“You, my friend,” Heechul declared rather loudly as he flopped himself down into one of the kitchen chairs, “Need to get laid.”

Sending a glare towards the other, Leeteuk let out a large sigh and felt like banging his head off the nearest wall. However, all that would have resulted in was him landing himself a headache and since he had a new baby to look after, that was the last thing that he needed. Gently he repositioned Ryeowook in his arms, after pulling the bottle out of the warmer, and directed the babe to start drinking. For his part the little baby boy looked confused as to what this strange device was but once he figured out that it gave him tasty milk he was definitely enthralled with it.

Which gave Leeteuk the chance to berate his friend, “Heechul, there are children present at my kitchen table, so could you cut the language a bit?”

Raising an eyebrow towards his long-term friend, Heechul glanced around the table and found himself meeting with several pairs of eyes. Firstly, there was Yesung, the strange kid who had an odd interest in collecting turtles, Siwon the preacher boy who had a history of bad stuff that Leeteuk refused to divulge into and the trouble twins Donghae and Eunhyuk who were being uncharacteristically quiet. Though, Heechul figured that since the latest addition to this rather odd foster family had been a baby boy by the name of Ryeowook, it wasn’t surprising that there had been a chance in the dynamics somewhat.

Still he turned his attention back to his friend and sighed, “So what? You still need to get some adult time alone with a hot guy and I happen to…”

“No,” Leeteuk said, shifting Ryeowook a little in his hold.

“But he’s really sweet and…” Heechul continued on, ignoring the groan that came his way, “he’s just the type of guy that you need. I mean come on Leeteuk, you haven’t had any in…”

“Heechul,” Leeteuk hissed, wishing not for the millionth time that he hadn’t befriended the straight talking man in front of him, “Can you not talk about my personal life right now? I do have several different commitments and…”

“You’ve always got commitments,” Heechul said, automatically handing Yesung a box of cereal without the other asking because he was such a common occurrence in the house that many believed that he was the owner’s partner, “But you need to take care of yourself once in a while.”

Blowing out a puff of air, Leeteuk shook his head, “I do know this Heechul and believe me I do look after myself, just not when you are in sight. Stop putting corrupting thoughts into my boy’s heads, will you?”

About to argue that none of the boys around the tables were actually the elders, Heechul stopped himself short when he recalled what had happened the last time he had said something of that ilk. Granted at the time there had only been Yesung and Siwon, but the latter had really gotten upset because he immediately mistook the words and was convinced that he was about to be thrown out of the house once again.

Heechul didn’t know what had happened to Siwon but he knew that the kid had abandonment issues and several other problems that required a lot of work, time and patience. Something which, despite having three other boys and now a baby to look after, Leeteuk had plenty of time to give and it was nice to see that the boy was starting to become more open and happier with life now.

Heechul still sighed a little and pouted towards Leeteuk, who was ignoring him in favour of showing Siwon how to hold Ryeowook, whilst Yesung started fussing over the twins who were generally being well behaved whilst they tried to figure out how to deal with the arrival of a new baby. Yesung had a smile on his face as he handed the pair a bowl of cereal each and even allowed Leeteuk to give him a brief hug before going back to his headphones and quiet little way of living which was perfectly common.

Leeteuk had never planned to be a foster carer, he had just sort of fallen into the role some time ago and never really had a chance to look back. His kind and caring nature was perfect for the boys under his care and allowed him the opportunity to help them out of whatever strangeness that they had landed in through no choice of their own. Heechul was almost envious of the way that his friend could be so natural around children, how he had a wonderful connection with them and knew just what to do and what to say but sometimes he did worry for his friend. It was a perfectly natural thing to do, seeing as Leeteuk was always the type to put everyone else first and worry about himself last but as Hangen said frequently, it was just in his nature to be completely selfless so there was probably nothing that could be done to change that

Heechul still pouted, “Your boys couldn’t have a corrupting thought without you clamping down on it before it exploded, hyung. All I’m saying is that you should come out and at least meet the guy for a night, have some fun and just chill.”

“And who am I supposed to leave my boys with?” Leeteuk replied, smoothing down Yesung’s hair though the other immediately started fussing at being fussed over.

