“You ever think that you spoil him too much?” Kris asks.

Chanyeol turns to look at his friend and shrugs, “No. I don’t spoil Sehun.” Sehun, who is practically lying on Chanyeol, pays the adults no mind as plays with the gummy worms in his hands. They’d just picked Sehun up from kindergarten, and Kris was following Chanyeol to his house to drop Sehun off before they went to Kris’ place to watch the basketball game.

Kris rolls his eyes. “You know he’s old enough to walk on his own, right? You don’t have to carry him.” He eyes the backpack that Chanyeol’s wearing. “And his bag.”

“I know,” Chanyeol sighs as they walk up the driveway to the house. “He’s always tired after kindergarten though…”

“But definitely not spoiled,” Kris teases, accepting the keys that Chanyeol offers to unlock the door for them.

“He’s not spoiled.” Chanyeol pouts as he kicks off his shoes in the entranceway, wondering. “Not that spoiled,” he amends. He ruffles Sehun’s hair for good measure and smiles as Sehun lifts a hand to weakly bat Chanyeol away.

“Whatever you say, Chanyeol,” Kris calls as he walks to the kitchen to gather food supplies (mostly the hidden junk food from the upper shelves of the pantry).

Chanyeol shakes his head at his friend. “Okay, Sehunnie,” he says, nudging Sehun a little from the koala position he was in, “we’re home! We’re going to take your bath early today, so I want you to go and grab a change of clothes and I’ll go set up the bath.”

Sehun straightens in Chanyeol’s hold, wiggling to get down. “Can I wear my pajamas now?” he asks, and Chanyeol has to make sure to wash his face especially clean – he can see the suspicious remnants of something sugary on his son’s skin. Where is he getting all this candy from?

“Sure, if you want,” Chanyeol says, mentally calculating when he’s last washed Sehun’s Hulk pajamas – Sehun’s preferred set that would always be his choice when he was allowed to choose.

Sehun runs off to his bedroom with a grin, dragging his backpack with him. Chanyeol notices the fond smile that starts to creep on his face and quickly suppresses it – he’s not going to be that parent. The parent whose only interest is in their own kids. Instead, he checks in on Kris in the kitchen – “The better beer is in the back, man,” – before he goes to wait for Sehun in the bathroom.

Baths are a daily thing for them; not only does Chanyeol think teaching Sehun about showers is more work than the baths themselves, but Chanyeol also secretly likes the time they spend together. Usually Sehun takes his after dinner because the hot water makes him sleepy, but Chanyeol’s going to be busy watching the game tonight.

“Here, daddy,” Sehun says, appearing the in the doorway with his pajamas in one arm and a small bucket of toys in the other. He hands Chanyeol the clothes, who hangs them up for later, and drops the bucket into the tub with a thunk as it fills.

“Can we have a bubble bath?” Sehun asks as he lifts his arms for Chanyeol to pull off his shirt.

“Sure, Sehunnie, but don’t put too much in. Remember last time?” Chanyeol warns as Sehun takes off his own pants and goes over to where they keep the soaps.

“But last time was fun!”

Chanyeol grimaces at the memory of bubbles everywhere, and having to clean up afterwards. “I’m sure we can have the same amount of fun with less bubbles,” he replies, watching to make sure Sehun poured an appropriate amount of the mixture in.

Once the tub is full and they’ve both checked to make sure the water was a good temperature, Chanyeol lowers Sehun into the frothy pink waters (pink wasn’t only for girls, Chanyeol had been sure to teach).

“How was school?” Chanyeol asks as he rolls up his sleeves and begins lathering the shampoo in his hands.

Sehun doesn’t pause in his boat adventures, “It was okay. Today I played with Tao, but he wouldn’t share his fire truck with me, so I went to play with Jonginnie instead.” He leans his head back when Chanyeol starts washing his hair, aware of the dangers of getting soap in his eyes.

“That wasn’t very nice of Tao.”

“He let me have his apple slices later so we’re friends again,” Sehun answers, matter-of-fact. Friendships are so easy in kindergarten, Chanyeol thinks longingly – he hears the faint clanging of something metal falling to the ground from the kitchen and pictures Kris wreaking havoc on his frying pans.

“Speaking of friends,” Chanyeol says, latching onto the subject eagerly as he massages the shampoo into Sehun’s hair. “A friend is going to come over to watch you tonight.”

This gets Sehun’s attention. “Where are you going?” he asks, twisting to look accusingly at Chanyeol. “What about Uncle Kris?”

“I’m going to go watch the game with Uncle Kris tonight,” Chanyeol explains, “and he’s going to have some of his friends over, too, so we’re going to watch it at his house. It’ll be too loud for you, so I asked Kyungsoo to come watch you while I’m away.” Chanyeol bites his lip at the stony look he gets from his son. “That’s okay, right? Kyungsoo’s really friendly; you’ll have lots of fun with him!”

Sehun doesn’t answer immediately, but he does smooth out his expression into a careful neutral one. “Kyungsoo-hyung is going to watch me?” he asks eventually, and Chanyeol is extremely relieved to hear the anticipation in Sehun’s voice.

“Kyungsoo-hyung,” Chanyeol corrects, “And yep! He can’t wait to hang out with you. You kind of gave him a scare last time you guys met… hopefully this time around goes better, huh?”

“I can show him my toy collection,” Sehun says, “and he can draw pictures with me for you.”

