There’s a circus in town and you really want to go. Kai, though, isn’t as enthusiastic about it as you are.

“Please,” you say, sliding down his arm, clutching onto him. Kai makes a sour face, looks at you like you’re some kind of a very annoying child that’s trying to make him buy you sweets, and continues making cereal, even though it’s hard with you latching onto him like an octopus. “Pleeeaasee. Take meeee.”

“I hate circus,” he says, pouring cereal into a bowl. “I ing hate clowns. I’d much rather fight a wendigo and a ghoul simultaneously and wrestle with a gorilla than go watch a clown.”

“Well, I hate western movies, but I still watch them with you!”

“You’re lying, you love western movies.”

“I liked one, Kai,” you say, taking a step away from him and leaning on the counter almost flirtatiously. , Kai thinks, as you lean forward, head not so far away from Kai’s hands and his bowl of cereal. He frowns down at you.

“No,” he says. “I’m not taking you to a circus. Just no.”

“Ohhh please,” you moan, plastering yourself on the counter. “I want to go on a circus date.”

“No.”

“But Kai, circus,” you moan again. “Last time I went to a circus, it was with my dad,” you add. He snaps his eyes up at you, stares for a few seconds, and then turns to fetch a spoon without a word. You make a snarling face at him. “You cruel, cruel person.”

“Your dad doesn’t work on me anymore,” Kai says, opening a drawer. “And you’re just saying it because you’re trying to make me feel guilty.

He hears you tsking and smiles to himself, taking the spoon out.

“Do it for me,” you say.

“No.”

“Please. Oh gosh, come on, it’s gonna be fun! It’s gonna be a date!”

“I’m not going to a circus. What’s so fun about clowns and people playing with huge hula-hoops? Not to mention the animals. Poor animals.”

“I’m sure they’re not treated that badly.”

“No animal wants to be trapped in a cage and trained.”

You make a face. Kai picks up the bowl and leans on the counter to eat it. You hop onto the counter next to him.

“But magic tricks,” you say.

“It’s not magic, it’s illusion,” Kai rolls his eyes.

“I could make it magic,” you shrug. Kai bites at the spoon accidentally, looking up at you. You’re smirking. “Nothing too serious—“

“Dal, we’re not going to the circus so that you can pull off a practical joke on one of the magicians,” he says, mouth full of cereals, and therefore mumbling.

“Traitorous bastards,” you hiss under your breath. Kai promptly chokes on his food. “How can they perform magic? They don’t know any magic. I know magic. They don’t.”

God, Kai thinks. Excitement and disdain is not a good combination in Dal’s case.

*

“But snakes,” you say. Kris laughs quietly at something Yixing says next to you. “Kai, snakes. There’s going to be snakes.”

“Super,” Kai deadpans.

“They’re gonna swallow flames and stuff,” you add, whispering. “We might see an elephant! Poodles!”

“Oh, great, I’ve always felt like poodles are my spirit animals,” he sighs. “Can I eat?”

“I’m not stopping you from eating,” you argue, seemingly hurt by his accusation. A beat later, “Kai.”

“God, what?” he barks, looking at you angrily. He’s not gonna be able to eat in peace today, is he?

“Ladies in shiny clothes dancing in the air,” you whisper, your face suddenly very close to his. Kai looks at you like you’ve lost your mind completely now, his face screaming ‘what the ?’, and the boys suddenly go quiet around the table.

“Where?” Chen asks, looking up, as if prepared to see ladies dangling from the ceiling.

*

There’s Donghae on your doorstep. He has a small backpack slung over his shoulder (a Spider Man one) and he’s holding Kyuhyun’s hand.

Kyuhyun is bouncing on his feet in excitement, and you don’t even get to show them how surprised you are by their visit, because he throws himself onto your leg and clutches.

“Dal!” he giggles.

“Kyu!” you coo, scooping him up into your arms. You hug him, and he hugs you back, almost choking you to death by his strong, werewolf grip. You start wheezing. “Kyuhyun, mind the human,” you gasp out. “Mind the human!”

