There's a ChanKai sidebar in this, instead of including it in the chapter, it's liked to my side stories, so if that pairing's not your think, you can easily skip it.

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Yixing thinks his husband looks very cute with half his hair tied up in a ponytail and thick-rimmed glasses on in place of his contacts as he sits at the desk in the studio reworking their budget. Until Yifan could work out his job situation, they mutually decided to go through their budget and see where they could cut back for the time being. So far, Yifan has told Yixing that the hundred dollars he spent on candy the past month couldn’t happen again, nor could the 300 dollars on Zitao’s clothes. “So fifteen years with the agency and you’re suddenly ‘nonessential?’ Don’t they lay off the newest people when they downsize?”

 

“The new management is very fickle and likes their models a certain way.” He marks through their monthly gas expense, figuring they can spend a little less if they only use one car for a while.  “Four months ago I was told that my tattoos were a nuisance and just cost them money because they have to edit them out. So they were pretty pissed when I got this,” he half-motions to the tattoo on his left arm that started as a small patch on his wrist at the beginning of year but had expanded to wrap around his entire forearm.

 

What had started as tree roots made up of the characters of Yixing’s name had literally branched out around his arms until they reached Zitao’s name wrapped around his arm just under his elbow. So far the tattoo’s only done in black ink as he couldn’t take the pain long enough to do the coloring, but it seems he’ll have to wait a while to finish it so they could work out their finances.

 

“And the CEO thinks it’s a bad thing I look my age because thirty-two is apparently ancient.” He crosses out their takeout expenses. “And to top it of, on bring your child to work day, I forgot to send in some important paperwork because I got a little distracted with Tao. It’s not his fault though; the forms had been sitting on my desk for a week and I should have done it earlier.”

 

“And your contract?”

 

“Changed to at-will when I started doing desk work. Each day wasn’t guaranteed.”

 

Yixing sighs and stands behind Yifan to see what else he’s cutting out. “There must be something that can be done… another agency?”

 

“Maybe but thirty-two is a hard age to get picked up. Especially if you’ve been dropped by another agency; they wonder if something’s wrong with you to be dropped after so many years.” He sighs and swivels around in his chair to pull Yixing into his lap. “I’ll figure everything out, I promise.”

 

“You shouldn’t have to figure this out by yourself. We’re a team, and we’re gonna find a solution together, alright?” Yifan sighs and nods. “So how’s our budget looking?”

 

Yifan grimaces and shows the heavily marked-up sheet on the desk. “Even though we can save so much, we’re still a few hundred over your monthly salary.”

 

“I can pick up a few gigs with the band to make up for the extra money.”

 

“You shouldn’t have to do that… you’re already in the studio almost everyday.”

 

Yixing shakes his head and kisses Yifan. “I want to. You supported me for the better part of three years, and I can do the same for a few months until you can get back on your feet. We’re a team.”

 

//

 

“What do you want to do for your birthday tomorrow?” Though they wouldn’t be able to do much with the move being so soon, Baekhyun didn’t want to leave any sad memories on Kyungsoo’s eighth birthday. He’s already been bounced back and forth between his and Chanyeol’s apartment for weeks as they make moving preparations, so for his birthday the least Baekhyun thinks he can do is let Kyungsoo decides what he wants to do.

 

“Um,” Baekhyun looks up from the box he’s packing to see his son nervously wringing his hands together. “Can we, um… get a strawberry cake?” His eyes fall to the ground as he decides not to say what he really would like to do.

 

“Is that what you really want? I promise we can do anything you want to do.”

 

“Could we watch a movie together? Um, but without Hyung or Taenggu?”

 

Baekhyun frowns and looks over at his son. “You only want to watch a movie with me?”

 

Kyungsoo nods and starts to fidget again. “I don’t wanna go a theater or anything, I just wanna watch a movie here with you if that’s okay.”

