Ummm, I don't know how, but somehow I've managed to gain almost 100 new subscribers over the past month I haven't updated. WHERE DID ALL OF YOU COME FROM. DID YOU PRESS THE WRONG BUTTON? TT.TT You guys are awesome~

“Pa pa!” Zitao toddles to the front door and holds his arms up when he spies Yifan coming in from work and giving Yixing a kiss. “Pa pa, up!”

Yifan’s face morphs into a warm smile when he looks down at his son who has a yellow barrette in his hair. Yixing had gotten it for him while shopping because as soon as Zitao spied the object in the girls’ section, he wouldn’t stop crying until it was clipped in his hair. Zitao snuggles into Yifan’s neck once he’s in his arms, and Yifan places a kiss in his hair. “Did you miss me, Taozi?” Zitao nods and puckers his lips for a kiss. Yifan gives him a peck and sets him back down on the ground to play with the other kids. “I see we have a full house tonight.”

Yixing back hugs Yifan and rests his head between his shoulder blades. “Originally, we were just asked to watch Sehun while Minseok went to Luhan’s for the evening, but Minseok wanted to watch over his baby brother, and Luhan… well, you know.” Yifan hums and puts a hand over Yixing’s, interlocking their fingers. “How was work?”

“I got copies of the pictures from the overnight trip.” The previous week Yifan’s agency had traveled to a fashion show in the neighboring province, and though it was just one night, it was the longest the couple had ever been apart since Zitao’s birth. Yixing explained to him that a night alone with the toddler might have aged him 10 years. Ever since he returned, they’d been more touchy-feely and kissed in front of the kids more than they used to.

“Can I s- Zitao, no,” Zitao looks up wide, innocent eyes as if he wasn’t attempting to kiss Sehun like he observed his parents doing. “Zitao.” Yixing’s voice leaves no room for argument and the toddler pouts and picks up his abandoned toy. Sehun walks away from Zitao and settles himself next to Minseok and Luhan. Sehun is usually very mellow and hardly cries or even smile much, but his face breaks out into a smile when Luhan pats his head.

“Show me your pictures,” Yixing demands again.

Yifan digs around the bag slung around his shoulders and pulls out a small envelope filled with pictures. “After looking through the pictures, we realized that Chanyeol is somehow in most of them.” He takes out the first one, which is a picture of him with his arm slung over a hairstylist’s shoulders. He points to the corner of the picture where half of Chanyeol’s face appears.

The picture makes Yixing frown, which is a reaction Yifan didn’t expect, but he doesn’t say anything as Yixing continues flipping through the pictures. When he reaches the last photograph, he silently hands them back to Yifan and disappears into their bedroom. Yifan doesn’t have time to check on him while the kids are there, so he does his best to keep the kids entertained until their parents come to get them.

After he bathes Zitao and puts him in his crib, he heads to their bedroom to check on his fiancé. Yixing is still dressed in his jeans and t-shirt, curled up on top of the bed with his back to the door. Yifan leaves the door cracked and quietly moves to the bed. He reaches out a hand to the small of Yixing’s back but the man shifts over out of his reach. “What’s wrong, Xing?”

“Do you love me?” Yixing asks, not moving from his position. “I mean, as much as you did when we first got together.”

Yifan frowns. “Of course, I do. In fact, I love you even more than I did then. I put a ring on you, didn’t I?”

“And I put one on you.” About a year after Yifan proposed, Yixing complained about Yixing not wearing a ring. He argued that it might be a while before they can get married and in the meantime Yifan should also wear an engagement ring. Yifan absolutely refused to tell Yixing where he bought the ring, but Yixing somehow figured it out and bought an identical one in Yifan’s size. At first, getting him to wear it was a daily battle as he often forgot to wear it, but over the past 7 or 8 months, he consistently wore it.

So, Yixing can’t help but be worried when he looked through the stack of pictures and in every picture that Yifan’s hand was visible, his ring was missing. It’s not that Yifan lost the ring, he assumes, as he’s been wearing it since the trip.

“Please tell me what this is about,” Yifan pleads. “I hate when you’re upset with me, and I want to fix it.”

Yixing sits up and glares at his fiancé. “Why didn’t you wear your ring on the trip? You’re not wearing it in any of the pictures.”

