Ewon

Wooyoung's cry startled Ewon awake. Nichkhun was wrapped around him from behind, their legs tangled together. He tried to move, but Nichkhun had him pinned to the mattress. The more he struggled, the tighter Nichkhun seemed to hold him. 

Ewon had no idea his parenting instinct would be this strong. The only thing that mattered was getting to Wooyoung, even if it was Nichkhun who was standing in the way of that. He tried to pull himself out of Nichkhun's grasp.

Wooyoung's next scream startled Nichkhun, who relaxed his grip "Ewon?"

"It's Wooyoung, we gotta get to him." Ewon was able to pull away from a sleepy Nichkhun. He managed to stumble to his feet before knocking into the wall "Damn it!" Nichkhun really needed a nightlight in this room.

"Let me hit the lights." Nichkhun clapped his hands.

"Seriously, you have a Clapper?" Ewon held up a hand in front of his face to block the blinding bright light. It would have been hilarious if not for their son screaming in the next room.

"Helps me get dressed when my pager goes off in the middle of the night." Nichkhun got out of bed in time to grab Ewon who was flying toward the door "Pants. You'll thank me later."

Ewon didn't understand what the hell Nichkhun was talking about or why Nichkhun wasn't letting him go "Wooyoung needs us."

"Put on pants first." Nichkhun pointed to their discarded clothes and let Ewon go. He walked across the room to their pile of clothes and grabbed his boxers. He threw Ewon's toward him. 

"Duh." Ewon sighed and threw on his briefs. He was still tugging up the waistband when he ran into the hallway toward Wooyoung's room. He flipped on the light and froze when he saw Wooyoung huddled in the center of his bed, holding his princess blanket up to his face and screaming.

"Youngie!" Nichkhun pushed past Ewon to get to Wooyoung. He scooped up the little boy "It's Daddy, Youngie. Wake up, buddy."

Ewon watched while Nichkkhun soothed their son. Wooyoung's dark eyes popped open and he started to struggle against Nichkhun.

"Youngie, look at me." Nichkhun whispered in their son's ear "It's Doctor Khunnie. You're safe in your bed, see?"

Ewon could feel tears biting the back of his eyes. Now wasn't the time to let them fall. Watching this scene unfold, he felt helpless. He had no idea how to make Wooyoung feel better. Thank God Nichkhun had this under control.

His heart started hammering against his ribcage and it was a struggle to breathe. Ewon recognized what this was immediately. He was having a panic attack.

"And look..." Nichkhun continued to speak to the boy in a quiet voice "There's Daddy Won-Won." Nichkhun held up a hand to wave him forward.

Ewon moved on legs that threatened to give out on him. He half-collapsed on the bed next to Nichkhun and reached out a shaking hand to run through Wooyoung's hair "It's okay, Wooyoungie. You're safe. We would never let anything hurt you."

Wooyoung reached his arms out to Ewon and Nichkhun let the child go. The boy wrapped his arms around Ewon, who rocked him.

"Do you want to tell us what the dream was about?" Nichkhun carded a hand through Wooyoung's hair.

Wooyoung held on to Ewon tighter. He could feel the boy's heart pounding against his chest "It's okay. We can fix whatever it is." Ewon said a silent prayer that he could keep his word to his son.

"Aunt Rania..." Wooyoung stammered.

Ewon felt Nichkhun's body tighten next to him. He could almost feel how angry those two words made his husband "What about her?" he was almost afraid to know what the dream was about.

"She took me away."

Ewon met Nichkhun's angry black eyes over Wooyoung's head. He could see a muscle ticking in Nichkhun's jaw and would swear he could hear his husband's teeth grinding together.

"We would never let her do that." Nichkhun whispered. 

Ewon could see the rage in his eyes "Do you want to come sleep with me and Daddy?"

Wooyoung nodded against his chest.

"Would you grab his princess blanket and his pony?" Ewon smiled at Nichkhun who was wearing an unreadable look on his face.

All that mattered now was getting Wooyoung to calm down so he could fall back to sleep. Ewon figured the best way for that to happen was if he was close to his fathers. From the weird look on Nichkhun's face, he could only hope he'd made the right decision.

Nichkhun

Nichkhun did what Ewon asked, still bothered by the way his husband had frozen when he'd come into the room and had seen Wooyoung screaming. He couldn't help wondering if Ewon had literally not known how to help their son on whether he was experiencing a flashback of some kind. Either way, Ewon was going to need to put his own issues in the past to focus on Wooyoung.