 

Baekhyun has to sit back for a moment, shocked that all the seven-year-old wants for his birthday is a few hours alone with him. Thinking back to the past few weeks, and really ever since he got married, any time he’s spent with Kyungsoo had always included either Junmyeon or Taeyeon or both. Sure, Kyungsoo got plenty of undivided attention from Chanyeol, but somewhere along the line he’d become the one who’s spent the least amount of time with his own son. Even Jongin spent a few hours with him a week when he watched Kyungsoo by himself.

 

“How about we spend the whole day together? Just you and me.”

 

Kyungsoo’s whole face lights up and his posture changes from nervous to excited. “Really?”

 

“Of course.” He pulls Kyungsoo close to him to give him a hug. “I’m sorry I haven’t paid enough attention to you… I’ve been messing up a lot lately.”

 

“It’s okay, I love you.”

 

The next morning, Baekhyun wakes up Kyungsoo by tickling him until he’s awake and laughing. “Happy birthday!” He pulls Kyungsoo into his lap and gives him kisses that the eight-year-old protests but doesn’t do anything to push him away. “It’s just you and me until Hyung and your sister come back for dinner, so we can do anything you want today.”

 

Kyungsoo narrows his eyes. “Can I have candy for breakfast?”

 

“Sure, why not?” Kyungsoo cheers and jumps off Baekhyun’s lap so he can run to the cabinet where the candy is hidden and hops in place until Baekhyun comes over to give him a handful of candy. “This is a secret between you and me. I won’t even let Hyung eat candy for breakfast.” Kyungsoo nods and rips the wrapper off a lollipop to stuff in his mouth.

 

“What else are we doing today?”

 

Baekhyun pops a piece of candy into his own mouth. “Anything you want to. This is your day, and we can do anything and go anywhere.”

 

Kyungsoo is absolutely delighted at getting Baekhyun’s full attention, and immediately lists off all the things he’s wanted to do with him. They start off by playing a racing video game that Kyungsoo warns Baekhyun he’s very good at, but Baekhyun still loses the first game on purpose. Well, he means to lose on purpose, but in reality he loses horribly and the competitive side of him has them racing about 10 times. Baekhyun still doesn’t win and groans as Kyungsoo celebrates and asks if he wants another rematch. Baekhyun declines.

 

Afterwards, they eat chicken nuggets for lunch, Kyungsoo’s favorite meal, and Baekhyun listens to every thing Kyungsoo wants to say about what’s going on at school and how he thinks girls are gross and he doesn’t like to play with them.

 

“You’ll start liking them before you know,” Baekhyun tries to hide a smile as he takes a drink from his glass of juice. He remembers being Kyungsoo’s age and not understanding why anyone would like the opposite . But as soon as he turned thirteen, he barely went a few weeks without a boy or girl on his arm.

 

Kyungsoo wrinkles his nose and shakes his head. “Girls are gross; I’ll never like them.”

 

When they’re done with lunch, Kyungsoo picks out a long movie for them to watch. Even though they just finished eating, Baekhyun pops a large bowl of popcorn for them to share, and he grabs a blanket to keep them warm as they watch. Since it’s Kyungsoo’s birthday, Baekhyun doesn’t protest when the eight-year-old picks out a scary movie to watch because even though Kyungsoo’s completely fearless when it comes to movies, Baekhyun’s the type to scream whenever something unexpected happens and cling to the nearest person. Halfway through the movie, Kyungsoo somehow ends up in Baekhyun’s lap as the older man is clinging to him as if the eight-year-old will protect him from the screen.

 

“Are you scared, Appa?” Kyungsoo teases as Baekhyun tightens his grip.

 

“I just have to make sure you’re not scared because-“ Kyungsoo gives Baekhyun a look. “I swear you’re turning 30 and not 8. I don’t know what I’ll do without my little voice of reason.” Kyungsoo’s amused expression suddenly falls as he’s reminded that this day is one of the last times they’ll be alone together like this for a while.  “You know you call me anytime when we move, and I’ll answer no matter what time it is.” Kyungsoo nods, but he still feels a little down so he shifts so he can wrap his arms around Baekhyun and be held.