Yifan ignores Yixing’s and pulls him close until he’s halfway in his lap. “Do you seriously think I don’t love you anymore? I have never even thought about being with anyone else since I first saw you. I took the ring off for the day because they don’t like me to wear it when shooting ads, and since we were shooting all day I decided to leave it at the hotel so I wouldn’t lose it.”

Oh.” Yixing’s face turns red after hearing the excuse. I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have assumed you would ever be unfaithful.”

“As much as I do like when you’re jealous over me, I don’t want you to think that I could ever love anyone more than you, okay?”

Yixing places a kiss on Yifan’s cheek and lips. “Of course.”

//

Zitao kicks his feet and looks up at Yifan as they wait in the elevator taking them up to Chanyeol’s floor. Over the weekend, Yixing had caught a stomach virus and demanded that Yifan take the baby out so he wouldn’t get sick. On his way out, Yixing kindly reminded him that if he lost Zitao again, he would dismember him. Yifan immediately pulled out the stroller and secured the toddler in it. He called up Chanyeol to set up some sort of play date for their sons and the younger man told him to come right over.

“Are you excited to see Uncle Chanyeol and Kyungsoo?” He asks, pushing the stroller out of the elevator in into the hall.

“Baby?” To Zitao, all of his playmates’ names were ‘Baby’, but he seemed able to keep them straight in his mind.

“Mmhmm.” He stops in front of Chanyeol’s door and presses the buzzer. He’s taken aback when instead of his friend at the door, a young boy (Yifan’s suddenly alarmed that he’s old enough to call him a boy) answers. “Uh… is Chanyeol home?”

Chanyeol suddenly appears with Kyungsoo and pushes the five-year-old out the door in front of him. The tips of his ears are red as he hurriedly grabs both of their shoes and sneaks a kiss from the young boy when Kyungsoo’s head is turned. “Yifan ge, Jongin. Jongin, Yifan ge.” Yifan narrows his eyes and opens his mouth to speak, but Chanyeol quickly closes the door to his apartment and pushes Yifan away from it.

“He looks… young,” Yifan comments once they’re in the elevator.

Chanyeol sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “He’s nineteen, and he’s an photographer’s intern.”

“And he lives with you?”

“He doesn’t get paid all that much and when he has a job nearby, I let him stay so he doesn’t have to pay to stay in a hotel. And before you ask, he sleeps on the couch, and we only kiss.” He looks down at Kyungsoo to see if he’s paying attention, but the boy seems more interested in jumping side to side to avoid cracks on the ground.

“I have to admit, when you told me you were dating again, I didn’t believe you, but if he makes you happy… I’m worried how long it’ll last though with him being a kid and you having one.”

Chanyeol groans and rolls his eyes. “I wish you wouldn’t call him a kid; that makes me feel like a predator. And I don’t expect it to last long. I just need something to get me out of my slump.”

“So he’s a rebound? Most people get into a rebound relationship after a few weeks or months, not 5 years.”

“Baekhyun’s hard to get over.”

By the time they get to the park, Zitao’s fast asleep in his stroller. Yifan puts on a pair of sunglasses and falls asleep almost as soon as he sits on a bench.  Kyungsoo sits on the ground and pouts, sad that he can’t play with Zitao and instead opts to pick at Chanyeol’s shoes. Determined to wipe that pout off his face, Chanyeol pulls him up and takes him to play on the swings.

At first Chanyeol tries to push Kyungsoo, but Kyungsoo says he doesn’t need the help. “You should swing too, bà ba! I can swing higher than you!”

“You should know better than to challenge me, little boy.” Chanyeol stands with his feet apart and hands on his hips in a heroic stance. He sits next to Kyungsoo on a swing that’s so low he might as well be sitting on the ground and pushes off until he’s swinging. With Chanyeol’s size, he’s unable to gain that much height and Kyungsoo screams that he won before jumping from the swing as it goes forward. He lands with a soft thump on the ground, and Chanyeol panics and jumps off his swing to inspect his son. Fortunately, Kyungsoo isn’t hurt, in fact he’s giggling. “Don’t you ever do that again,” he scolds. “Appa would kill me if I returned you with injuries.” But there’s a similar grin on his face so Kyungsoo knows he’s not mad.

