“What present should we get for Bà ba?” Yifan’s eyes scan over all the gold and silver sparkling in the jewelry case. None of the pieces particularly catch his eye, so he walks away, dragging Zitao away from the shiny case.

“Paaaa paaaa,” the three-year-old whines as he digs his feet in the ground trying to resist being pulled away. “We can get Bà ba the shiny things.”

To make things a little easier, Yifan picks up Zitao and slings him over his shoulder. “Bà ba has enough jewelry; let’s go find something else.”

“The shiny thiiiiings.” Yifan sighs and shifts Zitao to rest on his hip.

“If you help me find a good gift for Bà ba, we can get ice cream.” Zitao squeals and wraps his arms around Yifan’s neck. “Okay, so what things do you know he likes?”

“Me.”

“Yes, but he already has you so we can’t give you as a gift.”

“Bà ba likes the pictures I draw.”

“I don’t think he’d like the pictures I’d draw him.” He walks over to look through backpacks, looking for one that Yixing might like. “Mmm, maybe I’ll just go for the classic wine and chocolates,” he says to himself, heading to the grocery section of the large department store.

Zitao rests his head on Yifan’s shoulder and grips onto his sweater with one of his small fists. “Is it Bà ba’s birthday?”

“No. I just want to show Bà ba how much I love him.”

“He doesn’t know?” Zitao looks up at Yifan with a confused expression, not sure why his Bà ba wouldn’t know that this his Pa pa loves him when he sees them hug and kiss everyday.

“He knows, but when you love somebody, you want to do something really special for them sometimes.”

Zitao nods, basically understanding. “Can I have cookies?” He immediately losses interest in the previous conversation as he realizes they’re head towards the food department.

“Didn’t I just promise you ice cream after this?”

The toddler blinks up at Yifan. “But… cookies.” He kisses Yifan’s cheek and snuggles into his chest to butter him up. “Pleeeeease, Pa pa?”

As he’s not often on the receiving end of Zitao’s constant attention, Yifan immediately caves in and gets a pack of cookies, making the toddler promise not to tell Yixing. After buying the wine, chocolates, and cookies, Yifan detours to look through sunglasses to buy for himself. He sets Zitao on the ground but has the toddler hold onto his pants leg to avoid losing him again. Zitao immediately starts whining when Yifan picks up a pair of sunglasses because, as he’s learned through experience, having a parent whose paycheck is based on his appearance makes clothes shopping long and unbearable.

“I bought you cookies, can’t you let me shop for a little bit?”

“Noooo!”

Yifan sighs and sets Zitao up on the sunglasses counter and puts a pair of sunglasses on him. “If you help me shop, you can go play with Sehun later today.” Really, Yifan had already arranged for Zitao to stay over with Sehun, but that wasn’t something Zitao needed to know.

“Sehunnie!” he squeals. “Okay! Let’s shop!” He pulls several sunglasses from the display and hands them to Yifan to try on. In the end, he does go with a pair of white sunglasses that Zitao makes him try on several times. He even lets the toddler talk him into buying a bright pink dress shirt to liven up his usually black wardrobe. And knowing how much Yixing likes couple clothing, and even though Yifan isn’t too fond of it, he buys a second one in Yixing’s size, knowing his husband would look good in it.

“Pa pa, I’m hungry,” Zitao pipes up after Yifan pays for the shirts. “I want pizza.”

“I bought you cookies, and I promised you ice cream. Now you want pizza?” Zitao nods and kisses Yifan’s cheek. Yifan groans and pulls out his phone to search for the nearest pizza place. “Xing’s gonna kill me,” he mutters.

“And I hafta potty.”

“Oookay, let’s head there first.”

When they get home, Zitao finally satisfied with his stomach full with pizza and ice cream, the toddler sprints into his room and opens up the lowest dresser drawer he can reach to get an outfit together for his play date with Sehun. Most of the time, Zitao’s content with his parents picking out his clothing because he knows they have good fashion sense, but when it comes to playing with Sehun, he has to pick his own outfit. His clothes don’t always match quite right, but he’s so proud of himself afterwards that Yixing doesn’t have the heart to change him and usually takes a picture of him proudly posing. Once Zitao’s changed into his new outfit, he dances around Yifan’s feet until the man takes him to Sehun’s house.

