*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

Chanyeol takes a piece of chalk from his desk. He turns towards his students with a big grin on his face. The response is immediate – some students get pale, some hold in their breaths, some go completely still, their hearts beating faster in their chest.

Since he’s not a cruel teacher, he decides to drop his little act and walks over to the blackboard, where he writes two words: political anthropology.

A mutual moan of distaste goes through the entire lecture hall, and Chanyeol chuckles under his breath.

“Yeah,” he says, slowly turning towards his students. He throws the chalk back onto his desk, not caring about all the white dust that he creates by doing that. He takes in the faces of his pupils and smiles wider. “Something we all love and look forward to learning.”

“Can’t we just watch a movie or something, professor?” one of his students asks, raising his hand. Chanyeol levels him with a look. The guy shrinks in his seat. “I’m just saying…”

“Listen,” Chanyeol says with a sigh, looking through his drawers in search of the projector remote. He finds it, clicks the right button, and he hears the screen slowly dropping from the ceiling behind him. “I hate this topic, too. But you gotta listen through it. Please, at least try to remember something from this lecture.”

He turns on his laptop and opens the right presentation.

Then he stands up, walks to the wall and picks up his pointer from there. Using a green light sabre toy as a pointer is probably the most fun he gets from this job, and when he turns on the light, the students growl in annoyance, which makes it even more fun.

He turns to the class and grins like an idiot.

But then he hears quick footsteps coming from outside the hall, and he frowns. He looks at the door, recognizing Sehun’s heartbeat, and wait until his friend literally barges into the hall, door almost thrown off its hinges and all. Chanyeol actually jumps at the sudden outburst, and some of the students look very disturbed.

Sehun looks at Chanyeol with utter terror in his eyes, his tie askew, still holding two pieces of chalk in his hand.

“Dal is going into labor.”

*

Heejin is in the middle of pouring some caramel syrup into a customer’s coffee when she hears the bells jingle above the door. She looks over her shoulder to see Kris and Luhan walking into the shop, looking a bit weary. Kris is still wearing his cop uniform, and judging by the state of Luhan’s shirt, he’s had some cats to operate on today.

Some angry cats.

“Hey guys,” Heejin chimes, finishing up the coffee. Luhan waves at her and Kris smiles softly. They approach the counter at the same time she reaches it. “Tired?”

“Yeah, super tired,” Kris admits. “We had a nasty case today. We think there might be some kind of a rogue chimera on the loose. Maeng let me go because I worked the night shift, but Kai had to stay behind and write a report.”

“Aw, ,” Heejin says, clicking her tongue. “Be right back.”

She goes to carry the coffee to her customer. In the meantime, Tao emerges from the back of the shop with a fresh batch of chocolate cookies.

“Hey dads,” he greets Kris and Luhan.

“Yo son,” Luhan replies. “Wow, as busy as a bee.”

“Always,” Tao says, smiling widely. He yawns as he puts the cookies on the shelf, and Kris laughs at him.

“You should probably consider dropping that stripper job,” he tells him. Heejin comes back right then.

“No way,” Tao scoffs. “I live for that job.”

“I’ll pretend you meant your job here,” Heejin says, approaching Tao to see how his cookies turned out. “Ooh.”

“Yeah!” Tao says, grinning. “Nice, right? Your dad just praised me. He also said something about forgetting to order flour?”

Heejin goes wide-eyed at that. “Again?!” she gasps, and runs to the kitchen in the back. A few seconds later, Kris, Luhan and Tao can hear her discussing her father’s organization skills with him.

“You guys want some coffee?” Tao asks, leaning on the counter.

“Yeah,” Luhan nods. “And your cookies, too.”

“My man.”

“Uh, guys?” Kris says, his voice super tense all of a sudden. Tao and Luhan look over to him. He’s peering down at his phone, his eyes wide. He slowly raises his head, just as Heejin comes back from the kitchen, and looks at each one of them separately before breaking the news. “Dal’s waters broke.”

*

Yixing watches – in awe, as always – as Seon hits the bull’s eye on every single practice target at the shooting range. He turns off the timer once Seon shoots the last target.

She turns towards him, raising a questioning brow.

“Ten sixteen,” Yixing says, looking down at the timer. “Three seconds faster.”

Seon tilts her head to the side slightly, considering. Yixing levers her with an amused glance.

