The Fire of My Heart

Chapter 2

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Family meetings are strange things, especially in our family

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The day started off fairly normal for Youngjae, he got up for work, had a shower, had the same boring breakfast before going to pretend smile at people who should really know better about buying electronics, having lunch with the most whiniest staff on the entire planet who seemed to do nothing but about whom they were sleeping with whilst they were all married and stirring up trouble between everyone else in the world before going back to pretend smiling at customers, actually able to fix something for half an hour that let him escape from the general idiocy of the shop that he worked in and then get a chance to go home. There he would spend a little time with some nice classical music, do his coursework from a long distance learning service he had found one day, check his eBay selling history to make sure that everything got posted off correctly and then have a meal and go to bed. It was the same routine every week day and night until the weekend when he’d go out on Friday night, not enjoy himself, come back to his apartment drunk and nearly sleep in the next day and have to be dragged out by either Yongguk or Jongup.

Not that he actually minded of course, just sometimes the routine got boring. But as Youngjae kept reminding himself, once he got the degree he was looking to achieve then he’d be able to set up his own company, work reasonable hours and not have to put up with idiots all of the time. The only reason why he hadn’t opted to study like everyone else was because Youngjae hated studying, he was better learning hands on and actually trying to physically interact with people rather than sitting learning it from a page of black and white text. Granted he had to actually take a few years to be able to fully read and write several of the languages of Earth but once he could get a job of his own he had jumped straight at the chance.

Leeteuk had been concerned at first but Yongguk had settled him down, telling him that it was for the best as Youngjae had his own way of doing things and the younger brother had been happy to not have to explain a million times over as to why he did things like that.

So on the Saturday morning Youngjae was not fussed in the slightest to find himself being hauled out of bed by Yongguk with a familiar morning sigh, “Honestly, Jae! Why the hell you do things this way I’ll never know.”

“Ugh! Don’t yell so loud!” Youngjae complained, throwing a pillow over his head, “It’s too early.”

“Jae, it’s freaking twelve thirty you moron,” Yongguk said with an exasperated sigh as he quite literally hauled his brother onto his shoulders to drag him to the bathroom with the pillow wrapped around his head, “You shouldn’t go out and drink so much, you don’t enjoy it anyways. Now come on, get showered and downstairs. Himchan is making brunch and if you dawdle I’ll send Jongup and Zelo up to really aggravate your hang over.”

For a second or two Youngjae grumbled but then blinked and looked to his brother with a frown, “And why is there a huge family meeting going on?”

Yongguk grinned, “You’ll find out, now shower and dress.”

Rolling his eyes and groaning, Youngjae fully expected to get some kind of lecture thrown his way but wouldn’t deny that the smells wafting up from downstairs were already making him hungrier than he had been in a while. With a huff he got into the shower and scrubbed himself clean, brushed his teeth until they were sparkly white and used a good few glugs of mouthwash in order to get rid of the vile taste of alcohol. Once he had his own IT company he was totally going to give up on this routine and save himself the curse of being sick all of the time.

Returning to his room, he dressed quickly in a pair of jeans and a loose fitting shirt of some team that he couldn’t honestly remember the point of right now before heading downstairs and into the kitchen diner that he had.

“Uncle Jae!” Zelo immediately cried, rushing forward with his arms outstretched and that big cheesy smile on his face that always melted Youngjae’s heart.

Scooping the youngster up into his arms, he snuggled happily against his little nephew and smiled, “Hello there Zelo, you been a good boy for your Mama and Dada?”

“Yup!” the five year old responded, hugging back, “But Uncle Jae promised that he’d come over and play video games and he hasn’t as of yet. Why?”

Youngjae sighed, “I’ve got work to do baby, and that keeps me busy all week long. I promise that I will make it over at some point, but I’ll keep it as a surprise until I do.”

There came an all too familiar warm chuckle from Jongup, “You used to say the exact same thing to me when I was his age.”

“Yeah but he is way cuter than you were at that age,” Youngjae said, sticking his tongue out towards Jongup which immediately earned him a pout before he ruffled his youngest brothers hair. He now knew the mysterious circumstances around Jongup’s sudden appearance in their lives all of those years ago but he chose to completely ignore them because it didn’t matter about whose blood was running through the youngsters veins, Jongup was his little brother and would forever remain as such.

Daehyun shook his head, “Don’t get him started with the pouting, I’ve already had an earful of it today.”

Rolling his eyes, Youngjae sat down with Zelo being situated onto his lap, immediately grabbing a ducky toy from the centre of the table which had probably been left there last time the youngster came to visit just before Himchan set a plate full of breakfast in front of him with a fresh cup of coffee arriving via Yongguk. The breakfast consisted of bacon, sausages, eggs, beans, toast and hash browns and really got Youngjae’s stomach growling. Zelo was placed down on the floor without any complaints as he took a firm interest in the toy that he had and Youngjae attacked the meal.

