When Junmyeon was healthy again, he suggested they should go to a Zoo.
“It will be nice to go before it´s too cold, and I bet the boys would love it”, he said, and Kris, ever so weak for his husband´s pleading eyes, had no choice but to obey.

“Okay”, he said, pressing a kiss to Junmyeon´s temple. One of these days, they should leave the children with his parents and just take a few hours for themselves. Until now, they had put it off, not wanting to leave Luhan alone with his grandmother in fear of temper tantrums, but Luhan hadn´t had one in almost two months now.

For a five year old, that was basically forever.

One sunny Sunday afternoon in autumn, they loaded their kid supplies into the car (Kris insisting Yixing had to use the buggy this time, instead of being carried) and drove to the zoo.

Luhan and Minseok were excitedly jumping around Junmyeon as soon as he undid their seatbelts and set them on the ground. Yixing was quiet, as always, but he was also still very sleepy. They´d gotten up early to arrive before it would become too full.

“Hyung, will there be giraffes?”, Minseok asked.
“Geeraffs”, Yixing echoed sleepily.

The youngest boy didn´t have to wear a knee brace anymore. In fact, Junmyeon and Kris were meant to encourage Yixing walking, but for the moment, they still strapped him into the buggy. The toddler´s eyes were slipping shut and Kris was afraid he would face plant onto the pavement.

“Of course”, Junmyeon replied, wrapping one hand around Luhan´s when Luhan strayed a step too far.
“And E-le-phants?”, Luhan wanted to know.
“Also Elephants”, Junmyeon confirmed.

“Hyung, hyung, did you know Giraffes are the – the tallest animal on land?”, Minseok said, stumbling over his words in his excitement.
“Really?”, Junmyeon said, “wow. How do you know?”
“My teacher told me!”, Minseok told him with a grin, “giraffes sleep for less than two hours a day. They can become twenty five years old. They live in Africa.”

“You´re so smart”, Junmyeon complimented, walking to the entrance with one boy at each side while Kris pushed Yixing´s buggy. Kris paid for their tickets, absentmindedly hearing Luhan complain that he wanted to go to school and learn cool facts about giraffes too.

“I´ll tell you something”, Kris said to him when the woman at the front desk gave him the tickets, “we can learn about giraffes today, and when you start school, you can tell all the other kids about it!”

Luhan´s eyes lit up.
“To the giraffes!”, he yelled with considerable volume and dashed away.

“Me too!”, Minseok said, even louder, and both Kris and Junmyeon winced. Luckily, the park was still mostly empty, and no one was around to judge them.

“Geeraffs”, Yixing whispered quietly, his eyes contently closed.

They found the giraffes rather quickly, and both Luhan and Minseok were plastered to the fence, eyes wide and fascinated. In Kris´s eyes, the animals weren´t doing anything worth of that look, but he was fine if the kids were fine.

“Are you having fun, Minnie?”, he asked, reaching out to ruffle the boy´s hair.
“Giraffes can have necks that are 1,8 meters long”, was Minseok´s reply. Junmyeon couldn´t help but giggle at his husband´s taken-aback expression, and, before Kris could protest, he heard the shutter of a smartphone camera to capture the moment.

“That´s nice”, Kris said.

After a while of walking around, Yixing was finally awake enough to set him to the ground. Junmyeon held his hand and Kris pushed the now empty buggy, the older boys running ahead.

“Daddy, look! It´s deers!”
“Those are gazelles, Luhan.”

It took three hours of constant running for the boys to tire out. Yixing had long since retreated to his buggy again, pointing at animals he wanted more information of.
By the time Luhan started whining, they knew they should take a rest.

Kris put Yixing on his lap, offering him apple slices now and again. Minseok was stealing some when he thought Kris wasn´t looking.
Luhan had practically inhaled the sandwich Junmyeon had given him and looked at the older closely while he wiped Luhan´s hands clean with a wet wipe.

“Hyung”, Luhan suddenly said, “are you my Mommy?”

Junmyeon choked, the wet wipe falling from his hands.
“What makes you think that?”, he asked. Luhan shrugged.
“One parent is the Daddy”, he explained, “and one is the Mommy.”

“But why am I the Mommy?”
“Because Daddy is already Daddy”, Luhan said, “duh.”

“Well”, Junmyeon said, “I can´t be your Mommy.”
“Why not?”, Luhan frowned.
“Because Mommys are girls, Lulu”, Minseok intervened, “and Hyung is a boy.”

“But he cuddles me, and he cooks for me”, Luhan said, “and he buys me new clothes and he brushes my hair –“
“A Hyung can do all of those things”, Junmyeon said. Luhan still looked confused, so Junmyeon tried to think of another way to explain.

“Look, Luhan”, he said, “birds can fly, right? They are called birds because they can fly. If an animal can´t fly, it´s not a bird. In the same way, boys can´t be a Mommy, because you need to be a girl to