Meetings and Blankets

The alarm goes off at the same time it always does. A big 6.30am shines in the led screen as Minseok lets his heavy hand fall on the machine. It’s cold and, returning his arm under the covers, Minseok buries his nose on the fluffy pillow.

"It’s only doing its job," Luhan says. He laughs as he exits the bathroom with a towel around his waist. Minseok can see the warm steam coming out as Luhan heads to the closet and takes out a pair of underwear, jeans and a t-shirt, and gets dressed in front of the mirror inside their room.

"Those are mine, by the way," Minseok tells him as he reluctantly pulls the covers away from his body and gets up with a shiver. He stretches his arms above his head and shudders as his back cracks a few times. He moves to stand next to Luhan, tugging the label of the shirt he’s wearing inside the fabric.

"What?"

"The underwear. It’s mine."

"Oh, right. Sorry." Luhan smiles and kisses Minseok but shows no signs of repent or trying to change out of Minseok’s boxer briefs. Minseok doesn’t mind anyway. They’ve been sharing everything since they were in college. Or, more like, Luhan’s been wearing Minseok’s things since they were in college. It’s cute, Minseok thinks.

"Did you wake Jinri up?"

"Was about to. Want to do the honors?"

"Sure." Minseok grins as he fixes Luhan’s wild hair and then steps out of the room. He hears something about making breakfast from Luhan and he looks back and nods at his husband before opening Jinri’s bedroom door.

The room is still the same soft pink color it was when Minseok and Luhan first painted it when they welcomed Jinri when she was barely two days old. However, the crib has been replaced by a bed and the baby toys replaced by dolls. She’s quite the football aficionado as well, just like her dads, and it shows in the amount of sport equipment she owns and the small, clean cleats that sit by the bed.

Minseok enters the bedroom, careful not to make any loud noises, and sits on the edge of her bed. "Good morning, sweetheart," he whispers as he clears her long, beautiful hair from her face.

She moves around a bit before opening her eyes and smiling at her dad.

"Morning, daddy."

"Papa is making French toast. Want some?"

As soon as she nods Minseok picks her up and she latches to him like a tiny koala bear. Minseok loves it when she does that.

"Hey, sleepy head," Luhan greets her with a kiss on the forehead when they walk inside the kitchen and she smiles wide, one of her front teeth still waiting to come out. She looks awfully cute.

"Papa, will you come to the Christmas play this Sunday?" She asks in the middle of a yawn, head resting comfortably on Minseok’s shoulder.

"Wouldn’t miss it for the world, baby," he answers. "But right now we need to have breakfast and then you need to get ready for school."

Minseok puts her down on her chair. "Victoria asked me if she could take Jinri for the afternoon so I’ll pick her up at around 6," Minseok says as he pours coffee for Luhan and himself.

"Remember to return the shirt Soojung lent Jinri last week. It’s already clean and in a bag in the living room."

"Oh, right." He cuts Jinri’s toast for her in triangles, just the way she likes it, and pushes her mug with milk away from the edge of the table. “Be careful, honey, you’re gonna drop your cup.”

“I got a visit from Junmyeon last night,” Luhan says with a soft, if not careful, tone.

Minseok freezes in his spot. The feeling in his gut that has been growing quiet the past few weeks comes back with full force but surprisingly duller. “What about?”

“Hey,” Luhan whispers as he put his hand on top of Minseok’s on the table. “I’m not trying to push you or anything, I was just thinking, it’s been five months already and, I don’t know, I thought it would be nice to…You know what? Nevermind. Pretend I didn’t say anything.”

“Luhan–“

“Don’t worry about it.” His husband smiles reluctantly and continues eating his breakfast as Minseok pulls Jinri’s hair from her face before it gets dirty. Guilt sweeps over Minseok knowing how Luhan looks forward to a call from Junmyeon to tell them they have priority. Maybe their time is right. Junmyeon would certainly not have approached them if they weren’t.