With the kid sufficiently out of the way, Yifan’s able to set the kitchen table up for his surprise husband-romancing plans. He’s never been too much of a cook so he orders takeout from the restaurant Yixing loves and sets up candles and puts the bottle of wine on ice while he waits for it to be delivered.

Yixing enters the house a little bit after the food arrives, looking tired from his long day in the studio. Usually, when he leaves Yifan along with the toddler, he never comes home to a quiet house unless Yifan chased Zitao around until they both passed out. So, he moves slowly as he slips his shoes off and removes his heavy coat to hang up in the coat closet.

“Yifan? Tao?” He gazes into the living room, expecting to see both his boys asleep on the couch, but he’s distracted by the dim light coming from the dark kitchen. “Fan?” He peeks into the kitchen and sees the table set with a bottle of wine sitting in an ice bucket on the counter. He yelps slightly as he feels strong arms wrap around his waist and a chin resting on his shoulder. “It’s not our anniversary is it?”

Yifan scoffs and pulls away. “Our anniversary’s in December.” He moves around to face Yixing so he can kiss him, and he takes his hand to lead him to the table. “I just want to romance you a little.”

Yixing nods and takes a seat, noting that the food is one of his favorite dishes. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything! I just love you and want to really show you since we don’t get to see each other much anymore.”

Yixing smiles and picks up his pair of chopsticks. “I never knew you were so romantic,” he teases.

“I romanced you enough for you to marry me.”

“We didn’t marry until after dating for six years. Apparently your romancing takes a long time to set in.”

Their little romantic dinner is nice, they do their best to avoid talking about work or their son in order to not fall into the pattern of going through the motions like older couples who lost all their passion. They talk about the things they want to do together on their next dates, whether the fire&ice or ribbed condoms were the best, and whether or not Junmyeon was a mafia leader.

After half a bottle of wine, Yixing’s tipsy enough for his exhibitionist side to come out and he’s suddenly in Yifan’s lap, kissing every part of his face. He’s unwilling to even detach himself from Yifan long enough to walk to the bedroom so Yifan ends up carrying him with some difficulty. Once they’re in the bedroom, he curses as he remembers that the condoms are back in the kitchen they just left. It takes much of Yifan’s energy to pry Yixing’s hands off long enough to run to the kitchen and back. To his surprise and misfortune though, the wine in Yixing’s veins also works as a calming agent and as Yifan’s kissing up his stomach, ready to take the shirt of his husband, he realizes that Yixing’s breathing has evened out as he’s fallen asleep.

After pulling Yixing’s jeans off and tucking him into bed, Yifan gets into bed himself, dreaming of the days before they had a child and jobs that kept them away from each other so much. But in the end he decides that even though they had more free time, he wouldn’t give up Zitao or his dream job for anything. Their relationship was strong enough to get them through some rough patches.

//

“Do you understand the game?” Luhan asks, hands on his hips. Minseok, Kyungsoo, and Zitao nods while Sehun looks turn between continuing to bury his nose in Zitao’s jacket or showing his undying affection to Luhan. “Okay, so I’ll count to one hundred and all of you go hide.” Zitao raises his hand. “What?” Luhan huffs.

“Um, I can only count to ten. When is one hundred?” Sehun nods in agreement.

“Just run fast and make sure you’re hiding when I get to one hundred, okay?” The three-year-olds nod and quiet down.

“Okay!” He turns around to face the wall and starts to count, while the others, except for Kyungsoo run to hide. Luhan only makes it to 20 before he grows bored of counting and skips to the nineties. When he yells out one hundred before turning around and coming face to face with Kyungsoo. “You’re supposed to hide. It’s hide and go seek.”

