How long ago did all of those concerts feel to Zelo right now as he stared almost without intention at the text book in front of him and decided for the millionth time that day that he really should have gone to the library to study. Then he remembered that it was closed right at this moment in time due to some stupid kid who couldn’t figure out the taps and had flooded the bathroom out completely so it basically meant that he had to study in the dorm.

 

Not that it mattered to much, it was nice to be in his own bedroom with an easily accessible bed and his own stereo system to play his concentration music on and stuff, as well as full access to his computer when he got really stuck on something or wanted to go back and review one of his online classes to make sure that he fully understood what had been set at the work that day and how he had done on that particular assignment. That brought back happy memories to him all the time, of all the different places that he had been and also gave him a slight excuse to goof off and not study for five minutes whilst he scrolled lazily through photographs or else some random page on the internet to just try and reclaim those memories for a little longer.

 

No studying in the dorm was perfectly fine for Zelo, it was a nice place to work out of and it meant that he didn’t have to spend money on getting food and drink when he needed it. However there was always one huge, blatant and heavily annoying factor about studying in the dorm which always made him try to find any excuse not to do it.

 

His hyung’s.

 

Not that he was complaining about their presence, hell no he would never do that in the slightest because they had somehow become a sort of ever complicated, dysfunctional and loving family over the years since they had been formed and worked together so that wasn’t the issue. The issue was that regardless of how many times Zelo told them that he was fine, that he could manage on his own and yes he would come to them if he needed any help with anything he would come and seek them out immediately, they still fussed on with him like he was a two year old.

 

Yes he wore the maknae label very proudly and acted like one pretty much all of the time but he was not a baby and he really wanted to do well on his exams so he just preferred to do quiet studying all by himself.

 

He understood them, he really did cause they had all gone through the same hell as him and they had done the same thing to Jongup when he had gone through his exams – though that was more a case of making sure that someone was at least sitting on the other to get him to do his actual studying and revising rather than just goofing off most of the time – but it was just ever so slightly irritating that they wouldn’t leave him alone when they knew fine well that he was better at studying.

 

So when a knock came on the door, Zelo had to bite back a groan as he rubbed at his eyes and glanced at the clock, three pm, and wondered who was at his door now.

 

“Yes?” he called out to save time and keep his frustration levels as low as possible.

 

The door creaked open and Jongup stuck his head around the door with that infectious and bright smile of his, “Hey, you finished revising yet? There’s a really awesome TV show on and then I thought we could go and kick a ball around the park for a long while.”

 

Zelo sighed and shook his head, “Sorry hyung, but I’m still working.”

 

Jongup pouted, “But how can you be? You spent all day yesterday revising.”

 

“No,” Zelo remained as patient as he could do right now, “yesterday was revision, today is catching up on my outstanding homework.”

 

“I’m sure the teachers won’t complain if you hand in an assignment or two late,” Jongup pouted again, leaning on the doorway even as the youngster grabbed hold of a power ranger pencil to start work on his graphs for a science equation that he was working on right now, “mine never complained.”

 

Zelo resisted the urge to roll his eyes, “That’s cause you always handed them in late hyung, even when you had more than enough time to do them.”

 

“Awww come on, just five minutes to watch this show isn’t going to...yah!” Jongup let out a cry as a hand latched onto the back of his sweater and pulled him backwards a fair few steps.

 

“Thank you Gukkie-Hyung,” Zelo sang without even looking up from his graph as he drew the outline for a box on the graph paper to physically show how he had done his working out, he would colour it in later.

 

“No problem kiddo,” the gruff voice of his leader came back from the just closed door, “You need anything?”

 

“No thank you,” Zelo said, picking up his calculator, “Just find someone to amuse Jongup hyung for me okay?”

 

There came a grumble from somewhere behind him but Zelo tuned it out as his door was closed and he turned up his music a little bit more, bouncing his head along with the beat as he went through the sums that he had scrawled on a scrap piece of paper to check that they were completely and totally right. He was a stickler for getting things right and he did not want to mess up in the slightest even though he was pretty certain that everything was how it should be.

 

Part of him did wonder how long before another of his hyung’s came to interrupt him but he wasn’t worried about it too much.

 

~*An Hour later*~

 

Having solved the science problem and moved on from his graph work, Zelo was now tackling the rather complicated maths equation which he was damn sure that his tutor had only set him so that he could fail. It was next to impossible figure out and he was more than sure his head was going to explode. Every last sum he had scribbled down on his bit of scrap paper had completely gone wrong and did not produce the expected result.

