Luhan is the first to show up, because it’s his duty as the home team coach to prep the field. So, with a fairy princess in tow, he fixes the goals and makes sure that the white lines on the field are all noticeable and in their rightful places before heading back to the home team’s bench and leafing through the huge black duffel bag he’d lugged out from the Escalade filled to the brim with soccer balls, extra shin guards and a load of althletic tape. All the while, the dull thud of a ball connecting with a knee repeats behind him. He cracks a smile. “Getting better.” The noise stops completely.

“Papa,” the boy starts, dribbling the ball over to where Luhan is bent over, a little winged tyke climbing his back, before stopping with his foot keeping the ball in place. “Do you think I’ll win today?”

“I don’t know,” Luhan replies honestly, checking to make sure the first few balls are filled up nicely. “Do you know what team you’re playing today?”

The kid’s angular face–so much like his mother, Luhan muses–scrunches up in thought. “I think it’s the one Myung Dae’s on?”

Luhan frowns. He doesn’t remember that name. “Ah!” The scream frightens the pink figure off his back and he has to practically bend over backwards to catch her before she hits the ground and gets her outfit all muddy. He cradles her momentarily to dispel the shock and ensure that there will be no tears before flicking her nose lightly. “Don’t pull on Papa’s hair, Xia. And Syaoran was speaking. We need to pay attention to him.” The girl nods obediently and fixes her wide eyes on her brother. “Do you know the name of Myung Dae’s team?” Luhan prompts.

Syaoran is deep in thought and Luhan almost returns to a slightly deflated ball but stops when the boy passes his own blue textured ball between his feet. “I think it was the South Korea team?”

Luhan freezes. “Oh, me.” Xia’s eyes light up and she opens . “NO!” Luhan slams his hand lightly over before she can get the words out. “That was bad. I shouldn’t have done that. Papa is sorry. Just... don’t say those words, okay, sweetheart?”

“Very lively for this time of the morning, aren’t we, Luhan?”

The older man groans and gets to his feet, cradling his daughter in one arm before fixing his gaze on the newcomer. Of course. After all, Kris perpetually arrives ten minutes after Luhan. The Dad of The Year currently has a girl balanced on each hip and an infant attached to his back via a state of the art carrier probably equipped with a cup holder because that’s just the kind of person Kris is. A blond-haired boy sneaks out from behind him, already on his way to five feet tall with a new soccer ball snug against his side. It probably cost a hundred bucks. Or more. Kris is kind of a pretentious but Luhan would never say that out loud. Well, he did. One time. But that was just because he was drunk and there were no kids around and Kris had simply smirked before leading Luhan to the bathroom–marble sinks, goddammit–and helped him from getting any vomit on the pristine floors because his wife was heavily pregnant with Xia and as a result wasn’t there to stop him from doing stupid .

“What’s up coach?”

Luhan freezes because Levi just said that in English and he flunked all of his English classes and of course all of Kris’s kids are fluent in just about ten different languages. He really wouldn’t be surprised if the curly-haired baby on Kris’s back turned and greeted him with a warm Bonjour before going back to chewing daintily on her pacifier.

Syaoran bounds over to Levi–the kid’s name is longer. Something Xi but then there’s the nickname and Luhan just sticks with Levi–and pulls him onto the field, gushing over the millionaire progeny's new ball before kicking it around with such carelessness it’s like they got it from some dollar store.

“Did I miss anything? Did Luhan call you a pompous bastard yet?” The voice sounds so hopeful that Luhan almost wants to punch Jongdae in the face. Almost. Because if he did, he’d lose his best three players and he really needs them if they are playing South Korea. The said devils pop out like an epidemic, the two elder ones skipping away to go bother the other two boys on their team while the youngest grips his father’s leg and looks up with questioning eyes. Jongdae gives him a cheshire grin before nodding and pushing him forward with a little, “go ahead, Hei,” to join his brothers.

Luhan would altogether overlook Jongdae if the man wasn’t the most efficient single father he’d ever met. Chung Ho, Sang and Hei were all half brothers shoved onto Jongdae around the same time by equally distressed and ticked off women. Jongdae had taken it all in stride and if anyone asked, he’d profess wholeheartedly, “it was worth it!” It was enough to make anyone admire him because wow, what a great guy, taking in those kids and caring for them like that. But then he’d launch into a horribly detailed tale of how great the was and the excitement in his eyes made it near impossible to tell whether he was kidding or not. It was enough to ensure Jongdae only had a handful of friends.

