Part IV

It’s so nice to be back on Earth, and it’s even better because they’re twelve again. Well, thirteen including Hero—the poor dog had been absolutely miserable without his pack mates by his side, and it’s hard to tell who is happier about the reunion, the humans or the puppy. Either way, now it feels like everyone is really starting to heal from the horrible incident.

Baekhyun and Jongdae have been going absolutely mad with their wedding plans. They have a venue, they have a caterer, they have colors picked out and they’re working on flowers and centerpieces (whatever those are), and they’re even getting a real marriage officiate to come and make their marriage official. And in between all those preparations, Chanyeol manages to get them to meet him at a small café in the city, and to bring Kyungsoo along.

He’s always known that this day would come, and he knows that sooner or later he’ll introduce Sungwoo to all of his friends, but he wants to do this slowly. He started with Suho, arguably the most important person in his life, and now he’s introducing his boyfriend to his three best friends. He doesn’t think he’s ever been so nervous before in his life.

Sungwoo takes Chanyeol’s hand when they stop at a red light, and lifts it to his mouth. He places a soft kiss on the back of Chanyeol’s hand. “You’re shaking. Why are you so nervous?”

Chanyeol exhales slowly. “I want them to love you. Not love you, love you, but…I want them to see why I love you.”

Their has never been something they’ve shied away from, both of them know that it can make people uncomfortable. But Chanyeol knows that Sungwoo is perfect for him, and he is perfect for Sungwoo. He just hopes that his friends can see that.

“They will,” Sungwoo says. He releases Chanyeol’s hand and continues driving. “Anyone who sees the way I look at you would know it,” he brags. “And the same goes for you.”

Chanyeol knows it. he leans back against the seat and sits on his hands. “Are you nervous?”

“A little,” Sungwoo admits. “Not as nervous as you.”

They arrive at the café 20 minutes early. Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, and Jongdae all arrive at the same time, 23 minutes later. They see Chanyeol first, and then they all immediately look at Sungwoo. Kyungsoo’s expression doesn’t change, Jongdae’s jaw drops, and Baekhyun smirks. Baekhyun is the first to walk over.

“Well, hello,” He drawls, holding out his hand for Sungwoo to take. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you as well,” Sungwoo says. “You must be Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun looks presently surprised. “Chanyeol showed you pictures?”

Sungwoo shakes his head. “No, he told me you would be the first to say hello.”

Baekhyun laughs and takes a seat. Kyungsoo and Jongdae introduce themselves, and they sit down as well. Chanyeol thinks he’s going to pass out. Or throw up. He’s not sure which would be less embarrassing at this point.

“I know you,” Jongdae says, “I read your book. God, Chanyeol didn’t say you were famous!”

Sungwoo laughs. “I’m not famous.”

“No, but you’re hot,” Baekhyun says.

Chanyeol lets out a pathetic little whimper.

“What?” Baekhyun asks. “He is.”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. “What’s the matter with you?” He asks Chanyeol. “Are you going to sit there like that all night?”

Chanyeol nods. “Or at least until I pass out,” he says faintly, as that’s looking like the more likely option.

Sungwoo puts and arm around his shoulders and rubs his arm. “Breathe,” he says gently. “Nothing bad is going to happen, or it would have already.”

Chanyeol takes a deep, shaky breath, and his friends seem to take pity on him. Jongdae reaches across the table and takes his hand.

“Chanyeol, are you happy?” He asks.

Chanyeol doesn’t know how he could be happier. Sungwoo is so wonderful and understanding, he’s seen Chanyeol at his absolute worst and his absolute best. Sungwoo has helped him through so much, and Chanyeol has been there when Sungwoo was at his lowest, to remind him that he was a kind and gentle man, and his past had no place in his life now. He’s so happy, even though right now he’s also petrified.

“I’m really happy.”

Jongdae grins. “Then we’re happy for you.”

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo smile and nod, and Chanyeol starts to cry. It’s a little embarrassing, but not as much as puking or fainting would have been.