“Still not good enough?” he asks. Seon purses her lips and looks down as she re-loads the gun. He knows that look already; Seon makes that face when she’s sad or unsure about something. Sometimes it’s hard to tell these apart.

“Not good enough to beat Myungsoo’s best score,” she admits quietly, pointing the gun at the target that’s furthest away.

She shoots and misses the center. 

Yixing puts a hand on the back of her neck when she puts her gun down, and she rubs her skin there a little, soothing. Seon looks at him over her shoulder, her brows creased. 

“Why the long faces?” a familiar voice asks them. They both turn to look at Krystal, who’s approaching them with some gear. Yixing frowns when she almost trips down because of the huge bag she’s carrying; he goes as far as to outstretch his arms towards her in case she actually falls. Krystal laughs nervously at that. 

“Sorry,” she smiles. “So, why the long faces? You either tell me or I’ll just find out myself.”

Yixing doesn't get to reply because Krystal’s phone starts ringing. She drops her bag and goes to pull it out of the pocket of her combat trousers - her favorite piece of clothing lately. 

“Hey Chen,” she says to the phone. “Whoa, slow down. What?”

*

Your waters just broke, and Chen can’t get ahold of Kai.

He’s running around, breathing heavily, trying to get himself together. His friend’s wife is going into labor. Right before his eyes.

You watch him as he gathers all the stuff he can think of and just throws it randomly into a duffel bag, even though you’re already standing by the door with the bag you’ve packed a few weeks ago, in case your kid decided to come to the world earlier. Choco is sitting next to you and the two of you exchange pointed looks. 

“Did I pack your pajamas?!” Chen asks you, his eyes crazily scanning yours and Kai’s house. “Did I pack your food?!”

You smirk at him. Chen looks around, runs to the bathroom and back, waves his hands around at you.

“Did I pack your toothbrush? Did I pack Kai’s toothbrush? Did I pack your child’s toothbrush?!” he asks way too quickly for you to understand. “Wait, the child won’t need a toothbrush, it doesn’t have teeth!”

“Oh my God, Chen,” you moan, impatient. Chen promptly freaks out at that. He approaches you, puts a hand on your swollen belly, and dramatically looks you in the eyes.

“Does it hurt?” he gasps.

“Can you get a move on, you nerd?” you shout, slapping him on the shoulder. Chen jumps away with a yell. “I have everything! Just get the car!”

“Yes! Yes! The car!” Chen screams, running past you. You look at him over your shoulder.

“Chen, shoes!” you remind him. He runs out of the house without his shoes. “Oh my God. Did it have to be his turn. Really.”

Chen barges back into the house. “I didn’t take the keys!” he informs you. You let out an exasperated huff, digging around for your phone to call the hospital and let them know you’re coming. Meanwhile, Chen runs to search for the keys. “I’m not ready to be a father!”

“Chen, this isn’t your baby,” you deadpan, punching the green button.

Chen shows up behind you with the car keys. “Oh please, this is everyone’s baby!” he outward shouts into your face, and then runs out of the house, yet again forgetting about his shoes. Your jeep’s engine whirrs to life. You take your bag and begin to walk towards the door, shoes and coat already on.

Chen comes back to help you get into the car. The wind is freezing, and as you're about to hop into the car, you notice that there are tiny snowflakes on the car's roof. 

It's the first snow this year.

*

The pack is pacing around the waiting room.

Well, actually, they’re pacing around three different rooms, one of them being the waiting room. There’s also some of them down the halls, and almost all of them are pacing. People are giving them weird looks and doctors are baffled as to what they should do with so many people in their corridors.

“If Kai doesn’t get here in time for his baby’s birth, I’m gonna throw him out the window,” Siwon grouses, biting at his thumb nail. He keeps on jiggling his knee. It’s driving Kyungsoo a bit crazy.

“And I’m gonna help you do that, but please, stop shaking your knee,” he says through clenched teeth.

“Don’t tell me how to live.”

“Shut up!” Chanyeol shouts, listening into your heartbeat. “I think it’s starting!”

“My God, stop screaming,” Eun says, raising her voice. “All of you. You’re not helping anyone by screaming.”

They hear hurried footsteps and they all turn their heads to the end of the corridor, expecting to see Kai running. Instead, they see Taemin.

Taemin, who’s left for the army half a year ago and now has black, short hair, and is wearing combat uniform. Iseul is running right behind him, wearing a matching suit, her hair pulled up in a ponytail.

