Final.
Playful HauntingIt takes him three tries to get the key in the lock and then some fumbling to twist it and actually unlock it. The armful of party decorations and favors is not helping the situation at all, but Sehun refuses to set any of the bags down. He grips the handle, then twists and blows on it a bit too hard. The door smacks into the wall inside. .
“Sehun? Is that you?” Jongin’s voice comes from inside.
Sehun pushes his way in sideways and taps the door shut with the heel of his shoe. “Yeah! Sorry about the door!”
“How many times have I told you to unlock the door and then get the armful of whatever you’re bringing in!”
Dropping all the bags on the kitchen island, Sehun snickers. It’s true, Jongin has told him time and time again. Yet every time, he conveniently forgets.
He moves into the living room and finds his husband sitting on the floor with Luhan, their almost two-year-old. There are hairclips in both of their hairs, and a couple of dolls and plushies strewn around them. It’s one of the most precious sights Sehun has ever seen, and he gets to come home to it every day.
“Daddy!”
“Hey, kid!” Sehun removes his jacket and throws it over the couch, pointedly ignoring his husband’s raised brow. “Can I play too?”
Luhan holds up a sheep plushie and a toy car. “Drive.”
Sehun accepts the car and sits down beside Jongin, facing his kid. He ‘drives’ the car between the blocks and other toys strewn in the middle. His son has amassed quite the collection of cars, dolls, blocks, and plushies in the short year he’s been with them.
“Did you find everything on the list?” Jongin leans down so that the deer plushie Luhan is now holding up to him can kiss his tan cheek.
“I got everything but the cups because they didn’t have enough.” Sehun stops ‘driving’ and kisses Jongin on the lips to stop the protest that he knows is about to come out. “But I did buy yellow cups and plastic googly eyes so we can make our own Minion cups. Is that okay?”
Jongin raises an eyebrow, lips turning up a bit. “Have you been going through my Pinterest?”
“Papa play! Play!”
Sehun laughs. He rolls the toy car in front of Luhan and over his chubby leg, eliciting a squeal of delight from his son. “I might’ve glanced at it.”
“Thank you.” Jongin kisses his shoulder.
The action is so sweet, Sehun leans into Jongin for a second, enjoying the warmth the other offers. “How was your day? Did you finish all the things on your list?”
“Tried to,” Jongin says pulling Luhan up into his lap. “I super cleaned the living room since the babies will spend most of the time there, and Luhan’s room in case they want to take a nap. But when I started working on the treats for tomorrow our little deer kicked up a fuss because papa wasn’t paying attention to him. Isn’t that right, Lu? Papa was ignoring you so you made his afternoon hell?” He coos at Luhan.
Luhan giggles and settles his hands on Jongin’s puckered lips, screaming when Jongin makes to bite them.
The familiar burst of happiness explodes in Sehun’s chest, the one that happens whenever he looks at his husband and son. It’s more than happiness, it’s pure joy. “He’s growing up so fast.”
“Can you believe it’s been a year since he came into our lives?” Jongin says, leaning his cheek over Luhan’s hair.
Sehun snorts. “More like he came in like a wrecking ball, and bowled us over.”
Luhan blinks at him. “Ball?”
Jongin hisses and then smoothes his hand down Luhan’s blonde head. “Don’t listen to your daddy, Lu. He’s just being mean because I made him go shopping by himself.”
Sehun moves closer and slides an arm around them both. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way, but we were so underprepared when the adoption agency called, remember? I just meant that he was a surprise, a very welcome one. Luhan is the most precious thing to have happened to us.” He tickles Luhan’s chubby cheeks and holds still when his son grabs the offending finger making to bite it as well, just like Jongin had done to his tiny fingers. “You can surprise and bowl me over anytime, buddy.”
Jongin kisses Luhan’s cheek and smiles at Sehun. “Tomorrow’s birthday will be great.”
✾ ✾ ✾
Luhan starts to cry, throwing a tantrum over his plate of broccoli. Not even setting his favorite deer plushie nearby is enough to calm him down. His son simply throws the toy to the floor and keeps screaming. It was times like these Jongin wished he could teleport his ears away. Yep, just his ears.
“Come on, Lu,” Jongin says. Luhan’s been getting really fussy with foods lately, but Jongin still tries to introduce him to new items. Today it’s broccoli. “Just try it.”
“No coli!” Their son’s cheeks turn red like cherries and fresh tears wet his face.
Sehun laughs. “I don’t think he wants to.”
Jongin pins him with a sharp glare. “Not helping.”
Setting his utensils down, Sehun grabs a piece of broccoli from Luhan’s plate. “Look, Lu! It’s like a little tree,” he says. “Deers like trees, right? You have to eat the little tree. Like this.” He bites the piece, chews, and swallows. “Yummy.”
Luhan looks interested for a moment, but then Sehun smiles showing off a stray piece of broccoli stuck to his front teeth. Their son promptly breaks out into another screaming storm.
Jongin doesn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or do both at the same time. “Okay, okay.” He moves the plate away. “You win. We’ll try broccoli another day.”
But Luhan doesn’t stop, even when the offending vegetable is taken away. He accepts the deer plushie back this time, but the tears don’t stop.
“I don’t know why he’s cranky,” Jongin says. “I changed him before dinner.”
Sehun picks Luhan up and takes a sniff. “Smells like clean baby ,” he says, then sits their son on his lap. “What is it, Lu? Why are you angry?”
There’s a heavy thunk and crash in the living room.
Jongin frowns before he disappears from his chair in a glitch of black light. In the living room, there’s a mess of toys in front of the couch and an empty toy box lying on its side. He frowns and glitches back into the dining room. “The edge of the sofa is not the best place to put Luhan’s toy box.”