 

“What if Jongin hyung stops liking me like Junmyeon hyung?”  Kyungsoo looks up nervously at Baekhyun.

 

“Oh, Kyungsoo… Junmyeon didn’t stop liking you. He loves you more than anything, and he’s unhappy that you feel so upset about this. And I don’t think anyone who knows you could not like you, so don’t worry about Jongin not liking you.”

 

“And you promise you’ll come back?”

 

Baekhyun holds out his pinky. “I promise.” The eight-year-old hooks their pinkies together and presses his thumb to Baekhyun’s. “We’ll be back together in no time.”

 

//

 

“This is the most beautiful picture you’ve ever done.” Yifan kisses the top of Zitao’s head and stands back to take in the image of his three-year-old covered in finger paint. “Maybe next time you’ll get more paint on the paper than on you, huh? Guess we’ll need to take a bath.”

 

Usually, Yixing’s the one to give Zitao a bath, always jumping in with him and playing with toys, but Yifan has yet to learn that Yixing regularly has to trick Zitao in a bath because he’s highly resistant to it. So, Yifan’s taken off-guard when Zitao yells “No!” and proceeds to run away so he can hide.

 

“Tao, come back,” Yifan sighs as he walks after the toddler.

 

“No!” he hears the muffled shout coming from Zitao’s room. Inside the room, it’s not that hard to find Zitao since he left little green handprints on the closet door where he’s hidden, and Yifan silently thanks whoever invented washable paint. A bark sounds from inside the closet, telling Yifan that the toddler made the not-so-smart decision to hide with the hyperactive dog that’s giving away his hiding spot. When he opens the closet door, Zitao screams and commands Panda to attack. The beagle leaps out of the closet, but she just jumps onto Yifan to be pet and runs away to look for food.

 

“Let’s go.” The toddler’s screaming and kicking as he’s carried towards the bathroom and even when the door is closed, he pounds his paint-covered fists on the door yelling for help. “I’ll let you go over to Sehun’s if you take a bath.” Zitao suddenly stops crying and takes his clothes off as fast as possible. While Zitao struggles to get his shirt over his head, Yifan runs the bath water, making sure the temperature’s just right for the toddler, but skips on the bubble bath because he knows the toddler will just create a soapy mess on the bathroom floor. “Ready to get in?”

 

“Wait! I need toys!” Zitao pulls out the bath toy bin next to the sink and picks out several toys to take with him. He’s perfectly content as he sits in the warm water playing with his toys, but he makes no effort to clean himself so Yifan does his best to help, which ends up with him bathing the toddler like he’s Zitao’s personal servant. “Can I have cake?” Zitao asks as Yifan towels him dry.

 

“Ask Sehun’s parents.” Yifan gathers the toddler into his arms and takes him to this room to dress him up nice for his impromptu play date. Zitao’s is bouncing on his toes the whole walk over to Sehun’s and immediately dashes into the house once the door is open.

 

Yifan’s back in the house, staring into the freezer to determine what he can heat up for an easy dinner, when his exhausted husband comes and flops face first into the couch. “Tiring day?”

 

Yixing groans and rolls over to his back. “I’m working about 10 to 11 hours a day. Of course, it’s tiring.”

 

“Well, I’m about to heat up something for dinner. Is there anything in particular you wanted?”

 

Yixing shakes his head and closes his eyes. “Bought the band dinner after the gig; I’m good.

 

“You know we can’t afford to pay out that much, Xing,” Yifan pushes his glasses up to rub his face in frustration. “After paying all the bills, we’re barely breaking even.”

 

“It won’t happen again, Please spare me the budget talk again.”

 

Yifan frowns and crosses his arms. “You’re being kind of rude.”