Luhan didn’t know the guy was there until there was a tap on his back and he jumped, spinning to face apologetic eyes with Xia clinging even harder. He breathed out a sigh of relief. “Yixing.”

His long time friend ushered his equally reserved son onto the field with a soft Good Luck! He gave Luhan a tired smile and hitched the sleeping girl higher up. Xiu Jan had broken her leg dancing a month ago and Yixing had more or less cried alongside the middle schooler as the stitches were sewn in and the cast was put on. As it was, Yixing had refused the crutches and carried the girl everywhere. It was his apology for not being there when she had fallen off the stage. She laughed and hit him lightly every time he picked her up. Luhan was contemplating on sending the story to Disney.

Xia clutches the fabric of Luhan’s shirt and whispers, “he’s here.” Luhan cracks a smile right before a black-haired boy presses himself to Luhan’s front and murmurs something before racing off, tripping once but recovering by doing some kind of one-handed round off before attaching himself to Hei’s side. Luhan turned to see a beet-red Tao fiddling with the hem of his shirt.

“He wanted me to teach him a good luck prayer,” he explains, heavily lined eyes on the ground. He glances up and takes note of Luhan’s cheerful smile before letting out a relieved sigh and joining Kris on the newly installed bench.

Huang Zitao, the mystery. Just a year ago he’d turned up with Shuang, renting a small apartment and asking around for any odd jobs. Huang Zitao, the teenage dad who had dropped out of high school junior year to care for Shuang. He’d come from who-knows-where and had only explained the absence of a diploma three years after Luhan had befriended him. Kris had immediately taken him under his wing, teaching him everything from the art of putting a child to sleep to the magic of potty-training. Ten years had passed since he’d turned up looking lost with a child clinging to his chest, but the man was still a mystery. He was just such a sweetheart that Luhan could care less what lay in the past.

As soon as the man sits down, Kris’s third eldest, Lilah, clambers into Tao’s lap and nuzzles her way into his hold. It is well known that the four-year-old absolutely adores Tao. Kris spares the two a warm glance before engaging in a conversation with his eldest.

A loud shout has Luhan turning right before an elbow takes residence on his shoulder and Minseok shouts, “you make a goal and I’ll buy you two bowls of ramen!”

“With pork?” Luhan’s number one attacker asks dubiously, eyebrows raised.

“With pork.”

Ryung takes off, screaming to the world his reward if he makes a goal and all the boys on the team grin in return.

“Hey,” Minseok whispers.

“What?”

“They’re here.”

Joonmyun doesn’t really like the recreational club he’s an assistant coach for. They changed the teams this year so that each team is a country which would be fine, really, if they hadn’t matched up people of that ethnicity with the countries. Of course, there weren’t enough so there were a handful of Koreans on each team but still. That was practically discrimination right there. And as an Equality in Society professor–he teaches Korean Literature too, but that’s off topic–he really couldn’t take that. He had almost voiced a formal complaint until Jongin had laughed him off and warned him, “calm down, Gramps. You’ll give yourself a heart attack.”

Okay, Joonmyun is the oldest parent on the team. Okay, he has a daughter in college. But Gramps? Really? The insult had stung so much that he’d had to get reassurance from his son and wife that no, he wasn’t that old and yes, Jongin was just yanking his chain. A few days later his daughter had called and promised to come to the next game to protect him from ridicule because she’d had fifteen years of taekwondo and she’d taken down that robber that one time–something Joonmyun still had nightmares about.

He didn’t think she was serious.

So when a red RAV4 pulls in beside him as he’s putting on Myung Dae’s shin guards and rolling up his socks, he doesn’t think anything about it. On his other side, Baekhyun pulls up and slaps on his COACH snapback before stepping out of the car, his twins donning their gear and taking off after him.

Baekhyun’s a little over a year younger than Joonmyun but it seems like a lot more.

“I forgot my water,” he groans, flopping onto the bench. Hwan is at his side in seconds offering a blue water bottle.

“I packed an extra,” he explains to his dad. “Just in case, you know?” And then he’s stalking off to help Nam fix his hair so that is isn’t all over the place when he rips it off at the end of the game.

“Who are we playing?”