Kyungsoo shrugs. “I don’t wanna play.” The seven-year-old hadn’t been too much in a playful mode since Baekhyun, Junmyeon, and Chanyeol sat down with him to explain that he would be moving in with Chanyeol while Baekhyun, Junmyeon, and his half sister would be going to Korea. The arrangement made the most sense as China is Kyungsoo’s home and Baekhyun couldn’t possibly take him from Chanyeol again. But in the seven-year-old’s mind, he couldn’t help but feel abandoned and maybe that he did something to make Baekhyun move away. Kyungsoo ends up wondering off, going to Yixing who despite being busy in his home studio, lets Kyungsoo sit on his lap and tells him what each button does.

Back in the rest of the house, Luhan starts to search for the others. He decides, first, to go for the easy seeking, which is the pair of three-year-olds. Zitao and Sehun are increasingly inseparable and most likely hid together. “Sehun-ah~” he coos as he walks through the house. He knows how much the Korean boy loves to be called that way, and sure enough he hears some rustling from the guest room and sees Sehun’s tiny hand trying to lift the covers of the bed they’re hiding under while Zitao attempts to pull them down. “Sehun-ah~”

“Hyung!” Sehun calls out.

“Sehunnie, no~” Zitao whispers.

“HYUNG!” Sehun calls out louder. He waves his hand until Luhan comes over and pulls him from under the bed. Sehun clings to the older boy and smiles up at him. Zitao whines and crawls out from under the bed, knowing that they lost. Luhan pats their heads and sends them off to sit in the living room while he looks for Minseok.

Minseok is a much better hider as he’s not easily fooled and can cram himself into small places for a long time. So he has to search in every nook and cranny for his friend, but even after sweeping through the house several times, he still can’t find him. But Luhan’s not one to accept defeat so easily and tries to bribe the toddlers to see if they knew where Minseok went. But they’re too distracted as they hunch over a children’s book, trying to see if they magically learned how to read overnight. He walks through the house twice more finally giving up and going back to the living room to pout, but he sees Minseok sitting between the toddlers, reading the book to them while they try to follow along with their fingers.

“Wh- WHAT?!” He exclaims, yanking the book away and looking at Minseok in disbelief. “I LOOKED EVERYWHERE FOR YOU!” Yixing pokes his head into the room and reminds the nine-year-old to use his inside voice. “Where were you?” he asks a little quieter. He’s still loud, but that’s Luhan.

“Under the bed?” He smirks and crosses his arms. “I knew after you found them you wouldn’t look there again.”

Luhan quietly fumes for a few seconds before he storms off to pout until Minseok comes in to hold his hand and take him back to play with the other kids.

//

“You let him go to daycare; this is basically the same thing.” Yifan looks over the rim of his glasses as he watches his anxious husband pace in front of the armchair.

“It’s not,” Yixing insists. “Daycare was optional. It was somewhere we could drop him off to play, or we could keep him home if we wanted or we could only leave him there a couple of hours. This is preschool. He’ll be there from 9 to 2 every weekday, and he’ll make new friends and he’ll want to spend more time with them than me, and-“

“So this isn’t about him being ready, this is about you.”

Yixing looks at Yifan, offended. “No!” His expression softens a bit. “Well… yeah, but he’s my baby, and it feels like we just took him home from the hospital yesterday and now he’s going to preschool.”

“I hate to see how you’ll react when he goes to college.” Yixing whines at the thought of Zitao going to college and plops down in Yifan’s lap. “Will you feel better if I take the morning off and drop him off with you?” Yifan runs his hand in a soothing circle on Yixing’s back and pulls him close.

“I guess,” he sighs. He plays with the bottom of Yifan’s shirt until he notices a bandage on the inside of his husband’s left wrist and he pulls back the sleeve to look better. “You got another tattoo,” he realizes, recognizing the way the bandage was comprised of gauze and medical tape just like with Yifan’s previous tattoos. “Why didn’t you tell me you were getting another one? What is it?”

Yifan simply smiles and tugs his sleeve back down. “It’s a surprise, and I’ll show you once it heals.”

“I would tell you before I got a new piercing.” Yixing pouts and crosses his arms.

