Jongdae opened the door and was greeted with the screeching of his children; a pretty normal occurrence in their household.

xxx

Ever since he and Yixing started dating, they were warned it would end up like this. Was everyone right? Yes. Did they listen? Of course not.

Marrying a guy who had 3 kids under the age of 9, while having 2 kids under the age of 8 yourself, might have not been a wise decision. Sure they loved each other, as well as the kids, but was it really worth it? Four times, only this week, Jongdae woke up at 6am, because Baekhunnie smeared toothpaste all over Minseok’s face, who woke up and begun punching him. Baekhyun, being his loud self, managed to not only wake up his dads, but the neighbors as well, which was somehow worse than being startled from your dreams because one of your kids is trying to make the other eat toothpaste.

 It wasn’t always this bad per say, it’s just the number of kids, as well as their energy, was several times larger than the number/energy of the people raising them. Jongdae remembers the first time he met his new kids.

He remembers how Sehun, who at that time was barely 4, kept glaring at him across the table. He remembers that Sehun only talked to him once that evening, when he told him, that if he hurts his daddy, Sehun would destroy Jongdae’s favorite toys. It took every ounce of self-composure not to laugh at the threat, since it came from a short, skinny kid with a lisp, who was desperately trying to look intimidating by standing on his tip-toes. Jongdae promised that if he hurt Yixing, he would personally bring his favorite dinosaur plushy to give to Sehun. This seemed to work on the cute baby and when they met again, Sehun went so far as smiled when Jongdae imitated a dying dinosaur. The memory of short and cute Sehun makes him a bit emotional because the kid keeps getting taller and Jongdae fears that dreadful day, when his kid would be taller than him.

 Minseok, on the other hand, was quiet and composed, a bit too serious for his age, but Jongdae thought it might have been the side effect of being the eldest in the family with a working dad. Yixing did say that after his wife’s death Minsoek became more serious, more reserved. Jongdae couldn’t but feel sorry for the boy, the way he always looked after his younger siblings and tried to help his dad all the ways he could.  Jongdae made a promise to himself that night; no matter how much time it’d take, he’d try to remind Minseok that 8-year-olds are supposed to play with toys, not make snacks for their younger brothers. Jongdae hasn’t reached his goal yet, because Minseok is still taking care of the rest but at least now he plays with them more and spends less time worrying about his dad. So far so good.

Jongin was a lot like Yixing. He liked dancing and could talk about cute puppies for hours. Yixing was right; Jongdae fell for Jongin’s charms in seconds. Unlike his younger brother, Jongin didn’t threaten Jongdae, however, on their wedding day, Jongin approached him before the ceremony and asked him to make his dad happy, because his dad deserves it and he doesn’t want to see him crying in his room alone when he thinks the kids are asleep. In that moment more than any time else he felt how much alike were Yixing and Jongin. Jongin always seemed carefree and childish, but when it came to his family he thought and spoke like an adult. If Jongdae cried a bit after talking with Jongin, well, that’s Jongin’s and his secret.

His kids were something else too. Somehow Jongdae managed to win the lottery of the most noisy and troublesome kids. Please don’t misunderstand Jongdae. He loves his sons to the bits, but sometimes he feels like closing the door on them and not letting them inside for a few days. When Yixing and he first talked about moving in together and how the kids would react, unlike Yixing, he didn’t worry much about Yixing’s kids. There were well-behaved (mostly); having a composer dad basically meant not making noise when he is working and kids got used to it plus all of them were introverts just like their dad. Jongdae’s, on the other hand, were devils incarnate. He got complains at least thrice a week from Mrs. Park because of Baekhyun. One day he felt like playing with the glue, and glued Hani’s and Solar’s hair together, which resulted in two crying girls and their screaming mothers. The next day he stole Tao’s dog plushy and said that Mr. Doggles went back to China and asked him to say goodbye to Tao on his behalf. This incident resulted in a crying Tao and a very pissed off intimidate-looking dad, who didn’t sue Jongdae just because there are no charges for people whose children made yours cry until they started hiccuping.