"I like the big bed." Wooyoung said on a yawn.

"Me too." Ewon set the boy in the center of the bed.

Nichkhun watched with an amused smile on his face when Wooyoung started making a spot for himself by fluffing up the pillow on what he guessed was now Ewon's side of the bed. He gave the boy his blanket and pony before climbing into bed beside him.

"Do you wanna share my blankie, Daddy Khun?" Wooyoung offered up a corner of the pink plush blanket.

Nichkhun gasped. He couldn't help himself. Wooyoung had called him "Daddy". He looked up at Ewon, anxious to see the joy in his husband's light eyes. What he saw instead was sadness tinged with what he thought was jealousy.

"You bet I do, buddy." it would have been so easy to ask if Wooyoung wanted to share with Daddy Won-Won too, but he was just so pissed that his husband wasn't happy about his special moment with Wooyoung that he kept his mouth shut.

Wooyoung kept shifting around in the bed once Ewon got in next to him. It almost seemed to Nichkhun like the little boy was nesting. After a few minutes, Wooyoung settled down. Nichkhun could hear him breathing and knew he'd be asleep soon enough, which would give Nichkhun some quiet time to think over what had happened tonight with Ewon.

"Are you really gonna keep me safe?" Woyoung's little voice asked, breaking the silence in the room.

"Of course we are." Nichkhun knew that the only way Wooyoung would begin to trust them was to keep reinforcing his words. 

"Aunt Rania was mean."

"How was she mean?" Ewon asked.

Wooyoung was quiet. Nichkhun started to wonder if the little boy had drifted off to sleep. He knew kids thought parents were mean when they weren't allowed to have candy or stay up past their bedtime. Wooyoung accusing Rania of being mean didn't necessarily mean he'd been abused.

"She hit me when I told her I was really a girl."

Nichkhun heard Ewon's sharp intake of breath. He'd bet a year's salary that his husband was crying, again.

"Some people don't understand that you were meant to be a little girl, Wooyoungie." Ewon said softly.

Nichkhun felt the muscle in his jaw start to tick. Was Ewon trying to justify what Rania did to Wooyoung?

"I understand it." Wooyoung sounded defensive.

"Daddy Khun and I understand it too." Ewon smacked a kiss against the side of Wooyoung's head.

"Can I wear dresses like Elsa and Anna do?" Wooyoung sounded excited at the prospect. 

Nichkhun had no idea who Elsa and Anna were. The operative word in that sentence was "dresses". He looked at Ewon, who was looking at him. They'd decided they'd deal with Wooyoung being transgender once the adoption was final, but they hadn't decided how they were going to explain their decision to their son.

"Yes, but not right now." Nichkhun said carefully.

"Are you gonna spank me 'cause I want to wear dresses like the other girls at school?"

Just when Nichkhun didn't think things could get any worse, Wooyoung asked about spankings. He could feel his anger growing again. He'd thought Rania would come around in time about Wooyoung being transgender, but it seemed now like she'd been trying to beat that feeling out of the boy.

"We would never spank you for any reason." Ewon asked quietly.

"Aunt Rania said boys don't wear dresses. She didn't want me to live with her because I have a and want to give it back to God. There's probably a little boy out there who's missing his."

Nichkhun wasn't sure how to respond to that.

Ewon burst out laughing "I think you're right. I bet there is a little boy out there who's missing his ."

Nichkhun hadn't really thought about it like that before. 

"Wooyoungie, in order for Khun and me to be your daddies, we have to go see a judge. Do you know what a judge is?"

Wooyoung nodded and snuggled deeper into his princess blanket "He made me go live with Aunt Rania."

"This time we're going to ask a judge to let us adopt you. That means you'd be our son forever."

"I want to be your daughter forever."

"I know you do, sweetie. And you will be, but not until the judge says we're your family. What do you think of that?"

Wooyoung peeked up from where he'd buried his face in his blanket. He looked back and forth between the two men before reaching out to set his hands on their faces "I think I want to live here forever and ever."

Nichkhun could feel the adrenaline pounding through his body. He'd been absolutely terrified that Wooyoung would decide to take him up on his offer to live somewhere else. Relief like he'd never felt in his life pounded through his body when Wooyoung agreed to stay with them forever.