“Trick or treat~”

Kris sighed as he opened the door to the twins next door. It was only 7pm and already had a huge headache trying to force his baby son into the panda costume he bought for him. He did his best to smile at the kids, both wearing matching werewolf costumes. “Here you go.” He put some candies in Baekhyun’s bag, but sighed again as he looked at Chanyeol. “I’m sorry, Yeol, but your umma told me not to give you any candies. He said it makes you hyper and you can’t have any.”

Chanyeol pouted, hitting his brother’s shoulder as the latter laughed at him. “But it’s Halloween!”

Kris smiled. “I’m sorry, it’s your umma’s orders. You know he’ll kill me if I disobey him.”

Chanyeol pouted, fake fangs sticking out under his lip. “But hyungnim~”

Kris bit his lip, looking across the hall to make sure Kyungsoo is in. “Fine, I’ll give you one candy, but only one! And don’t tell your umma!”

Chanyeol jumped, clapping his hands, and threw himself at Kris, hugging his middle. “Thank you thank you thank you!”

Kris chuckled. “Right. Go have fun guys! See you later at your parents’ party!”

The twins waved back, running down the hall to collect candies from the other neighbours.

Kris sighed again and turned back to Tao, who was currently trying to get the ears off with his tiny hands, to not much success. Kris cooed him and got him dressed, ignoring the infant’s cries of displeasure. “Aren’t you a little fighter.” He giggled.

“APPA!” a rather small and slim figure jumped its way to the living room, waving a sparkly pink wand with a star at the top. “Look how pretty I am~”

Kris smiled at his daughter and leaned to kiss her on the cheek. “Wow, my little princess~”

She hit him on his arm, giggling. “But I’m not appa’s princess today. Xiumin oppa is my prince~”

Kris laughed. “Okay, I guess I have to accept the fact that my baby is getting older by the minute. Go look for your prince, then.”

Luhan nodded with a smile and ran out the door, waving her wand all the while.

“Appa,” Lay entered the room slowly, almost unable to walk inside the huge costume. “How do I look?”

Kris furrowed his brows. “Um.” He chuckled. “Are you sure you don’t want to wear something… simple? I think I still have some clothes for you-“

Lay shook his head hard, the horn almost falling off him. “No! I promised Chen I’ll go as a unicorn, so I have to do it!”

Kris sighed. “I’m sure he’ll understand…”

Lay shook his head again. “No!”

Tao was getting as anxious as Lay was, hitting Kris slightly. “Fine. We should get going, then.”

Lay smiled and led the way to the apartment across the hall, where the traditional Halloween party was held.

It was chaotic in there, even more than usual.

Kyungsoo was wearing a cute bunny costume, eyes blown with panic as he hurried to finish all the food and rush it to the living room, with the help of Suho, who was dressed as a wizard.

Kris smiled at him, showing the fangs and fake blood dripping from his lips, and rushed to help as well, right after he put Tao down to play with Kai and Sehun.

“Aren’t those costumes for girls?” he pondered, looking at their matching Hello Kitty little outfits.

Suho shrugged. “Kai wanted to wear it. And he forced Sehun to wear it, too, so I didn’t really have any choice.”

Kris chuckled. “That’s… cute.”

Suho sighed. “Are Amber and Hyuna coming too?”

Kris nodded, looking at his watch. “They have another party, with Hyuna’s dance group, so they’ll arrive a little late. I hope they wouldn’t be too drunk, I don’t really want the kids to see that.”

They were halfway through the party when Chanyeol and Baekhyun returned. Chanyeol was hyperactive, even more than usual, and Kyungsoo shrieked. “HAVE YOU EATEN ALL YOUR CANDIES?”

Chanyeol shook his head and showed him the bag. “I didn’t get any candies! See?”

Suho sighed and scooped the boy into his hands, struggling due to the fact Chanyeol was flailing his hands all the while. “What did I tell you, huh? Candies aren’t good for you. You won’t be able to sleep tonight.”

Chanyeol pouted, looking up at his father. “I’m sorry, I just couldn’t resist. And I will sleep! You’ll see!”

Suho sighed again and released him. “Go brush your teeth. You too, Baek.”

Baekhyun whimpered. “But daddy~ I didn’t eat all of the candies!”

“Doesn’t matter. Go do it, now.”

With a huff the twins left for the bathroom.

At the other side of the room. Chen and Lay were playing with the babies. Well, playing wasn’t really the word Kris would have used- they were currently tying all of the three together to enact some kind of weird pretend-magic that Chen improvised, waving his Harry Potter wand in the air. Sehun and Tao were smiling happily, flailing their little hands to try and catch the wand, but Kai wailed, trying to get himself out of the ropes and crawl his way to his best friend, Taemin, who just came through the door with his mother.

Heechul was wearing a black cat-woman costume, looking way younger than he really was. “Take care of him.” He told Kyungsoo with a smile. “I’ll be back later.”

“Don’t you want to stay?” Kyungsoo asked, offering him a cupcake. “Just a little bit?”

Heechul shook his head. “Sorry, but I really have to go. Have fun!” he turned to Taemin, who was toddling towards Kai. “Be a good boy, Taeminnie~” he waved him. The toddler barely even looked at him. “Bye!”

Everything seemed to run smoothly after that, the adults in one side of the room, conversing about this and that, while the kids played with each other. Baekhyun and Chanyeol were running around, causing riot, howling like wolves every time they came across someone.

At some point, Xiumin and Luhan joined them- the twins chasing Princess Luhan while Prince Xiumin chased them, waving his overly big sword screaming “LET MY LADY GO YOU FREAKS”, which eventually ended with him smacking the twins on their butts and him hugging Luhan to his chest.

The twins, naturally, took advantage of his preoccupation and snitched his bag of candies, running towards their room and baring it so he wouldn’t be able to enter when he realized what was missing.

“HEY! THOSE ARE MINE!!!” he was banging on the door with his little fists, whimpering when his younger brothers laughed from the other side of the room.

“Should we go help them?” Kyungsoo wondered.

“No.” Suho said firmly, burying his head in his arms. “Xiumin’s a big boy, he can take care of himself.”

“It’s not Xiumin I’m worried about.” Kyungsoo scoffed. “It’s Chanyeol. If he’ll eat any more candies tonight…”

Suho growled. “What if I just give him some booze to knock him out?”

Everyone except for Kyungsoo burst out laughing. Kyungsoo hit Suho’s arm, hard, until the latter finally got up and walked to the twins’ room, forcing them to give Xiumin back his candies.

“Kris, why is Lay wearing a unicorn costume?” Amber wondered as she and Hyuna stepped inside the apartment. She was wearing a tigress costume, her partner in matching cat costume.

Kris shrugged. “Chen forced him to. I don’t know.” He sighed. “Tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t.”

Amber laughed and walked over to scoop Tao up and give him a kiss. He was becoming tired, obviously not used to being up so late. He curled into her chest, his little hands clawing her shirt.

“I think it’s time for his sleep. I’ll take him, you only got here.” He offered, smiling sheepishly and internally thanking Tao for the excuse to get the hell out of there.

Amber nodded and gave him the baby, who cuddled into his father’s neck, holding onto him with tiny fists. “I’ll get the others later, don’t worry about that.”

Kris smiled. “Good night everyone! Happy Halloween!”

He could barely hear the murmur of “Happy Halloween” and “Goodnight daddy~” before he closed the door behind him, sighing in relief.

He honestly hated holiday parties.