When they are finished, Minseok clears the table as Luhan gives Jinri a quick shower before getting her dressed for the day. Minseok showers afterwards, the bathroom smelling of baby soap. Jinri’s light yellow pajamas are on top of the laundry basket, nicely folded. He smiles to himself as he remembers how Luhan’s room back in college was a perpetual mess but now he folds clothes that are about to get washed.

He dresses fast, throwing on some slacks and a casual shirt on, untied tie around his neck (Luhan insists on tying them every time they leave together for work.) He picks up his ID and his bag full of papers he has yet to grade. Thank heavens there’s only one week until the fall semester is over.

They leave home not much later, Luhan makes sure Minseok’s tie is nicely done before setting foot outside. They drop Jinri off at her school with a few hundred kisses and tell her to be good at Soojung’s this afternoon.

"With some incentive I might," she laughs as she waves them goodbye.

Luhan snorts before shouting “we love you!” because he knows it embarrasses her when he does it. “She’s so cheeky, I think she’s been hanging around the twins too much.”

“Or the twins got it from her,” Minseok says with a smirk. “Her mind works in mysterious ways.”

When they reach the hospital, Minseok parks the car near the entrance. He fixes Luhan’s hair again and leans in for a goodbye kiss.

"See you at dinner," Luhan says. "We should get a couple sandwiches from Joe’s." Luhan grins as he dusts nonexistent dust from Minseok’s jacket.

Minseok takes a deep breath before he says, “if you see Junymeon, you know…”

Luhan looks at him with surprise. “You sure?”

“Yeah,” Minseok tells him with a smile. “It’s time, I think.”

Luhan, instead of getting off the car, throws himself at Minseok and kisses him. “I love you.”

"I know," he laughs. "I Love you, too. Have a good shift, Lu."

--

"Morning, class,” he greets his Lit 101 class. “We have only a week until winter break, during which you will have assignments.” There’s a collective groan from the people inside the classroom that almost makes Minseok smirk. “Don’t worry, I’m not eager to get back to work to grade hundreds of papers so you’ll have it easy.”

The rest of the morning goes by uneventfully. He uses the free period between classes to catch up on grading and finishing up all his assignments to have a free Christmas break.

It’s nearly lunch when he decides to leave the grading for his free period that afternoon instead of using time that’s meant for food. He’s heading to the cafeteria when suddenly a rapid moving figure crashes into him sending both bodies in a heap into the floor.

“Christ! I’m so sorry!” A clearly British individual says as he attempts to regain his dignity.

Minseok, feeling a bit dizzy from the encounter, feels his way up to his forehead to find it mysteriously damp. Either his sweat glands went completely berserk or he’s bleeding. “Ow,” he utters.

“Oh bollocks, you’re bleeding!” the individual says while staring at Minseok in shock.

“,” Minseok mutters. He tries to get up, at which time the English man regains his sense and helps him. “Is it deep?”

“A bit. You’ll probably need a stitch or two,” he says. “I’m really sorry, by the way.”

“It’s fine,” Minseok tells him. He can see that the man is wearing a professor I.D. At least he didn’t run into an escaping criminal, or worst, a student.

“I’m Chanyeol, by the way,” the man introduces himself. “Is there anything I can do for you? Do you need a ride to the A&E?”

“The wha– Wait, never mind. I’m assuming that’s the ER, and if so, yes please. I’d appreciate it.”

“No problem, mate. I’m really sorry about this, I’m quite the menace with my limbs I’ve been told.”

“I can see that.”

As they drive toward the hospital, Minseok having sent Luhan a text informing him of his arrival, the professor decides he likes Chanyeol. Dangerous limbs and all.

He has a warm and wet piece of cloth holding his forehead together when they arrive to the front desk of the ER.

“Hey, Bobby,” he greets the nurse at the front desk. “How are the kids?”

“Minseok! What happened?” he laughs. “Does Luhan know you’re here?”

“He knew I was coming. This is Chanyeol, a colleague,” Minseok tells the nurse.

“Well, let’s get you settled then,” Bobby says. “The kids are fine, by the way. The terrible twos are only terrible on the parents.”

