Ewon

Ewon had a hard time believing that everything he owned, minus his furniture, could easily fit into the backseat of his five year old Honda Civic. It was only going to take two or three trips to move it all into Nichkhun's house.

They'd decided that Nichkhun's three bedroom house was the most suitable place for them all to live. Ewon would offer his one bedroom apartment as a furnished sublet until his lease ran out in August.

Last week's meeting with Jongup had really lit a fire under his . The lawyer had found out that Wooyoung was living with a couple in their city, but had reported the match was not a good one and they were looking to have the boy moved to another home as soon as possible.

After the meeting was over, Ewon had gone over to Nichkhun's house where the two of them had gotten to work. Ewon focused on applying for their marriage license, while Nichkhun worked on their application to be foster parents.

The marriage license was something that could be approved in as little as forty-eight hours with a rush fee. Ewon hadn't hesitated to spend the extra 

money. Nichkhun did the same thing to fast-track their application to be foster parents.

The most important thing was to get Wooyoung into their custody before he ended up getting moved again.

"Hey, Ewon!" Nichkhun ran out of the house toward him.

Ewon had never seen Nichkhun so excited before. Was Nichkhun really that pumped to have Ewon moving into his house? "Hi, Nichkhun."

"I've got great news!" Nichkhun panted. He rested his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

"Did we get Wooyoung?" Ewon's head was spinning. They were only a few days into the process.

"Sort of." Nichkhun was all smiles.

"What do you mean, sort of? Either we did or we didn't."

"We've been given temporary guardianship of Wooyoung. His foster family was looking to have him moved out of the home and the guardianship gives us the chance to have him while we're waiting for our foster parent application to be approved."

Ewon felt tears sting his eyes. He held his hands in front of his face and gave into them. A moment later Nichkhun's arms came around him and held Ewon tight "We did it, Khun. We saved Wooyoung."

"Dry your tears, Ewon. We've got a -ton of work to do. We need to get you moved in and then we need to get married and then go shopping for Wooyoung's bedroom. I want him to feel at home the minute he steps through the door."

Ewon backed out of Nichkhun's arms. That bizarre flutter of attraction was tingling through his entire body again "When is Wooyoung walking through the door?"

"Thursday morning. We can pick him up at 9am."

"Christ, three days. That doesn't leave us a lot of time. It's a good thing I don't have a lot to move in with." Ewon opened the car door and grabbed the first box. He handed it to Nichkhun and grabbed another one for himself.

The first time he'd been in Nichkhun's house, they'd both sat at the dining room table working on their laptops. This was the first time he'd be seeing the upstairs of the house. Ewon couldn't help wondering if they would be sharing a bedroom.

"Here we are." Nichkhun led Ewon into a blue room with an en suite bathroom and a queen-sized bed. It obviously wasn't the master bedroom. Ewon couldn't tell if he was disappointed or relieved.

"We're going to have to share a room, obviously, when they come to do the home study, but for now, I thought it would be easier if we were in separate rooms."

Ewon nodded "That's a good plan. It's going to be stressful enough learning to live with each other and being instant parents without having to worry about sleeping together too."

"Let me show you Wooyoung's room." Nichkhun walked out of the room and into the bedroom across the hall.

The room was smaller than Ewon's with bare white walls and no furniture. The two windows in the room faced the fenced in backyard "It's a blank canvas, huh?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Nichkhun nibbled his bottom lip.

"Okay. What's on your mind?"

"I knew that Wooyoung's aunt was struggling with his need to dress like a Disney Princess. It was a tipping point for her, so I held off on diagnosing him with gender dysphoria."

"That would be your diagnosis now, right?"

Nichkhun nodded, twisting his hands together "We're going to need to get him a different pediatrician. I can't be his adoptive parent and his doctor."

Ewon could tell Nichkhun was struggling with something. His body language was tense. Without a second thought, Ewon grabbed his hands, untangling them from each other "Whatever it is you're having trouble saying, it's okay. Just say it and we'll figure it out from there."

Nichkhun looked down at their joined hands "I think we should hold off on getting Wooyoung formally diagnosed until after his adoption is final. Same goes for decorating his room with princess stuff and buying dresses."

"I think that's a smart move."

"You do?" Nichkhun looked shocked.

"Not everyone believes that being transgender is a real condition. Hell, I know people who think trans kids are just looking for attention rather than having a biological drive telling them they were assigned the wrong gender at birth."

"I'm sorry I had such a hard time telling you how I feel. I want Wooyoung to be happy with us and be able to become the person he was meant to be, but..."

"But, nothing is more important than being able to adopt our son."

"Right." Nichkhun's body seemed to sag with relief "I'm so glad we're on the same page."

Ewon looked down at their joined hands. He and Nichkhun may not be the best of friends, they may never be blissfully in love, but they both had Wooyoung's best interests in mind. That was all that mattered. 

Nichkhun

After grabbing a quick lunch on the run, Nichkhun and Ewon had gone to a local furniture store to get Wooyoung a bed and furniture for his new room. Luckily, the store had the bed, matching dresser and bookshelf in stock and they were able to take all three pieces home with them in Nichkhun's truck.

