8.

Chapter Eight

Kai didn’t know what he was thinking. His heart told him to turn around and go back to Luhan and child in his womb. He could already feel the connection between the growing baby and himself; it was getting stronger the longer he remained in Luhan’s presence and spiked the moment his hand grazed the surface of Luhan’s stretched stomach.

“What are you doing?” Baekhyun’s outraged voice, snapped him out of thoughts.

“I’m going back to the table.” he replied dumbly.

“The hell you are. Where’s Luhan? You didn’t just leave him there, did you?” Baekhyun sighed at the blank expression on Kai’s face. “I don’t know what the hell your intentions are, but if it’s just screwing around with his feelings, you’ve made a poor choice. If you don’t want him, if you want my of a sister, fine, but leave Luhan out of it. Just break his heart and move on, so he can too. Don’t play around with the shattered pieces, okay? He doesn’t deserve that.” An angry blush took over his face.

“Baekhyun...I...just, he-- ugh! I’m trying to choose, I did chose but seeing him and the baby, it’s changing everything. I need to be the Head Alpha, I need to marry Taeyeon, I need to legitimate children, but what about what I want? What I want, is exactly what my duty to my pack is telling me not to do, but what my duty as a father is telling me to do. You’re asking me not to hang around, but I don’t want to leave him, I still love Luhan, I want to see my baby grow.”

“Then just do it. Stay, go in there and man up. Apologize to him and stay with him.”

Kai’s heart jumped at the chance, but his consciousness bit at him, painting the disappointed face of his father and mother in his head. “I-I want to, but I can’t.”

Baekhyun cursed under his breath and glared at him. “Then go. And don’t come back.”

~

Now at home after the disastrous family lunch, Luhan was curled up on the couch in his favorite pajamas. Baekhyun had long since left after joining Luhan home to comfort him. The pregnant male spent hours crying. After the tears stopped, the two cousins watched a movie or two before Luhan sent him back to the hotel with the rest of his family.

Currently, it was just Luhan and his baby, munching on banana chips and watching a cooking show. It was late into the night, almost midnight when a knock sounded at his door.

“Sehun? What are you doing here so late?” Luhan asked when the older appeared behind the door.

“Nothing, I just wanted to see you...uh, but I heard Kai was back in town. I just wanted to see what was going on now...you know, between us.” Sehun’s hand came to scratch the base of his neck, while he nervously meandered in the doorway.

“Kai doesn’t want me or my baby and I don’t need him, I don’t need anybody.” Luhan said determinedly, rubbing a protective hand over his stomach.

“You may not need me, but you have me, Luhan.” he stepped closer, looking into the younger’s eyes. “I want to be here for you. I...care for you a lot. I’ll...claim you, you and the baby, if you want.”

His passionate words stunned Luhan into silence, his heart warming at the sweetness. Luhan’s brain agreed with Sehun’s words completely, as did most of his heart, but, of course, there was a little part of him that refused his easily spoken, yet lovely words. A little part of him was hesitant in accepting Sehun, despite his wholehearted sincerness, mostly because Kai had been just a sincere, and Kai was the one who shattered his heart, almost to state of non-salvageability.

“I-I want to accept you, Sehun. I want to trust you so badly, so much that my heart aches, but I can’t. I’ve been burned so badly and everything hurts, everything makes me hesitant. I can’t accept you now, but I won’t say that I’ll never be able to be with you. It might just take some time.” Luhan lowered his gaze, already wallowing guilt for dismissing such a sweet guy.

Sehun’s smile didn’t falter, however. He just shrugged helplessly and pressed a kiss to Luhan’s cheek, raising his head in the process.

“I can wait, Luhan. You’re worth it, so everyday I’ll work hard to gain a little bit of your trust everyday until I have all of it!” Sehun sounded extremely excited about the idea of it and nodded to himself in self-assurance.

The younger blanched a little at Sehun’s sturdy accepted of his words and easy-going attitude. “Sehun, I don’t think that--”

Silencing him with a kiss, Sehun smiled mischievously before darting out of the doorway. “I’ll make sure to bring you breakfast tomorrow morning, your favorite!”

“No, you don’t--!” Luhan started, but Sehun was already gone, the door of his apartment closing before Luhan could protest.

So the deer-like boy just sighed, locked his door and retired to his room for the night, quickly falling asleep after such an exhausting day.