Afterwards, they head to the slide and Kyungsoo’s highly entertained that Chanyeol’s legs are about as long as the slide and he doesn’t slide too far. By this time, Yifan and Yixing are awake and playing by the baby swings. After Kyungsoo loses interest in the slide, he grabs Chanyeol’s hand and pulls him to the merry-go-round. “You sit, and I spin,” Kyungsoo demands. Chanyeol sits on the dusty merry-go-round and pulls his leg to his chest so his feet don’t hang over. Kyungsoo takes hold of one of the bars and tries with all his might to start turning it. When he’s not looking, Chanyeol slyly pushes off with his foot to get the structure moving. The momentum is all that Kyungsoo needs to start running and turning the merry-go-round. Kyungsoo has more energy than Chanyeol remembers and keeps turning until Chanyeol’s feeling sick and has to tell him to stop. Kyungsoo giggles as Chanyeol stumbles off the play equipment and collapses on the ground. “Are you okay, bà ba?” He sits on Chanyeol’s back and tugs on his collar.

“Of course. Bà ba can play forever.” Chanyeol inhales and exhales slowly until his breathing’s back to normal and uses his hands to push himself up. Kyungsoo screams and wraps his arms around Chanyeol’s chest as he tries to stay on his back.

“You’re a lot more fun than Appa and Hyung,” Kyungsoo says into Chanyeol’s shoulder. Chanyeol can hold back the huge grin that breaks across his face.

Later after getting back home, Yifan feeds, bathes, and puts Zitao to bed. The toddler’s a little fussy because of his earlier nap but falls asleep quickly after a song. He cracks open the door to the master bedroom and takes in his sick fiancé who has thrown off the covers off his body.

“How are you feeling, Xing?” He takes note of the trashcan sitting by the bed as he kneels by the bed and feels Yixing’s forehead.

“Gross.” He swats Yifan’s hand away as it’s making him hotter than he already is.

“Do you think you can eat anything tonight?” Yixing groans and shakes his head. “Okay, we’ll try in the morning, but you need to take a shower and change, alright?”

“I feel dizzy every time I stand up.”

Yifan stands up and helps Yixing sit up. “I’ll help you with everything, alright? I’m taking you to lie in the guest room for a few minutes while I change the sheets.”  Wish some trouble they slowly walk to the guest room as to not upset Yixing’s stomach. Once Yixing is settled, Yifan quickly changes the bed sheets. Once that’s done, he takes Yixing into the bathroom and helps remove his sweaty clothes. He takes off his own clothes but doesn’t pay much attention to cleaning his own body so he can make sure Yixing’s clean. Yixing throws up in the shower and starts apologizing profusely, but Yifan tells him it’s all right and that he’ll clean it later. After the shower he dries his fiancé off and redresses him in a clean pair of pajamas.

Back in their bedroom, Yixing insists that Yifan not sleep with him so he wouldn’t catch his stomach virus, but Yifan tells him that no matter how sick he is, he could never sleep without him in his arms.

//

“Come on, Taozi, it’s just water.” Yixing stands in the small wading pool and holds his arms out for Zitao to swim over to him. Zitao makes a distressed noise and clings tighter to Yifan. “This is not gonna work,” Yixing sighs as he rests his hands on his hips.

They had come to the family pool to take Zitao swimming. Yixing had even gone all out for this outing and bought matching purple and blue swim trunks. He’d complained when Yifan put on a black wife beater because now they weren’t matching but forgot all about his worries when he saw how cute Zitao was in his inner tube and water wings.

Yixing changes his plans and splashes the water a little. “It’s just like taking a bath, see? You like to splash when you take baths.”

Zitao considers this for a moment and lets go of Yifan to splash around. Before he knows he, he’s floating away from Yifan, which terrifies him to the point of screaming and crying. Yixing quickly scoops him out of the water and holds him close to his chest. “Maybe we should try this when he’s a little older.”

//

Yifan blinks at Baekhyun as the shorter man angrily chops up a cucumber for their dinner. “Uh… you okay, Baek?”

Baekhyun angrily chops a few more vegetables and drops them into the boiling pot on the stove. “Of course! Why wouldn’t I be? We’re having this wonderful dinner with all the couples and our kids and Chanyeol’s bringing his tall, teenaged boyfriend. What is there to not be happy about?”

“Um… okay.” Yifan goes back to peeling apples but makes sure to keep an eye on the hand Baekhyun’s holding the knife. “So how are you and Junmyeon doing after you told him about the… you know.” Baekhyun freezes and drops the knife. “You haven’t told him yet? It’s been four months!”

“I know! I know! But… we’ve been doing so well lately, and I don’t want to ruin anything by telling him. Besides, it won’t happen ever again.”