“What?” Sehun asks, distracted. He’s making faces at Luhan, who has stopped crying, but still looks tumultuous.
“It toppled over and everything spilled out.”
“But I didn’t put it on the edge,” Sehun says.
Jongin sighs and begins clearing the plates. He’ll pick up the toys again before going to bed. “The sofa is still no place to put it.”
Another sound comes from the living room. Jongin teleports away mid-motion. At first, nothing seems amiss, but then he spies a fallen picture frame. He picks it up, hangs it on the wall, and returns to the table.
He’s clearing up the table when a third sound happens and upon checking, he finds the same frame has fallen. “Sehun, are you doing this?” Jongin yells from the living room.
“What?”
Jongin appears right beside his husband, and sets the frame on the table. “The same frame fell twice. Are you messing with me?”
Sehun shakes his head. “I’m just sitting here trying to get Luhan to calm down.”
The noise comes again some minutes later.
Jongin stares at Sehun with wide eyes, and there’s a tense moment of silence where only Luhan’s random words to his deer plushie are heard. But then Sehun bursts into laughter.
“You a—” Jongin stops when Sehun buffets him with a burst of wind to the face. They’d agreed. No cursing in front of their son. “A-s-s-h-o-l-e.”
Sehun’s laughing so hard he actually starts coughing, and has to take a drink of water. “I love you, too, baby.”
Jongin huffs.
Sehun sticks out his tongue. “Hey, at least I got Lu to calm down,” he says. “He’s sort of fascinated by your power, just stares at the spot where you disappear with a wide smile.”
“That’s great and all, but I think we should start limiting our use of powers around him.” Jongin moves closer to his husband and son, and settles a hand on Sehun’s shoulder when the other looks up with a frown. “I don’t want him to feel excluded or out of place when he grows up powerless.”
“I don’t think that’s fair, to us or to him,” Sehun says. “Besides, he has friends with powers.”
Jongin bites his lower lip. That’s true.
“Sweetheart, he won’t feel excluded.” Sehun reaches out and takes Jongin’s hand. “We won’t let him, okay?”
“Okay,” Jongin says, squeezing his husband’s hand back. Sehun might be messy, a jokester, and quite forgetful when it comes to house rules, but he sure has a way to surprise with deep words. It was one of the many qualities that had made Jongin fall in love with him back in college.
“Ok!” Luhan exclaims, making them all laugh.
After dinner, Jongin makes Sehun clean and dry the dishes on his own—payback for scaring Jongin with the mysterious frame falling earlier—while he plays with Luhan a bit more and then gathers up the toys before putting him to bed. Sehun joins him there, to kiss their son goodnight and give him his favorite deer plushie to cuddle with as he sleeps. The doll is dirty with food stains from dinner though, so Jongin takes it back to his room so he’ll remember to wash it first thing in the morning.
Luhan is asleep already. He won’t miss it.
✾ ✾ ✾
Sehun clicks the bathroom light off and walks into their room. His husband has his glasses on and a book in hand. Sehun usually turns his back against the light and falls asleep first, then half an hour later, Jongin will cuddle up to him so that he turns around and kisses him goodnight.
But Sehun has other plans now. He jumps into bed and crawls over until he’s sitting on Jongin’s thighs. His husband sets the book aside and arches an eyebrow. Sehun leans forward and tries kissing him.
Jongin pinches his lips and looks away. “You misbehaved. Husbands who misbehave don’t deserve kisses.”
Sehun groans. “It was just a little joke. You should’ve seen your face when the sound came a third time, but the frame was on the table. Like you’d heard a ghost.” He cackles.
Jongin narrows his eyes.
“Right. Not helping.” Sehun lets himself fall on top of Jongin, digging his nose into his husband’s neck. “Baby, please.”
Jongin’s hands come to rest on Sehun’s backside. “There is something you deserve though.”
Sehun wiggles his a bit, flexing it in Jongin’s hands. “Oh really? What is it?”
Jongin’s breath is hot and ticklish against the shell of Sehun’s ear. “I think you deserve,” the smack comes unannounced, sharp, and precise, “a little spanking.”
Sehun doesn’t need to be told what to do next; he simply gets up from Jongin, strips out of his clothes, and positions himself on all fours, facing the foot of the bed.
“Wow. You really are eager for this,” Jongin says and then giggles, kneeling behind Sehun.
“Do you know how long it’s been since we’ve done anything more than jerk each other off in the bathroom?”
“A month?”
“Four months, Jongin. Four!” Sehun wiggles his for emphasis. “You bet my , I’m eager.”
Jongin starts slow and easy, massaging Sehun’s thighs and glutes over the boxers and then spanking him lightly. But Sehun wants, needs so much more. When he’s about to ask for it, a noise outside makes them pause.
“Did you hear that?” Jongin says.
“Probably the neighbor’s dog.”
“It sounded inside.”
Sehun whines and pushes his into his husband’s hands.
Jongin smacks him hard. “What if it’s Luhan? I need to check.” He teleports away.
Sehun huffs and falls onto his forearms, using the new angle to stretch his back. His body might be only twenty-eight years old, but on days like this, he feels fifty.
A dark glitch in the air announces the arrival of Jongin. “One of those huge dolls Luhan got last year in the ‘welcome home’ fell from on top of his armoire.”
Sehun frowns. “Those things are pretty heavy.”
“I must’ve set it wrong after I was done cleaning,” Jongin says, then takes off his glasses and shakes his head. “Okay. Where were we?”
wiggling, Sehun makes his point.
Jongin puts him through the paces, making him count each slap and breathe deep with each soothing massage. A swooping warmth pools in his stomach when his husband’s fingers start to move along his rim, teasing and probing around his entrance. The fingers are a delicious pressure about to breach him, but when they don’t, Sehun wants to sob. “, Jongin. Stop teasing.”
