He can hear the footsteps all the way from the kitchen as he starts on dinner. Jongin gets cranky when he doesn’t take his nap and today, of all days, he had to skip it in favor of going with Yifan to the hospital after an urgent page he got after he picked the boy up from school.

“Daddy, Xing doesn’t want to let me play with him,” Jongin says as he pulls on Yifan’s sweatshirt.

“Baby, Yixing is not playing, he’s doing homework,” he explains to the young boy.

“But I want to play,” he whines further and Yifan has no other choice than to turn off the stove and kneel next to his youngest.

He picks him up from the floor and the boy instantly settles on his shoulder. “No sleeping until after dinner, baby. Appa will get mad if you go to bed without having eaten anything.”

“When is Appa getting home?”

Junmyeon had been gone for a conference for the past week and, even though Yifan has survived without problems, he doesn’t like to sleep on an empty bed. It gets awfully cold at night when he’s alone (Jongin sneaking in at night is a secret to be kept among them) and he knows his boys have missed his Appa more than they’re letting on, especially Yixing. They’ve never been away from one of them for more than a few days, so this is new territory for them.

“He should be here any minute.” He knows he’s fighting a lost battle because keeping Jongin from sleeping is a feat he has managed only a few times in his life. He has no clue how Minseok kept the boy from falling on his face while Yifan examined one of his regular patients.

“You owe me,” his friend had said to him as he handed Jongin back to his Dad.

So he’s paying for it now as he pushes Jongin’s little body away from him while Jongin holds on to his shirt with all his strength. “C’mon, Jongin.”

“I want Appa,” he flat out starts crying.

“Sweetheart, why are you crying?”

“Dad, What’s going on?” Yixing asks as he sits next to Yifan.

“Did you finish your homework?” Yixing nods. “Can you please help me set the table?”

The teen stands up and does what he’s told without question. “Is Appa coming home soon?” He shouts from the kitchen.

As soon as he’s about to answer his oldest son, he hears a key on the lock of the front door.

Jongin’s head turns at the noise and the tears tracks on his cheeks suddenly grow bigger. “Appa,” he cries as he jumps from Yifan’s hold and into Junmyeon’s.

“Hey, my baby boy, why are you crying?” He hugs Jongin tight as Yifan takes his luggage from his shoulder. “Did you skip out on your nap?”

Yifan smiles sheepishly at his husband. “I was paged for a consult on a patient. I had to take him to the hospital with me.”

“Appa!” Yixing joins. He hugs Junmyeon longer than he has all year and goes back to his chore at hand. Junmyeon beams at his oldest son.

“Hungry, are we?”

Yixing laughs as he nods. “I went to Michael’s after school and he only had junk food for snacks so I haven’t eaten anything.”

Not having a second to actually welcome his husband properly; he kisses him lightly on the lips and goes back to finishing dinner.

Junmyeon fills them in on his past week with Jongin struggling to keep his eyes open at the table. The professor feeds him patiently, not wanting, as Yifan suspected, to let him fall asleep without dinner.

“This is really good,” Junmyeon tells him.

“Jongdae recommended this healthy meals book that fit Yixing’s diet,” he explains. “We’ve been trying new recipes all week, haven’t we, kiddo?”

“He started off burning everything but has gotten pretty good,” Yixing laughs. “We can actually taste the food now.”

Yifan ruffles his son’s hair as he chuckles. He’s missed this, family dinners. It was only a week but it might as well have been a year.

When they are done, Yifan decides to leave the dishes for tomorrow because he doesn’t find it in himself to stay on his feet for another single second.

While Junmyeon puts Jongin to bed, Yifan makes sure Yixing has his stuff ready for school the next day.

“Are you going back to work tomorrow?” Asks Yixing as he puts away some books on his shelf.

“I am. But it was fun that I stayed home this week, wasn’t it?”

Yixing nods wholeheartedly while getting into bed. “Good night, Dad.”

“Good night, Xing.” He turns off the lights and closes the door.

When he finally goes inside his own room, after changing into his pajamas and brushing his teeth, he sees Junmyeon finding evidence of his and Jongin’s secret. Holding a small light blue sock, Junmyeon shakes his head as he looks at his husband. He’s clearly amused, not mad, which makes Yifan smile wide.

“What can I say, the kid’s a human furnace.”

Junmyeon laughs out loud at that and closes the distance between them. “Did you miss me?”

“So much.”

The kiss slowly, exploring each other’s mouths like they’ve been doing since forever. Yifan picks Junmyeon up expertly and carries him to bed.

“I am so tired,” the man tells him and Yifan sighs in relief as he drops his weight next to his husband on the comfortable mattress.

“Oh, thank god.” Junmyeon nestles his head under Yifan chin. “I don’t think I’m capable of moving right now.”

his hair, he let’s his eyelids close with more ease than he has done all week.

“I love you, Yifan,” Junmyeon mutters in that state between sleep and consciousness.

“Love you, too, Jun. Now go to sleep.”

He holds him in his arms, not willing to let him go, at least not for tonight, and gladly let’s sleep take him.

-

a/n: Wow, it's been a while since I updated this ;A; Small drabble to get back on track. I hope you guys like it!

As always, comments are welcome!