Jinyoung stirred from his sleep as he registered the faint sounds coming from the television, rubbing his bleary eyes as he sat up and yawned. He blinked mindlessly at the curtains swaying in the breeze, squinting at the blinding sunlight peeking through the drapes occasionally. What time is it? He looked behind him at the clock, which ticking seemed to grow louder as the last feelings of drowsiness lifted from him – it was close to noon.

At that moment, he recalled the unsuccessful movie marathon he and Mark planned to enjoy the last night. They were excited, having prepared all the X-Men movies and a fresh bowl of buttered popcorn, ready for some thrill, action, and lots of cuddling. Though, somewhere in the middle of the first movie, he had fallen asleep. Mark must have been disappointed, but not as much as Jinyoung himself as he was really looking forward to some Wolverine action.

He sighed, then turned his attention to the television once again. It was on cable channel instead, specifically, The Return of Superman. Jinyoung’s expression brightened almost instantaneously. He loves children – babies, toddlers, young teens… Anything less than a grown adult and he would feel limitless affection towards them, accompanying a strong urge to take care of them.

In fact, since he was young, his dream was to have a big, happy family. The more kids, the better. It would be beyond awesome if his grandchildren multiply by twofold.

Of course, he had other dreams as a child. He had once wanted to be a lawyer, then soon realised that it would be near impossible given his minimal talent in winning arguments (he lost to Jackson within a mere ten seconds while fighting over a cookie when they were ten). For a brief period of time, he also dreamt of being a singer. However, his parents, who were unsupportive of an “unstable” job, quickly dismissed it.

The only aspiration that stayed with him until today was the dream to have a house full of his own children. It used to bother him that he could not have biological children with Mark – to be fair, he had not known he could be attracted to guys, Mark was really the only exception – but he got over it soon enough. Yet, until today, he deliberately left the huge wall space above their mantelpiece empty, for hopes that one day, a beautiful family photo would adorn it. He had never given up on that dream, or even entertained the thought of doing so.

“Awake?” A familiar deep voice broke the silence. Before Jinyoung could turn around, the owner of the voice plopped down on the couch beside him with freshly brewed coffee in his hand. “There, have some coffee, Jinyoungie.” His offer, however, was met with silence.

“Hello? Earth to Jinyoung?” Mark waved his hands in front of Jinyoung, half amused at the contorted, confused expression he was having.

“W-why are you at home? Don’t you have work?” Jinyoung asked.

Mark laughed softly. “I took leave,” he informed as he took his lover’s hand and made him hold the cup of coffee. “Have you forgotten? Kylie and Leila are coming over today.” Jinyoung’s mouth shaped into a silent ‘o’, but after the information truly settled in, his eyes widened in panic. “Oh my goodness! Mark!” he exclaimed. “Why didn’t you remind me? What do I need to prepare? I didn’t even cook anything! Oh my god, when are they coming?!”

“Woah there, careful with the coffee!” Mark warned. Thank goodness for his quick reflexes, or someone would have definitely gotten scalded from Jinyoung’s ridiculous arm flailing action. “Relax!” he chuckled. Jinyoung’s actions always made him laugh, and it was exactly this that made Mark fall for him – a flaming Cupid’s arrow he couldn’t have escaped. “We’re going out babe. We promised K and L Korean barbeque and a trip to the pet store.”

“Did we?” Jinyoung narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “You know I’m not a big fan of Korean barbeque and you also know that dogs hate me. And why don’t I remember agreeing to doing these things I don’t like?”

Mark blinked his eyes innocently and gave his best pout, bringing his voice up by three pitches as he wrapped his arms around Jinyoung’s waist and cuddled against him. “Jinyoungieeeee~ Come on baby. One for all and all for one, am I right? We’re married! We’re basically one person.”

Jinyoung groaned inwardly. He was literally dying just trying to resist Mark’s aegyo but it was obviously not working. His brain said “no”, yet his heart was waving pompoms and screaming “HELL YEAH!”

“Okay, fine. It was my fault for agreeing to those.” Mark admitted with a huff, then continued. “But just this once? For cute Kylie and adorable Leila? Pleaseeeeeeee~”

Jinyoung could only pray and thank the gods that he was not from Ancient Greece. He was lucky enough that he wouldn’t be pathetically dying in a terrible shipwreck because of a particular Siren named Mark. “Fine,” he mumbled, so soft it was barely audible; but Mark caught it without fail. A dramatic fist-punch into the air was followed by lots of eye-rolling from Jinyoung, and after some more bickering, the couple settled in each other’s arms, staring straight ahead at the television.

“You were watching this?” Jinyoung asked, almost excitedly. He didn’t know Mark had a thing for babies – he never showed any interest – else he would have discussed having their own…

“Yeah,” Mark said, interrupting Jinyoung’s thoughts.

Yeah? That’s it? No enthusiastic gushing over the babies? Jinyoung pursed his lips, disappointed. “Why? I’ve never seen you watching this before.”

“Hmm,” the older pondered for a while, mindlessly twirling the loose thread hanging from Jinyoung’s shirt with his long, slender fingers. “Didn’t want you to miss the movie. And I wanted to see what the big deal is about this show.”

“And?” Jinyoung prompted.

“It’s alright.” Mark replied and yawned. Before Jinyoung could say anything, he stood up and shuffled away. “I’ll get our clothes ready,” he said.

Just… alright? And he yawned? Bewildered at the lack of enthusiasm Mark had towards these unworldly, adorable, squeal-inducing babies, Jinyoung shook his head and sighed. Perhaps, it wasn’t time yet.

~~~~~

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