“I’m not! I’m—“ Jongin gasps and scrambles back on the bed. “D-Did you see that?”
Sehun groans. “I’m a mess with my face against the sheets. Did I see what?”
Jongin slaps Sehun’s too hard.
“Ow! What was that f—” But then Sehun sees it too. The decorative pillow, which usually lies on the comfy chair in the corner, is now floating above it. “What the ?”
After pulling his boxers up, Sehun gets off the bed. The pillow keeps floating in space, not doing much of anything. He walks towards it.
“Careful.” Jongin’s voice trembles.
Sehun looks back and smiles. “It’s okay.” The pillow offers no resistance whatsoever when he reaches out and plucks it from the air. He turns it over in his hands and then shows it to Jongin. “See? It’s okay.”
The pillow is yanked from his hands and smacks onto the nearest walls. He jumps away from it with a yelp and jumps into bed with Jongin. “What the !”
Luhan’s deer plushie starts to rise from the chair next.
“It’s a ghost,” Jongin says. “Oh my god, there’s a ghost in our house!”
Sehun’s grows cold all over. He’d been totally kidding when he mentioned a ghost before, but seeing this supernatural phenomenon now makes his stomach drop somewhere around his feet. It’s not fear for himself, it’s fear for… “Luhan. We have to—”
Jongin grabs his arm and teleports them to Lu’s room. Their son is awake and clinging to his crib’s railing. He makes grabby hands at them. Jongin goes to him and pulls him up and into his arms.
“Papa! Daddy!” Luhan is giggly, clinging to Jongin’s neck and spewing random words like play, deer, and mine. Sehun rubs a hand up and down his husband’s back, trying to calm him down.
It’s really no use, because suddenly all the toys in Luhan’s room start to float.
“Sehun, please tell me you are doing this.”
“I’m not.”
Sehun and Jongin look at each other for a moment, and then scream.
Luhan claps his hands excitedly.
✾ ✾ ✾
Jongin startles awake and winces against the bright light. He groans and rubs his eyes. Sleeping inside their bathtub with all the lights on had been a horrible idea. His muscles are all cramped up and his head throbs with the beginnings of a sleep-deprived headache. At least his son seems to have slept perfectly, still snoring softly on top of Sehun’s chest. He’s growing so fast. Growing. Birthday. “Oh god.” He gasps. “Sehun, wake up. Wake up, we overslept!”
“Wuh?” Sehun yawns. “Whutssit?” He tightens the arm around Luhan and sits up. “Is it the ghost? Did it find us?”
“Not the ghost! The birthday party!” Jongin hisses.
“Oh,” Sehun says, fixing a waking Luhan in his arms. “Oh crap.”
“Cwap!” Luhan repeats.
Jongin’s eyes widen for a second before glaring at his husband.
“I love you,” Sehun says. “Just remember that before you do anything rash.”
Grabbing Luhan, Jongin teleports out of the tub, but not before turning the shower at full blast on cold.
Sehun’s high-pitched screams make Luhan giggle and clap his hands. “Daddy fun!”
“Yes, sweetheart,” Jongin says, peeking inside his son’s room and letting out a relieved breath upon finding everything calm and not floating. There’s a mess of toys, but that’s fixable. “It is fun giving Daddy a cold shower.”
Jongin returns to the bathroom so Sehun can give Luhan a quick bath that turns out to be not so quick. Jongin is forced to pull both of them out and wrap them in fluffy towels, before sending them off to breakfast so that he can take a shower.
After everyone has eaten, Jongin takes their son back upstairs to dress him up in his birthday clothes. Luhan is all giggles and smiles as he puts him in the yellow shirt and blue overalls, just like a Minion. Jongin settles him in front of the TV with a cup of Cheerios while they work to get the party ready.
The decorations go up quickly—a Minion table mantle, the cups with googly eyes, the Minion baggies filled with kid-safe candy and other party favors, blue and yellow balloons which Sehun fills up quickly with his power, and a big Minion banner that says Happy Birthday Luhan.
Next come the cupcakes which Jongin still needs to decorate with soft yellow icing, tiny marshmallows and chocolate chips for eyes. Sehun tries helping, but ends up making a mess of things, poking at Jongin with the icing and then trying to it off him.
“Sehun, please.” Jongin laughs as Sehun’s tongue tickles his jaw. “The kids will be here soon. Be useful and put up some more decorations in the living room.”
“Fine. But I’m still waiting for a continuation of last night,” Sehun purrs, pressing his lips against Jongin’s neck and quickly kissing it.
Jongin shivers. “Hmm. How about I talk to Soo and Baek, and ask them to take Lu on Friday for a sleepover? I’m sure Lu and Jongdae would love that.”
Sehun presses closer against Jongin’s back, running his hand down Jongin’s sides and then up to cup his . “I’m sure I’m going to love that.”
Jongin laughs.
“Friday night,” Sehun says, all pumped up. “It’s a date.” His husband grabs the minion cut outs and heads to the living room.
Luhan gives a screech and a laugh.
“Hey, buddy,” Sehun says. “Ready for your big party?”
“Paty! Paty!”
“That’s right! A party just for you.”
Jongin chuckles and continues covering the cupcakes. He only made one batch since it’s mostly for the kids and there aren’t that many coming. It’s not that Luhan is shy, but it usually takes him a while to warm up to others. So, in the one year since Luhan had come into their lives, he’d only made three friends who often came by for playdates and sleepovers.
He’s almost finished icing the cupcakes when Sehun calls him. “Jongin!” The urgency in his husband’s voice has Jongin dropping the icing bag and teleporting away.
The living room is chaos—toys, cushions, Minion decorations fly around in a mini tornado. He’d totally forgotten about their ghost situation!
