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When the taxi pulls up at the terrace, Donghae’s parents are already waiting at the porch and waving very intently. 

Donghae runs into the warm embrace of his mother who’s visibly tearing up, while Hyukjae retrieves their luggage from the boot of the taxi and pays the driver. He tips him a little bit more though he’s usually stingy. Just in case.

Donghae’s father pats Hyukjae on the back with more love than Hyukjae has felt from his own father recently, and takes the luggage from his hands. “How have you been?” he asks, a friendly hand on his shoulder. 

Hyukjae smiles and says, “Better now than ever.” It’s not exactly a lie either. Again, it’s the Donghae effect at work. 

They end up being ushered into the house and forced to take their seats at the dining table almost immediately. Hyukjae suggests he takes some time to put away their luggage for the family to catch up among themselves, but Donghae’s mother says why the sudden shyness, we’re all family anyway and instructs her husband to put down their luggage by the sofa. 

Hyukjae sinks back into the seat next to Donghae, a comfortable warmth in his chest, and allows Donghae to leave a peck on his cheek when he thinks his parents aren’t watching.

Bringing the dishes from the kitchen, Mrs Lee announces, “So we cooked many of Donghae’s favourite dishes today! But don’t worry, Hyukjae, you get dibs on tomorrow’s meals.”

Hyukjae watches carefully the way Donghae’s eyes light up as his parents serve the dishes they’ve prepared and thinks he mustn’t have had food he actually enjoyed in a long time. It’s not like yesterday’s meal at the Blue House wasn’t pleasant either. Hyukjae decides he’ll just ask Donghae what he wants to eat the next day and pretend it’s his own opinion. 

Donghae sends them a grateful smile and says thank you, his expression not unlike a little child receiving his favourite toy for his birthday. 

Mrs Lee ruffles Donghae’s hair adoringly, looking him over before muttering, “You’ve lost so much weight… Has the army been starving you?”

Donghae wants to rebut but Mr Lee reacts first, moving over to pat Donghae firmly on the shoulders before shaking his head in disagreement with Mrs Lee’s observation. “No way! Just look at the muscles he’s been putting on.” 

Donghae tries very hard not to flinch under the intense scrutiny of his parents’ eyes and turns to Hyukjae hopefully. He mouths a help me in Hyukjae’s direction and Hyukjae pretends not to see it, happily placing more beef cubes into Donghae’s bowl.

“My poor baby is suffering in the army and yet his father is complicit,” Mrs Lee grumbles, a hand Donghae’s cheek lovingly. Before Donghae can put on his best smile or say something, she turns to Hyukjae and asks, “What about you, Hyukjae? Whose side are you on?”

The sudden question catches him off-guard and his hand stills, the pair of chopsticks he’s holding onto hovering between his and Donghae’s bowl. Everyone is looking at him now, so he puts down his chopsticks awkwardly as he hesitates on a response.

“Uh,” he stutters, eyes darting nervously between Donghae’s parents. 

“I think he did put on more muscles,” he says, earning himself a death glare from Mrs Lee. She grabs onto Donghae’s chin as if to say how can you lie like that if you look at how tiny his face is now? Hyukjae pretends not to wither under her glare and tries to substantiate his response. “I’ve… seen it with my own eyes?” he offers uncertainly. 

A beat of silence passes between them before Hyukjae’s words sink in. Hyukjae regrets whatever he’s said almost immediately after the words left his mouth, but he also knows there’s nothing else he can say that can salvage the situation without making things worse, so he wears his most charming smile – the one reserved for the media and occasionally Donghae – and bats his eyes as innocently as he can manage.

Mrs Lee releases her grip on Donghae and the parents move back to their seats. Mr Lee squeezes Hyukjae on the shoulder encouragingly while making his way though, and Hyukjae tries very hard to avoid thinking about what it could mean. Knowing the man, it could be thank you for reminding us that you’re sleeping with our son, or it could be thank you for making sure our son has an active life. Of course it could also be thanks for agreeing with me and not my wife, but Hyukjae really doesn’t think so. Okay, so he ed up.

Mr Lee gestures for them to dig in and enjoy the meal. Donghae does so very willingly, stuffing his mouth with food so hopefully no one sees the way his cheeks are flushing. He should’ve known the kind of stupid things Hyukjae would say. He makes a mental note to remind himself to tell Hyukjae that he’s the worst after the meal. It’s easier to focus on his mock anger than the embarrassment. 

“Okay fine,” Mrs Lee says all of a sudden, sighing dejectedly. “I guess the boyfriend’s assessment holds more weight than any of ours.”

Mr Lee clasps his hands excitedly at the conclusion and adds, “I mean, the last time we’d seen Donghae , he was probably like 5 years old.”

Mrs Lee opens to kindly elaborate but ends up interrupted by Donghae who’s fiercely putting more meat into his parents’ bowls with his chopsticks. How he managed to make that filial act look a little scary, Hyukjae has no idea. Maybe the ROKA training. 

