Jongsu woke up before Jongdae, rubbing his eyes and dragging a blanket with him to the living room. As soon as he saw him, Baekhyun put a finger to his lips and slowly extracted himself from Jongdae’s grasp without waking him up. He balled up his jacket and put it under Jongdae’s head as a makeshift pillow and then picked up Jongsu and took him to the kitchen.

“How are you feeling?” he whispered.

“Hungry” the child replied, laying his head on Baekhyun’s shoulder. Baekhyun put Jongsu on the counter and opened the fridge, hoping to find something by way of a snack. Jongdae’s fridge was poorly understocked.

There was a doggie bag of leftovers but Baekhyun could tell they were old, he threw those away. Aside from that, there was a couple of juice boxes, some spaghetti sauce, an empty carton of milk, and a can of whipped cream. Baekhyun sighed and shut the fridge. The freezer was in a similar state, a tray of ice cubes, some frozen edamame, and a single popsicle.

Baekhyun gave Jongsu the popsicle to hold him off while Baekhyun investigated the rest of the kitchen. The cupboards had more food but were still desolate, a couple packages of instant ramen, a box of cereal, a loaf of bread, some rice.

“What do you eat usually?” Baekhyun asked Jongsu, investigating a bag of stale chips he found in the back of the cupboard. He threw those away.

“We eat out or order food,” Jongsu said happily making a mess of his popsicle.

“What do you eat for lunch?”

“Uncle packs lunch sometimes but lately he’s been making me buy it at school. It’s good though they have soup and rice and chicken”

Baekhyun pursed his lips. He was not the model of a healthy eater, his roommates usually ordering out unless it was Minseok’s night to cook or Minseok was making Luhan actually cook, but they typically had enough food in the house that if they wanted to they could produce something healthy.

“Jongsu do you want to go shopping with me?” Baekhyun asked quietly. Jongsu nodded enthusiastically. “Okay go get your shoes and jacket. And be quiet okay? We don’t want to wake up your uncle.”

“Okay,” Jongsu whispered, running off to get dressed. Baekhyun put a glass of water and a note on the coffee table next to the couch so Jongdae would see it when he woke up. He also found a blanket and put it over him, a curl of hair out of Jongdae’s eyes.

Jongdae

Jongsu and I went out for a bit don’t worry about us we’ll be back soon okay? Be sure to drink this water and if you have any headache pills take that trust me. As someone who has had my fair shares of not crying, I am an expert on aftercare. A shower also will help you I promise. Anyway, Jongsu and I will be back soon so just take care of yourself J

-Baekhyun ;)

***

Jongdae was in the shower when they got back, the glass of water empty and the blanket and jacket folded neatly on the sofa. Baekhyun and Jongsu unloaded the groceries and Baekhyun began to make dinner. He was in no way an expert on cooking anything, but he was able to put dinosaur chicken nuggets in the oven so that’s what they were going to eat.

Jongdae came out of the shower looking tired. He had put on a pair of sweats and a white tee shirt and Baekhyun didn’t want to think about how good he looked in them. He came into the kitchen looking confused.

“Baekhyun what the hell-“

“It’s almost done. Jongsu can you check on the rice for me?”

“Yessir.” Jongsu had a pot on his head and was walking around the kitchen with a large wooden spoon, helping out as much as he could.

Jongdae looked around still confused. Baekhyun handed him plates and silverware and told him to go set the table. Jongdae still didn’t quite understand what was going on but he obeyed, too tired to protest.

The oven dinged and Baekhyun pulled out the cookie sheet of chicken nuggets. “Jongsu can you get the ketchup out of the fridge please?”

“Yes sir!” Jongsu enthusiastically complied.

“Baekhyun what is going-“

“Dinner . I made dinner” Baekhyun said, transferring the chicken to a plate and setting it on the table. Jongsu helped in placing bowls of rice next to each spot, and Baekhyun finished seasoning the vegetables he had made. He found nice glasses and poured each of them a glass of cold apple juice.

He turned off most of the lights in the kitchen and lit a few candles before making Jongdae sit down at the table. He sat next to Jongdae with Jongsu on the other side (still wearing his pot-helmet however he put the spoon next to him on the table per Baekhyun’s instructions)

“Dig in,” Baekhyun said, helping Jongsu fill his plate with chicken nuggets and vegetables.

“Do I have to eat these” Jongsu complained, looking with caution at a piece of broccoli.

“We talked about this in the store. If you eat your veggies you get dessert, and you remember what that is right?” Baekhyun said slyly, Jongsu giggled and immediately shovelled his veggies into his mouth.

“What’s dessert?” Jongdae asked, slowly eating.

“You’ll see, but only if you eat your veggies,” Baekhyun said.

“Baekhyun I…I’ll pay you back for the food,” Jongdae said, careful not to say thank you. Baekhyun smiled.

“Don’t worry about it.” He said sincerely, he was planning on talking to Jongdae about making sure Jongsu was eating healthy, but he could do that later.

“I can’t let you just-“

“Dude shut up. Or no dessert for you” Baekhyun said, pointing at him with a chopstick. Jongdae smiled and batted it out of the way.

“Okay fine but we aren’t done talking about this”

Dessert turned out to be milkshakes. Baekhyun made three huge ones and the three of them sat around the dinner table where Jongsu had brought out a board game for them to play. As the night progressed Baekhyun saw Jongdae start to smile and laugh, his face began looking more and more alive. However, Baekhyun didn’t miss the pang of fear that struck Jongdae’s face every time he looked at Jongsu.

Baekhyun told Jongdae to put Jongsu to bed while he did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. After he was done and Jongsu was asleep Jongdae made Baekhyun sit on the couch with him.

“I know you told me not to say it anymore so I won’t but Baekhyun…I’m really grateful for what you did tonight. I’m gonna pay you back for the groceries though so don’t even think of arguing that.” Jongdae said quickly before Baekhyun could say anything in protest.

“Alright. But make sure you take care of yourselves before you try to settle any imaginary debt with me. I’m not going anywhere so you just…make sure Jongsu is eating healthy and that you’re taking care of yourself.”

“I will. Do you want to spend the night? It’s late and I know you don’t have a car here.”

Baekhyun took a second to revel in how lucky he was that just, casually spending the night in Jongdae’s bed was an offer. However, he painfully declined.

“I already texted Luhan to pick me up, I have to open the coffee shop tomorrow. Next time I’ll stay though.” He said. Jongdae smiled and nodded.

The car ride home was silent on Baekhyun’s end. Luhan didn’t shut up, however,

“Okay listen next time you have dinner at your boyfriend’s house either stay the night or get a ride home because I don’t want to have to haul my out here in negative 2 degrees to pick you up from your domestic dates or whatever.”

“He’s not my boyfriend”

“Okay, whatever. You also need to figure that out because the last time I spent this much time voluntarily at another man’s house was the week before I moved in with Minseok and you know how that ended up”

“Oh my god”

“Okay, one more thing…” Baekhyun tuned Luhan out and stared out the window. Thankfully it was not a very long drive home and Baekhyun was able to go quickly to bed, the look on Jongdae’s face as he watched Jongsu imprinted on Baekhyun’s brain as he fell into a restless sleep.

** A/N ** 

I'm trying to update more frequently but also as the semester winds down its a lot so we'll see haha. I have a couple more chapters planned for this week hopefully so stay tuned! Also thank you for your comments and suggestions! I'm looking forward to exploring baekhyuns uality more in the coming chapters so look forward to that ^.^