Your face is red by the time he pulls away with a huge grin. Then he continues to rub his face all over your cheek and neck, and promptly latches onto you like a leech.

You look up at Donghae. For a werewolf, he looks like .

“I need you to take care of him for a few days,” he says. “Here,” he asks, handing you his backpack. “I need vacation.”

“What do you mean 'vacation'? Did something happen?”

“Nothing happened, but I need a break, and nobody has time to take care of him.”

“What about your grandma?”

Donghae looks at you like Kai does sometimes. ‘Seriously?’ he seems to be saying. “She couldn’t possibly take him on.”

You snort. “Take him on?” you laugh. “You’re talking like he’s become some kind of a wrestler these past few weeks since I’ve seen him—“

“Oreos!” Kyuhyun shouts suddenly, his knee landing between your ribs. You yelp, he slides down your body, and before you know it, he disappears in the kitchen, following the scent of the cookies with his nose alone. You stare down to where he’s been, then up at Donghae.

“Told you,” the man says. “I’m counting on you!”

“Wait,” you say, reaching out to grab his wrist, but Donghae is already walking – well, running, really – to his car. You run down the porch, ready to chase him if you have to, but he’s already in the car, waving at you. “, Donghae!”

You stare as he drives away, a bit dumbfounded, and then you hear a sound of glass breaking. A shiver runs down your spine. Then Kyuhyun begins to wail.

*

“Come on Kyuhyun, you gotta eat vegetables too,” you say, waving the fork with broccoli in front of his face. It’s been fifteen minutes and you still haven’t convinced him of eating it. “You’ve never been this moody when it comes to food! I actually remember you eating it last time.”

Kyuhyun snorts in a baby-like manner, hands crossed protectively over his small chest.

He turns his head away, resentful. “I don’t remember that.”

You feel your eye twitching. And here you were, thinking that you’re fairly patient.

“You need to eat, little guy,” Kai says, appearing by your side. “Especially broccoli.” And at that, he flashes his eyes red at Kyuhyun. The boy grimaces, curling a little inside himself, visibly intimidated, and you gasp.

“Kai!” you scold. “You can’t just stare him into submission!”

“Why not?” Kai questions. “Seems to work on the gang.”

“But he’s a baby,” you hiss. “And not your beta.”

“Not your beta!” Kyuhyun says loudly, pointing at Kai, still quite angry. “I don’t want to eat broccoli.”

“But look how nice it is,” you say, once again presenting him the broccoli on the fork. “It’s green. Like the forest. It even looks like a tiny tree!”

“I don’t recall ever eating trees,” Kyuhyun says eloquently, turning his head away again.

Your eye twitches again.

“And it’s not green like the forest,” Kyuhyun adds, making a face and glaring at the broccoli from the corner of his eye. “It’s more like—alien green.”

“Shoot, he knows!” Xiumin shouts, suddenly appearing right next to you. He’s been napping, and now his hair is a complete mess. He looks so fluffy you want to hug him. “Dal, we weren’t supposed to tell him about the alien vegetables!”

You frown at him, a bit confused.

“Alien vegetables?” Kyuhyun gasps quietly. You and Kai turn to look at him, both of you raising your brows.

“Duh,” Xiumin says, taking the fork from you and eating the already cold broccoli. He moans around it. “So good. Aliens sure know how to grow their veggies.”

“I want to try!” Kyuhyun says, jumping up onto the chair and almost falling off of it.

*
 

Through the day, Kyuhyun manages to burst out crying eight times. And it’s not really anyone’s fault. You can kind of understand Donghae’s tiredness now, though, and you’re not judging him anymore.

Not when Kyuhyun begins to cry because his hoodie doesn’t zip up any further.

“You’d have to zip up your face if it went any further!” you say, trying to calm him down. At this point, he’s grown tiny fangs and sideburns, and he’s very unhappy. “I can’t—oh, Jesus.”

You touch the hoodie with two fingers, a few runes on your arms shining, and the zipper stretches out all the way to the top of the hoodie. You zip it up, successfully trapping his head inside the hoodie, and he stops wailing at that.

