“Papa, can I get a Barbie doll?”

Kris’ reading glasses nearly fall off his face at the innocent question. They do, actually, slipping off halfway before he catches them and sets them back on his nose. The papers in his hand rustle as he folds them into half and shakily chucks them onto the stand beside his favourite rocking chair. To his dismay, it catches on a precariously balanced cup of warm tea and lugs it toward the floor, where it explodes into a hot shower of tea leaves and flavoured water.

The culprit for all of these is seven-year-old Luhan, with his doe-like eyes and innocent face which only serve as a cover for perhaps the most scheming, defiant kid Kris’s ever seen, with the exception of Jongin, maybe. Kris is sure that if the two ever put their brains together, they could rule the world, or more, even.

Meanwhile, while the stunned father is, well, stunned, said kid pulls out a horrifyingly pink magazine and points to an advertisement which takes up half the page.

“Here,” Luhan’s face is almost completely blocked by the magazine, except his large eyes. They peep out over the pages, something that Kris would have called ‘cute’ if he didn’t know Luhan. But he knows Luhan, and most importantly, well...just Luhan.

Kris’ eyes involuntarily flicker to his kid’s finger, or more accurately, where he’s pointing to.

It’s horrible. A plastic Barbie doll head with faker-than-fake plastic hair and impossible facial structures frozen in a carefully moulded smile. It apparently comes equipped with ‘easy to wash off’ makeup and clip-on hair extensions, along with a hair straightener, a pathetic replica of a curling iron, and cheap plastic hair clips.

All for the price of nearly a hundred bucks.

“No.” Kris manages to blurt after an extended silence. And then he feels a tad guilty because he swears, he sees tears in the kid’s eyes.

“B-but.” Luhan jabs his pudgy finger at the thin magazine paper. “Papa…” His lower lip starts to extend past his upper, pink and glossy and successfully making Kris feel like he just kicked a puppy.

He might as well have, anyway.

“Please?” Luhan’s eyes shimmer with unfallen tears. His cheeks also start to get rosier, a successful combination to get whatever the hell he wants.

But Kris’ been through all this before. The puppy eyes, tears, flushed cheeks, it may work on sixty-year-old ahjummas, but not Kris.

“No, Luhan.” Kris gently caresses the top of Luhan’s head as he tries to placate the kid. “This is for girls. You’re not a girl, right? Luhan is a manly man.”

Luhan retracts his lower lip and settles for biting it instead. “Yeah…” His eyes dart around, looking for something, anything.

Three-year-old Sehun waddles past, nearly tripping on the too-long pants Kris had plopped him in earlier.

A glint flashes in Luhan’s eyes, something that Kris misses. Nonetheless, Luhan maintains his ‘kicked puppy’ look and drops his magazine on the floor sadly.

“Ok…” As naturally as possible, he edges towards Sehun, who’s now looking at the exciting pink piece of paper on the ground with interest.

“Sehunnie, wanna play?” Luhan chirps happily as he links arms with his adopted brother. The sudden change in attitude knocks Kris right off balance. He really can’t understand the kid sometimes. Literally, one second he’s mopey and depressed, the next, he’s chipper and ready to ‘play’. Kris doesn’t want to stress himself out by pondering on what Luhan’s twisted definition of ‘play’ is.

So, he gets himself another cup of tea, retrieves his soaked paper, and settles himself in the chair for another hour of sleep.

***

Meanwhile in Kris’ bedroom, Luhan’s having a great old time. Not only had he found someone willing to be his doll, he’s also discovered his father’s copious stock of make-up, ranging from bb cream to lipstick to eyeliner.

Better than any Barbie doll toy, in his opinion. He grins as yet another box is overturned. A stick of what looks like glue rolls out, nearly disappearing under the bed just as Sehun’s chubby arm shoots out to grab it. The toddler stares blankly at the thing for a few seconds before handing it over to Luhan.

“What’s this, Sehunnie?” Luhan takes it and unscrews the cap, something which Sehun failed to do.

A sweet strawberry smell entwines itself around both boys and permeates the room. Luhan’s eyes brighten in response because strawberries.

 Without a second thought, he brings the stick to his lips and smears it messily around the general area of his mouth. It feels a little weird and suffocating, but it’s clear and nice smelling anyway, so Luhan doesn’t complain. Sehun doesn’t seem to mind either, judging by the way he tries to wrestle Luhan for the chapstick.

