Taecyeon

Jun's house had run like a finely oiled machine while he was in the hospital. Taecyeon had created an iron-clad schedule for him and Gain to follow and it had worked like clockwork. Taec knew from dealing with kids who had more serious issues than just a speech impediment that having a schedule did wonders for them.

It had certainly done wonders for Gain. There had been no "diva" behavior from the five-year-old in the mornings when it was time to get up and go to school. She didn't once throw a tantrum when it was time to leave Narsha and Kwanghee's house when Taec finished with work. Better still, there were no bedtime shenanigans with Gain begging for one more drink of water or one more book.

During Taec's spare minutes of time when he wasn't visiting Jun in the hospital, working or taking care of Gain, he'd somehow managed to whip the house into shape as well. He'd done mounds of laundry, scrubbed the toilets and found homes for Jun's clutter. He wanted the house to be spotless when Jun came home from the hospital today.

During their last night of what he'd called "Gainoo and Taec time" he and Gain had made welcome home decorations for Jun. Blackie had even "helped" by spilling some blue paint and then walking through it. Her little cat prints were a perfect decoration on the banner.

The last order of business was for Taecyeon to swing by the hospital to pick up the unwilling patient. Over the last two days, Jun had been itching to get out of the hospital and back home to his family. The only way Taec had managed to convince Jun not to check himself out of the hospital against medical advice was to tell him that his insurance wouldn't pay for his care if he left before the doctors sprung him.

Only God knows why that worked, but it had. Jun had stayed the full week. On the one hand, Taec was so excited to be able to bring Jun home to sleep in his own bed. On the other hand, if Jun was as impatient and grumpy at home as he'd been the last few days in the hospital, Taec might just have to smother him with a pillow.

"Here we are!" Taec grinned brightly as he pushed the wheelchair into Jun's hospital room with Gain as his passenger.

"Christ, it's about time!" Jun folded his arms over his chest "Did you bring those stretch waist shorts I asked for?"

"Yes, Prince Minjun. Everything you need is in my magic bag." since Jun's leg was still in a cast, he couldn't wear regular pants. He'd need to wear something with an elastic waist with legs that would fit over the cast. If he hadn't found what Jun was asking for he would have had to take his irritable man home wrapped in a blanket, like a newborn. Taec could only hope Jun wouldn't be as needy, especially in the middle of the night.

"Magic bag my ." Jun grumped.

"Don't tempt me, Jun. Aren't you going to say hello to your daughter?"

Jun's hard look softened "Hi, Gainoo. How was school today?" 

Gain climbed up on the hospital bed with Jun and immediately went for the bed controls. She liked to make the foot end of the bed come up as high as possible. Thankfully, Jun was sitting with both legs hanging over the side of the bed "It was good. Junho read us Dragons Love Tacos, the sequel. I thought Jay was gonna lose his mind when Junho showed us the book."

Jun smiled "Do those dragons still hate spicy salsa?"

"Yup they do! Are you excited to come home, Daddy? Taec and me have lots of surprises for you."

"Surprises, huh? I hope no one messed with my stuff. I know just where everything is."

! That spelled trouble "Here comes the doctor." thank Christ. The last thing he needed was for Jun to get y while they were still in the hospital.

"Bon voyage, Jun." Doctor Seokjin was all smiles "Here are your discharge papers and we've already discussed the challenges and limitations you might face in the weeks to come. If you have any questions or concerns, call me anytime, but with any luck, I won't have to see you again."

"In other words, don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya." Taec burst out laughing. 

"Funny, George Carlin." Jun raised an eyebrow at Taecyeon "Let's just get me home." Jun hopped around on his good leg until he was able to seat himself in the wheelchair.

"Looks like you've got your hands full and not in a good way." Doctor Seokjin whispered to Taec on his way out the door.

Taecyeon agreed, but wasn't about to say that out loud. The last thing he needed on such a happy day was the eruption of Mount Saint Minjun.

Minjun

The first thing Jun noticed when he hobbled through the front door of his house was that Taecyeon had moved all of his stuff. The second thing he noticed was the "Welcome Home" banners and homemade cards. He felt a twinge of guilt at missing Gain's attempts to make his homecoming a happy one, but he was going to kill Taec for moving his to God only knew where.

"What do you think of the decorations, Daddy?"

