Three weeks later in the Lee Mansion

“If one of your little monsters touch my cats one more time!” Renjun was yelling as Jamie and Billy hid in the storage closet. “THIS IS WAR!”

Renjun stood on top of the stairs, glowering down as he held a threatening hand in the air.

“Now Chicken Nugget is gone!” he yelled, Jeno sighing.

“Renjun, maybe Chicken Nugget is under the bed,” he said when the door of their mansion opened and Chenle walked in, holding a big fat tabby cat in his arms.

“CHICKEN NUGGET!” Renjun bellowed out. “Your kids keep opening the windows, Jeno! The cats go out!”

“I saw Chicken Nugget hanging out with my chicken, rooster and pig. Thought I’d bring him back to you,” Chenle said and Renjun huffed, grabbing the cat and bringing him into his room. Chenle bid them goodbye and left, Jeno rubbing his head.

“Kids, Uncle Renjun got his cat back. You don’t have to hide,” Jeno said and two heads peeked out from the storage closet. Billy and Jamie came out, Billy pushing his glasses up his nose before Jaemin called them to eat some snacks.

He was sewing a dress for Jamie because she loved dresses and tutus. She had asked for it a few weeks ago and Billy lounged on the couch, book open and his eyes strained on the words when Jeno ran a hand through his hair.

“Billy, your home school teacher is going to arrive tomorrow but I won’t be home so make sure you wake up on time,” Jeno said.

While Jamie was in kindergarten, with Billy’s IQ, they decided to have him homeschooled since he was keen in studying levels higher than his peers. Jeno, however, worried about his social skills. He got along well with Jonah and Dinah because he was used to them—also because they were considered “family”.

“I already have an alarm clock ready, Daddio,” he said, Jeno nodding when they heard a squeal from Jamie.

“Oh, Nana. I love it! I will look so pretty!”

“You will, sweetheart. Look, let’s put it on,” Jaemin said and Jeno’s eyes went to Billy who looked unbothered.

“Billy, I was thinking that maybe you should join some extracurricular activities—”

“It’s a waste of time, Daddio,” Billy cut in. “It has no impact in my career progression.”

“You don’t have a career.”

Billy blinked, Jeno sighing.

“Alright, that’s it. Let’s play some catch.”

“Daddio, I have six hundred and fifty pages to go—”

“Your six hundred and fifty pages aren’t going to go anywhere, Billy. Come on, it’s good to go out and exercise once in a while.”

“Daddio—”

“Up now, boy. Go get the ball and Willy. He’s a dog and he needs to run around too,” Jeno said, Billy grumbling before he made his way into the toy room that Jaemin put up for the kids. There was aggressive shuffling and he came out, something in his hand but Jeno was quick enough to catch it.

“That’s a marble. I want a ball we can play catch with,” he said, Billy growling before stomping back to the toy room and coming out with a beach ball. “Try again—”

“Fine, fine!” Billy said, grabbing a baseball and coming out. “Let’s do this, Daddio. Twenty minutes—”

“Half an hour,” Jeno said, patting his son on the head as Billy finally went to the backyard, Willy following close behind. “Alright, throw it—”

“I’m going to aim now, Daddio. You won’t like it—”

And with that, he flung the ball towards Jeno. The ball hurled towards Jeno, the male catching it and throwing it back. Much to his surprise, Billy had good aim and seemed very athletic. Somewhat like Jaemin, good with the body, just hardly competitive.

“Daddio, c’mon. In twenty minutes, I could have finished that six hundred and fifty pages,” he said to Jeno and Jeno stopped.

“Son, I just want to spend time with you,” Jeno said and Billy paused, his face softening. “How about a movie then?”

“That sounds good. How about the Schindler’s List or Anne Frank?” Billy asked, Jeno blinking at his son’s choice of movie. “Or the documentary of—”

“Go get the ball,” Jeno said, Billy giving a defeated sigh before Jeno caught it. “How about we switch it up? I ask you a question and we throw the ball?”