“No, no, hold on.” Luhan protests as Sehun pouts and firmly grips his arm almost hard enough to hurt. “Wait, stop. Sehunnie. No. I have something better.”

Sehun whines but lets go of Luhan’s arm anyway. He’s rewarded by a soft peck to the forehead and a dazzling smile from Luhan.

“Than’ gyu.” Luhan’s lips stick together a bit, but it’s ok because Sehun probably doesn’t understand him.

“C’mere, Sehunnie.”Luhan smiles as he picks a bright red lipstick from the large make-up pile, together with a box of eye shadow all colours of the rainbow.

“Luhannie’s gonna make you look magical.”

***

“Papa! I got my own Barbie doll!”

Kris jerks awake and actually does fall off his chair this time, landing perfectly on his fallen glasses -first.

“What?!” He half-hisses, half-splutters, because there are no Barbie dolls, there can’t be. He’s never bought a Barbie product before. He gingerly picks himself off the crushed remains of his spectacles, wincing at the bent frame and cracked glass.

The mystery of the nonexistent Barbie is solved none-too-soon when Sehun toddles around the corner with dark red-smudged lips on his thumb. But messy lipstick is the least of Kris’ problems.

There’s shimmering hot pink eye shadow caked on the apples of Sehun’s cheeks, eyeliner lining his pouty lips, some more lipstick on his eyelids, blush on his forehead and, worst of all, a load of bb cream covering everything in a muted, shiny beige. A streak of red curves upwards from the corner of his mouth and makes it all the way to his hairline before disappearing into his glitter-covered hair.

Kris wants to cry. Even more so when the child flashes an ingratiating smile at the agitated father.

Some of his teeth have been smeared with the lipstick, making it look like he’s severely bleeding from the gums.

Kris manages to get a strangulated, choked sort of high-pitched yell/hiss out of his nose while Luhan looks on in mild confusion and concern.

“Papa, you ‘kay?” Luhan’s lips still stick together slightly because of the lip gloss layering the chapstick, courtesy of Sehun.

Kris flails wildly for a few seconds while doing a rather impressive impression of a steaming teapot before finally managing to control himself with deep, slow breaths.

“Luhan.” Kris starts as sweetly as he can without murdering his son. “What did you do to Sehunnie?”

Luhan smiles brightly and pulls the three-year-old towards himself to rub cheeks. “My Barbie doll.” He announces to everyone in the room, including a confused mess of bed hair peeping out from behind the frame of the door. A pair of droopy eyes follow, and then a thick, fluffy bolster which covers a lithe body almost completely.

“What’s going on?” The voice is low, doused with sleep.

Kris pinches the ridge of his nose. “Nothing, Lay. Go back to sleep.”

Lay actually contemplates this for a second, then shakes his head. “Can’t. Tao. Nightmare.” He yawns and totters forward, then falls forward and asleep on his bolster with a thud.

Steady snoring fills the room and Kris tries not to facepalm.

He’s on the verge of just going back to sleep, like Lay, when he hears whimpers coming from the room Lay and Tao share.

Tao’s having a nightmare again. It happens maybe four times a week, usually during everyone’s naptime. Tao tells him it’s about pandas going extinct, or Kris not giving him anymore cake, and also that one time when Lay apparently refused to share Kris with him.

Kris always assures him that, yes, they’ll go to the zoo to see the pandas, he’ll buy him cake as soon as he gets back to sleep, and he’ll always be there for Tao, no matter what.

He wonders what’s the nightmare about today. It can’t possibly be worse than the monstrosity on Sehun’s face. He strides towards the room, easily stepping over Lay, who’s made himself entirely comfortable curled up on the floor.

A final glance at Sehun tells him that he’s completely happy with whatever Luhan did to him. That much is evident from the pure, innocent glee in the form of a wide grin as he gurgles at the aegyo Luhan exudes while cooing over Sehun.

He’s sure his room is ruined. Because if you give a Luhan a Sehun-

Just don’t.

************

Plot given to me by my sistah. Yeah. If you guys have any plots, don't hesitate to suggest them in the comments or something ^__^ Thanks for subscribing :D