“I can look after them for a….” Heechul started before receiving that look from his friend which would silence even a rampaging rhino, “Look that was one time and it wasn’t my fault.”

“You left a horror movie on, Heechul,” Leeteuk deadpanned, “I couldn’t get them to sleep for a week.”

“It wasn’t even that bad a one,” Heechul replied lamely, “I swear, you’re so overprotective…”

“Says the man who called me up in tears because he didn’t know what to do,” Leeteuk deadpanned back to him. “No, Heechul, you are not babysitting my boys unless you have at least one proper adult supervising you and someone else to supervise the boys.”

A pair of giggles broke out across the table, “Can we have Uncle Kangin and Uncle Hangen again?” Eunhyuk asked with a sweet smile.

Leeteuk sent the other a look, “No. That would be even worse.”

“No, it wouldn’t,” Donghae chimed in, smiling sweetly, “We would have fun.”

“And leave the house in a complete mess for me to clean up whilst you all recovered from sugar,” Leeteuk said, accepting Ryeowook back from Siwon as the babe had started to get fussy. Automatically he placed the child onto his shoulder to start burping him and Siwon stared on in silent fascination, “No thank you.”

“But who else would look after us?” Donghae said, shifting out of his seat whilst his twin headed to the skin, “They’re like the only adults you know, Mama Teuk.”

“Exactly why I’m not leaving you four with them alone with a baby,” Leeteuk said, shaking his head as he gently continued to burp Ryeowook, “Not until Ryeowook is able to look after himself a bit more at the very least.”

“Man, you are such a worrywart hyung,” Heechul complained before grinning brightly with a glint of mischief in his eyes, “Fine, if you won’t go out, why don’t I bring him here? Then he can see how wonderful you are at child care and….”

There came a sudden sniffle and all eyes fell on Yesung who had big fat tears rolling down his cheeks. Leeteuk let out a sigh before passing the baby over to Heechul out of nothing more than neccessity, “Now look what you’ve done. Yesung, sweetie, it’s okay. I’m not going anywhere, and no strange men are going to come here.”

Engulfing the other in a hug, Leeteuk set about being the best foster mother in the world to the distressed boy and Heechul felt his heart melt just a little bit at the sight. Siwon for his part, carefully took hold of the younger two boys’ hands and guided them out into the back garden to play before returning to Heechul and looking at him expectedly. It took the elder man a full minute to work out what it was that the youngster wanted, and he blushed a little before handing Ryeowook across to him. “I wasn’t going to hurt him or anything,” he said in defence, “he’s a little cutie pie.”

“And best kept away from your corrupting influences,” Siwon said as he headed out to join the other two and watch over their games as it was a Saturday and none of them had school that day.

Heechul sat there in complete surprise because he could not believe that he had just been sassed out by the Preacher boy. But what made it even worse was that it had been done in the nicest way possible, so he honestly couldn’t say anything towards the youngster or even call him a brat. He glared briefly at Leeteuk who shot him that same mothering look that had him wilting just a little bit and with an overly dramatic sigh, Heechul threw his hands up and went to watch the boys from the safety of the back door because it was clear that he was not wanted to do anything else right now.

Leeteuk rolled his eyes and returned to Yesung, gently dabbing his tears with a tissue, “Don’t worry about Heechul, his mouth and brain don’t work in synch that often.”

Yesung nodded, blowing his nose loudly, “I know that…just sometimes…”

“I know sweetie, I know,” Yesung said, pressing a kiss to the youngster’s forehead, “It’s fine to feel that way, you’re still recovering from everything and it’s natural…”

“But it was a really scary film,” Yesung replied, bottom lip jutting out, “and I couldn’t’ tell the others about it because they would just tease me.” Breaking down into tears, Yesung wrapped his arms tightly around Leeteuk and held on. Leeteuk returned the hug and reminded himself to give Heechul a kick at some point because it was sure to make him feel a lot better about the course of the day. Though he wouldn’t trade his smart alec friend for the world, just maybe give him a bit of a personality filter which could be and off when needed.