“Can we please just eat?” he complains, raising his voice to counter the rising heat in his cheeks. God, he’s going to kill Hyukjae later.

Everyone at the table laughs – including Hyukjae – and Donghae scowls at him while he grabs onto his fork a little tighter. Hyukjae doesn’t seem to catch the message though, with the way he’s still sporting a teasing grin on his face. 

“Fine, but for the record, I won the previous debate,” Mr Lee reminds everyone as he digs in.

“It wasn’t even a debate,” Mrs Lee counters unhappily. “And Donghae, you’re still eating two bowls of rice before you leave the table.”

Donghae pouts and flashes his puppy eyes and almost whines until he realises his mother wouldn’t give in to him the way Hyukjae would have the second he started looking upset. He stops himself and submits to his fate before embarrassing himself any further.

Thankfully the rest of the meal goes on without any mention of embarrassing topics that shouldn’t be brought up in front of parents. They talk about Hyukjae’s father’s campaign, the mission (briefly, obviously), the neighbours that have just moved in, the new rice-cooker they’ve bought that stopped working after two meals… Hyukjae only realises then how much he’d missed familiar and mundane conversations like this.

Mr and Mrs Lee finish their food first and start to load the empty dishes into the dishwasher. 

The second bowl of rice sits between Donghae and Hyukjae on the table. They don’t pretend not to know Hyukjae’s been helping Donghae finish the second bowl of rice, but they don’t point it out either. Donghae and Hyukjae are so predictable when it comes to looking out for and taking care of each other, and Donghae’s parents think it’s really silly, but also really, really sweet.

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They end up taking a nap after the long and surprisingly comfortable meal. Well, Donghae’s the one who needs to catch up on his sleep desperately and dragged Hyukjae into bed with him, though it’s not like Hyukjae really did put up a fight. 

Donghae’s eyes flutter close in contentment when his head hits the pillow. He breathes in the familiar scent of his childhood home and feels a smile curl up his lips. Everything’s the same and it makes him feel safe. 

Even though he does look forward to coming home to Hyukjae after every mission, he can’t deny the way he feels when he finally gets the chance to sink his body into his own bed. The fact that Hyukjae’s also here with him now just proves that he can get the best of both worlds sometimes. Which is to say that he will put up with the fact that his pillow has always felt too soft ever since he came back from his first mission, and the fact that sometimes he finds himself reaching for a non-existent gun in the middle of the night. Give and take.

“Will you wake me up so we can go watch the sunset?” he asks sleepily, mumbling into his pillow. 

Hyukjae reaches over and runs a gentle hand through his hair. “Maybe,” he says, chuckling lightly. 

“You better,” Donghae mutters, pulling Hyukjae’s hand down to his face instead so he can rest his cheek against it.

Hyukjae smiles and doesn’t say anything in return, but he also lets Donghae hold onto his hand. He can just use his phone with the other hand – he has two hands for a reason. It’s an easy and okay compromise, even if Donghae ends up drooling on it.

Hyukjae pulls up Leeteuk’s chat and begins to craft a text. Am at the terrace. Sorry I texted late. Everything okay back home?

It doesn’t take long for Leeteuk to respond. Fine for now. Don’t expect to stay there for too long, though. Your father says he wants to speak with you.

He sighs. He already knows what the conversation will be about by now. How many times have they gone through the motions only to come to the same conclusion? No dad, I won’t break up with Donghae just because it’s ‘bad publicity to have a gay son when you’re the head of the conservative party’. Hyukjae wonders what it’ll take to finally get his father off his back. He knows it’s not easy, that he’s running for re-election and needs all the favours he can get. He just wishes it wasn’t such a big deal that he has fallen in love with someone of the same gender, and he wishes his own father didn’t use it against him. Maybe his father doesn’t love him very much after all, but that knowledge in itself still stings like an open wound.

He’s thinking of what to respond when Leeteuk sends another message. I heard something about a schedule with some CEOs. Details are still in the making so I’m not very sure about them, but I think he might want you there. Mr K is on the list, though. 

Hyukjae feels his heart still in his chest. He hasn’t exactly gotten over the encounter he’d had with Mr Kang in the bathroom just the night before, and now there’s the possibility of having to entertain him again? Hyukjae wishes he could curl up in a ball and just die right about now. 

Donghae stirs in his sleep a little, his lips brushing against the back of Hyukjae’s hand gently. Hyukjae thinks it, he’ll worry about it when it happens; for now, he can just be happy.

So he sends back a hasty Thanks for telling me. Take care and see you when I see you, tosses his phone onto the nightstand and pulls his hand back. Donghae mumbles unhappily something unintelligible at the sudden loss of contact, but ends up smiling in his sleep again when he feels his body pressed flush against Hyukjae’s.