 

“Oh man, what’s wrong with this stupid thing?” he complained loudly, trying to rub his eyes and half wishing he could just leave it and go onto something else but knowing that if he did so he would just keep on finding an excuse to put it off and would never actually go back to it. Zelo pouted cutely at the paper in front of him, hoping vainly that it would take pity of him and just miraculously come up with the answer but of course it was nothing short of being a piece of paper and there was nothing that could convince it otherwise to be anything but a bit of paper.

 

“Having some troubles there, Zelo?” a voice behind the youngster made him jump and swivelled around to find himself face to face with a smiling Youngjae, “Need some help?”

 

“Yah, you scared me man!” Zelo complained, pressing his hand to his heart for dramatic effect but grinning all the same, “How could you possibly know that I was stuck on something anyway, Young hyung?”

 

Youngjae simply smiled in response, “It always becomes very clear when you’re stuck on something Zelo because you shut out the rest of the world until you either give up entirely on the thing that’s annoying you or else you just sit there for hours upon hours and stare blankly at it.”

 

“Do not,” Zelo flushed because he knew fine well that he had been caught though he was not going to appear to be silly and stuck on a maths question in front of the other.

 

“Well then, why have you been pouting at a piece of paper for the last half hour then?” Youngjae said smugly, moving around the slightly surprised youngster to stare at the equation that he had really been stuck on for a long while, “Ah Trigonometry, I remember this.”

 

“You would,” Zelo complained playfully, “You like this sort of stuff hyung, and I really don’t.”

 

Youngjae chuckled and settled himself down on a nearby stool which Zelo had just in case someone would actually come into the room to actually help him with his studying in some form or other and pulled the paper towards him as Zelo liked to print everything out rather than give himself eyestrain problems by constantly staring at a computer screen all day long.

 

“Heh to be honest I used to hate maths, the only reason I would get it done first was that so I didn’t have to do it anymore,” Youngjae smiled, “Now, let’s see. A Ferris wheel with a radius of 25 meters makes one rotation every 36 seconds. At the bottom of the ride, the passenger is 1 meter above the ground,” he read aloud, “and question a) Let h be the height, above ground, of a passenger. Determine h as a function of time if h = 51 meter at t = 0 and b) Find the height h after 45 seconds.”

 

Zelo pouted, “I’ve tried everything and it just doesn’t add up or work in the slightest, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

 

“Well lets’ see, have you got a spare bit of paper and something round?” once Zelo had gotten the requested items, they set about drawing a circle to make the Ferris wheel and then using a selection of different coloured pencils they made a series of lines to mark what the question was asking for and after a small pause in operations for Zelo to actually find his protractor and measuring devices, the pair worked out where the various angles were, what percentage that they needed to times them by and how to place everything down in the right order to finally get the answer.

 

Which turned out to be 26 metres and Zelo let out a sigh of relief before hugging up against Youngjae, “Thank you hyung! I would have been stuck on that all night otherwise.”

 

“No problem,” Youngjae smiled as he returned the hug to the other before letting out a chuckle at something that Zelo couldn’t see, “He needed a bit of help Appa Guk, I’m not distracting him or anything.”

 

Zelo turned to see a frowning Yongguk standing in the doorway, an eyebrow raised just a little in question towards the youngster who immediately laughed, “I got stuck on a maths question but Youngjae hyung helped me out before I had a break down.”

 

“Speaking of, you should take a break soon otherwise you’re going to tire yourself out, Toto,” Youngjae said with a playful grin, rubbing the maknea’s hair like he really was a child and always loving to call Zelo by his matoki name whenever he got the chance, “But I think I best leave you to it and stop Gukkie glaring at me like I’m some form of bad influence on you or something. Keep up the good work and if you get stuck just give me a holler.”

 

Zelo nodded and waved brightly, “I will do hyung. See you in a bit.”

 

Yongguk watched Youngjae leave the room and glanced back to Zelo, smiling when he found the youngster had already turned back to his desk and started to work again, “Himchan’s getting fussy, are you sure there’s nothing you want?”

 

Zelo paused for a second or two in his work, trying to think how best to placate the Umma of the group before smiling, “Tell him I wouldn’t mind a cookie or two, please?” he asked as cutely as possible grinning when Yongguk could only shake his head in response with a very fond smile and turned away to go and tell Himchan what he could do to help out. Zelo smiled happily and returned to his books, trying his best to get the rest of the maths questions out of the way before his head exploded with them.