This seemed to have interested Billy, the male nodding as Jeno began to recite the list of chemical elements, Billie taking it in. Once being a medic, he could see that Billie had a thirst for knowledge and slowly Billie got a hang of it, with each throw the questions getting harder.

“That was so fun!” Billy finally said, Jeno chuckling when the door opened and he saw Dana and Johnny arrive. They had groceries and behind him, he saw Haechan and Jungwoo. Today was the day they all get together to celebrate the final processing of Jamie and Billy’s adoptive papers, Jaehyun finally arriving just to take out his coat.

“Jeno!” Johnny said, Jeno going to kitchen to see everyone bustling around to prepare dinner. “Ah, you got the email?”

“Yes, it’s confirmed. Thanks for the help,” Jeno said to Johnny, the older male thumping him on the back. “Dana, you did your nails?”

“Yeah, pretty?” she asked, winking at him before her attention went to Jamie in her small little tutu. “Oh, Jamie! You look adorable. Dinah! Come here and say hi to Jamie.”

Dinah, being the youngest of the children, bounded towards Jamie to give her a hug. They were associated as cousins and the female was used to them already, Billy and Jamie always coming over for movie nights. Behind them, they saw Jonah and Billy talking before Jonah suddenly collapsed to the ground.

Billy prodded him with his foot.

“Jonah, I can still see you breathing. Not very smooth, son,” Johnny said and Jonah grumbled. “Remember what I taught you—”

“What’s that about?” Haechan asked. “Teaching him how to play dead?”

“You know what they say, you got to start off young,” Johnny said, shrugging.

“As I said, Uncle Johnny, age is just a number,” Billy said and Johnny blinked, looking at Jeno.

“Sometimes I forget your son is five. He speaks like he’s five hundred.”

“I heard that, Uncle Johnny,” Billy said when Jamie and Dinah screeched. They looked up to see the girls being hugged by Jaehyun and Yuta, both of them spoiled by them. “Is it time for the play?”

“Oh, right,” Jeno said, Jaemin finally clapping his hands.

“Everyone! Citizens of the N-CITY gated community! I am proud of say that my children, Billy and Jamie as well as Johnny and Dana’s children—Dinah and Jonah, have prepared a very special play for all of us to see!” Jaemin smiled and all the kids went to the front, Billy forcing himself to smile.

“My name is Billy Lee and I am the script writer.”

“My name is Jamie Lee and I am the princess!”

“I am Dinah Suh and I am the tree.”

“I am Jonah Suh and I am the ogre.”

“The name of our play is the Adventures of the Green Ogre: The Missing Donkey edition,” Billy said.

“Edition? Means there are more?” Mark asked. “Oh, the kids watched Shrek the other day.”

“Yes, it is… inspired.”

“Alright, Billy. You lead,” Jamie said and Billy began to speak.

“One day in a far far away distant land, there was a dragon.” He paused for suspense. “Rawr. It’s me. I’m the dragon.”

“Billy! Don’t read it like that!” Jamie was saying and everyone grumbled at Billy’s bad acting.

“I am pulling the weight of this play, Jamie. I wrote the script; I am the dragon and I am the narrator. Have some respect.”

“We need to have some feels…” Dinah said and Billy frowned.

“Shut up, you’re a four year old tree.”

“Billy,” Jaemin said to his son. Billy cleared his throat and continued.

“The dragon came from a faraway distant land….”

And that was how the play went, Haechan and Jungwoo filming it from afar as they all laughed. Somehow, the tree was the hero and Dinah was very happy, the girl not even following the script Billy wrote. As the play ended, Billy threw the script to the ground and grumbled to himself.

“Oh, why do I ever try? Dinah, you’re supposed to be transcendent! Do you know what that means?” he asked the four year old who ran to hug him instead and he softened. “Nevermind. Okay, get off.”

Jamie was simply twirling, the female sitting down on the grass when Willy bounded over to her.

“Daddy, can we get a dog?” Dinah asked Johnny who sighed.

“Only if your Uncle Xiaojun and Uncle Yangyang approve. You know they are the ones maintaining the house,” he said and Billy piped up.