Luhan is at the center of it, mouth open and fingers stretched towards the floating objects. “Daddy play!”
Jongin grabs his son and teleports back to the kitchen.
Sehun comes running to his side. “Everything just stopped spinning and fell to the ground. It’s like…the ghost is after Luhan or something.”
“Call Tao,” Jongin says, completely enraged. He’s had it with this unwanted visitor. “I want this ghost gone before the party.”
Sehun grabs his phone and dials. “What if he’s out of town?”
“Then I’ll teleport his a-s-s back home.”
✾ ✾ ✾
It’s noon when Luhan’s friends start to arrive, getting dropped off by their parents. Baekhyun and Kyungsoo, their neighbors down the block, drop off their son Jongdae. He’s two and a half years old, and talks more than anyone Sehun has ever met. Kris, Sehun’s boss, brings his son Yixing who is as kind and fair as Kris’s late wife had been. Finally, Chanyeol, Jongin’s childhood friend, brings his little cousin Minseok, whose red hair Luhan loves to pull.
Tao also arrives, bringing in a huge Minion plush lazy bed, which Luhan immediately clambers on top of and refuses to let any of his friends sit on. After showing his godson that it’s better to share, Tao approaches them with a frown. “What is this nonsense about ghosts?”
“It’s not nonsense,” Jongin says, his cheeks turning pink. “We saw it with our own eyes. S-h-i-t flying all around the room and scaring Luhan. You have to help us.”
Tao sighs. “I’m a magician, Jongin, not an exorcist.”
“But you deal with the occult and the unexplainable,” Sehun says. “Just take a look around and see if you can find anything. Please?”
Tao rolls his eyes. “Fine. Where did you first see it?”
After a little bit of arguing, Jongin agrees to settle the kids in the living room—even with a ghost just having been there—with Despicable Me playing on the TV. They’ll be safe enough with Jongin watching over them like an angry papa bear.
“I think it started in the living room,” Sehun says leading Tao upstairs. “But we really saw it in our room with the floating pillow and plushie.”
In the room, Tao takes the pillow in his hands and examines it, but finds nothing weird about it. Same with the plushie, which Sehun brings from the laundry room. They move on to Luhan’s room where the toys had floated and danced about.
“Seriously,” Tao says, setting Lu’s favorite deer plushie in the crib. “There’s nothing here.”
Sehun scratches his head. “You don’t believe us, do you? I know it sounds wild, but you know I wouldn’t say anything unless I thought it wasn’t real. I saw it with my own eyes, Tao. I did!”
“You guys need to come down here,” Jongin screams from downstairs. “Right now!”
Sehun glances at Tao and then rushes to the living room. He stops behind his husband who is looking into the living room where the kids are sitting. Or were sitting. They’re now standing and stumbling after their hovering toys.
Luhan sits on his new Minion bed with Minseok giggling at Yixing and Jongdae who are trying to catch their toys.
Jongin pushes Tao in front, and points at the spectacle. “There’s the ghost. Kill it. Kill it!”
Tao slaps Jongin’s flapping hand’s away. “You two are idiots.”
“W-what?” Jongin says.
“Congratulations. Your boy is an EXO kid, just like we are.” Shaking his head, Tao pulls them back to the kitchen and tells them to sit at the island while he serves them tea. “How could you not know Luhan had powers?”
Jongin runs a hand down his face. “The adoption agency never said anything,” he says. “How could they not tell us?”
Sehun rubs a hand over his husband’s shoulders. Jongin looks so tired. Sehun knows it’s less due to sleeping in the bathtub and more about worrying for weeks about their son’s first birthday party with them as a family. Jongin is a worrier.
“It’s true,” Sehun says. “None of the papers said Luhan had or could have any type of power.”
“Even so,” Tao says, bringing the tea cups over, “You see things flying about and your first thought is a ghost?”
“We’ve never heard of or seen a power like this,” Jongin says, taking a sip of his tea. His hands are still trembling a bit, probably still in shock, so Sehun takes a hold of the one that’s free. Jongin looks at him and smiles.
“It’s called Telekinesis,” Tao says, drawing their attention. “It’s very rare. I’ve only heard of one other case back in my homeland.”
Sehun’s mind immediately flashes him X-Men and Professor X. “Telekinesis? Doesn’t that mean he can read our minds?”
“No, that’s Telepathy,” Tao says. “Telekinesis is the power to move objects with your mind. The stronger the person is—mentally, emotionally—the bigger the objects they can move. That Luhan can move all those toys at the same time at his age is quite extraordinary.”
Jongin surprises them both by sniffling. “Our little boy is a prodigy.”
Sehun grins. “A tiny little badass. Hah! And you were afraid he’d feel excluded.”
Jongin punches him lightly, but the smile he flashes is brilliant.
Tao laughs. “Enjoy the peace and quiet while you can. He’s going to be a handful.”
✾ ✾ ✾
“Sehun? Is that you?” Jongin’s voice comes from inside.
Sehun pushes his way in sideways and taps the door shut with the heel of his shoe. “Yeah! Sorry about the door!”
“How many times have I told you to unlock the door and then get the armful of whatever you’re bringing in!”
Dropping all the bags on the kitchen island, Sehun snickers. It’s true, Jongin has told him time and time again. Yet every time, he conveniently forgets.
He moves into the living room and finds his husband sitting on the floor with Luhan, their almost two-year-old. There are hairclips in both of their hairs, and a couple of dolls and plushies strewn around them. It’s one of the most precious sights Sehun has ever seen, and he gets to come home to it every day.
“Daddy!”
“Hey, kid!” Sehun removes his jacket and throws it over the couch, pointedly ignoring his husband’s raised brow. “Can I play too?”