 

“Because I’ve been work almost 60 hours a week for two months, and I’m exhausted and annoyed that you haven’t found a job yet.” Yixing sits up on the couch and shoots Yifan an irritated look, something Yifan’s not used to seeing on his husband but he can understand his frustration.

 

“All I can say is that I’m trying, and I absolutely hate that I’m putting this all on you to support the family.” Yixing looks away from Yifan and shrugs. “I’m going out for a walk.” Yifan grabs his coat out of the front closet and slips his shoes on. “Tao’s been at Sehun’s for about half an hour, and if I’m not back in a couple of hours you’ll need to pick him up.”

 

Yixing still doesn’t say anything as his husband leaves. He picks up Zitao later when Yifan doesn’t come back for a while, and even when Yifan returns later that night, he heads straight into the guest room to sleep.

 

//

 

Yixing takes in the sight of the half-empty living room as Baekhyun opens the door and invites him in. What’s left there is packed into neatly labeled boxes as their moving date is just weeks away. “I still can’t believe you’re moving… to a different country at that.”

 

“What can I say? I’m a fool for love.” Baekhyun clutches his chest dramatically and lets out a deep sigh. Yixing smiles and shakes his head. “But I didn’t marry Junmyeon Hyung just to divorce him after four years, so here we are.”

 

“I’ll miss you,” Yixing pouts sitting in an armchair. “Who else will I talk to when Yifan gets on my nerves?”

 

Instead of sitting on the couch next to Yixing, he chooses to sit on Yixing’s lap and refuses to move when Yixing tries to push him off. “Months of marriage counseling has taught me that you should take some time to cool off before going back to talk to Yifan. But don’t wait too long because then you’ll always be walking on eggshells like me and Hyung. “We’ve gone weeks without real conversation.”

 

“Well, we talk, but it’s mostly arguing because all the working has me stressed out, so I snap at him. Sometimes he’s just so exhausted that he won’t even argue back and he’ll walk away.” Yixing shakes his head. “Things are just tense, and there’s nothing we can really do about it because I don’t want him to end up doing something he hates.”

 

Baekhyun puts his arm around Yixing’s neck and hugs his head. “You and Yifan are never allowed to break up; that leaves no hope for the rest of us.”

 

“We’re not fighting that bad.”

 

“I know, but I watched my parents’ marriage fall apart because of money problems and I don’t want that to happen to you.”

 

“We won’t,” Yixing assures him. “And it’s not just the money thing; we’re both just frustrated. For the first time since before Tao was born, we both, at the same time, wanted to raise another baby, and it’s impossible and we’re upset at no one in particular so we keep directing it at each other.” Yixing sighs. “And instead of trying to fixing it on my day off, I’m here complaining. I should go.”

 

“Mmm, I’ll allow it this time.” Baekhyun slides off Yixing’s lap and helps him to his feet. “Promise to come see me before I leave?” He pulls Yixing into a tight hug.

 

“Of course.” Yixing gives Baekhyun a friendly kiss on the cheek and pulls away to leave. But he should know better than to think he can have a full serious conversation with Baekhyun and crumbles to the ground as his best friend blows onto his neck.

 

//

 

Without Minseok around, Luhan plays with the toddlers pretty well. When Minseok’s parents take him to the doctor, Sehun’s left to play with Zitao, and Luhan wonders over hoping that he’ll see Minseok later. The two small boys are content playing a simple board game when Yifan lets Luhan in, but Sehun completely abandons it when he sees his favorite person in the world, after his brother of course.

 

“Sehunnie~” Zitao pouts and tugs on Sehun’s sleeve. “Play with me.” Sehun pulls his sleeve out of Zitao’s grasp and clings to Luhan who’s apprehensively petting his head. Zitao’s bottom lip wobbles for a moment before he bursts into tears and gets to his feet to seek out Yifan to hold him. Luhan freaks out, as he doesn’t want to blamed for Zitao crying and hugs the bawling boy.