“Did we make it in time?!” Taemin asks. Every single person that has been sitting down up until this point stands up, surprised and shocked. They didn’t know Taemin was coming.

“Yeah!” Jessica says. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I couldn’t miss on my godson’s birth!” Taemin argues. Eun throws herself at him, and he catches her easily, trapping her in a hug. “I missed you guys!”

“We didn’t know you were coming!” Eun tells him, pulling away and looking over to Iseul. “Both of you! You guys are amazing!”

“We are, but where the hell is Kai?” Iseul asks, looking around. “I can’t hear him.”

“He’s the only one being late,” Sulli informs. Next to her, Sehun grunts uncomfortably, so she looks over at him and takes his hand into her own. She squeezes gently.

“He probably got held back at the station,” Kris explains. “I’m gonna punch Maeng for that.”

“Speaking of Maeng, is that him walking here with balloons?” Amber asks, peering out the window.

The entire pack jumps to where she is. Baekhyun accidentally pushes Amber at the glass, and her head bounces off of it and hits the bridge of Baekhyun’s nose. The impact is strong enough to make him dizzy, and he starts to fall. Suho catches him, trips over Min, who happens to be behind him, and the three of them fall onto the floor. Min takes Yunho with her as she goes, they all squeal, the rest of the pack jumps away from them to avoid getting knocked over, and people down the hall stop to watch them making complete idiots out of themselves.

A nurse jumps out of a room.

“Can you all please be quiet? You’re causing a—“ she stops midsentence when she sees a scatter of human bodies on the floor. Three seconds pass by, and she blinks. “—disturbance.”

“We’re sorry,” Taemin says, standing in front of her and straightening up. “We'll be quiet.”

His charming smile works. The nurse gets a bit intimidated by his uniform, and goes back to the room, flustered. Taemin turns to the pack, grinning.

“You guys haven’t changed at all,” he says, watching as the members of the pack who’ve fallen are now picking each other up and dusting themselves off.

Maeng comes into the corridor then, and he’s carrying a huge teddy bear and balloons with congratulations written on them. When he sees that the whole pack is there, looking at him with amusement, he stops short and looks like he’s about to bail through the window.

“The teddy bear is for Kai,” he points out with a concentrated frown on his face. Then he grimaces as he takes in all the people in front of him. “Jesus, there’re so many of you.”

He’s met with silence. And then Chen speaks up. “Well, we thought he was burnt bread but apparently he's just a grilled cheese.”

“Where’s Kai?” Jieun asks, nervousness heard in her voice.

“He’s coming,” Maeng assures. “Changmin and Heechul, too.”

“They’re going to ban us from coming to this hospital if we keep this up,” Jaejoong says, rubbing a hand through his hair. “Also, I think Dal might kill us for piling up here.”

“Is her mom with her?” Maeng asks, putting the teddy bear on a chair next to where Siwon is sitting.

“She is,” Siwon replies.

And then you start screaming.

Luhan pales. Chen swears. The rest goes still. When you scream again, the boys start to panic, and all hell breaks loose.

Thankfully, Kai shows up a minute later, runs past them all without looking back (he does throw off his suit jacket and his tie as he goes), and barges into the labor room.

The pack watches as he disappears in the room and silence ensues. 

“Five bucks on him fainting in there,” Minjoon says. 

And that’s how the corridor erupts in shouts as everyone makes bets.

Kai doesn’t faint. The worlds outside is white from snow by the time you stop screaming, and then a baby’s cry is heard.

fin

I've written this chapter a few weeks back, finishing this fic, but I kind of couldn't bring myself to write the final A/N. When RWW was ending, I knew I had more ideas for it, that I wanted to write a continuation and that it's not the end yet, but now, when I'm finishing RALF, I feel sad, because I do feel like this might be my last adventure with this verse. For the time being, at least. 

Thank you all so much for being here and supporting me from start to finish. Thanks for being patient with me, for messaging me, commenting on my work, and being overall awesome. I grew so attached to the characters that I created in this universe that I feel like I'm parting with my family by finishing this fic ;-;

There's a chance of me writing bonus chapters for this in the future, since I still have ideas for the pack.

Once again, thanks for being here for me. I've met so many awesome people through this site, it's unreal. I really hope that we'll meet again soon, since I have some plans for the future that I think you guys would enjoy! :D

Feel free to drop by my askbox or my ask.fm if you want to talk or ask me questions. I love you cranberry white chocolate chunk cookies. See you next time.