 

~*several hours later*~

 

A beautiful warm smell filtered into his nose just as he was pouring over the works of Shakespeare for the fourth time to try and find an line to translate that was appropriate for what he wanted to say in his theatre essay and Zelo immediately raised his head with a beaming smile on his face, “Himchan Umma!” he half cried and virtually launched himself at the other to wrap him in a hug, “You’re the best.”

 

“Well I can’t have you collapsing on me now can I?” Himchan smiled as he gently shoved the other off of him and onto his bed, “Now don’t go scoffing all of these at once, cause you’ll really end up being sick and that’s not going to help you.”

 

“But they’re my study cookies and I need lots of energy from them,” Zelo said cutely with a big smile as he bit into one that was decorated with smarties, “and Himchan Umma makes the best study cookies in the world.”

 

Himchan smiled and ran his hand gently through the others hair, “That’s cause no one else is allowed anywhere near my kitchen and therefore no one knows the secret recipe that I use. Though how much more have you got to go tonight sweetie? You do need to get some rest at some point.”

 

Zelo grinned around a large bite of cookie but remembered his manners enough to not talk with his mouth full towards the other and swallowed, “Not much. Just want to get five hundred words of my theatre studies essay written and then I’ve got a bit of English Language homework to catch up on and some Korean as well.”

 

Shaking his head, Himchan sighed, “Oh if only the connection hadn’t been rubbish in South America you wouldn’t be in this situation baby.”

 

“Oh stop mothering him,” Daehyun said as he appeared, the smell of freshly baked cookies clearly having caught his attention as they inevitably would do because if there was anyone who was more than a fan of Himchan’s cookies it was Daehyun, “We’ve all been there, snowed under with homework and revision and he’ll be fine. He’s our tall maknae for a start and with these cookies he’ll be up all night.”

 

Himchan glared playfully at Daehyun, “Oh no he will not, he’ll go to sleep at a reasonable time and not end up running late for two exams like a certain cookie thief that I know.”

 

Daehyun just grinned ruefully towards the other, already munching on his stolen treat, “Zelo said I could have one Umma.”

 

“Don’t play the cute routine with me,” Himchan said mockingly, “It does not work in the slightest.”

 

“Yes it does,” Daehyun countered waving a cookie right in front of Himchan’s face, “cause you love it no matter who gives you the routine.”

Rolling his eyes, Himchan snatched the cookie off of Daehyun with a sweet and innocent smile, “It does not and you’re stealing Zelo’s study cookies without his permission and distracting him from doing his work.”

 

“You were the one talking to him first,” Daehyun countered before turning to pout towards Zelo, “Come on buddy, back me up a little here and prove to our Umma that I’m not a bad influence on you.”

 

Zelo just blinked innocently at him, “Only if you tell me where you’ve hidden the sneezing powder water bombs hyung.”

 

Himchan literally nearly exploded at hearing that bit of information and Daehyun stared opened mouthed at the youngster before suddenly finding himself with a face full of one angry Umma who wanted to desperately know where those dreadful things were and if Jongup was involved then he was going to get just a harsh a kicking to go with it. Zelo just giggled as he pulled his bowl of cookies, noting that there were at least four different kinds that had a mixture of smarties, chocolate chips, currents and small bits of peanut butter in them, over to a safer spot away from the two arguing hyung’s.

 

The safer spot namely being his desk so that he could begin work once again on his essay and other stuff whilst trying not to giggle in the slightest at the pair. Thankfully the now ever familiar presence of Yongguk wasn’t too long in coming along to break up the argument, tell them both off for distracting the baby whilst he was studying until he learnt the reason and immediately grabbed hold of Daehyun to force him to give up on his precious secret.

 

Zelo didn’t really register when the trio left as he was busy reading another verse of the play that he was having to study but he did hear the rather distinct yell of Jongup when he was cornered along with Daehyun about a prank which they hadn’t even managed to start to set up. Unable to resist, Zelo stuck his head out of the doorway just a little to watch them get a good telling off for something they had yet to do and grinned at Youngjae who had also come out of his room to find out what all of the fuss was about.

 

Chuckling, Youngjae shook his head and glanced towards Zelo. “Good thing you can still get away with murder, you little punk,” he said with a smile before placing his hand onto the others face and giving him a good, hard and meaningful shove back into his room to continue on with his studies away from the insanity that was taking over the dorm right now.

 

~*Eleven twenty two pm*~

 

After things had settled down and everyone had food and the usual routines were sorted, Himchan and Yongguk found themselves in the rather unusual situation of having the television completely to themselves. Jongup and Daehyun had headed to bed just after tea, probably to plot something horrible to do back to Zelo for thwarting their plans for a prank which would have actually been highly fun to see and Youngjae had something more interesting to do apparently though considering he was carrying around a large book that had been carefully covered over it didn’t take much to guess just what he was currently up to.