“I’m not sure—“ Kai begins, but Kyuhyun then starts crying again and trashing around until you him.

The second time he cries, you’re in the supermarket, and he wants a mango.

“Firm,” he says. “But not…not totally hard, slightly soft. But not squishy!”

Kai picks up one of the mangos, weights it in his hand, and gives it to Kyuhyun to judge. The boy squishes it in his hand and starts crying.

“But it’s too squishy, Kai!” he wails, plopping down onto the floor and dissolving into sobs.

The third time he begins to cry because someone else besides you is walking on the sidewalk, the fourth time it’s because a fly lands next to him on a bench, and the fifth time is at home.

He tries to move the chair from the dining table to the living room, but he meets an impenetrable obstacle – Choco sleeping on the floor in the middle of the room.

So he cries.

“I’ll move it for you, okay?” Kai prompts with a sigh, placing his hands on the chair.

“Nooo!” Kyuhyun wails. He sways backwards, stumbles, and falls onto his , wailing even louder. Kai cringes at the volume and Choco wakes up with a startle, whining a little. “Noooo!”

“Buddy,” Kai says, sighing again. He scoops him up into his arms and Kyuhyun immediately hugs him. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying so much today? You feeling unhappy?”

The only reply he gets is a sob interrupted by a hiccup and followed by a whimper. Kai rubs his cheek on the boy’s head a little, holding him close. You enter the room to see them like this and you walk over to hug Kyuhyun as well, trapping him between you two.

“Aw,” you say. “Are you sad again?”

“The dog was in the way,” Kyuhyun explains, sobbing quietly. He hiccups. “I couldn’t move the chair.”

“I’m sure Choco didn’t mean it,” you say, kissing him on the top of his head.

He next crying session happens half an hour later, when Kyuhyun is drawing. He can’t quite fit all the crayons in his left palm, so he’s sad. You and Kai try very hard not to laugh at him at this point. You feel very guilty about that.

The seventh time he cries that day is during the afternoon. You hand him a bag of tiny cupcakes as you watch a movie together. Kai is asleep on armchair next to you and Kyuhyun is happily munching on the food, until it’s gone.

“Dal,” he says, peeking into the empty bag, “where’s the cupcakes?”

You glance at him and frown.

“You ate it,” you state, nodding a little at him. Kyuhyun stares into the bag and starts crying again. Kai wakes up.

“What’s up?” he asks as you stand up to get some tissues.

“Someone ate all the cupcakes,” you explain. “It was him.”

“Oh my God, Kyuhyun,” Kai says, stifling a laugh. Kyuhyun cries and cries and cries.

You come back with tissues and a fashion magazine, hoping it’d take his mind off the cupcakes, since TV doesn’t seem to be doing the trick.

“Here,” you say, placing it on his lap. Kyuhyun stops crying, looks down at the magazine, and becomes red. “Oh, no.”

Eight times it is. So you call for enforcements.

You spend the whole afternoon playing with him. Kris is very glad to whirl Kyuhyun around while making plane noises, Yixing adores teaching him a child’s song, and Luhan somehow manages to get the kid completely immersed with some pirate story he comes up with. You and Kai have some time for yourselves, and you can’t stop laughing over the ridiculousness of today.

“Oh my God, I have an idea,” you say. Kai looks at you. “Let’s take him to the circus!”

“Bad idea,” Kai says before you can even finish the sentence. “Bad, bad idea.”

“He’s gonna love it! We’re gonna be the first people to take him to a circus! Imagine how happy he’ll be! And he’ll always remember us for that! Please, oh gosh. Let’s take him to the circus.”

“It’s gonna scar him for life!”

“No it won’t!” you argue. “Kyuhyun!” you shout. Kai throws himself over the couch to stop you for asking, but you at his hand, making him yelp and retrieve. “Kyuhyun! We’re going to the circus!”

“Yaay!” the kid screams. You hear his footsteps and a second later, he appears in front of you two, wide-eyed. “We’re going to the circus?!”

“Yes!” you exclaim happily, taking him into your arms and spinning him around. He giggles loudly. “Your lovely uncle is taking us to the circus! Are you happy?”