They stay at the café for about an hour, and then Sungwoo has a meeting with his editor that he needs to get to. Chanyeol walk him to his car and kisses him goodbye, and then he goes home with his friends. Baekhyun holds his hand the whole way home, and gives him reassuring smiles every now and then.

“You’re bringing him to the wedding, right?” He asks as they get back to their apartment.

“Is he invited?” Chanyeol asks.

“Of course,” Baekhyun says. “We want him there, he’s part of your life.”

Chanyeol couldn’t have been happier to hear that.

Today is the day. Today, Kyungsoo and Kai are going to find out if they can have a baby. Kyungsoo hasn’t even gotten used to the idea, but he knows that Kai has been thinking about this for a while. He barely slept last night, and he was too nervous to eat breakfast. The Agency has sent a car to pick them up, and the driver is silent the whole way there, but Kai’s nervous chatter fills the silence. Kyungsoo does his best to keep up, but Kai is talking in circles. When they arrive at the hospital, he goes very quiet.

They’re taken right to an exam room, a special one with a small pool for Kai to transform in. The doctor, a cheerful young woman, waits outside. Kyungsoo stands by the door as Kai undresses and slips into the water. Once his transformation is complete, Kyungsoo calls the doctor in and takes a seat beside the pool. Kai reaches for him, and Kyungsoo takes his hand. It’s finally starting to sink in, and Kyungsoo doesn’t know if he’s ever been more nervous in his life. A doctor comes in an explains the procedure—she’s going to take an ultrasound image of Kai’s abdomen to check for a uterus and ovaries. From there, they can decide how they want to proceed.

Kai winces as she covers his stomach in a sticky goo. “It’s just a little cold,” he assures Kyungsoo, squeezing his hand. The doctor places the ultrasound wand on Kai’s stomach, and slowly moves it around . The two of them look at the screen connected to the device, but they can’t make heads or tails of the image.

The doctor frowns slightly. “Kai, I’m going to move this to your side, it might tickle a little.”

Kai holds very still, but each time the doctor opens he jumps, but she never gives anything away, only tells him which way to move. After about fifteen minutes, she removes the wand and wipes Kai’s skin down with a towel.

“So, what did you see?” Kai asks.

The doctor turns the screen towards them, a collection of images on it. “From these images, it’s clear that you do not have ovaries, or a uterus. Your body is 100% male.”

Kai freezes. Then, a quiet little ‘Oh,’ leaves his mouth.

The doctor stands. “I’ll give you both a minute.” And she leaves.

Kyungsoo takes Kai’s other hand and squeezes them both gently. The blank look on his face is so unnerving, Kyungsoo can barely process his own response to the news. He’s just worried about Kai. “Love, are you alright?”

Kai blinks back tears. “I…yes,” he says faintly. “I will be. I just…I really wanted to be able to have a baby.”

Kyungsoo kisses his cheek. “We still can, there are other options.”

A lone tear slips down Kai’s cheek. “Yes, but it won’t be the same.” He sniffles. “Oh, I don’t know why I was so sure…why I let myself get my hopes up. I knew this was only a small possibility. I don’t know why I opened my big fat mouth about it.”

“Hey, don’t say that,” Kyungsoo says. “It was something that could have happened, we explored it together. I’m glad you told me about it.”

Kai chokes back a sob. “Aren’t you even a little upset?”

Kyungsoo hesitates. “I don’t know,” he says. “The whole thing was such a shock to me, I wasn’t even used to the idea. Maybe I’m a little sad, but this isn’t the end of our possibilities for having a family.”

After a moment, Kai nods. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. But I’m still…I’m going to need time.”

“Of course,” Kyungsoo says, giving Kai a hug. “You take all the time you need. I’m here for you, I’ll help you get through this.”

They go home, both of them quiet now, no nervous chatter to fill the silence. The apartment is empty when they get back, and Kai whispers that he wants to go upstairs and sleep, and asks Kyungsoo to keep him company.

