Our Children

Story One

Dollies

It felt like years ago that Jongin had first seen his little girl picking up a little doll for the first time and just staring at it in wonder. Sooyeong had stared at it for quite some time before breaking out into a wonderful little smile and then pulled the doll into a tight hug. Now the girl’s room was so full of dolls of all kinds that Jongin couldn’t tell which one had been the original doll. There were cloth dolls, plastic dolls, big dolls, small dolls, dolls houses, dolls prams, baby dolls that squeaked and cried in the most alarming of manners, big dolls that were half the side of Sooyeong and had been used to convince him that his little girl was standing crying out in the rain, some strange movie inspired dolls that Uncle Tao had gotten Sooyeong into that Jongin couldn’t quite make his mind up about and then there was her collection of porcelain dolls as well.

So in sort, Sooyeong already had a whole collection of dolls but here was Jongin, in a toy shop, trying to buy his daughter a new one and he didn’t exactly know why.

Her birthday wasn’t for a while yet, there was no special occasions coming up like Christmas or Easter or New Year or anything like that and Kyungsoo didn’t even know that Jongin had gone out on this day in order to buy a new doll for his daughter. There was just something about today which said to Jongin that he had to go and buy her one.

Even if he was supposed to be technically working right now on a show, thankfully it was just for the Show Time Show and they just happened to be in dongdaemun which just happened to have one of the largest toy collections in the whole of Seoul so he wasn’t going to get into too much trouble. Plus the fans knew fine well that Jongin would go out of his way to spoil his daughter whenever the chance occurred and he was pretty sure that the other fathers who had accompanied him – namely Lay and Xiumin because Tao was off filming something else with Suho at that point in time, though there was a list hidden in Jongin’s pocket for the types of toys to look out for just in case – were doing the exact same thing.

Lay picked up a dragon and a unicorn plushi from the vast array of dolls in front of them and smiled that sappy and lovely smile of his, “Well I think I know what I’m getting.”

“Oh hey, no fair!” Jongin complained, whining a little, “You’ve been here barely five minutes, how come you get to find something so quick.”

“My two aren’t as fussy as yours,” Lay said with a grin, “Plus they’re more excited for the new addition anyway so they’ll probably won’t be expecting this.”

Xiumin rolled his eyes, “Yeah and buying them a unicorn and a dragon, are you just totally playing to the fans or what?”

Lightly batting his older friends arm, Lay sighed, “No. Tai happens to have a thing for Unicorns and Yue is a called our little dragon for a reason you know.”

“Shouldn’t that be the other way around?” Jongin asked, replacing a bunny toy because he realised that Sooyeong had way too many bunnies already after a quick flick through his phone’s gallery.

The eldest of the trio gave out a funny sort of laugh and shook his head, “Oh boy, you really need to spend some time alone with the twins Kai. They’re the exact opposite of what they should be.”

“Blame Yifan,” Lay said with a smile, his dimples showing as he hugged the toys, “Though I wouldn’t change them for the world.”

“Agreed,” Xiumin said before suddenly letting out a little sound and pulling a Snoppy plushi out of the pile in front of himself, “Aha, there we go. That’ll keep Ai happy.”

Kai’s face dropped, “Oh come on, seriously?”

“What?” Xiumin asked, blinking towards the youngster.

“You’ve been here less time than him and you’ve found something already?” Jongin pouted, staring back at the large collection with worry, “This is totally not fair in the slightest.”

Lay laughed as he ruffled the others hair to make his way to pay, “We just got lucky. I’m sure they’ll be something here for Sooye.”

“He’s right, just keep looking!” Xiumin called with a wave back and Jongin found himself suddenly alone at the stall.

“Yah! So totally not fair!” Jongin called after the two elders, acting himself like a little child but being quite unable to really focus on anything else at the moment. He stared at the large pile of dolls and teddy bears in front of him and just wished he could buy every last one of them but that would be extremely expensive and impractical because he would not be able to get them all home.

Pouting he turned to go and look at another stall when something caught his eye. In a small basket off to the side of the stall was a sign that read ‘Sale’ and there were a whole host of different toys sitting in it. But what caught his eyes was a pair of white ears just poking out of the collection and instinctively he moved towards it. Pulling at the ears revealed a standard while teddy bear with glass eyes and a stitched brown nose. There was a heart shaped patch on its right hand leg that say ‘I love you’ on it and Jongin just knew that Sooyeong would absolutely love this bear.

Without a thought for the film crew, what the fans would think or even what Kyungsoo would yell at him for once again buying more stuff for their little princess, Jongin headed to the owner and purchased the bear for the princely sum of 7.13yuan (£0.75/$1.14). He wore the silliest grin on his face for the rest of the show and the other two fathers just rolled their eyes at him whenever they got the opportunity to do so.

~*~

“Daddy’s home!” Sooyeong exclaimed as the door to their house unlocked and the girl pulled away from her more than exasperated mother to run to her daddy dressed only in her little pyjama shorts.