“Yesh!” Kyuhyun says, throwing his arms up. “Thanks, Uncle Kai!”

“Now I’m an uncle, huh?” Kai asks, flopping down onto the couch, giving up on life.

*

“Are there going to be elephants?” Kyuhyun asks. He’s holding your and Kai’s hand, walking in the middle, and every few steps he demands you to swing him. “Swing!”

You raise your arms, swinging him once, and he laughs.

“There will!” you say cheerfully.

“Poor, imprisoned elephants who were torn away from their natural homes.”

“I’m sure they were born in captivity, Kai,” you say, rolling your eyes.

“Nagini was too, and look where that got her,” Kai says gruffly. “I’m sure she was actually evil because she was trapped her whole life.”

“Not her whole life.”

“Who’s Nagini?” Kyuhyun asks, scrunching his nose.

“Lord Voldemort’s snake,” you explain.

“Is she gonna be in the circus, too?”

“Thankfully no,” you say, “but her cousins will!”

Kyuhyun nods solemnly. Kai has a sour face.

You finally reach the circus. It’s all you’ve remembered it to be – red and gold decorations, a very loud, very fat host, the smell of camels and llamas and horses lingering in the air (Kyuhyun is very confused by it), lots of people, and popcorn.

Kyuhyun has never been more excited.

“Is it possible to overdose on popcorn?” he asks at some point, in-between two performances.

“I’ll google it and tell you,” you say, patting him on the head. He’s sitting between you and Kai, flushed from all the excitement. There’re people on the arena, setting out a big cage, so it must mean there’s going to be some kind of an animal show. When they’re done (after a short while) the host stops in the middle of the round arena and smiles at you all quite creepily.

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, let us show you how to tame a beast.”

Kyuhyun and Kai both freeze in their seats, all of a sudden. You can feel their tension and you wonder what’s happened when they lead a white wolf out onto the arena.

Since when do wolves perform in circus? Is it even legal?

The wolf howls. Not because someone told him to, though. He howls the second he’s on the arena, hiding his tail and ears.

“Dal,” Kyuhyun says in a tiny voice, “I don’t like this.”

The wolf doesn’t seem to like this either. Its eyes are wild, his posture uneasy, teeth slightly bared, and it looks like he's not completely domesticated.

“Come on,” you say, taking Kyuhyun’s hand and then scooping him into your arms. Kai stands up as you begin to make your way out of the circus tent and away from the trained wolf. Kyuhyun isn’t crying, you note when you’re outside, but he looks distressed, and he’s scrunching his nose. His eyes are shining blue.

“I don’t like this,” he says on a verge of tears.

“I didn’t like it either,” you admit. “Come on, let’s get ice cream.”

You look at Kai to see him glancing at the circus tent one more time.

*

“Would you like some blueberries?” Kyuhyun asks Kai.

“Sure, that’s very nice of you,” Kai replies.

“Good! You’ll eat the mushy ones.”

“Oh.”

You snort while gnawing on your sandwich. Kai glares at you.

“We have chicken, too,” you say, swallowing the last bite of it and going to peek into the picnic basket.

“Chicken?” Kyuhyun asks, excited. “Chickenbutt!”

“But I’m not sure if I’ve taken any vegetables—“

“Excuse me, I have a question!” Kyuhyun shouts, raising his arm up.

“—But then again, it’s not like you two would eat them.”

“ExcusemeIhaveaquestion!” Kyuhyun gurgles, almost choking on his own spit and gasping for air loudly. You smile at him.

“Yes?” you ask.

“CHICKENBUTT!”

You and Kai both end up laughing so intensively you have trouble breathing.

*

You go to Kai’s loft, but you sneak out, telling them that you have to get a few things from home in order to spend the night with them. It’s a lie, you have everything you need at Kai’s anyways, but the boys are too busy arguing over who’s better – Spider Man or Batman (somehow there always has to be one superhero argument daily) – to pay you much attention.

So you go home, take a few things just to keep up appearances, and then you go back to the city.

Back to the circus.