“Of course, my love,” Kyungsoo says. “I’ll stay with you.”

“And when the others get home…we didn’t tell them about this. Will you help me explain to them why I’m so upset?”

“Absolutely. Together, remember? I’m with you through all of this.”

Kai manages a small smile. “Yes, yes…together.”

After Kai falls asleep, Kyungsoo allows himself to think about everything that’s happened. He has to admit, he’s sad. He had almost gotten used to the idea of Kai carrying their child, having a baby that was 100% theirs. But now it’s not going to happen. There will be children, but not like how Kai had pictured. Of course he’s going to be very upset about it. And Kyungsoo can’t pretend to know his pain, but he can try to offer support. He loves Kai very much, he’s determined to see to it that this doesn’t break either one of them.

Jongdae is so busy with wedding plans that time slips away from him. It’s been three months since he and Baekhyun got engaged, but he doesn’t realize it until he places the order for the flowers and actually looks at a calendar. Time passes in the form of how much has gotten done, how much still need to get done, and sometimes by how much progress Tao has made. He’s able to get around by himself and he’s eating more. He’s gotten so much better, and everyone is so proud of him.

Jongdae goes to the apartment and finds Baekhyun in the kitchen, sitting at the table.

“Hi babe,” he greets, kissing Baekhyun’s cheek. Baekhyun leans into it, but he seems distracted. “I ordered the flowers,” Jongdae tells him happily. “One more thing off the list.” Tomorrow, they’re going to look at cakes.

“That’s great,” Baekhyun says. “Um, Jongdae, can you sit with me, please?”

Jongdae takes a seat. “What’s up?”

Baekhyun looks worried. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

Jongdae wracks his brain, but the cake is only thing he can think of. “Um…we need to pick out a cake tomorrow.”

“Not about the wedding,” Baekhyun says. “About you.”

Jongdae feels like he’s standing on the edge of a cliff. “What about me?”

Baekhyun sighs. “I found the invitation that you were supposed to send to your parents. I thought you just forgot to send it. I looked up their addresses in your file.”

Jongdae feels like he’s falling. He opens his mouth, but nothing comes out.

“I didn’t read into your more personal details, I looked up your father’s address on the Agency database and I…I ended up reading about that place all day. Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

Jongdae leaps up from the table and runs. Baekhyun yells at him to come back, they need to talk about this, but Jongdae throws himself into the bathroom and locks the door. He leans over the toilet and throws up for what feels like hours, and when he’s done he collapses on the floor and cries. Baekhyun knows now, he knows everything. This is his worst nightmare.

The door opens, and Kris slips inside. Jongdae snarls at him. “Get out. You did this, didn’t you?”

Kris shakes his head and kneels down. “I had nothing to do with it at all, and you know it. I said I would help you when the time came, and I will.”

Jongdae gasps, and cries even harder. “You can’t help me,” he sobs. “Baekhyun hates me.”

“No I don’t!” Baekhyun yells, flinging the door open. “Damn it, Jongdae, I don’t hate you! I want you to talk to me! Just talk to me for god’s sake!”

Kris shakes his head. “Yelling is not the answer right now, Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun stops and takes a deep breath. “You’re right.” He sits down and Jongdae flinches away from him, scuttling backwards until his back hits the tub. Baekhyun pushes a bottle of water at him. Jongdae takes it, but doesn’t open it. he’s still staring at Baekhyun in fear.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Baekhyun asks. “You told Kris.”

Jongdae starts to shake violently. “I-I th-thought he c-could understand,” he stammers.

Kris opens the bottle of water and holds it while Jongdae drinks. “Just try to stay calm,” he says. “Baekhyun doesn’t hate you.”

Jongdae leans back and a bit of water dribbles down his chin. He starts to cry again. He has no idea how to go on, what he should do.

“Jongdae, just talk to me,” Baekhyun pleads. “Just tell me what happened.”

And it takes a few minutes for Jongdae to calm down enough to speak, but finally he decides that he might as well tell the whole story, if he’s just going to lose the love of his life anyway.