Minseok chuckles. “That’s a tough stage.” The nurse nods, agreeing.

“We’ll wait for the Social services report before deciding anything,” he hears Luhan saying as he opens the door to the room. His husband double and triple checks the x-rays in front of him while talking to a couple of interns.

There’s a boy lying on a bed inside the exam room, eyes wide open even though he looks very tired.

“But he’s malnourished and has been clearly abused,” one of the girls says.

“Let’s not discuss this in front of– Minseok?”

“Hey.” He looks at the tiny figure on a bed that’s too big and feels a pang on his chest.

“Minseok, hey. How’s your head?”

“Do we have reason to keep him, then?” One of the girl interns asks.

“We’ll discuss this when it’s time to discuss it but not here. Now go, children, I need to take care of other things,” Luhan instructs the med students.

“Dr. Lu, we got an MVA coming in, ETA four minutes,” a nurse interrupts Luhan. He turns off the light from the x-rays and puts a hand on Minseok’s shoulder and caresses his neck with his fingers.

“I’m sorry, we have been swamped since this morning,” he says with a chuckle. “Wait for me? I think Junmyeon wants to talk to us about some possibilities.”

“Sure. Chanyeol will keep me company,” Minseok says as he looks at the tall british man currently staring at the x-rays.

“Should I be jealous?” Luhan asks him with a raised eyebrow.

Minseok only snorts.

“I’ll have a nurse come and clean you up. I’ll be back in a few to close up that wound.”

When Luhan leaves, Minseok moves to sit on the edge of the bed available and notices the boy staring at him. He still has the blanket over most of his body and he’s clutching it with tiny fists. He looks so very tired. The professor realizes he doesn’t know his name or how old he is. He doesn’t know if he witnessed anything or if he’s scared or sad. “Can you tell me your name, buddy?” He attempts with a soft voice.

The boy, instead of answering him, covers himself completely and pretends to fall asleep. Well, Minseok thinks, I tried.

“I wanted to be a doctor when I was growing up,” Chanyeol informs him. “But this teacher that was a complete tosser told me I should keep my expectations low.”

“What did you study, exactly?”

“Engineering. I teach advanced calculus and algebra to scared little firsties. It’s quite fun to torment them.”

That’s why I has never seen him before, Minseok thinks. The College of Engineering is at the other side of campus. “Everyone likes to scare first years. I like to make them write their first essay by hand. I’ve been called an insensitive prick a number of times.”

“That’s mean,” Chanyeol laughs. “But brilliant!”

They wait a few more minutes before the nurse arrives and starts cleaning his wound. As Minseok attempts not to utter a sound, he see the little boy from the bed across look at him with curiosity written all over his face. For a second, Minseok thinks the boy will ask him how he managed to slice his forehead open, but then someone comes into the room and the little guy hides under his blanket once again. Minseok feels weirdly disappointed.

“All done, Mr. Kim. Dr. Lu will be here in a few,” the nurse says before exiting the room.

When Minseok looks to see if the boy is still hiding, he’s sad to see he has been taken away.

He doesn’t have much time to dwell on it because Luhan has managed to get away to stitch him up.

“Ok. Any dizziness? Nausea? Blurred vision?” He asks already in doctor mode.

“A bit of dizziness when I got up from the floor but otherwise nothing.”

“So, let me guess,” Luhan says when Chanyeol makes his presence known. “The perpetrator?”

“I sweat I’ll make it up to you for mauling your face with my bloody limbs!” Chanyeol assures them with an excited look in his face. “Let me buy you lunch. Both of you! I deserve punishment in the form of an emptying bank account.”

“I’ll say you got yourself a deal,” Minseok tells him. And after Luhan has patched him up, they go to a restaurant nearby and spend the entire meal laughing at Chanyeol’s stories from his boarding school days and trying not to choke on their food.

But Minseok’s mind occasionally drifts to the little boy that seemed too scared to utter a single word and hopes he’s ok wherever he is.