His other son is no better. Chanyeol is mostly nice and doesn’t get a weird type of joy from making his group mates cry, however, he does manage to make his father cry. Chanyeol inherited his father’s love for music, which he, unfortunately, uses for evil purposes. Sometimes he’d feel like practicing drums (curse Yixing’s soft heart and bank account) at 1 am, other times he’d feel like playing guitar and would do it around 4am, since someone apparently cursed Jongdae and his son doesn’t comprehend the concept of sleeping. On some occasions, Chanyeol would play both instruments at the same time – drums with his legs and a hand, and guitar with his other hand, trying to create a new musical instrument and when he gets complaints from his dads, he always brushes them off because his dads don’t know what real art is, even if one is a composer, the other – a singer.

xxx

Jongdae just smiles at the memories, before entering the living room. Yixing was at home, but the boys were being too loud. Most likely Yixing was in his room - composing again. It’s not that Yixing ignores their kids, it’s just Yixing has a deadline and if he manages to finish writing the songs for the new boy band that came around recently, they would have enough money to not worry about the futures of their eldest sons. More than anything, Yixing loved his kids and Jongdae, so Jongdae understood why he kept himself locked up in his studio/room for hours. Some days, however, Jongdae needed his rest too.

 Jongdae didn’t know what to expect when he entered the guest room (which since the last year has been used as a play room), but it wasn’t this. Baekhyun’s hair was in several tiny ponytails (where did they even find ribbons?) and he had cat’s whiskers drawn on his face. Also he was screaming from the top of his lungs. Chanyeol was loudly playing drums and screaming his song which he wrote in his own made-up language. Minseok was currently sitting on Baekhyun and pulling his hand while screaming ‘’apologize to Sehunnie”. Sehun was on the other end of the room with the word “booger” written on his forehead. The boy couldn’t read yet, but apparently he was told what was written on his forehead, since he was crying loudly. Jongin was standing near Sehun, trying to make him stop crying. A mess.

Jongdae didn’t say a word; he didn’t even know what to say to them. He went near Yixing’s working room, which was soundproof (it came in handy both when Yixing needed to work on something and when Yixing and Jongdae needed some time alone for adult stuff), opened the door, then headed to the kitchen while shouting.

“Yixing, your kid is bullying mine again.”

They never differentiated whose kid it was, unless the kids were being a pain in the , then it was either Yixing's or Jongdae's son.This got Yixing’s attention fast enough.

“I think we both know it’s yours fault.”

“Still. Save him before I’ll murder both of them.”

Jongdae needed to put the groceries in the fridge, only after that he’d deal with his personal kindergarten. Luckily, Yixing seemed to have finished his work, because he locked the room. He got this habit after one day Chanyeol broke into his room and deleted half of his songs. He did redeem himself when he, with the help of Jongdae, made a cake with the words “I’m sorry” and gave it to Yixing. He forgave his son long time ago, but he still locks the door just in case. He went into the play room and came back with Sehun in his arms and Baek wrapped around his leg. The rest followed their dad like baby ducklings. Yixing kept kissing Sehun and telling him to stop crying, while Baekhyun was desperately trying to make his dad forgive and kiss him too. The rest were running around their dad trying to get their share of hugs and kisses. The scene made Jongdae’s anger disappear. 

“But, Daddy, I did say sorry!”  Jongdae wondered how Yixing managed not to drop Sehun, when he was practically dragging Baek across the living room.

“If you were sorry, you wouldn’t run around Sehunnie, shouting ‘booger’.” Yixing tried to use his most disappointed-dad voice, but in reality he could barely contain his laughter. His son was really one of a kind.

“Jonginnie, you told him, didn’t you!” Baekhyun glared at Jongin, who simply stack his tongue out. “I’m surrounded by traitors.”

Baekhyun begun pouting, but at least Sehun was no longer crying. Yixing made everyone sit in front of the TV and they all quietly (as quiet as their kids could be) watched Gravity Falls. He was grateful for the destruction. After composing for 5 hours he needed some hugs and kisses from his husband. He back hugged Jongdae who was humming a song under his breath and making sandwiches for them. The latter gave him a kiss on the cheek before getting back to making snacks. Later at night, when the boys where all huddled around their dads and were loudly discussing whether a transformer or a shark would win in a fight, Jongdae and Yixing looked at each other, wordlessly saying how happy they were to have this family.