Not all planets in the Galaxy were friendly. Some of them were very sinister, the kind of aliens that movies warned people about. Not in the fangs and tentacles way, but in an almost scarier way. Some planets wanted total control, others wanted to use any means to get what they wanted.

Genetically speaking, Jongdae is human, 100%. He can donate blood and tissue to other humans, a normal lab won’t be able to tell that his DNA is half-alien. That’s because Jongdae’s father is also genetically human, though not an Earthling human. Of all the vast planets in the galaxy, there are many with populations that are genetically similar to the population of earth humans, and there are a few who’s population is genetically identical to humans. Jongdae’s father is from one of those planets.

And 100 years ago, the planet was besieged by a virus that wiped out 70% of their female population. To keep from dying out, and to stop men from killing each other for women, they began to abduct genetically identical female species from other planets. It sounded so clinical, in the history books. Jongdae saw it firsthand. His mother was kidnapped when she was 20, auctioned off to the highest bidder, and became the “wife” of an entertainment mogul. She was pregnant a year later, and had a son. And that made her worthless, nothing but a disgrace on a planet that was b with men. Baby girls were precious, baby boys…not so much.

Jongdae grew up knowing he was unwanted. His father never looked at him, or spoke to him. His mother tried to love him, but she was struggling. After all, she had been kidnapped and , and left to die unloved and unwanted, just like her son. Oh sure, the two of them were fed and still lived with the man who was Jongdae’s father, but they were unwelcome. His mother was forced to wear a collar, with a tracking device in it, so she could never run away. It marked her as an outsider, and when she went out with Jongdae, people would spit at both of them. They took up valuable resources, but they couldn’t leave. The Agency would have discovered them at once if they were freed, and used their testimony to attack the planet. The planet’s government thought nobody suspected what they were doing, and planned to keep it that way.

Jongdae’s “father” got himself another wife. This one was different, she had a girl. This woman was loved and cherished, her daughter even more so. Jongdae was ten, and he knew that he was worthless compared to his new baby half-sister.

Jongdae’s mother pulled herself from depression long enough to hatch a plan. Jongdae had always been good with computers—an unwanted child had a lot of free time on his hands, and was not so much watched the way his mother was. She told Jongdae to hack her collar and shut it down, and after a few days he found a way. The two of them ran, somehow Jongdae’s mom found a way to a docking station, hijacked a space craft, and together they made it off the planet. Almost as soon as they did, an Agency ship was there to pick them up. As it turned out, the planets activities were not as secret as they hoped, and the Agency had been trying to find a way in for years. The planet was surrounded by a barrier, ships could go out, but unless they had special clearance, they could not get in. But Jongdae, clever little ten year old Jongdae, who knew the planet’s computer systems like the back of his hand, he could teach the Agency how to get in. And he did.

Clever little ten year old Jongdae ended a 100-year reign of terror on that planet, and he was reviled and hated for it. The people of the planet cursed his name and blamed him for their downfall.

Jongdae’s mother was terrified of the repercussions of what she had done, and more of what her son had done. She refused to have anything to do with him, and the first thing she did upon removing her now-dead collar was ask how she could terminate her parental rights. Jongdae didn’t hear her say anything, he was in a different room, being examined by a doctor. He was found to be malnourished, depressed, and had almost no feelings of self-worth. He only found out later that his mother had abandoned him, for a while he thought that she was simply recovering and would come back for him.

Jongdae spent five years with a high-ranking member of the Agency and her family. They fostered him and slowly introduced him to a loving family and a less corrupt (though by no means perfect) society. And they educated him, and his foster-mother took him to the Agency every Tuesday so he could take special lessons on computers and hacking. Jongdae shut down the lights in the building after one month of lessons, and he was praised for it.

But nothing could truly erase the past, and the more Jongdae came to realize how badly he and his mother had been treated, the more horrified he was. He hated the people of his home planet with a burning passion and even hated his very DNA, which was the same as his foster-mother’s and yet so different. Jongdae thought he was a freak, a by-product of a cruel society who would never amount to anything. And when he learned the truth about his mother’s absence, he felt even worse.