“You already have a lot; there’s nowhere to put it.” He kisses Yixing’s cheek and slides him to sit on the couch so he can stand up and find his phone to delay going to work for the morning. “You should go get Tao up for his first day.”

Yixing sigh as he’s walks to Zitao’s bedroom, but any worries he has about preschool are forgotten when he sees Zitao fast asleep in his bed with his puppy asleep next to him, both buried under the blue blanket. Panda immediately perks up and leaps out of the bed and eagerly bunds up to Yixing, wanting to be pet. “You’re just like Tao,” he tells the puppy as he sets her outside the bedroom door for Yifan to deal with. He turns his attention back to the little boy who was woken up by the puppy leaving his bed. “Morning, baby.” Zitao mumbles something and sits up. Yixing smiles at how his hair’s sticking out in every direction. “Time for preschool.”

“No… I wanna sleep,” he complains.

“But you’ll be in the same class with Sehun.” Zitao immediately perks up.

“Sehunnie?”

“Mmhmm, now let’s get ready so you can see him sooner, okay?” Zitao squeals and gets out of his bed to tug Yixing into the bathroom to get ready.

Yifan can tell how much Yixing’s trying to be excited for Zitao, but he knows his husband and he knows that he’s feeling a little sad about watching their son get older and a little more independent. Even while telling Zitao about all the fun things he’ll do in preschool, Yixing’s hands are nervously rubbing together so Yifan takes his hand into his own to calm his nerves a little.

They can barely keep Zitao from jumping out the car when the get to the preschool, and Yifan barely catches him before he falls to the ground. “Woooah, don’t want to end up with a boo-boo on the first day.”

“I wanna see Sehunnie!” Zitao kicks his feet as an indication for Yifan to put him down.

When Zitao’s set down on the ground, he tries to take off, but his parents each take one hand and walk with him inside despite the three-year-old trying to walk faster. He’s one of few kids who’s excited to be there; many of the kids are hiding their faces in their parents’ legs or resisting being taken into their classrooms. Once Zitao finally spots Sehun, he manages to wrestle himself out of his parents’ grips and runs to hug his best friend. Sehun looks pretty unexcited to see Zitao, but he takes the time to sniff the boy’s shirt before he sits down in his assigned seat. Zitao’s assigned seat is somewhere on the other side of the room, and though he knows this because the teacher told him and he recognizes his own name in pinyin, he still sits in the seat next to Sehun and refuses to move away. Yifan makes a note to not let Luhan come over so much.

“Ready to go?” Yifan asks after seeing Zitao basically forget about his parents’ presence.

“Um… just a minute. I just want to see a few minutes of class.” Yifan nods, after all, there were a few other parents still standing around. But even after the others filter out to get to their jobs, Yixing still insists on sitting a little longer. Eventually, they need to leave so Yifan can get to his own job and he knows Yixing has a few song deadlines coming up so he tugs on Yixing’s hand as a sign they have to leave. “Just… a few more minutes, Fan.”

“We have to get to work. He’ll be fine.” Yixing looks like he’s about to ask to stay a few more minutes, but he reluctantly goes along with his husband, glancing back at his eager son who’s coloring happily at his desk. They silently get into the car, and Yifan turns to look at Yixing after he cranks the car up. “Are you okay?”

Yixing cracks a smile and nods. “He’s growing up, but he still needs me.”

“Until he learns to feed himself.” Yixing punches Yifan in the arm. “Even when he’s 30 you know he’ll always tell you everything and want to curl up with his Bà ba to watch a movie with him.”

“And he’ll give you a one-armed hug and a handshake.” Yifan scowls while Yixing laughs and turns Yifan’s head to kiss him. “I love you. You always make me feel better.”

lol, more half

Prompts:

Kris and Tao shopping together: Immanent
Kids playing hide and seek during a playdate: SamanthaOdoriko
Tao starting preschool and Yixing wanting to stay with in: licPanda

Sorry this was late! Real life got super crazy. This part's a little shorter so I can go ahead and get started on the next chapter. Keeping leaving comments/prompts and being wonderful people :D