~

The next morning, Sehun arrived bright and early just like promised, bring breakfast gifts of blueberry and banana pancakes, tofu bacon and seasoned egg whites.

“Luhan!” Sehun called through the door. “I brought your breakfast! From Cafe Oddè, of course.”

Luhan almost wanted to be angry at the elder but his intentions were in the right place so, Luhan opened the door with a simple, “What?”

“I have breakfast~” Sehun repeated in a sing-song voice. “Day 1 of making Lulu trust me: bring Lulu a nutritious breakfast.”

The younger huffed, wiping the sleep from his eyes. “And why would you bring me breakfast at 6:30 in the morning?”

“Because, I have work at 7:30 but I wanted to make sure you got a good breakfast before facing your relatives. This stuff is important to me.” he said cheerfully, handing one of the takeout bags to Luhan. “That’s yours. I bought some for me too, I don’t like that tofu bacon of yours.” Sehun stuck out his tongue, closing the door behind him as he walked in.

Luhan sighed tiredly, following Sehun into the kitchen. He plopped on the bar seat and opened up the foam container, the tantalizing smell of the food brightening him up a bit. Plastic forks dug into separate foam containers, nearly in tandem and Luhan’s small kitchen filled with the smells of delicious foods and the sounds of happy eating.

“Mmm, this is so go--” Luhan started to compliment, only to be interrupted by the sound of his door unlocking.

Brow furrowed, Luhan thought over the list of people who had a key to his apartment, of which was very short; only Kai. Panic lodged itself in his throat and Luhan stood up and peered into the living room, watching the door open slowly. First came Baekhyun-- Luhan nearly fainted in relief-- and then Kai, and then the rest of his family, sans Taeyeon

“Luhannie, where are you?” his aunt called out.

“Kitchen.” he muttered quietly, but loud enough that his aunt’s shifter ears picked it up.

The group of unwanted guests made their way to his kitchen, staring at his other guest, with curious eyes that bordered judgmental.

Luhan cleared his throat before starting an awkward introduction. “Uh guys, this is my...uh..friend, Sehun. Sehun this is my aunt, Sooyeon, my uncle Jaewoo, my cousin Baekhyun and you, uh, know Kai.”

Sehun bowed respectfully. “Nice to meet you all. I was just giving Luhan some breakfast. I was just leaving, I know you all want to have family time.”

Sooyeon shook her head vehemently, patting Sehun’s shoulder. “No, no, no. Stay, you were here first. We were just popping by to talk to Luhan for a bit before catching breakfast reservations at a nice place down the street.”

Nodding, Sehun slid back in his seat after popping Luhan’s container in the microwave. “Take all the time you need, Mrs. Xiao.”

“Thank you, Sehun.” she nodded gratefully before tugging Luhan away to the living room. “I’m sorry about what Taeyeon said yesterday. She’s has been really stressed over the wedding--”

Luhan held up a hand, stop his aunt. “No, auntie, you don’t have to apologize for her. You did nothing wrong. I’ll talk to her when she cools down.” he lied softly, knowing he wouldn’t contact Taeyeon again, if he could help it.

“...But, I do think some of the points she made were right...why haven’t you introduced us to the father? Or even just tell us who he is, show us picture, anything. You grew up without a father, and a mother. You grew up with an incomplete family and a damaging childhood. You’re setting your child on the same path, Luhan. What is the pack going to think? Children out of wedlock is one thing, child with a missing parent is a whole other.” Sooyeon’s lips turned down in a disappointed frown. “I know how much you didn’t want to, Luhan, but you’re turning into your mother. Just tell me, who is the father?”

At as loss for words, Luhan’s mouth opened and closed uselessly, like a fish out of water. Tears welled in his eyes as Luhan tried to come up with a coherent answer before breaking down. Guilt and shame washed over him, making his shoulders hunch and knees knock against each other, trembling.

“Luhan?” Sooyeon prompted again, after a few moments of silence.

“It’s--uh, it’s--”

“Me.”

a/n: raise your hand if you hate author-nim!! lmao, this chapter is so drama filled, I can't even. I keep promising the happy ending will, come and I know it will, but till then *laughs evilly*

Anyhoo, I'll keep this short, I've enter the polyamorous writing contest and just posted my entry yesterday, it's a oneshot called In His Dreams, it's a taekai and based of the Greek myth of Apollo and Hyacinthus. The oneshot is already up and is about 4k words, it would mean alot if you check it out!! 

Thanks for reading and I love you all ^.^