Himchan shook his head, “Jae, you know there is still a room over at our place. You don’t have to live alone.”

Youngjae managed to remember to swallow his food before speaking, “Nah, I’m fine. Things just get a little hectic is all. Plus I really don’t need to be listening to you two going at it like rabbits, them two were bad enough.”

Both Daehyun and Jongup spurted their respective food and drink, but for completely different reasons. Jongup was trying hard not to burst into giggles whilst Daehyun wanted to immediately find a way out of this situation. Yongguk had made it very clear that Jongup was to remain innocent until he was of age and whilst Youngjae knew fine well that they were just experimenting it was great fun to annoy one another.

“I haven’t!” Daehyun virtually wailed, “We’ve only touched and nothing else! I swear Guk!”

“Yah! Youngjae!” Jongup said, finally getting over his giggles when he saw just how furious his eldest brother was, “Why do you have to rile him up when he’s got something really good to tell us and before you start Gukkie-hyung, no I have not had with my boyfriend as of yet and literally the worst we’ve done is a and Himchan can verify that cause I had to ask him if it actually counted as having or not.”

The blush that crossed Himchan’s face was comical as it was completely bright tomato read and Yongguk couldn’t help but stare at his future wife with raised eyebrows, “And what did you tell him?”

“That technically it was experimenting,” Himchan said before letting out a long sigh, “Guk, you know that I knew little about that stuff…you were like…”

“Whoa stop!” Youngjae said, “Way too much information that I just don’t want to know in the slightest. Let me finish my breakfast in peace will you?”

“Daddy?” Zelo piped up, “What you talking about?”

Yongguk was immediately distracted by his son as he knelt down to see what he was playing with, “Grown up things Zelo, don’t worry about it baby.”

Chewing for a second or two, Youngjae blinked around the table and frowned, “Right, so exactly why have you gathered everyone together at my house on a Saturday afternoon because as far as I’m aware there’s no big yellow alien spaceships in the atmosphere and the Exo Princes haven’t reported any troubles coming from their end and usually the weekends are spent at your house and not mine given the limited space that’s usually available…”

“Youngjae if you stopped talking for a second, Yongguk might be able to actually speak and say something,” Jongup said in the sweetest voice, a knowing smile on his face because there was no way his elder brother could tell him off for interrupting like that.

The ex-general chuckled, “Such a sweet tongue, Jongup, but yes there is a reason why we’ve come here and got everyone around here rather than at our place.”

Daehyun sighed, “Just tell us before Jongup explodes or something, he’s starting to turn blue with trying to restrain himself.”

Youngjae laughed, “Oh boy, the life of a seer eh?”

“We’re getting married,” Himchan cut into the conversation, moving to place another cup of coffee down on the table and hug onto Yongguk with his left hand clearly visible so that the three little gems shone brightly in the light, “Yongguk finally asked me.”

For a second there was silence before a fork clattered to the table, a chair was scraped back and Himchan was suddenly pushed away from Guk only to be hauled back into a tight hug by Youngjae himself. “Oh thank every deity in the universe!” he all but squealed, completely breaking his manly image which probably explained exactly why everyone had piled around to his place, “I thought it was never going to happen! He bought that ring months ago…”

“Thanks for saying that,” Yongguk grumbled playfully, blushing a little when Jongup hugged him tightly.

Himchan chuckled, hugging Youngjae back, “I know what he’s like, don’t worry about it. But I’m glad you’re happy.”

“Happy, I’m ecstatic!” Youngjae said, moving to allow Jongup to hug Himchan as well whilst he gave Yongguk a very firm handshake in return, “Oh does this mean I get to organise the Stag do?”

“No I get to do that,” Daehyun said with a grin, “Cause you’ll be running around with Guk doing the rest of the stuff as best man and Jongup will be helping out Himchan as well.”

“That sounds perfect,” Youngjae said, scooping up Zelo, “Though I totally want to be there to get this little guys suit.”

Himchan nodded, “Wow that was easier to sort than I imagined.”

“You hadn’t figured that bit out yet?” Yongguk said with a little cheeky grin before he received a playful clip around the ear from his future wife to be. Not that he minded in the slightest of course, it was still such a lovely feeling to know that they were going to be married and officially recognised as such and with Youngjae, Daehyun and Jongup helping out things were going to go just fine without any hitches, problems or worries because they always get everything sorted out with the minimal amount of hassle.

At least that was what Yongguk thought would happen, since they had never actually tried to organise a wedding before but surely it couldn’t be that hard, could it?

authors babbling:

Oh my, I am so sorry everyone who has been waiting on this update. I've been busy as anything and trying to balance out like a hundred different things but hopefully this update makes it worthwhile. And yes, wedding chaos is probably going ot happen but it'll be fun and cute and since I'm the Maid of Hnour for a friend this year then probably things will be similar to how that goes lol 

Hope you all enjoyed and see you next time