 

But all of this had resulted in the pair being able to happily snuggle up together like a proper couple for the first time in an age and choose a movie of their liking. For no apparent reason that either one could think of they watched some silly little romantic comedy that was all light, fluffy, sweet and chocolate box that normally they would have turned it off but it was one of those nights where it just sort of worked. Plus since the rom-com was actually about a couple of guys neither one of them was going to complain.

 

Finally the movie ended and Yongguk switched off the telly with a yawn, “Ready to go to bed?”

 

“Yours or mine?” Himchan said with a slight purr, shifting up to press a kiss onto the leader’s lips.

 

Yongguk chuckled, lightly returning the kiss, “I think you know which one. But best check on the kiddies before we do, I don’t want what happened last time.”

 

Himchan grimaced, “Yeah, agree with you there.”

 

Smiling, the leader tugged his boyfriend up and they made their quick rounds on everyone. Youngjae was still reading but was in his pj’s and snuggled up in bed so it wouldn’t be long before he had curled up and fallen fast asleep. Leastways that what he said anyway and it was too late to be really arguing the point with him so they both just left it at that.

 

Jongup and Daehyun had apparently gotten too tired with trying to come up with some form of plot to get back at Zelo and were snuggled together on their shared bed, a heap of different papers flung about and a general mess that they would seriously have to clean up tomorrow at some point but there was no point in trying to get them up to do something now because they would just complain and whine and moan until they just passed out on the floor or something silly like that.

 

The final port of call was Zelo’s room and almost as soon as Yongguk opened the door, a very fond smile crossed his face. There was his lanky, still growing and now very huge baby, fast asleep on his desk with a series of papers all neatly piled around him and a homework diary opened with a few scribbles to mark what he had done and what he hadn’t. The bowl of cookies that Himchan had made was completely empty apart from the occasional crumb and his computer was displaying a screensaver of some bright and colourful cartoon character which he still indulged in whenever he got the chance.

 

“Awww, so precious,” Himchan said with a little giggle, stepping next to the younger and pressing a kiss to the side of his head, “Our baby is studying hard like a good boy.”

 

Yongguk chuckled, “Yes he is. But we best get him to bed properly else he’ll wake up with a terrible crick in his neck.”

 

Nodding, Himchan quickly slipped around the other to grab a pair of pyjamas for the youngster and pull back his blankets so that it would be slightly easier to get him into the bed. Though he quickly turned his head around when there came a tumbling sound and he had to bite his lip to not immediately start laughing at the sight of Yongguk half sprawled on the floor with a sleeping Zelo on top of him.

 

Yongguk sighed, “Gah, this used to be so much easier when he was just a little midget.”

 

Himchan chuckled, “I know, bless him. Want a hand?”

 

“Please,” Yongguk replied and together they managed to get Zelo up and onto the bed without further incident of anyone ending up on the floor. Together they got him out of his clothes that he had been wearing all day, excluding his undergarments, and got him into his night attire without so much as even disturbing the sleepy boy once in the process before virtually allowing him to flop onto the bed and gently tucking him in.

 

Himchan bent down to pick up the youngsters current favourite sleeping time toy and watched as Zelo curled up protectively around it and couldn’t help the smile on his features, “Never changes does he?”

 

“Nope,” Yongguk replied, leaning down to run a hand through the others hair, “and I don’t want him any other way.” Leaning just a little further, Yongguk pressed a kiss to Zelo’s head, “Good night, you study bunny. Sleep tight.”

Himchan was quick to follow that kiss, “Goodnight baby, you sleep well and we’ll help you with your work in the morning.”

 

Quietly the pair left the room, making sure that all of the lights were out and that Zelo’s computer had gone into sleep mode so that it would not disturb the youngster anymore. Both of them grinned at one another as they made their way to bed, there were going to be many more nights like this in the next few months and in one way, they were both looking forward to seeing how this all went.

 

Soon the dorm was filled with nothing but the gentle sounds of slumber and there were only dreams of fun times that awaited them all. No more homework, no more pencils and no more maths problems to solve.

 

Fin 

Authors babbling:

There we go babies, cute little one shot that's taken me a few hours to write but it was fun. Cute and fluffy BAP family time I think best described this. Anyways hope it was worth the wait and that you enjoy

Hwaiting to Zelo for his exams and to anyone else who is currently working towards them as well.