“Daddy!” she called, arms extended out for a hug which Jongin wasted no time in grabbing hold of the child, hauling her up into his arms and hugging her tight, “I missed you!”

“I missed you too sweety,” Jongin said softly, pressing a kiss to her head, “Have you been a good girl for Mommy?”

“No she has not,” Kyungsoo said, finally appearing and looking just as frazzled as he sounded, “She has been running around like a hyper little madam all day and not done a single thing that I told her at all.”

Jongin sighed and glanced down at his daughter, “Sooyeong, you’re supposed to behave for Mommy when Daddy isn’t home.”

The girl’s big, owl eyes blinked up at him guiltily and Jongin tried as hard as possible to not melt under that gaze. Unfortunately since the girl was just as pretty as her mother, well in Jongin’s eyes anyway, and she had inherited his ability to be the sweetest thing on the entire planet when she wanted to be it was way too easy for her to manipulate the situation. “Sooye’s sorry but she was bored and all of her cousins were away so couldn’t play with them.”

Jongin turned, “All of them?”

“Tai and Yue have school,” Kyungsoo started quoting immediately, “and Ai’s off visiting his Chinese grandparents with Luhan.”

“Ah…that explains why Xiumin was a bit quiet today,” Jongin said before looking down at his daughter, “Say you’re sorry to Mommy, little missy.”

Sooyeong nodded and turned her owl eyes onto her mother, “I’m sorry for being a bad girl Mommy.”

Kyungsoo sighed and took hold of the girl from Jongin, “Now I understand what you mean about being able to get our own way all of the time.”

Jongin just grinned happily before leaning across to press a kiss to Kyungsoo’s lips and then Sooyeong’s before promising to help get the little girl to bed.

Once they were in Sooyeong’s room, Jongin took over the role of parenting and managed to get Sooyeong dressed in her proper pyjamas and set about brushing her hair. Kyungsoo smiled, “How did Show Time go today?”

“It went well,” Jongin smiled, “We were shopping in dongdaemun for a bit and then went to grab a meal.”

“How’s Tao holding up?” Kyungsoo asked with a small smirk on his lips.

Jongin shook his head, “Okay for now…but it’s clear that he’s getting worried.”

“Take it no news?” Kyungsoo sighed, remembering all too well how wound up Jongin had been when they were in their last months or so waiting for Sooyeong to come into their lives.

Jongin nodded, setting their baby girl down under the blankets and tucking her in, “Not a peep out of Sehun but I think he’s trying to ease the burden on Tao and have him act normally for the cameras. Which in turn causes Tao to worry more.”

Kyungsoo chuckled, “Yeah, I remember that all too well. Siwon said anything about giving him time off yet?”

“Yeah, he starts his paternity leave next week,” Jongin said, moving to grab the bag that he had brought upstairs, “Even though Sehun’s not due for another month yet.”

“Let’s just hope that he doesn’t overrun,” Kyungsoo said with a slight frown, “Or come early. I’m sure Tao will be a wreck if either happen.”

Jongin giggled, “It could be worse, Sehun could have had a pregnancy like Yifan or Luhan.”

“I know, thank god that didn’t happen again,” Kyungsoo said, shaking his head before suddenly eyeing the bag, “Oh Jongin!”

“What?” Jongin replied, trying not to sound guilty and immediately caught Sooyeong’s attention who looked towards the bags with interest before letting out a squeal of a sound as the bear was revealed.

“Daddy! I love him!” she yelled happily, grabbing the bear and pulling it into her arms to squish it, “He’s so soft and lovely and cute! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

Sooyeong half leapt out of her bedding to wrap a hug around Jongin’s neck with her arms and the teddy bear squished in-between them and Jongin couldn’t help but smile happily at her reaction. Kyungsoo sighed and glared playfully but was also smiling happily and joined in the hug too because quite frankly, who couldn’t resist hugging their husband and child who were sharing such a happy and wonderful moment together.

Sooyeong pressed kisses to both her father’s cheeks and hugged the bear tighter to her chest, “He’s called Kai and I’m going to love him forever and ever!”

Jongin chuckled, “Of course you are sweetie. Now it’s bedtime okay?”

Minutes later Sooyeong was curled up in her blankets, her newly christened bear in her arms and her eyes closed as she drifted off to sleep. Kyungsoo silently closed the door after checking that the night light was on its hour long run cycle and let out a small yelp of surprise when Jongin wrapped his arms lovingly around the his neck and snuggled him close. “You’re not mad that I got her another doll right?” Jongin asked softly.

Sighing, Kyungsoo turned and pressed a kiss to his husband’s lips, standing on tiptoe in order to do so, “The day I try to stop you properly, start worrying, my overly affectionate little maknae.”

Squeezing, quite literally, because that was the first time in an age that Kyungsoo had called him that, Jongin pulled Kyungsoo into another hug but this time accompanied it with a soft but passionate kiss to the others lips. Soon both were in their own bedroom, the door firmly closed behind them and their clothes forgotten as they expressed their mutual love for one another physically.