“Oh Taotao!” Sehun exclaimed a little bit on the loud side, pointing to something that had caught his attention, “I want a meerkat!”

Strangely the only response that Tao could find to give right at that second was to burst into merry laughter and wrap an arm around his seriously crazy boyfriend. They were due to leave for Japan in a few days after a bit of a mix up with a schedule that Tao had forgotten about but thankfully Luhan had baby sat him for the tie that Tao was away and basically smothered him in love and affection to the point where both Ai and Xiumin had gotten just a little bit jealous. Or at least they said so anyway, everyone knew that Luhan doted on Sehun like he was his own son and would take every opportunity to spoil the youngster.

Just like Kyungsoo still did with Kai, though thankfully not in a ual way.

As soon as Tao was done with the schedule he had rushed back home, kidnapped Sehun back from his protective Mama Luhan and taken him to a quiet little hotel somewhere in the back of beyond so that he could make up for leaving Sehun alone like that. The neighbours thankfully didn’t complain about the racket that they made that night.

But having a few days to spare before the flight, Tao was determined to make Sehun happy and forget about all of the sadness in their life, well as much of it as was possible to do of course right at this given second. They still had long sessions of just being quiet and reflective and Sehun still cried at night but at least this time he was remaining firmly in Tao’s arms and not budging in the slightest. Only once had Tao woken up to not find Sehun by his side but before he could panic the younger man had returned from the small living room where he had been watching TV to simply drag the panda eyed boy out of bed and to snuggle on the couch.

Normally Tao hated watching sappy dramas but he kept himself awake as possible with Sehun and woke up in the morning, sprawled on the couch with the youngster still in his arms.

Having his head filled with the images from the sappy dramas the night before, Tao had made up his mind to take Sehun out on a date as Lotte World was booked for tomorrow and whilst it would be nice to sit around in the hotel and do nothing but one another, it just seemed like a good time to do something. So Tao had chosen possibly the most sappiest, girliest and romantic thing which he could think of and had taken Sehun on a date to Seoul Central Zoo.

He figured that maybe Sehun had been several hundred times over but considering that he was doing this completely on the fly and without prior warning it sort of worked in his head. The added bonus was that Sehun was completely enjoying himself and his eyes held that wonderful and marvellous shine that only came out when he was really, truly happy.

Still Tao shook his head, “Won’t the Lion cubs that you wanted to adopt earlier eat the meerkats though?”

“No,” Sehun pouted, childishly, “Cause I’ll keep them apart silly.”

“Aha,” Tao said playfully back, poking the other in the ribs, “And what size of a fortune do you presume that I have in order for you to have all of these animals in our house?”

Sehun grinned, “I know the size of the fortune you have, panda boy,” he said teasingly, nipping at the end of his nose, “and it’d only take a little reconstruction work to get them all to fit.”

Tao sighed, “And my mother used to complain about the amount of plushi’s that I had.”

“Oh, you’re going to buy me plushi’s?” Sehun asked, bright and happy that Tao’s heart melted along with his resolve. He had planned on only buying one, a great big tiger that he had spotted upon arrival at the gift shop before he had dragged Sehun out with a promise to return later in the day but now he was clearly going to be buying a whole host of them for his young lover.

Tao nodded, “Well since you have asked for a tiger, a lion, an elephant, a penguin, a panda, a koala, a shark, an owl, an alpaca, an turtle, a cheetah and a dolphin I’m guessing that…” the boy paused for a second and frowned at Sehun, “You strange child.”

Sehun couldn’t help but laugh guilty at getting caught out, “Oh come on, it’s so fun.”

“Yeah, just don’t tell the others…though who the heck is the elephant?” Tao asked, looping an arm around Sehun as they moved off to look at another enclosure, “Everyone else I can pretty much figure out but not that one.”

“Who do you think it is?” Sehun asked cheekily, his grin making his cheeks puff out a little.

Tao tilted his head to the side as he thought about it, subconsciously shifting Sehun’s cap down a little further on his head when he spotted a group of teenage girls who were giving them the questioning looks that screamed potential fans. Last thing he needed today was to get attacked by fans and to cause a commotion when he was trying to just spoil his boyfriend at bit. “I’m thinking it’s either Chen or Baekhyun?” he said, carefully and slowly.

“Buzz, wrong,” Sehun grinned back, apparently unaware of the stares which Tao was thankful for as they continued on, “Guess again.”

Letting out a mock huff, Tao went through the guessing game with Sehun until there was only one possibility left and he couldn’t’ help but burst into a fit of laughter, nearly doubling over as he walked along, “You’re making Chanyeol the elephant?”

“Yup,” Sehun grinned brightly, having hardly dropped it in the past hour.