“I want a house of samoyeds when I grow up!” he said, looking at Jamie. “You promised me a house of samoyeds!”

“I’m working on it, bro!” Jamie said back. “I got us parents!”

“Well, that’s true, too,” Billy said.

“Dinner time! And then movie,” Dana yelled from inside and everyone knew better than to go against Auntie Dana’s words, everyone filing into the house.

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One by one everyone began to leave until it was only Dana’s family and them, Jeno sitting beside Billy. The kids were sleepy and it was past their bedtime, Jaemin finally lifting Jamie up to go to her bedroom as Billy fought a yawn.

“Nemo’s an idiot,” he concluded as the movie ended and Johnny chuckled, carrying Jonah who was already snoring.

“Well, I’m going to head back and put this ogre to sleep.”

“The tree has wilted, too,” Dana observed, reaching for her daughter. “Have a good night, Jeno.”

Jeno bid them goodbye, the male finally looking at Billy who was fighting his sleepiness, his glasses still on. Jeno reached for it, taking it off and Billy slumped against him.

“Just sleep,” he said to his son, carrying him up as Billy wrapped his legs around his waist.

“Daddio,” Billy said, yawning. “Thanks for adopting me.”

Jeno froze, a hand patting Billy on the back.

“I feel wanted,” Billy concluded, laying his head on Jeno’s shoulder, the male smiling at Billy’s words. “Can we play Smart Catch tomorrow?”

“Sure, Billy.”

“I want it to be about Geography and maybe after that we can finally watch what I want to watch.”

“And what’s that?”

“The Oscar Schindler’s List and Documentary of Anne Frank.”

“Okay, son.”

“You promise?”

“Yes, son.”

“Love you, Daddio.”

Jeno smiled, feeling his son’s breathing hollow as he fell asleep on his shoulder.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That night, Jaemin saw Jeno buried in a book and when he looked closer, he saw that it was a book with the map of the world.

“Stuff to do for Johnny? He’s not over working you, is he?” Jaemin asked and Jeno shook his head.

“No. It’s for our son. He wants to play Smart Catch tomorrow and I need to remember all the countries by tonight.”

“There are 193 countries, Jeno,” Jaemin said, yawning. “I’m bringing Jamie out for some dress shopping. You’ll be able to handle Billy alone, right?”

“Well, I have Renjun with me,” Jeno said. “That being said, I have a question. You know anything about the Oscar Schindler’s… something something Anne something?”

“No idea what you’re talking about.”

“Mhmm… I guess I’ll just ask the others.”

NCT Nightmare

24 Members

Jeno: Anyone know what the Oscar Schindler something something is about? Is it child friendly?

Tae-il: Oscar Schindler’s List?

Tae-il: You sure it’s not Oscar the Grouch from Sesame street?

Jeno: Nope, I remember something about a list. Also… Anne…

Tae-il: Frank?

Jeno: Yes, that one.

Tae-il: Not ‘Frankenstein’?

Jeno: No.

Haechan: ….. I remember that from one of my forgery classes.

Taeyong: Uh…

Johnny: What are you making your children watch? I taught that in history class back in SM.

Jeno: What’s it about?

Jeno: Nevermind, I searched it up.

Renjun: I think we all need a history lesson  

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was a new day in the Lee House and their alarm clocks rang. Jeno pushed himself off the bed, half asleep but he had to force himself awake since he had a long day in front of him. He cleared his throat, turning back to see Jaemin also waking up.

“I need to bring Billy out today,” he said to Jaemin, his husband nodding and yawning.

“Same, my love,” Jaemin said, telling him that Jamie had a long day ahead of her as he began to pack his bags. They both went down to see the kids already in the kitchen, Renjun making breakfast. He placed pancakes to which both of them wolfed down when Jaemin ushered Jamie to the car, Jeno doing the same to Billy.

Billy held his hand, entering the car before Jeno started the car. He looked up to see Renjun driving the other car, Jamie twirling happily around Jaemin when he frowned, turning to see Billie with his bag.

“Son, seatbelt,” h