 

“Shhhh. My stepmom said if I make you cry again, I can’t come over anymore.” Zitao’s not really picky about who’s holding him so he clambers into Luhan’s lap and wipes his face on his shirt. “Gross.”

 

Even though Zitao’s not in the top two of his favorite people list, Sehun doesn’t like seeing his friend cry and reaches out to help calm him down. Zitao pushes his hand away and clings closer to Luhan who rubs his back like he’s watched Minseok do. Sehun’s surprised as Zitao has never rejected any of his affection, and he feels a little sad at being pushed away.

 

“Tao?” Zitao looks at him for a moment, but doesn’t acknowledge him more than that. Sehun doesn’t know what else to do, so he puts his hands on either side of Zitao’s face and gives a peck on the lips.

 

Zitao’s so shocked that his limbs immediately go limp and he wordlessly stares at Sehun. But instead of cheering up, the toddler bursts into tears again and runs away.

 

//

 

ChanKai

 

//

 

Though he’s sad to see Junmyeon and Baekhyun leave, Yifan’s not nearly sad enough to cry so he feels a little awkward as he stands in the airport as the rest of the group cries together. He’s sure Yixing would be crying just as much if he didn’t have to work.

 

Chanyeol stands at his side, trying to discreetly wipe away his tears while the married couple says their goodbyes to Kyungsoo. The eight-year-old had seemed fine up until they reached the security check in where he couldn’t follow anymore. His half-sister, still clumsy on her feet is very confused as to why everyone’s so sad, but she does her best to cheer up her big brother with hugs and kisses.

 

They’ve been standing there for more than half an hour, still not ready to separate, but it’s getting closer to boarding time so they really have to go. Baekhyun gives Junmyeon a minute to say his own private goodbyes to Kyungsoo while he walks over to Chanyeol to give him a tight hug that’s returned just as equally tight. They don’t say anything to each other; there’s really no need as they both know that need to be away from each other for a while.

 

From where he’s standing, Yifan can hear them exchange quiet ‘I love you’s and he decides to give them a little privacy and says goodbye to Junmyeon again. Finally, they can’t wait any longer and Chanyeol picks up his crying son as his parents and sister leave, Kyungsoo for once not protesting that he’s too old to be held. The three of them watch as Baekhyun and Junmyeon get further into the security line until they can’t see them anymore.

 

“Let’s go home.” Chanyeol kisses Kyungsoo’s cheek and walks back toward the airport entrance where Jongin’s waiting to drive to their new home together.

 

//

 

Yifan and Yixing are cuddling in front of the television, not really watching but enjoying the rare time they get together. Yixing has legs slung over Yifan’s and is resting his head on his shoulder, feeling warm and safe with Yifan’s arms wrapped around him. “I miss Panda,” Yixing pouts. When trying to figure out where else they could cut expenses, they decided to temporarily let the beagle stay with Jongin as they really couldn’t afford her food and Jongin absolutely loved her.

 

“We’ll get her back,” Yifan assures him, kissing his temple. “But on the bright side, when we get a few minutes alone, it’s not interrupted by demands of constant attention.”

 

“Tao?”

 

“I was referring to the dog, but good point.”

 

“You smell like cherry shampoo.” Yixing buries his nose into his husband’s hair. “How could I ever get mad at you when you smell like a giant, y cherry tree?”

 

“…What?”

 

Yixing doesn’t have to repeat himself when the home phone starts ringing, and he has to get out of Yifan’s lap to answer it. He only takes the time to great the person on the other end before he’s holding it out toward Yifan and shrugging in return to his ‘who-is-it?’ look. While Yifan takes the phone call, Yixing stands behind him on his tippy toes still trying to smell his hair. He’s only on the phone a few minutes, and looks very concerned when he hangs up. “Is everything okay?”

 

“I have a meeting with the whole corporate board next week.”

 

The information has Yixing mirroring Yifan’s expression. “Why? They already fired you three months ago; what else can they do?