“Oh boy he’s going to absolutely freak when he finds out,” Tao chuckled and shook his head, “But why?”

Sehun shrugged, “Cause he’s tall, has massive ears and eats like one.”

Tao burst into a new round of laughter and back hugged Sehun as they watched the apes run around their enclosure, the males clearly having a bit of a game going on with a burst football, “Aww my little koala is so fluffy.”

“I am not,” Sehun said softly back, flicking Tao on the forehead, “You’re the fluffy one of the two of us panda boy.”

Tao groaned but took the opportunity to place a quick kiss on the others neck, much to the disgust of a couple next to him who wandered off. Tao just rolled his eyes towards their retreating backs and returned his attention to Sehun because he didn’t want to lose this moment in the slightest. Though he noticed that the younger had gone quiet and just a little bit pale, “What’s wrong?”

Sehun nodded towards the glass, tears just beginning to show in his eyes, “She looks so happy.”

Turning to the glass, Tao felt his heart break a little when he saw that one of the female apes had come to sit near the glass whilst she gently groomed a small baby and carefully he pulled Sehun into a tighter hug, “I know she does but I bet she had to go through a lot to get that little one.”

Sehun gulped quietly and lowered his head. Tao was just about to start tugging him away when Sehun shook his head and looked back up, “No, I want to stay, just for a little longer.”

“Okay,” Tao said softly, his hands finding the base of Sehun’s neck to gently at the skin there, “Just tell me when you want to go.”

They ended up sitting by the windows, Tao lightly holding onto Sehun’s hand whilst said male just leaned against the glass and watched the mother and child for what seemed to be an eternity. Tears did trickle down his face but they were far removed from the ugly sobs which had been plaguing him for days and the Chinese man was just patient and pliant with Sehun.

Finally at length, Sehun let out a sigh and turned to look at Tao, after watching how one of the larger males came across to the female and the baby to check up on them with such a kind devotion that it wasn’t hard to guess that this was possibly the daddy. The female was wary and protective naturally but she allowed the baby to look and that seemed to be enough for the male for the time being. Something stirred inside Sehun at that point and he realised that throughout all of this horrible situation he had never asked the one question that he probably should have asked to his lover, “Tao…are you okay?”

“Huh?” Tao frowned softly, tilting his head towards Sehun, “What do you mean?”

“I mean…about the baby,” Sehun just about stopped his voice from breaking and crept a little bit closer to his lover so that he could have a whispered conversation, “I mean, I’ve been going to pieces, worrying you to death and doing some stupid things over all of this and never once have I asked you what you’re going through. I’ve just been so selfishly wrapped up in myself and you’re doing all of this and…”

A soft, quick and gentle kiss was delivered to his lips in order to silence him and Tao smiled gently towards Sehun, “I’m doing all this because I want to. I want to make you feel safe and loved and none of what happened before matters. Yes we lost our baby and it hurts, it really does but right now I’m more concerned with not losing you because that would just devastate me more.” Tao paused to blink and try to stop his own tears from falling, “We can always try for kids later, we’ve still got time and maybe right now wasn’t right for us. But I don’t want to lose you, Sehun, you’re my world and everything in it.”

Sehun sighed softly and wrapped his arms tightly around Tao’s neck, pressing a feather light kiss to his boyfriend’s neck, “Let’s go home and snuggle on the couch with a bunch of Disney movies, just like we used to.”

Tao nodded and stood up, wiping his tears and apologising to a family who were trying to get a good look at the apes before helping Sehun up and beginning to head out. They found some tissues in the bottom of Sehun’s backpack and spent a few minutes cleaning one another up before heading out of the Zoo to go and do what they always used to do when there was nothing to major in the schedule or things hadn’t quite gone to plan.

Not without a stop to the gift shop of course.

“Hey Taotao,” Sehun went cheekily, in his most cutest and adorable ‘I’m the maknae’ voice.

“Yes Sehun?” Tao asked slowly emphasising out the words as carefully as he dared.

“I want a baby ape,” Sehun replied, doing his best aegyo towards his long suffering boyfriend.

Tao just sighed and was thankful that he had more than enough in his bank account right now else Sehun would have probably wiped him out. Though if truth be told, Tao didn’t mind in the slightest. 

Authors babbling:

Cause nobody can resist this aegyo:

teehee technically happy birthday Sehun and finally I get an update on this which is fluffy and cute with just a touch of angst. but I'm happy. 

So sorry to everyone whose been waiting on me, been busy with work, easter, going to visit family and then getting my head screwed on and attempting to job hunt and a few hundred other things but getting back into the swing of things so hopefully soon you will get a more regular update. Hope this was worth the wait and I'll catch you soon.