“My dear Baekhyunnie!! How have these two idiot monsters been treating you this past week?” Jongdae decided to hide his face under one of the sofa cushions when they heard Chanyeol’s loud voice coming from the entrance. Baekhyun smirked, he really missed Chanyeol’s loud voice. Kyungsoo’s house was too quiet sometimes compared to the shelter, even if Jongdae was loud at times, it would never compare to Chanyeol’s loud deep voice. 

Baekhyun stood up, going towards the main corridor to greet his friend. Chanyeol was balancing his backpack while trying to get his shoes off his long legs, having difficulties because of the narrow space and his overly long limbs. Kyungsoo sighed when Chanyeol almost broke one of the lamps in a low table when he saw Baekhyun and tried to jump towards him. Baekhyun laughed, receiving Chanyeol’s warm hug.

“Yah, you’re going to break my house! I’m not feeding you then, you’re going out before diner” Kyungsoo chastised closing the door after Baekhyun and Chanyeol started moving towards the living room. Baekhyun laughed at Kyungsoo and Chanyeol’s antics. They seemed to be really close, so that means Jongdae must be good friends with Chanyeol too. He was glad that he could keep contacting his best friend during the shelter days. He liked to believe he didn’t miss that place at all, but to be honest he quite enjoyed Chanyeol's company and helping him tend to the younger hybrids. Baekhyun saw how the tall man pulled on Jongdae’s ears that were peeking out of the cushion, while the cat screamed and tried to scratch Chanyeol’s fingers without success. Chanyeol just laughed, patting Jongdae’s before sitting on the other sofa and putting the bag over the coffee table. 

“Come here Baekhyunnie!” Chanyeol said patting the seat besides him. Baekhyun obeyed, curiously glancing at Chanyeol’s arms that were rummaging through the backpack. Kyungsoo entered the living room taking a seat besides Jongdae, who draped himself over the human while looking curiously at Chanyeol’s backpack too. 

“I bought a couple of things. This is for Baekhyun” Chanyeol said taking a small blue box out of his backpack “to welcome you to the outside world!” Baekhyun laughed, taking the box from Chanyeol’s hands and shaking it to hear what was inside. “And this is for Jongdae, for giving an opportunity to Baekhyun” he said giving Jongdae an equally sized red box.

“Yah! Don’t even mention it!” Jongdae said grumbling, his face a deep scarlet while taking the small box and shaking it in a similar fashion to Baekhyun. 

“Come on! Open them up!” Chanyeol was probably more excited than the two hybrids. Baekhyun took off the crooked ribbon enveloping the box and was surprised to find a pair of gloves with a kitten face stitched on them. Baekhyun didn’t know what to say, first of all, a kitty? Seriously Chanyeol? And second he didn’t even have a need for them, after all he was not getting out any time soon. He glanced at Jongdae who was rubbing a matching pair of gloves with a corgi stitched on them against his face while showing to Kyungsoo how cute they were. Baekhyun absentmindedly touched his ears, triangular shape similar to the ones etched on the gloves. He saw Chanyeol smiling at him before going through his backpack again.

“Also, i finally brought this!” Chanyeol said lifting a manila envelope over his head before putting it in the table in front of Kyungsoo. Before Jongdae could even put his paw over it, Kyungsoo picked it up and began looking through the papers inside.

Kyungsoo nodded his head, seemingly satisfied with what he found inside. “So it’s official then? Is there anything else missing now?” Chanyeol smiled, taking the folder back and handing one of the pages to Kyungsoo. Jongdae began peeking over the content from Kyungsoo’s shoulder, widening his eyes slightly with what he saw.

“Completely done!” Chanyeol’s loud voice came from Baekhyun’s side. He smiled towards the puppy and ruffled his hair a bit. “Congratulations Baekhyun! You officially have a family now!”

Baekhyun’s breath hitched. He widened his eyes and his head moved automatically to Kyungsoo, who was smiling warmly towards the pup. “Is… is this true?” He muttered in a soft voice. Kyungsoo beckoned him over with his hand and Baekhyun almost launched himself to the other male’s legs,hugging his waist tightly. Kyungsoo tenderly petted his hair reassuring the now crying hybrid.

“It’s true. I had a talk with Jongdae two days ago and we decided we can’t send you back anymore. You’re a part of our tiny family now” Baekhyun glanced at Jongdae from between his bangs. The cat didn’t say anything, but he was slightly smiling towards the scene, no protests escaping his curved smile.

Chanyeol clapped his hands, breaking the tender atmosphere and had Kyungsoo rolling his eyes to his friend. “This is awesome and all but I’m hungry now! Let’s celebrate!” He said standing up after securing the rest of the papers inside. 

Jongdae escaped quickly to the kitchen, probably going to pick the plates to begin serving the food on the table. Baekhyun decided to go and help him but Kyungsoo took his hand and dragged him towards the table. “Let him do it, he can manage on his own, ok?” Baekhyun nodded, still looking toward the kitchen but obeying Kyungsoo and taking a seat at the table. 

Jongdae had to go back and forth a couple of times before taking a seat in between Kyungsoo and Chanyeol, right in front of Baekhyun. He put the final plate in the middle and deposited a black box right over it. 

Kyungsoo cleared his throat, gathering the attention of all the people seated on the table. “And now, the final surprise,” he said taking the black box from the plate. He opened it slowly and showed Baekhyun the insides. A red leather collar with a silver tag. “You can’t be officially adopted without one of theses right?” Baekhyun thought he wouldn’t cry anymore tonight but he instantly felt new warm tears going down his cheeks. He shakily took the collar, softly passing his fingers over the tag. 

“I hope you like it. If you don’t want a collar we can fit the tag however you want” Kyungsoo said taking the collar from him and clipping it on Baekhyun’s neck. “Jongdae chose the color and style, I think it fits you well”

“It’s perfect. Thank you so much. I can’t even begin to say how much this means to me” Baekhyun said touching his newly fit collar and looking directly at Jongdae’s eyes. Jongdae smiled at him, before looking down and beginning to distract himself by serving the plates. 

The rest of the diner was noisy. What with Chanyeol bombarding everyone with questions and almost choking on his food every 5 minutes. Baekhyun kept glancing at Jongdae, meeting their eyes a couple of times and each time Jongdae would quickly avert his eyes somewhere else. Kyungsoo kept smiling at him every once in a while, his eyes moving towards the newly red collar decorating Baekhyun’s pale neck.