The troupe is packing their stuff already. No one pays you much attention, you feel pretty much invisible amongst all the people walking around cleaning and preparing to move. You follow your instincts and your sense of smell to find a small tent in the back of the whole rented space in the middle of the field (they opened the circus by the main road in town) where the circus tent used to be, and you wait for one of the trainers, the only person who’s really minding the place, to look away. When he does, you simply sneak under the big tent.

There are cages in it. You see the camels, the bear, the miniature horses and the poodles, and they don’t seem that alarmed with your presence. The dogs begin to bark, but they go quiet when you shush them.

You realize that there’s light filtering in the back of the tent and you wonder if there’s another entrance from this side. But then you hear some whispers and voices and you frown, stopping short.

You focus on your triangle tattoo just to realize that Kai is already here, somehow. So you start walking again, finally reaching your destination – the wolf cage.

Kai is there with Kyuhyun. They both glance at you, putting their fingers to their mouths, so that you keep quiet. You can’t stop yourself from smiling, even by pursing your lips. Kai has made a huge hole in the tent’s wall, probably using his claws, and that’s the source of light. Thanks to the fact that the tent is by the far end of the field, no one is able to see the damage.

You peek at the wolf inside the cage. He’s circling it, impatient, and he looks quite excited, really, as if he knows what’s happening.

Wolves don’t really live in the forests around here, but you have a feeling that he’d fit.

Kai opens the cage. He’s used his claw as the key.

“Kyuhyun, go to Dal for a moment,” he says. Kyuhyun complies, running towards you quickly. You pick him up, turning him so that he can see everything Kai is doing. The boy opens the cage door widely, then stands on the other side of them, staring at the wolf intently. The animal is unsure at first; it sniffs the air outside of the cage, looks at Kai a bit warily, and waits.

Kai flashes his eyes red at him.

The wolf barks and takes off, jumping out of the tent.

Only then you realize that you just let a wild animal out into the city, and you get pale. Kyuhyun makes a triumphant sound and you quickly cover his mouth with your palm.

“Shush!” you scold. “Kai, are you sure—“

“I’m sure,” Kai interrupts, taking Kyuhyun away from you. The little boy looks at Kai like he’s hanged the moon. “He’s gonna go straight to the forest. And then far away from here.”

*

“I had a great rest,” Donghae says on the other side of the phone. “I really needed that. Thanks for taking care of him for these few days; he’s still talking about that wolf. He came back really excited. I think I should drop by your house more often.”

“I’ve been telling you this for the past year,” you say, rolling your eyes. “Does he still cry over nothing?”

“Oh, yeah, that didn’t change,” Donghae says, chuckling. “Today, for example, I told him that he has human bones, not dinosaur bones. That seemed to be enough for him to throw a fit.”

You burst out laughing.

“I guess we have to blame it on his age, don’t we?” you say fondly. “What are you guys doing now?”

“He’s going through our old toys,” Donghae says with a sigh. And just then, you hear Kyuhyun in the background.

“I’ll tell you if it’s safe,” he says. You frown.

“Oka—“ Donghae replies, then gasps. “Kyuhyun, please don’t use binoculars while walking down the stairs.”

“Oh, my God,” you mutter, stifling a laugh. Kai outward guffaws in the other room, probably listening in to the whole conversation.

Kyuhyun sounds very determined when he says, “I can make it.”

This is one of the longest RALF (still not over that acronym) chapters. I feel no regret.

And just so we're being clear: I do not approve of circus and holding any animals in cages. I don't really approve of zoos, either. Then again, I don't approve of hunting, and we all know that some animals live way longer while in zoos, for example, than while being free. Which is ridiculous. GET YOUR TOGETHER PEOPLE. DON'T HUNT ANIMALS WHAT THE HECK WHY WOULD YOU and basically yeah I have 1734972 opinions and they're rarely compatible

The wolf idea in this chapter goes to Miranda, btw. Although she said they should go to a zoo, I figured I should write about a circus and add some Kyuhyun to the mix while I'm at it, because Kyuhyun is now almost three years old and a pain in the , and I think you all missed him :D

Thanks for reading banana breads <3