He made up for it by trying to be good. He wanted to help people like himself, who needed to be rescued from cruel tormentors. He hacked a website when he was fifteen and got a list of addresses and credit card numbers, over five thousand of them. He could remember going to find his foster-mother at the Agency, and that he cried hysterically when he gave her the list. There was so much evil in the world. He could hardly stand it.

He didn’t want anyone to know about where he came from. He loathed the half of himself that was his father, that was alien, and he loathed all other forms of life not from Earth. It was why he hated Kris at first, because to Jongdae, he was One Of Them. And it took Kris almost sacrificing his life to save a pack of dogs for Jongdae to realize that not all aliens were evil, and he had made a terrible misjudgment of the universe as a whole.

Jongdae is still crying, and he doesn’t even bother to wipe the tears away. He stares at the floor, knees drawn to his chest, speaking to his toes. He can’t meet Baekhyun’s eyes. Kris’ arm around his shoulder is the only thing keeping him from getting up and running. He pauses for a few seconds now that his story is over, and tries to think of a way to explain himself.

“I still can’t come to terms with the part of me that belongs to that world. I’m not genetically different, but the blood of a kidnapper and a runs through my veins. I can hardly think about it, never mind talk about it. I know I should have told you, but we were so happy. I just didn’t want to lose that.” And a fresh wave of sorrow hits him, making him cry even harder. He wipes his face with his sleeve. “But I understand if you…if you want to call off the wedding.”

Baekhyun gasps. “Call off the…no, no, Jongdae, I absolutely do NOT want that!” He holds Jongdae’s hand. “Is that what you want?”

Jongdae finally looks up. Baekhyun’s been crying too, but he doesn’t look angry. He looks the same as he did that morning. He looks like he’s in love.

Jongdae shakes his head. “I want to marry you. But do you really want me? Knowing who I am and that I lied to you?”

Baekhyun sits next to Jongdae and holds him. “It’s okay. I know you would have told me eventually. And I am sorry that I pried, because it wasn’t my place. And as for who you are, you’re my fiancé and I love you. You’re still the same Kim Jongdae that I’ve known, the same Kim Jongdae that I fell in love with. Nothing is ever going to change that.” He kisses Jongdae’s cheek. “I love you.”

Jongdae cries again and hugs Baekhyun tightly. “I love you too, I love you so much. I really am so sorry that I didn’t tell you everything sooner, I wish I had, I’m so sorry…”

Baekhyun shushes him, and calms him with gentle kisses. “I know you’re sorry, and I forgive you. I could never stay mad at you.”

Kris sighs and gets to his feet. “That’s my cue to leave,” he says. He kisses Jongdae’s cheek, much to his surprise, and then tells them both to go to bed soon. When he leaves, Baekhyun kisses Jongdae’s other cheek and laughs at his expression.

“Maybe we should reschedule our appointment at the cake shop,” Baekhyun says. “I feel like neither of us is going to want to do much tomorrow.”

Jongdae agrees, because he’s probably right. They decide to call an end to the night and go be early. They shower and change into their warmest pajamas, and snuggle together in their bed. They’re going to make it through this, Jongdae is sure of it.

They don’t get a cake the next day. Instead, they go see and Agency therapist and set up a schedule so that both of them can have time to speak with him. Jongdae is surprised when Baekhyun sets up his own appointments, and Baekhyun tells him that he wants to know how to support his husband fully, in any way possible. It’s enough to bring Jongdae to tears—he feels so loved.

So now you all know--now eveyone knows everything. What do you think?

The wedding will happen...soon! We have a big snowstorm coming our way so maybe I won't have to work on Tuesday and I can write instead.

Oh my god and the Kaisoo baby thing...I had actually planned that for a while now and I felt so bad when everyone was getting so happy about it in the comments, but I have a plan!!!!!!!! Don't worry!!!!!!