"Very nice, Gainoo. Where did the cat prints come from on the banner?"

"Blackie walked through blue paint! There were blue kitty paws all over the kitchen!" Gain hugged Jun's good leg and ran off toward her bedroom yelling for the cat. 

"Jesus ing Christ, Taecyeon! Blue paw prints all over the kitchen? What the hell are you? Five years old?" Jun could feel his blood start to boil while a headache built behind his eyes.

"Don't make me break your other leg, Captain Crabapple. We used washable paint. The kitchen is fine. Do you want to call out for dinner? Or would you like a sandwich?"

"I've been eating ty hospital food for a week. The last thing I want is a sandwich."

Taec shook his head and seemed to be mumbling something under his breath. Jun saw him grab the take-out menu for Italiano's before he started scrolling through the contacts on his phone for the number.

"Aren't you going to ask what the hell I want?"

Taec set the phone down and in a deep breath "You want tortellini carbonara with an order of garlic knots. It's the same damn thing you've ordered from there since 2010!"

"Christ, lighten up. You don't have to be so y about it. Tell them to make the garlic knots extra garlicky."

"I live to serve." Taec gave him a mock bow and picked up the phone.

Christ, what the hell crawled up his and died? Jun shook his head and used his crutches to get to his usual spot at the dinner table. Taecyeon had sorted all of the mail for him into neat little piles. One stack was bills, another magazines and the third junk mail "Declan! Why the hell did you save all the junk mail? It's called junk mail for a reason."

Taec was carrying a stack of plates and silverware. He set them down on the table with a clatter and scooped up the entire pile of junk mail, dumping it into the trash.

"What the , Taec? I was gonna read that."

Taec looked furious "Read the junk mail or don't read the junk mail. For all I care, you can shove it up your ! I've done everything possible to make this homecoming as easy on you as possible and all you've done since we walked in the door is complain." Taecyeon stalked out of the kitchen.

"Well, ." Jun said to an empty kitchen. He hadn't meant to get so angry at Taecyeon, but he felt like he wasn't in control of anything. It was almost as if this wasn't his house anymore.

Looking around the kitchen, he could see a chore chart hanging up on the fridge, not to mention that Taecyeon had moved the drying rack that Jun always used for his wet dishes. Hell, even Blackie's food and water bowls were in a different spot, granted a more convenient spot, but still. This was his house and it should be up to him where the damn cat's food bowl was placed. 

Hoisting himself out of his chair, Jun managed to seat his crutches under his arms and moved toward the trash can. He was balancing precariously on his good leg and rooting through the barrel when Taecyeon came into the kitchen.

"Go sit. I'll get the flyers out of the trash."

Jun muttered a "thank you" and managed to make it back to his place at the table.

"Here you go." Taecyeon set the pile of junk mail back where it had been when they'd gotten home "I'm sorry I was so testy with you. It's been a long week going back and forth between work, the Hwang's, the hospital and home."

Jun nodded, grabbing the flyer from his favorite grocery store.

"What would you think of going new car shopping tomorrow?" Taec dropped into the chair next to Jun's.

"Why? It's not like I can drive anyway." Jun was going to be in the cast for six week. What the hell sense did it make to buy a car now?

Taec shrugged "I just thought it might be easier to get this taken care of now."

Jun narrowed his eyes "What do you mean, now? When I'm not at 100%?" 

"This isn't a witch hunt. I'm not out to get you." he raked a hand through his black hair "You'll be out of work this week. I thought it would easier to do it now when we have a bit more free time. There's still a month left to go in the school year."

Jun opened his mouth to respond when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it" Taec got up from the table.

"Well, duh!"

Taecyeon sighed "Gainoo? Dinner is here!"

Jun watched as Taecyeon reached into his back pocket for his wallet before heading toward the front door. At the very least, Jun should offer to pay half. This welcome home night wasn't going at all like he hoped it would. He wanted to come home to a nice home cooked meal and be able to sit down later in his favorite recliner and go through all of his mail.

He'd been thrown off by all of the changes in his house over the week he'd been gone. It was like Taecyeon had just taken over. Which of course he had, so that Gain could have slept in her own bed and been surrounded by familiar things.

He should be thanking Taecyeon for all he'd done to keep their family going while he'd been in the hospital, but he couldn't seem to push the words past his lips.