It was most definitely not what Jongdae wanted. No, this was not the breakfast he had envisioned today. Today, he had been hoping for breakfast in bed with Yi Xing while they watched crappy morning shows and revelled in the fact that neither one of them had work today.

Today was meant to be spent in relaxation, not sat in some fancy café where he had to wear clothes, and pretend he was interested in Kris and Lia’s holiday. He was not interested. He was hungry, tired and bored. What made it worse was that Yi Xing refused to make things a little more interesting when Jongdae tried to bring their hands down under the table.

ing Yi Xing. It was always his friends. Jongdae’s friends knew not to disturb them on Thursday’s, but Yi Xing’s, oh no. They absolutely had to see them this very Thursday because they had pictures to show them and a cruise to tell them about – oh, the ing excitement.

See if he was going to be nice about this when they got home. No way were they watching the movie Yi Xing picked out, and he was going to ignore Yi Xing when he tried to snuggle up on the sofa. Yeah. He liked this plan. Being petty always made him feel better.

He just hoped no one noticed how fixed his smile was. It was beginning to hurt his face.

Yi Xing began to chuckle, and Jongdae tried not to hit him. Laughing would just encourage Lia, and then they’d be here for hours staring at more goddamned pictures – oh, for god’s sakes. No. No. He did not need to see little Zi Wen’s first ride in the water chute. This was ridiculous. Really.

Why was Yi Xing cooing, for crying out loud? It wasn’t even that cute, and Jongdae knew for a fact that Yi Xing found the kid annoying because he’d said so the last (and only) time they’d baby-sat. Oh great. Now everyone was discussing how much the baby had grown. If you asked Jongdae, there was no noticeable difference except the regrettable fact that the kid now talked more. Of course, no one had asked him because Yi Xing had decided he wasn’t in the right ‘mood’ to be consulted.

Sighing, he stabbed his fork into his waffle a little too violently. Everyone looked up when the cutlery made a rather hideous scraping noise and he was forced to apologise, avoiding Yi Xing’s amused stare. Yi Xing was only lucky the fork hadn’t ended up in his hand. That would have been kind of cool, really. He’d always wondered what happened when you stabbed people in the hand.

“Zi Wen is really beginning to take after you, Kris.” Yi Xing smiled, placing his fork on his plate gently. “You must be so proud.”

Kris smirked, nodding. “It was obvious my genes were going to turn out well.” He said, preening. Jongdae bit back a snort. Sometimes Kris was so very vain.

Lia agreed with Jongdae. “Oh shut up, Jiaheng. You know it’s not just your genes. I’ll have you know he has half of mine, too, and you didn’t spend seventeen hours in labour with him.” Jongdae blanched. Oh god, no. He was trying to eat. He didn’t need this kind of putting him off his food.

The smile on his face began to crack a little. Yi Xing caught his hand, as if to hold him back from…something. It took a lot of effort to restrain himself from wrenching his hand away in some childish fit. But then Yi Xing sent him one of lazy grins, and Jongdae had to blink stupidly for a minute. He’d always liked that smile. It was probably the reason they were still together.

Okay, not the only reason, but it was pretty close to the top of that long, long list.

Kris shifted uncomfortably. “Alright, fine. Let’s not, uh, get into that.” He sent a sheepish look to Jongdae who thanked all the gods he knew that they hadn’t started on that story. He’d heard it before and it wasn’t the kind of stuff one needed to hear while eating. He didn’t understand it. Why did couples with children think it was appropriate to talk about them all the time?

From what he could remember, Kris and Lia had been fairly fun before the arrival of their little monsters. He fervently hoped that he and Yi Xing never turned out like this. Not that they could, of course. For obvious reasons, there would be no children in their foreseeable future.

He gave a nervous laugh. Whenever he was nervous or out of his depth, he laughed and smiled; it was something Yi Xing had never understood, but had always found so very endearing about his partner. Yi Xing knew that Jongdae was never really at ease around his friends. It wasn’t that Jongdae didn’t like them; he just always held back around people he didn’t know.

But Yi Xing knew he was in trouble when they got home.