"Yunhooo!" Said man looks up from his magazine and checks the time on his watch. Yunho put his magazine on the couch, open and face down to the page he was on and heads to the entryway. The front door was ajar so he tentatively peeks outside.

Jaejoong was in the middle of getting bags of groceries out of the car and placing them on the driveway. He had opened the door first and called for Yunho knowing he'd get exhausted trying to carry the bags from the car to the house himself. It was difficult enough loading them in the car at the mart.

"I was wondering what took you so long." Yunho looked through the bags and selected the heaviest to carry first. Jaejoong picked the rest and followed him inside.

They put the bags on the kitchen floor and Jaejoong got started on lunch right away since it was later than he would've liked. If he started any later, lunch would not be ready before his baby turned into a food monster. Yunho began placing everything instead so Jaejoong didn't have to. "oh by the way, Sooyoung noona called." Jaejoong began while cutting the vegetables, "Seohyun and Daehyun have got chicken pox. So tomorrow's lunch is cancelled."

"Oh no! A weekend without seeing our 35 family members. How will we survive?" Yunho deadpans earning a halfhearted glare from Jaejoong. "I'm kidding. We'll visit the kids when they're better."

"Anyway, I was thinking..." Jaejoong began, "we don't have one of the regular weekend family gatherings tomorrow. So we can take Changmin out. Just the three of us."

"I like the sound of that. Where do you want to go?"

"Let's ask Min if there's somewhere he wants to go. Where is he anyway?"

"TV. Madagascar is on."

Jaejoong took the miso paste and soy sauce from Yunho's hands. "I'll do the rest. Ask Minnie what he wants to do tomorrow."

Yunho does as Jaejoong asks. He passes the living room where he was sitting earlier and notices his magazine was not where he left it but didn't think much of it. He heads upstairs to the master bedroom where he last left Changmin in front of the TV.

"Hellooo?" Yunho pokes his head in through the door but is mildly surprised to find it empty. The TV is still on though, the with the foosas playing on it. But Changmin was nowhere. There was a mussed up spot on the bed and pillows and the covers were pulled towards the floor on one side. Changmin probably slid off the bed on that edge.

Yunho turns off the TV first and goes straight for Changmin's room. That's the only other place he could be. And if he's not, there's going to be some panic.

But there's no need to think of the worst case scenario. Changmin is smack in the middle of his room. Yunho was about to make a noisy entrance but stopped himself when he hears Changmin speak. It took him a minute to realize what's going on and he runs to get Jaejoong.

"Minnie better not be in trouble." Jaejoong threatens. He doesn't appreciate being interrupted while cooking nor that Yunho is being cryptic. It's scaring him.

"Shhh... just don't make sound." Yunho slightly pushes the door of Changmin's room and they both watch from the door.

Changmin is where Yunho last saw him, on the snuggly carpet by the window where he usually plays, with his back to them. His favourite stuffed toy, the recognisable Bambi was beside him while his bear, dog, dolphin and penguin plushies were scattered around him.

He's got a book spread out in front of him and he's leaning over it reading out loud. "Hur-bee-voh-rees...leesoorelly....gray-jing...on...uh...uh-way...lie...blee...plah...ntss..."

"what's he doing?" Jaejoong whispers to Yunho. He's torn between cooing at his son trying to read and panicking seeing his face turn red while doing so.

Changmin only started school half a year ago. And sure he's ahead of his peers, but he's barely learnt to read. He's close to wheezing from trying to say the words.

"What book is that?"

"I was reading the National Geographic magazine earlier. He took it when I went to help you I guess."

Unlike Jaejoong Yunho grins seeing Changmin's face light up when he gets through a big word.

"I still don't get what he's doing." Jaejoong listens more but can't make out whatever he's reading and why. It just seems too abrupt for a four-year-old who owns only two picture books to suddenly pick up and read the first book he finds.

"It was open to a piece on white tailed deer." Jaejoong just looks at him blankly. "A relative of the mule deer?" More blank staring. "Bambi's deer species?"

A second and Jaejoong's mouth opens in realisation. He looks at his son again and he can finally understand. "Is he reading to his Bambi?"

"Seems like it." Yunho chuckles just as Changmin turns the page in reverse and he knows what's there.

"Eeee~! Waffle, your Umma!" Changmin picks up his stuffed dolphin and points at the centerfold photograph of a pod of dolphins. "That is your Umma and that is your Appa. And hyung, and hyung, and Suie Samchon...haw! Your Appa is big. But Waffle is small. Waffle has to eat like Minnie to become big okay?" Changmin's conversation with his stuffed toys continued much to the amusement of his parents.

"I guess we could go to the zoo tomorrow." Jaejoong suggests while heading back downstairs. "Make sure he's not carrying his stuffed friends though."

Yunho doesn't think much of that last statement. He just goes to Changmin break the news to him.

~~~

Yunho should've listened to Jaejoong. He should've known the moment Changmin's eyes lit up at the mention of the zoo that the tot would want to take his "friends" to meet their families.

Jaejoong had very smugly declared he's carrying the food and Changmin's bag, designating Yunho in charge of Changmin and all extra baggage. It took a lot of negotiating and lying that those animals aren't at the zoo to bring the stuffed animal count to one Bambi.

Now Yunho is walking around with Changmin on his hip and a