Luhan holds up a sheep plushie and a toy car. “Drive.”
Sehun accepts the car and sits down beside Jongin, facing his kid. He ‘drives’ the car between the blocks and other toys strewn in the middle. His son has amassed quite the collection of cars, dolls, blocks, and plushies in the short year he’s been with them.
“Did you find everything on the list?” Jongin leans down so that the deer plushie Luhan is now holding up to him can kiss his tan cheek.
“I got everything but the cups because they didn’t have enough.” Sehun stops ‘driving’ and kisses Jongin on the lips to stop the protest that he knows is about to come out. “But I did buy yellow cups and plastic googly eyes so we can make our own Minion cups. Is that okay?”
Jongin raises an eyebrow, lips turning up a bit. “Have you been going through my Pinterest?”
“Papa play! Play!”
Sehun laughs. He rolls the toy car in front of Luhan and over his chubby leg, eliciting a squeal of delight from his son. “I might’ve glanced at it.”
“Thank you.” Jongin kisses his shoulder.
The action is so sweet, Sehun leans into Jongin for a second, enjoying the warmth the other offers. “How was your day? Did you finish all the things on your list?”
“Tried to,” Jongin says pulling Luhan up into his lap. “I super cleaned the living room since the babies will spend most of the time there, and Luhan’s room in case they want to take a nap. But when I started working on the treats for tomorrow our little deer kicked up a fuss because papa wasn’t paying attention to him. Isn’t that right, Lu? Papa was ignoring you so you made his afternoon hell?” He coos at Luhan.
Luhan giggles and settles his hands on Jongin’s puckered lips, screaming when Jongin makes to bite them.
The familiar burst of happiness explodes in Sehun’s chest, the one that happens whenever he looks at his husband and son. It’s more than happiness, it’s pure joy. “He’s growing up so fast.”
“Can you believe it’s been a year since he came into our lives?” Jongin says, leaning his cheek over Luhan’s hair.
Sehun snorts. “More like he came in like a wrecking ball, and bowled us over.”
Luhan blinks at him. “Ball?”
Jongin hisses and then smoothes his hand down Luhan’s blonde head. “Don’t listen to your daddy, Lu. He’s just being mean because I made him go shopping by himself.”
Sehun moves closer and slides an arm around them both. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way, but we were so underprepared when the adoption agency called, remember? I just meant that he was a surprise, a very welcome one. Luhan is the most precious thing to have happened to us.” He tickles Luhan’s chubby cheeks and holds still when his son grabs the offending finger making to bite it as well, just like Jongin had done to his tiny fingers. “You can surprise and bowl me over anytime, buddy.”
Jongin kisses Luhan’s cheek and smiles at Sehun. “Tomorrow’s birthday will be great.”
Luhan starts to cry, throwing a tantrum over his plate of broccoli. Not even setting his favorite deer plushie nearby is enough to calm him down. His son simply throws the toy to the floor and keeps screaming. It was times like these Jongin wished he could teleport his ears away. Yep, just his ears.
“Come on, Lu,” Jongin says. Luhan’s been getting really fussy with foods lately, but Jongin still tries to introduce him to new items. Today it’s broccoli. “Just try it.”
“No coli!” Their son’s cheeks turn red like cherries and fresh tears wet his face.
Sehun laughs. “I don’t think he wants to.”
Jongin pins him with a sharp glare. “Not helping.”
Setting his utensils down, Sehun grabs a piece of broccoli from Luhan’s plate. “Look, Lu! It’s like a little tree,” he says. “Deers like trees, right? You have to eat the little tree. Like this.” He bites the piece, chews, and swallows. “Yummy.”
Luhan looks interested for a moment, but then Sehun smiles showing off a stray piece of broccoli stuck to his front teeth. Their son promptly breaks out into another screaming storm.
Jongin doesn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or do both at the same time. “Okay, okay.” He moves the plate away. “You win. We’ll try broccoli another day.”
But Luhan doesn’t stop, even when the offending vegetable is taken away. He accepts the deer plushie back this time, but the tears don’t stop.
“I don’t know why he’s cranky,” Jongin says. “I changed him before dinner.”
Sehun picks Luhan up and takes a sniff. “Smells like clean baby ,” he says, then sits their son on his lap. “What is it, Lu? Why are you angry?”
There’s a heavy thunk and crash in the living room.
Jongin frowns before he disappears from his chair in a glitch of black light. In the living room, there’s a mess of toys in front of the couch and an empty toy box lying on its side. He frowns and glitches back into the dining room. “The edge of the sofa is not the best place to put Luhan’s toy box.”
“What?” Sehun asks, distracted. He’s making faces at Luhan, who has stopped crying, but still looks tumultuous.
“It toppled over and everything spilled out.”
“But I didn’t put it on the edge,” Sehun says.
Jongin sighs and begins clearing the plates. He’ll pick up the toys again before going to bed. “The sofa is still no place to put it.”
Another sound comes from the living room. Jongin teleports away mid-motion. At first, nothing seems amiss, but then he spies a fallen picture frame. He picks it up, hangs it on the wall, and returns to the table.
He’s clearing up the table when a third sound happens and upon checking, he finds the same frame has fallen. “Sehun, are you doing this?” Jongin yells from the living room.
“What?”
Jongin appears right beside his husband, and sets the frame on the table. “The same frame fell twice. Are you messing with me?”
Sehun shakes his head. “I’m just sitting here trying to get Luhan to calm down.”
The noise comes again some minutes later.
Jongin stares at Sehun with wide eyes, and there’s a tense moment of silence where only Luhan’s random words to his deer plushie are heard. But then Sehun bursts into laughter.
“You a—” Jongin stops when Sehun buffets him with a burst of wind to the face. They’d agreed. No cursing in front of their son. “A-s-s-h-o-l-e.”
