically.

At the first cry, Changmin stops all movement.

“Maybe they’ll go back to sleep,” he whispers.

Victoria rolls her eyes and slides out of bed. “Joy doesn’t cry much,” she comments when she peeks into Joy’s crate and finds the baby scrunching up her nose but not making a sound.

“Max doesn’t either,” Changmin defends, but the little boy only cries louder at the mention of his name.

Laughing, Victoria pulls Changmin out of bed and tells him to tend to his son. “I’m going to heat up some water for milk,” she says. “Don’t slack!”

Changmin gives her a little salute before she disappears into the kitchen.

When Victoria returns, she finds Changmin already fallen asleep on their bed with both children tuck up with pillows guarding around them on their bed. She shakes her head and sighs, carrying Max in her embrace as she feeds him the milk she has prepared and he drinks hungrily from the bottle.

Then she watches Changmin and Joy, sees the similarities in the features of their face, and something inside her melts a little.

Perhaps it was her jealousy, or maybe it was the last bit of anger built up inside her, but years into the future, when Joy can walk on her own two feet and enjoys following Victoria around wherever she goes, Victoria can happily lift Joy into her arms and let Joy kiss her until her face is covered in the child’s saliva.

The little girl calls her “mommy” and, even though Max calls her by the same greeting, it feels different when Joy says it.

“I love you, mommy!” Joy would laugh into Victoria’s hair.

Max would pout from the ground, tugging on Victoria’s shirt. “Me too! Me too!”

And then Changmin would walk into the kitchen and steal Joy from Victoria so that Max can have his turn of morning kisses.

“I love you most,” Changmin winks at Victoria, but Joy refuses and kicks at her father in hopes of gaining freedom.

“I’m taking Joy out to lunch with Wendy today,” Victoria tells him. “If you can make it, let me know and I’ll give you the location.”

Setting Joy and Max down, Victoria walks Changmin to the door and helps him with his jacket. “Tell her I said hi,” Changmin says before leaning forward for a kiss, “and that I hope she’s well.”

“You should come,” Victoria disagrees. “Joy would probably be happier if you both spent time with her together.”

“And you?” Changmin asks. “Would you be happy?”

Victoria smiles helplessly. “I have you for the rest of my life. What’s a couple of hours? I just want our kids to be happy, Changmin.”

Despite understanding her standpoint Changmin just nods and replies with a weak “we’ll see” before leaving to work.

“He’s still walking on eggshells around you?” Wendy asks, feeding Joy a spoon of ice cream whilst a warm, motherly smile graces her face.

Victoria takes a sip of coffee and nods. “I was too harsh on him.”

“He loves you, that’s all,” Wendy shrugs.

“Mommy, can we buy some ice cream for Max, too?”

Victoria glances over at Joy and nods her head. “Sure,” she says, “do you know what flavor he likes?”

“Cookies and cream!” Joy excitedly answers.

Wendy laughs at her daughter, who’s jumping in her chair with ice cream smothered all over her lips. “They get along well it seems,” she comments.

And Victoria nods. “Max and Joy are almost inseparable, but they fight a lot too, just like any other sibling.”

“Ah!” Wendy suddenly remembers a small gift in her bag. “I bought this for Max while I was on a business trip abroad. I hope he likes it.”

“Do I have one too, mama?!” Joy asks, eyes wide and round.

Wendy nods. “Of course!”

“Oh, toys, just what she needs more of,” a playful voice interrupts them.

Victoria seems relieved at his presence. “You made it.”

“I figured it’d be smart to come since you’re literally only a few minutes away from my work and that was a pretty good sign you wanted me here,” Changmin grins at Victoria before taking a seat across from Wendy. “Long time no see.”

“Indeed,” Wendy nods at him. “You seem well.”

“As good as ever,” Changmin agrees.

Joy jumps out of her seat and pulls on Changmin’s hand. “Daddy, let’s get Max ice cream!”

“It’s going to melt if we get it now, let’s get it when we leave,” Changmin tries to argue but Joy keeps pulling him away. “Joy, wait!”

When the two of them are out of earshot, Wendy returns her attention to Victoria. “I… I’m considering a job offer that requires for me to leave the country for a period of time.”

“And Joy?”

“I was thinking about asking if I could take her with me, but I don’t want to disrupt her current lifestyle,” Wendy answers. “You, Changmin, and Max are a huge part of her life and taking it all away from her isn’t fair.”

“Her mama is important to her, too,” Victoria tells her. “Don’t underestimate your importance to Joy.”

Wendy nods and turns to watch Changmin and Joy in the distance.

“Changmin doesn’t have much patience when it comes to anyone but you,” Wendy smiles weakly, “after all these years, he still hasn’t changed.”

Chuckling, Victoria shakes her head. “He pretends to be irritated with the kids but he cares more than anyone else.”

“Oh?” Wendy smiles.

Victoria continues. “Just the other day I noticed some paperwork having to do with enrollment for music lessons. When I asked him, he said they were for Joy.”

Wendy listens closely.

“Piano,” Victoria concludes. “When I took Joy shopping for winter clothes, she stopped briefly at a window with a small piano and stared at it for a while. I hadn’t noticed it before, but she loves music. Max said that Joy always receives compliments when they have music corners in class.”

Wendy cannot take her eyes off of her daughter as Victoria speaks.

“She never tells us what she wants because she doesn’t want to burden us, but Changmin makes sure to give both Joy and Max everything that he can. He’s already saving for a piano. The only reason why he seems impatient around the children is because I’m always spoiling them and someone has to be the bad guy.”

“Joy’s not afraid of him though,” Wendy adds, watching as Joy forcefully climbs Changmin’s torso so that she can see all the different flavor ice creams behind the counter.

Victoria laughs. “Why would she be? Changmin loves her so much that even I get jealous sometimes.”

“Oh please,” Wendy rolls her eyes with a disbelieving smile. “He loves you more than anyone.”

“Maybe,” Victoria purses her lips, her eyes meeting with Changmin’s and they share a moment of smiles and speechless pamper before Joy starts tugging on his collar again. “Yeah,” she takes another sip of coffee and sighs happily, “maybe.”

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A/N: I am so proud of myself for giving Changtoria a happy ending! :p I hope you guys enjoyed~ see you guys next time!!! ♥♥♥Xue

p.s. I may or may not come back to this story to write some epilogues. Don't hold high hopes but I really like the idea of mommy Victoria and daddy Changmin so if I find time, I'll try to elaborate on them some more.