“Renjun! Stop following Chenle, he doesn’t like it and you need to come and clean up your crayons before dinner.” Kun spoke softly but firmly, hoping that his eldest son wouldn’t put up a fight just this once. The young, dark haired child either didn’t hear him (unlikely) or chose to completely ignore the instruction in favour of rushing to his younger brother’s side to assist the toddler who’d fallen onto his and was now staring around the room startled.

“Renjun-“ He tried again but the child cut him off, turning his head and staring at his father with a sharp look in his eyes (which Kun found only slightly terrifying for a three year old).

“Daddy.” Renjun replied, the world falling off his tongue like a reprimand that left Kun torn between wanting to laugh and feeling like he should sit the boy down make sure he knew who the parent was.

Chenle chose that moment to start crying, his face turning red as furious tears trailed down his face. It was as though he’d only just figured out that the fall had hurt and was now making up for lost time. Kun went to scoop the disgruntled toddler up into his arms and offer some comfort when Renjun rushed to his side, all previous pretence of belligerence gone, to try and sooth his baby brother.

“What’s wrong baby?” Sicheng cooed, walking into the room with a small red shirt folded over one arm as he tried to figure out if the green sweater had always been missing an arm or someone had decided that it would look better without it (The teeth marks would suggest the latter but you never know.)

Renjun narrowed his eyes as Sicheng scooped the still wailing Chenle into his arms but did nothing to protest the movement otherwise.

“He fell, I don’t think he’s hurt. He only started crying when he realised we were looking at him. Can you get Renjun to clean up his crayons? We could do without a repeat of the ‘mural’ he decided to grace our dining room wall with last week.” Kun stated, approaching his husba