Sehun’s laughing so hard he actually starts coughing, and has to take a drink of water. “I love you, too, baby.”
Jongin huffs.
Sehun sticks out his tongue. “Hey, at least I got Lu to calm down,” he says. “He’s sort of fascinated by your power, just stares at the spot where you disappear with a wide smile.”
“That’s great and all, but I think we should start limiting our use of powers around him.” Jongin moves closer to his husband and son, and settles a hand on Sehun’s shoulder when the other looks up with a frown. “I don’t want him to feel excluded or out of place when he grows up powerless.”
“I don’t think that’s fair, to us or to him,” Sehun says. “Besides, he has friends with powers.”
Jongin bites his lower lip. That’s true.
“Sweetheart, he won’t feel excluded.” Sehun reaches out and takes Jongin’s hand. “We won’t let him, okay?”
“Okay,” Jongin says, squeezing his husband’s hand back. Sehun might be messy, a jokester, and quite forgetful when it comes to house rules, but he sure has a way to surprise with deep words. It was one of the many qualities that had made Jongin fall in love with him back in college.
“Ok!” Luhan exclaims, making them all laugh.
After dinner, Jongin makes Sehun clean and dry the dishes on his own—payback for scaring Jongin with the mysterious frame falling earlier—while he plays with Luhan a bit more and then gathers up the toys before putting him to bed. Sehun joins him there, to kiss their son goodnight and give him his favorite deer plushie to cuddle with as he sleeps. The doll is dirty with food stains from dinner though, so Jongin takes it back to his room so he’ll remember to wash it first thing in the morning.
Luhan is asleep already. He won’t miss it.
Sehun clicks the bathroom light off and walks into their room. His husband has his glasses on and a book in hand. Sehun usually turns his back against the light and falls asleep first, then half an hour later, Jongin will cuddle up to him so that he turns around and kisses him goodnight.
But Sehun has other plans now. He jumps into bed and crawls over until he’s sitting on Jongin’s thighs. His husband sets the book aside and arches an eyebrow. Sehun leans forward and tries kissing him.
Jongin pinches his lips and looks away. “You misbehaved. Husbands who misbehave don’t deserve kisses.”
Sehun groans. “It was just a little joke. You should’ve seen your face when the sound came a third time, but the frame was on the table. Like you’d heard a ghost.” He cackles.
Jongin narrows his eyes.
“Right. Not helping.” Sehun lets himself fall on top of Jongin, digging his nose into his husband’s neck. “Baby, please.”
Jongin’s hands come to rest on Sehun’s backside. “There is something you deserve though.”
Sehun wiggles his a bit, flexing it in Jongin’s hands. “Oh really? What is it?”
Jongin’s breath is hot and ticklish against the shell of Sehun’s ear. “I think you deserve,” the smack comes unannounced, sharp, and precise, “a little spanking.”
Sehun doesn’t need to be told what to do next; he simply gets up from Jongin, strips out of his clothes, and positions himself on all fours, facing the foot of the bed.
“Wow. You really are eager for this,” Jongin says and then giggles, kneeling behind Sehun.
“Do you know how long it’s been since we’ve done anything more than jerk each other off in the bathroom?”
“A month?”
“Four months, Jongin. Four!” Sehun wiggles his for emphasis. “You bet my , I’m eager.”
Jongin starts slow and easy, massaging Sehun’s thighs and glutes over the boxers and then spanking him lightly. But Sehun wants, needs so much more. When he’s about to ask for it, a noise outside makes them pause.
“Did you hear that?” Jongin says.
“Probably the neighbor’s dog.”
“It sounded inside.”
Sehun whines and pushes his into his husband’s hands.
Jongin smacks him hard. “What if it’s Luhan? I need to check.” He teleports away.
Sehun huffs and falls onto his forearms, using the new angle to stretch his back. His body might be only twenty-eight years old, but on days like this, he feels fifty.
A dark glitch in the air announces the arrival of Jongin. “One of those huge dolls Luhan got last year in the ‘welcome home’ fell from on top of his armoire.”
Sehun frowns. “Those things are pretty heavy.”
“I must’ve set it wrong after I was done cleaning,” Jongin says, then takes off his glasses and shakes his head. “Okay. Where were we?”
wiggling, Sehun makes his point.
Jongin puts him through the paces, making him count each slap and breathe deep with each soothing massage. A swooping warmth pools in his stomach when his husband’s fingers start to move along his rim, teasing and probing around his entrance. The fingers are a delicious pressure about to breach him, but when they don’t, Sehun wants to sob. “, Jongin. Stop teasing.”
“I’m not! I’m—“ Jongin gasps and scrambles back on the bed. “D-Did you see that?”
Sehun groans. “I’m a mess with my face against the sheets. Did I see what?”
Jongin slaps Sehun’s too hard.
“Ow! What was that f—” But then Sehun sees it too. The decorative pillow, which usually lies on the comfy chair in the corner, is now floating above it. “What the ?”
After pulling his boxers up, Sehun gets off the bed. The pillow keeps floating in space, not doing much of anything. He walks towards it.
“Careful.” Jongin’s voice trembles.
Sehun looks back and smiles. “It’s okay.” The pillow offers no resistance whatsoever when he reaches out and plucks it from the air. He turns it over in his hands and then shows it to Jongin. “See? It’s okay.”
The pillow is yanked from his hands and smacks onto the nearest walls. He jumps away from it with a yelp and jumps into bed with Jongin. “What the !”
Luhan’s deer plushie starts to rise from the chair next.
“It’s a ghost,” Jongin says. “Oh my god, there’s a ghost in our house!”