 

Yifan shrugs and crosses his arms. “I have no idea. I spoke to a secretary and she just told be what time the meeting was. I got absolutely no indication what it could be about. I mean, I missed turning in some important documents, but I didn’t do enough for them to still be looking into it.” Yixing rubs Yifan’s arms in a soothing manner and hugs him.

 

“Do you need me to come with you? I could rearrange my work schedule a little.”

 

“No, we need the money.” Yifan pulls Yixing back to the couch so they can resume their cuddling even though they’re both feeling on edge.

 

“You’re not allowed to go to jail. I can’t live if you’re in jail.”

 

“I’m not going to jail, Xing.” But Yifan doesn’t sound so sure of himself because the thought of going to jail had already crossed his mind. Why could the whole board possibly want to see him?

 

But he can’t let those thoughts affect him too much because the next day he’s packing an overnight suitcase and loading into his car that had barely moved since he lost his job. Yixing’s still frowning as he bids his husband goodbye, knowing that no matter the outcome of this trip, it would affect their lives. But just like Yifan, he can’t let his mind dwell on it too much because he has to take Zitao to school and work a long 10-hour day so they could pay their bills. With Zitao staying over at Sehun’s for the night and Yifan being away until the next day, he allows himself to put in some overtime and basically spends the night in the studio mixing songs, knowing he won’t possibly be about to sleep with his mind running a mile a minute.

 

So when he drags himself home at 6 in the morning, amazed that he drove himself home in one piece, he’s surprised to see that Yifan’s car is there and he cautiously steps into the brightly lit house.

 

“Where have you been?” Yifan looks like he’s been awake just as long as Yixing, and his eyes are bloodshot from lack of sleep.

 

“Studio… I thought you weren’t coming home until later, so I did some more work. Is everything okay?” He toes off his shoes and sets his bag down in front of the door, nervous that he can’t read his husband’s expression.

 

“At the meeting, I was told that even after several people were let go, the agency wasn’t saving as much money as they should have.” Yixing finally notices a manila envelope clutched in Yifan’s hands as he opens it and pulls out a document for Yixing to see.

 

“What’s this?”

 

“Corporate investigated to see why the numbers weren’t adding up, and they discovered that the regional manager, the one who fired me, let more people go than was planned and pocket several of those salaries. They fired him.”

 

Yixing’s eyebrows shoot up. “And what does that mean for you.”

 

Yifan’s face finally morphs into a readable one: a smile. “They gave me his job. I’m the only one who’s worked close enough with him to have an idea of how to do what he does, and I was supposed to get his job anyway after a few years, and they figured he cut me first because I made the most next to him.”

 

Yixing starts to laugh from the shock of the situation, not able to believe that after months of struggling, everything finally worked itself out. Soon, his laughing turns into crying because he’s so happy, but he’s also exhausted because a load feels like it’s finally been lifted off his shoulders. Yifan knows this and figures they have plenty of time to celebrate later, but now they can just sleep off all the exhaustion they’ve built up over the past three months. Yixing’s out as soon as he hits the mattress, and Yifan’s not too far away from passing out. But even though Yixing’s completely gone, he tells the sleeping man how thankful he is for how hard he worked to support them and promises to never put him in that position again.

 

And even though he wants to sleep for 12 hours, he wakes up early the next morning to retrieve their beagle who’s overjoyed to finally be home, but Yixing suddenly hasn’t missed him too much when she his face until he wakes up.

---

[Prompts to be posted later tonight.]

Sorry that this is a week late! I got super sick the Saturday before I was supposed to post this and wasn't able to finish it up in time.

I didn't get to reply to all the comments for the same reason, but I promise to reply as long as I don't get so sick again!

Keep in mind when making prompt requests that Tao will be 5 in the next chapter (Also, Sehun will be 5, Kyungsoo 9/10, and XiuHan 11)

Also, the focus on the story will start to split between FanXing and TaoHun (with side!XiuHan) as they grow older.