Chanyeol grins hugely, ecstatic over the fact that Kyungsoo was wrong – Sehun did like him! “Those are great ideas,” he enthuses, carefully piling bubbles onto Sehun’s head to make a little hat. “Kyungsoo loves to draw!” Chanyeol doesn’t actually know this, but Kyungsoo would probably be willing to pretend for Sehun’s sake.

“Daddy, can you bring me home bubble tea after?” Sehun asks sweetly, eyes wide. “And for Kyungsoo-hyung, too,” he tacks on.

Chanyeol, still pleased over this newest development, nods unthinkingly. “Of course,” he promises. “Anything for you, baby.”

“Not a baby!” Sehun smacks the water in protest. The effect is completely ruined because Sehun’s bubble hat wiggles adorably on his head.

Chanyeol smirks. “Not a baby, huh?” he asks. “Let’s see if you can prove it, Mr. All Grown Up! Grown-ups can get washed under their arms without squirming away and being all ticklish, you know,” is Chanyeol’s challenge.

Sehun eyes the loofah in Chanyeol’s hand and grimaces. Sehun is, unfortunately for him, extremely ticklish, and it was a struggle every night for Chanyeol to get him to sit still long enough to be washed properly. However, he’d also inherited his pride from Chanyeol as well and was never one to back down from a challenge.

“Bring it on,” Sehun says, scrunching up his nose in preparation.

Chanyeol dives right in with a battle cry, and just as he expected the fight to get Sehun clean began.

“No, no, stop it, okay, I give up!” Sehun yells immediately as Chanyeol starts scrubbing, interspersed with helpless laughter. “IT TICKLES!”

Chanyeol only laughs along, enjoying it too much to care that he was also getting sopped with water and soap as well.

A solid 10 minutes later, Kris walks in on Sehun getting toweled off.

“You’ve got a little water,” he says as he takes in Chanyeol’s disheveled appearance, pointing, “everywhere.”

“Daddy was being mean and wouldn’t stop tickling me,” Sehun blames, sticking out his tongue at Chanyeol when he wasn’t looking.

“You fought him off, did you?” Kris asks proudly, “Good for you.” He shakes his head at Chanyeol, who’d been shooed away when he tried to help Sehun get dressed. “Go get changed, you goof,” he orders. “I’ll clean this up. Kyungsoo texted me and said he’d been here any second.”

Chanyeol shoots Kris a grateful smile and bustles out towards his bedroom. Kris takes in the state of the bathroom and a smiling Sehun and nods approvingly. “You did well, Sehun.”

The doorbell rings as soon as Chanyeol finishes pulling on new clothes, and he rushes to open the door. Kris and Sehun get up from the living room floor, where they’d been playing with dragon figurines, to follow. Sehun slips up behind his father to take Chanyeol’s hand.

“Hey, Kyungsoo!” Chanyeol greets enthusiastically and bends down to steal a kiss before Kyungsoo’s even got a word out. “Thanks again for helping out!”

Kyungsoo waves Chanyeol away, but the roll of his eyes is fond. “It’s not a problem.” He nods at Kris, who gives him two thumbs up in return. “Sorry I’m a little late; traffic .”

Kris checks his watch. “If we leave now, we should be okay. I’ll go grab the food and stuff and meet you in the car, Chanyeol.” He makes his way to the kitchen, leaving the other three alone.

“Sehunnie, say hi to Kyungsoo-hyung,” Chanyeol encourages, and Kyungsoo’s smile freezes on his face as Sehun is nudged forward. He hasn’t forgotten about last time, and if he didn’t like Chanyeol as much as he did, he didn’t think he could manage to deal with such a sneaky kid.

“Hi, Kyungsoo-hyung,” Sehun greets brightly, waving his free hand.

Kyungsoo feels a little better, but he can’t quite shake the feeling that he’s being duped again. “Hello, Sehun.”

“You’re going to be good for Kyungsoo, aren’t you?” Chanyeol asks. Sehun tilts his head and smiles innocently up at his dad.

“I’m always good,” he insists, which has Chanyeol laughing and patting Sehun’s head fondly. Kyungsoo is a little endeared and can’t help the smile on his face.

“Fair point. Okay, then, I guess that means I’m good to go then. Give me a hug before I go, Sehunnie,” Chanyeol says, bending down so Sehun can wrap his arms around Chanyeol’s neck – a little possessively, if you asked Kyungsoo, but Chanyeol was always happy with Sehun’s affection. “I’ll be back by eleven, and there’s plenty of food in the fridge. Just call me if you have any problems.”

Kyungsoo looks down at Sehun, feeling optimistic. “I’m sure there won’t be. Go have fun, don’t worry about us.”

Chanyeol grins and hurriedly gets his shoes on, hand on the door.

“Bye, daddy,” Sehun calls as Chanyeol leaves, “Don’t forget my bubble tea!”

“I won’t!”

Chanyeol climbs into Kris’ car, and with that they’re off. Kyungsoo closes the door and locks it.

“Alright, Sehun, what do you want to do first?” he asks, turning to look at Sehun. He freezes once again, however, when he sees the expression on Sehun’s face. That familiar sense of dread and despair fills him.

Sehun is grinning at him, but it’s nothing like the smiles he’d given Chanyeol. No, this was the same grin he’d given Kyungsoo last time.

Kyungsoo glances at the clock. , he curses in his head, it’s only 5.