Sehun’s grows cold all over. He’d been totally kidding when he mentioned a ghost before, but seeing this supernatural phenomenon now makes his stomach drop somewhere around his feet. It’s not fear for himself, it’s fear for… “Luhan. We have to—”
Jongin grabs his arm and teleports them to Lu’s room. Their son is awake and clinging to his crib’s railing. He makes grabby hands at them. Jongin goes to him and pulls him up and into his arms.
“Papa! Daddy!” Luhan is giggly, clinging to Jongin’s neck and spewing random words like play, deer, and mine. Sehun rubs a hand up and down his husband’s back, trying to calm him down.
It’s really no use, because suddenly all the toys in Luhan’s room start to float.
“Sehun, please tell me you are doing this.”
“I’m not.”
Sehun and Jongin look at each other for a moment, and then scream.
Luhan claps his hands excitedly.
Jongin startles awake and winces against the bright light. He groans and rubs his eyes. Sleeping inside their bathtub with all the lights on had been a horrible idea. His muscles are all cramped up and his head throbs with the beginnings of a sleep-deprived headache. At least his son seems to have slept perfectly, still snoring softly on top of Sehun’s chest. He’s growing so fast. Growing. Birthday. “Oh god.” He gasps. “Sehun, wake up. Wake up, we overslept!”
“Wuh?” Sehun yawns. “Whutssit?” He tightens the arm around Luhan and sits up. “Is it the ghost? Did it find us?”
“Not the ghost! The birthday party!” Jongin hisses.
“Oh,” Sehun says, fixing a waking Luhan in his arms. “Oh crap.”
“Cwap!” Luhan repeats.
Jongin’s eyes widen for a second before glaring at his husband.
“I love you,” Sehun says. “Just remember that before you do anything rash.”
Grabbing Luhan, Jongin teleports out of the tub, but not before turning the shower at full blast on cold.
Sehun’s high-pitched screams make Luhan giggle and clap his hands. “Daddy fun!”
“Yes, sweetheart,” Jongin says, peeking inside his son’s room and letting out a relieved breath upon finding everything calm and not floating. There’s a mess of toys, but that’s fixable. “It is fun giving Daddy a cold shower.”
Jongin returns to the bathroom so Sehun can give Luhan a quick bath that turns out to be not so quick. Jongin is forced to pull both of them out and wrap them in fluffy towels, before sending them off to breakfast so that he can take a shower.
After everyone has eaten, Jongin takes their son back upstairs to dress him up in his birthday clothes. Luhan is all giggles and smiles as he puts him in the yellow shirt and blue overalls, just like a Minion. Jongin settles him in front of the TV with a cup of Cheerios while they work to get the party ready.
The decorations go up quickly—a Minion table mantle, the cups with googly eyes, the Minion baggies filled with kid-safe candy and other party favors, blue and yellow balloons which Sehun fills up quickly with his power, and a big Minion banner that says Happy Birthday Luhan.
Next come the cupcakes which Jongin still needs to decorate with soft yellow icing, tiny marshmallows and chocolate chips for eyes. Sehun tries helping, but ends up making a mess of things, poking at Jongin with the icing and then trying to it off him.
“Sehun, please.” Jongin laughs as Sehun’s tongue tickles his jaw. “The kids will be here soon. Be useful and put up some more decorations in the living room.”
“Fine. But I’m still waiting for a continuation of last night,” Sehun purrs, pressing his lips against Jongin’s neck and quickly kissing it.
Jongin shivers. “Hmm. How about I talk to Soo and Baek, and ask them to take Lu on Friday for a sleepover? I’m sure Lu and Jongdae would love that.”
Sehun presses closer against Jongin’s back, running his hand down Jongin’s sides and then up to cup his . “I’m sure I’m going to love that.”
Jongin laughs.
“Friday night,” Sehun says, all pumped up. “It’s a date.” His husband grabs the minion cut outs and heads to the living room.
Luhan gives a screech and a laugh.
“Hey, buddy,” Sehun says. “Ready for your big party?”
“Paty! Paty!”
“That’s right! A party just for you.”
Jongin chuckles and continues covering the cupcakes. He only made one batch since it’s mostly for the kids and there aren’t that many coming. It’s not that Luhan is shy, but it usually takes him a while to warm up to others. So, in the one year since Luhan had come into their lives, he’d only made three friends who often came by for playdates and sleepovers.
He’s almost finished icing the cupcakes when Sehun calls him. “Jongin!” The urgency in his husband’s voice has Jongin dropping the icing bag and teleporting away.
The living room is chaos—toys, cushions, Minion decorations fly around in a mini tornado. He’d totally forgotten about their ghost situation!
Luhan is at the center of it, mouth open and fingers stretched towards the floating objects. “Daddy play!”
Jongin grabs his son and teleports back to the kitchen.
Sehun comes running to his side. “Everything just stopped spinning and fell to the ground. It’s like…the ghost is after Luhan or something.”
“Call Tao,” Jongin says, completely enraged. He’s had it with this unwanted visitor. “I want this ghost gone before the party.”
Sehun grabs his phone and dials. “What if he’s out of town?”
“Then I’ll teleport his a-s-s back home.”
It’s noon when Luhan’s friends start to arrive, getting dropped off by their parents. Baekhyun and Kyungsoo, their neighbors down the block, drop off their son Jongdae. He’s two and a half years old, and talks more than anyone Sehun has ever met. Kris, Sehun’s boss, brings his son Yixing who is as kind and fair as Kris’s late wife had been. Finally, Chanyeol, Jongin’s childhood friend, brings his little cousin Minseok, whose red hair Luhan loves to pull.
Tao also arrives, bringing in a huge Minion plush lazy bed, which Luhan immediately clambers on top of and refuses to let any of his friends sit on. After showing his godson that it’s better to share, Tao approaches them with a frown. “What is this nonsense about ghosts?”
