Anonymous said:

Hi can you make little taemin asking jinnie to bake a cake for minho birthday in the middle of the night?

Tomorrow was Saturday and Minho was coming over. It also happened to be the boy’s birthday. He was going to be at their house only until noon because his parents couldn’t get the entire day off. They would be dropping him off early in the morning and would pick him up before 1 P.M.

The class had sung Minho the birthday song today since tomorrow was a holiday and that was how the information was now embedded in Taemin’s mind. He was running around excited because he wanted to have a birthday party for Minho in the morning. He had been drawing and cutting out decorations, using tape to stick them in his room. Jonghyun had left for work so it was Jinki who was watching over him and helping him, making sure that his decorations did not damage any furniture or walls gravely.

When Taemin was finally done, Jinki got him to eat something, let him play around a bit before sending him to bed. It was almost time for Jonghyun’s radio show so he made some tea and relaxed on the couch. He fell asleep after the last song, like he usually did...and woke up when Jonghyun came back home. They would either have a snack or warm drink together or just go to bed.

But today, it wasn’t Jonghyun who was waking him up, but Taemin. He was pouting, his face a little puffy, his hair askew. His little warm fingers poked Jinki’s cheek when Jinki almost fell back into slumber after having woken up to his little pats.

Jinki grabbed him and wound his arms around his boy, kissing his cheek before he laid back again, patting Taemin’s head as he turned in his spot, making space for the boy.

“Jinnie~” Taemin whined in a muffled voice, squirming.

“Hmm?” Jinki opened his eyes again, loosening his hold and pinching the boy’s cheek gently.

With his father’s complete attention on him finally, Taemin’s eyes piqued and he asked in an excited whisper, “Can we make cake for Minho?”

Jinki blinked, growing thoughtful. Baking was not exactly his area of expertise. Jonghyun was quite good at it, but he’d be tired from his radio show so Jinki was planning to have the boys choose a cake from the store in the morning.

“Please?” Taemin asked, the pout back on his face, his eyes so expectant that the idea of refusing his request seemed like a sin.

And that was how he found himself at the 24 hr supermarket with Taemin sitting in the shopping cart as they browsed the baking aisle, looking for readymade cake mixes.

Taemin was watching Jinki intently while the latter read through the instructions on the chocolate cake readymade mix box. Jinki was no longer accustomed to reading instructions, nor did he usually have the patience for them. He hardly bought or used products that required so many instructions. His mind was everywhere and he kept forgetting the last line he read when he was reading the next. He was clearly sleep-deprived, almost sluggish, unlike Taemin who had caught a good 2 hours of sleep and was bobbing on his toes, his arms folded, resting on the island, his chin resting on the side of right arm, ready in his little red apron as he waited for “the action” to start.

Jinki finally set the box down and began gathering the ingredients. He put everything one by one and mixed it with a tablespoon, struggling to do it until Taemin pointed out, “Appa uses the swirly,”

Jinki blinked, remembering that they, in fact, did own a hand mixer. He set the spoon aside and began looking for it, finding it ten anxious minutes later in the place he had looked at the very first time.

Lee Jinki you can do it, he told himself and when he looked at Taemin’s excited eyes, he knew he could. Quickly plugging the mixer in, he combined the ingredients and the batter became a delicious brown in a couple of minutes.

“I mix it!” Taemin huddled closer to him, dragging his stool with him. He climbed up and grabbed the spoon Jinki had discarded earlier and began mixing the (already mixed) batter. With the serious way he was doing it, Jinki realized that this was perhaps how Jonghyun let Taemin participate- give him tasks that were already done to minimize the damage.

Jinki chuckled and let Taemin mix it while he preheated the oven and brought out the baking dish. When the oven beeped, Jinki dusted the dish and Taemin withdrew from the batter, dipping his finger and tasting, “Yummy,” He hummed before giggling, stepping down from his stool before he slowly pushed the batter towards the corner Jinki was standing at.

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