It had been more fun shopping with Ewon than Nichkhun had imagined. They might not agree on much of anything when it came to their relationship, but when it came to Wooyoung they were in total agreement. Together they'd chosen neutral colors for the bedspread and sheets for the bed. Ewon had found a Disney Princess throw that he'd been positive Wooyoung would love.

When it was time for the home study, the blanket could be folded and hidden in the closet. The irony of that did not escape Nichkhun.

"Well, this is going to be the first big test in our relationship." Ewon came into Wooyoung's bedroom carrying two bottles of water.

"What is? Assembling the bed?" they'd decided to tackle the bed first and then the dresser.

Ewon nodded, twisting off the cap of his water and taking a long drink.

"How hard can it be? There's a head and foot board and two side rails."

"Famous last words." Ewon burst out laughing. 

"Ewon, you have a Master's degree in education and I'm a medical doctor. We have everything we need to build Wooyoung's bed right here." Nichkhun tapped the side of his head.

Ewon pried the end of the box open and pulled out the instruction booklet "Okay, Tim 'the Toolman' Taylor, where are your tools?"

"What tools?" Nichkhun thought maybe he had a hammer and some kind of screwdriver around somewhere.

"It says here in the instructions that we need two wrenches."

"What kind of wrenches?"

Ewon shrugged "Aren't they all the same?"

"I have no idea." Nichkhun took the instructions from Ewon and started scanning through the list of tools. Putting together the double bed made brain surgery look like a snap "Remember how you said that building this bed was the first test of our relationship?"

"Yup, I think we failed and the damn thing isn't out of the box yet." Ewon shook his head.

"Sometimes the best plan is being able to admit you're not the best doctor for the job." Nichkhun had a big ego when it came to being a good doctor, but he'd never been afraid to call in reinforcements when the situation required it. 

Ewon started to laugh "You mean we've got to call in a specialist?"

"I'm not proud to admit it, but yes." Nichkhun dug his phone out of his back pocket and called the Hwang's "Hey, Narsha." Nichkhun smiled "Yeah, he's all moved in." Nichkhun pointed to Ewon "Wooyoung's coming Thursday morning. Yes, we're super excited, but we have a problem. No, no, nothing like that." Nichkhun made a fist and then started punching the air.

Ewon laughed "We’re fine, Narsha! Can Kwanghee come out and play?"

Nichkhun hit the speakerphone button "We're having a hard time building Wooyoung's bed and we're hoping Kwnaghee can help."

"Are you saying that with all the advanced degrees between the two of you that you can't assemble a bed?" Narsha cackled and shouted for Kwanghee.

Nichkhun started to laugh "Well that, and we don't have the tools."

"Kwanghee and I will be there in about half an hour."

"You know how to build a bed?" Ewon looked in awe of Narsha.

"Of course not, honey, but what I do know how to do is shop. I got some things for Woo I want to bring over. I'm just thrilled to pieces over having another grandbaby to love."

Nichkhun felt his eyes getting misty. When he looked up at Ewon he noticed the teacher was in a similar state "I can't thank you enough for loving him. I mean you haven't even met him yet."

"Boys, I fell in love with Jay the second Chansung told me Jea was expecting him. I hadn't met him either."

Nichkhun nodded, too choked up to speak. That kind of unconditional love was rare.

"Can't wait to see you guys." Ewon managed.

"Toodles!" Narsha cackled again and hung up.

Ewon held a hand down to Nichkhun who was sitting cross-legged on the floor "She's something, isn't she?"

Nichkhun took Ewon's hand and let himself be pulled back to his feet. The zing of attraction that shot through his body every time Ewon touched him was starting to feel more familiar, almost comforting "You know that saying about how it takes a village to raise a child?"

"Yeah."

"Wooyoung's got the best village." Nichkhun laughed "He's gonna have grandparents and a slew of crazy uncles and cousins. I mean, can you imagine how much Jay and Gain are gonna love him?"

Ewon nodded "So, you've started to think of our friends as family?" 

"Yeah." Nichkhun looked down at their joined hands. It was funny that neither of them let go of the other once Nichkhun was back on his feet "I don't mean to press, but where are your parents? We haven't really talked about your family. Or mine either."

Ewon tried to pull his hands back from Nichkhun, who held on tighter "It's a long, complicated story that's probably best told with a couple of drinks in me. If we could table this conversation until later tonight after we've eaten and I'm all settled in, I promise to work up the courage to tell you."

"We'll share family stories together. Maybe we'll call out for Chinese or something. God knows it's going to be mac and cheese and dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets, like Jay loves, from here on out." Nichkhun dropped Ewon's hand in favor of hugging him.

The hug was awkward at first with Ewon's arms down by his side. Nichkhun pulled him closer and Ewon seemed to snap out of his trance. He wrapped his arms around Nichkhun's hips "Sounds like a plan." Ewon whispered.

Hugging Ewon felt surprisingly good. He fit against Nichkhun's body perfectly. What was most surprising to Nichkhun was the way he felt calmer and more confident just by holding Ewon in his arms. He was about to ask Ewon if he was feeling the same thing when the doorbell rang. Nichkhun couldn't help thinking he'd just been saved by the bell.