“It’s not nonsense,” Jongin says, his cheeks turning pink. “We saw it with our own eyes. S-h-i-t flying all around the room and scaring Luhan. You have to help us.”
Tao sighs. “I’m a magician, Jongin, not an exorcist.”
“But you deal with the occult and the unexplainable,” Sehun says. “Just take a look around and see if you can find anything. Please?”
Tao rolls his eyes. “Fine. Where did you first see it?”
After a little bit of arguing, Jongin agrees to settle the kids in the living room—even with a ghost just having been there—with Despicable Me playing on the TV. They’ll be safe enough with Jongin watching over them like an angry papa bear.
“I think it started in the living room,” Sehun says leading Tao upstairs. “But we really saw it in our room with the floating pillow and plushie.”
In the room, Tao takes the pillow in his hands and examines it, but finds nothing weird about it. Same with the plushie, which Sehun brings from the laundry room. They move on to Luhan’s room where the toys had floated and danced about.
“Seriously,” Tao says, setting Lu’s favorite deer plushie in the crib. “There’s nothing here.”
Sehun scratches his head. “You don’t believe us, do you? I know it sounds wild, but you know I wouldn’t say anything unless I thought it wasn’t real. I saw it with my own eyes, Tao. I did!”
“You guys need to come down here,” Jongin screams from downstairs. “Right now!”
Sehun glances at Tao and then rushes to the living room. He stops behind his husband who is looking into the living room where the kids are sitting. Or were sitting. They’re now standing and stumbling after their hovering toys.
Luhan sits on his new Minion bed with Minseok giggling at Yixing and Jongdae who are trying to catch their toys.
Jongin pushes Tao in front, and points at the spectacle. “There’s the ghost. Kill it. Kill it!”
Tao slaps Jongin’s flapping hand’s away. “You two are idiots.”
“W-what?” Jongin says.
“Congratulations. Your boy is an EXO kid, just like we are.” Shaking his head, Tao pulls them back to the kitchen and tells them to sit at the island while he serves them tea. “How could you not know Luhan had powers?”
Jongin runs a hand down his face. “The adoption agency never said anything,” he says. “How could they not tell us?”
Sehun rubs a hand over his husband’s shoulders. Jongin looks so tired. Sehun knows it’s less due to sleeping in the bathtub and more about worrying for weeks about their son’s first birthday party with them as a family. Jongin is a worrier.
“It’s true,” Sehun says. “None of the papers said Luhan had or could have any type of power.”
“Even so,” Tao says, bringing the tea cups over, “You see things flying about and your first thought is a ghost?”
“We’ve never heard of or seen a power like this,” Jongin says, taking a sip of his tea. His hands are still trembling a bit, probably still in shock, so Sehun takes a hold of the one that’s free. Jongin looks at him and smiles.
“It’s called Telekinesis,” Tao says, drawing their attention. “It’s very rare. I’ve only heard of one other case back in my homeland.”
Sehun’s mind immediately flashes him X-Men and Professor X. “Telekinesis? Doesn’t that mean he can read our minds?”
“No, that’s Telepathy,” Tao says. “Telekinesis is the power to move objects with your mind. The stronger the person is—mentally, emotionally—the bigger the objects they can move. That Luhan can move all those toys at the same time at his age is quite extraordinary.”
Jongin surprises them both by sniffling. “Our little boy is a prodigy.”
Sehun grins. “A tiny little badass. Hah! And you were afraid he’d feel excluded.”
Jongin punches him lightly, but the smile he flashes is brilliant.
Tao laughs. “Enjoy the peace and quiet while you can. He’s going to be a handful.”
Daddy and Papa sit him at the table with all his friends around. There are tiny cakes in front of him, but when he tries to grab one, Daddy says, “Not yet.”
Luhan doesn’t understand why he can’t have the cake yet. It’s right there in front of him. He looks at it and asks it to come closer with his mind. The small cake slides across the table towards his eager hands, but Papa catches it.
“Luhan, not yet, baby,” Papa says. “We need to sing you happy birthday first.”
He doesn’t understand why they have to sing first, but it’s pretty and fun. All his friends try to sing along. Jongdae is the loudest—he always is—and Yixing is the quietest. Minseok doesn’t like to use many words, so he just giggles and claps his hands. Luhan is so happy.
Daddy brings him a tiny cake with two bright things on top, things that Luhan is not supposed to touch. He looks at Daddy to see why are they giving him something he can’t touch.
“You need to blow the candles, buddy,” Daddy says.
Luhan puckers his lips and blows. Everyone claps after that, and he wants to blow more candles, but there aren’t any more.
Daddy and Papa finally hand him a tiny cake and he starts to the yellow stuff first, because that’s his favorite part.
TaoTao brings him a cup full of cold cream with color dots all over and sits beside him. “Having fun, Lu?”
Luhan shoves his yellow-covered fingers into his mouth and nods.
“You’re two years old today,” he says. “Do you know how many fingers is two?”
He brings two of his fingers up. Papa has been teaching him a lot of things, and he knows numbers.
TaoTao laughs. “You’re so smart, aren’t you? No wonder you developed such a great power.”
“Po-er?”
“Yes, power. Your Daddy and Papa will teach you about powers soon. For now, I want you to promise me not to scare your dads anymore, okay?” TaoTao says. “Don’t move things with your mind without their permission. Do you understand?”
Luhan likes TaoTao, so he nods obediently. But he also likes it when Daddy and Papa scream. So when TaoTao leaves and his friends are gone back to their homes, and Luhan wants more tiny cakes…
“Luhan! You stop floating those cupcakes this instant!”
Luhan giggles.
---
Mama powers and babies <3
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