“Because you don’t want it to? Or because Chanyeol has a boyfriend now?”

Baekhyun doesn’t say anything and picks the knife back up to continue chopping.

Yifan doesn’t want to admit that Chanyeol and Jongin do fit very well together. Even though he’s a bit reserved at first, Jongin opens up as the dinner continues and starts to talk animatedly to everyone. Every time he laughs he laughs, he leans into Chanyeol and Chanyeol shoots him an affectionate look and kisses the top of his head. Yifan can see how close Baekhyun is to snapping his fork when Jongin scoops more food onto Chanyeol’s plate and kisses his cheek.

Baekhyun can’t even bring himself to laugh when Junmyeon tells a story of how on his day off from work at his department store, a couple got banned for having in a changing room. Yixing chokes on his drink, and Yifan suddenly remembers there’s something he needs to check in the kitchen. Baekhyun soon joins him, tearing the napkin in his hands to shreds. “I hate this,” he mutters.

“What do you hate?”

“Is this how Chanyeol feels? Well, felt, I guess.”

“Chanyeol’s really good at hiding at hurt he is when you’re with Junmyeon.” Yifan takes the napkin from Baekhyun and throws the pieces away. “I’ve seen him fake smile after smile when the topic of you being married comes up. But the affectionate looks he gives Jongin are genuine.”

Baekhyun sits at the kitchen table and rests his head on it. “I hate it.”

“But,” Yifan continues. ‘It’s not the same way he looks at you.” Baekhyun raises his head and looks at Yifan wide-eyed.

“Really?”

Yifan nods and leaves Baekhyun on his own in the kitchen.

//

Luhan stares out the window of the classroom, completely uninterested in whatever the teacher was saying. He feels like he’s been in school all day, and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet. The teacher’s voice finally cuts through his thoughts when she asks for volunteers to be snack helpers for the school year.

His hand immediately shoots into the year. “ME AND MINSEOKKIE!” he screams. He and Minseok had been snack helpers for the past two years, which gave them permission to leave class for 15 minutes to prepare their midafternoon snack. He figures they’ll continue the tradition this year.

But Minseok doesn’t seem to feel the same. He raises his hand for permission to speak. “I don’t want to be snack helper this year. I want to be a shoe organizer.”

Luhan feels a little annoyed that Minseok didn’t tell him beforehand that they would take on a different job, but he raises his hand to request the same job. Unfortunately, Minseok’s seat partner raises his hand before he can and volunteers to be a shoe organizer with Minseok.

“Okay, then our shoe organizers for the year will be Xiumin and Hai Feng.”

“WHAT?!”

“Luhan, I’ve told you to not scream while you’re in the classroom,” the teacher scolds.

“BUT-“

“Luhan.”

The angry boy crosses his arms but doesn’t say anything else so he won’t get in trouble. He turns to glare at Minseok, but the boy is too busy talking to his seat partner. Luhan huffs and slumps down in his seat. Well, if Minseok is gonna ignore him, he’ll do the same.

But his plan doesn’t go as planned because Minseok is hardly aware that Luhan’s ignoring him because he’s too busy having fun with his new companion. Also, none of the kids are too eager to play with him as he always tells them that they play wrong and tries to show them how Minseok would play.

At the end of the day when they’re walking home together, Luhan announces that he no longer wants to marry Minseok and that he can find someone a thousand times better who will marry him right away. Minseok stops in his tracks to stare at him, and Luhan has to keep himself from smiling victoriously. But instead Minseok shrugs and continues walking. “Okay, see you tomorrow.”

Luhan’s jaw drops as he watches Minseok walk away. “You supposed to be upset!” he yells after him, as he runs to catch up.

Prompts:

Yifan not wearing ring: nomSicanom

Jongin (he was requested in 3 different ways, so I'm sorry if this conflicts any promps OTL): Sample, unstoppabledreamer

Chanyeol/Kyungsoo bonding: nomSicanom, wookberry

Sick Yixing: thewolvesarecoming

More family outings/swimming (I apologize that it's so short this chapter): leolliepop, nomSicanom, --pearl

Insanely jealous Baekhyun: Sample, unstoppabledreamer

Xiuhan + Minseok has a new friend: taerissa

More kid interactions: EVERYONE. But I don't mind, I love Kid!EXO

(Sorry If I missed anyone)

Also, I'm still pretty busy IRL, so I'm still on a hiatus, but I wanted to get this out to you.

Leave more proooompts~