“China,” Baekhyun points across the field, pulling out a small mirror from his pocket and adjusting the eyeliner under his right eye. Nam appears with liquid liner and fixes it for him, sending a smirk over to Hwan who’s staring sadly down at his charcoal pencil.

“We brought cookies!” Haneul greets upon arrival, brandishing a tray of assorted chocolate chip and sugar cookies cut into the shape of different sport balls. “I made them myself,” he announces proudly before covering them and placing them down on the bench. Kyungsoo, owner of Hugs and Chocolates–a local bakery previously names Kisses and Chocolates but Kyungsoo had been forced to rename after multiple threats from his wife considering men who entered the store asking for one instead of the other–looks like he’s going to cry he’s beaming with so much pride.

Joonmyun gives him a congratulatory smile and he wipes his eyes before grinning in return and moving over to the bleachers.

“WHO’S GONNA WIN?”

“WE’RE GONNA WIN!”

Two streaks of dark brown and blue cartwheel over before knocking into the bench and letting out equalling pained groans. A third cartwheeler pushes off right before the bench and lands on his feet a good distance away from his sprawled out children. They ooh and aah before launching themselves onto him and tackle him to the ground.

Chin Hae and his younger brother by a year Yong Sun might have been the liveliest people Joonmyun had ever met if he hadn’t known Chanyeol first. The man gives a particularly loud, low laugh before pulling himself to his feet.

“Nice, Yeol,” Baekhyun congratulates in a monotone. He’s usually Chanyeol’s partner in crime but he’s not a morning person so this is really the best he can do right now. Chanyeol grins anyway, bowing as Chin Hae screeches, trying to keep his hold on his father’s neck.

“I’m really only playing football because my dad made me.”

“I know.”

“Honestly, I’d rather be helping Mom cleaning the house rather than getting covered in mud.”

“Thame here.”

Joonmyun sighs. Chun is precious when he wants to be, working his lisp to his advantage with a few eyelash bats here and there. He’s also a real needy kid. Joonmyun had babysat him one night for Sehun and the kid had absolutely refused to go to sleep until Joonmyun had crawled in beside him, after ensuring that Myung Dae was asleep on the couch. Then he’d thrown a leg over Joonmyun’s thigh, an arm around his stomach and plopped his head on his chest. He had remarked almost wonderingly, “I can hear your heart,” before promptly escaping into dreamland. So Joonmyun had a soft spot for the kid. But Hak Kun... Hak Kun is a piece of work. The kid’s already rooted on the idea that he’s a prodigy meant for bright lights and big cities. Well, he’s not entirely wrong, there’s an innate skill that anyone could see as he effortlessly bends and stretches his body across the stage at the annual recital that the entire town attends. But the kid’s eleven.

“Where’re your dads?”

Both boys point behind them, towards the parking lot and Joonmyun is shaken at just how familiar the movement is. He’s brought back to high school where he had to make sure that two underclassmen didn’t get themselves expelled despite their best efforts.

He turns away before he can take a trip down memory lane, shaking his head because Jongin and Sehun really need to stop doing things together because Hak Kun and Chun are only a month apart and Joonmyun’s convinced that’s not just a coincidence despite their arguments.

He does find them in the parking lot, standing next to the RAV4. Joonmyun groans because the driver’s door is open and with hair that long they have to be talking to a woman and it’s obviously not their wives, judging by their expressions. The woman spots his first and he stops cold.

“Daddy!” The long-haired woman cries happily, stepping gracefully around Sehun and Jongin before launching herself onto the shorter man. She envelops him in a quick hug before leaning back to poke his cheek. “I’ve come to defend your honor,” she explains with a grin as Joonmyun flounders for words.

“That’s your daughter?” Jongin looks torn between disappointment and avid interest. Joonmyun has never wanted to hit someone so hard.

“Yes. Don’t look at her like that.” Joonmyun tries to push his daughter behind him but she rebels ever so slightly by not allowing herself to be moved. He glances up and is met with the same expression one wears when watching a particularly adorable cat batting a piece of string. He frowns. “Jin,” he pleads.

Instead, she turns back to Jongin. “Are you the one who’s been making fun of Daddy?”

Sehun’s jaw drops and Jongin smirks, although this one is a little more unsure than his usual come-hither smirks. “Maybe?”

Jin hums. “Well, if you do it again then we just might have some problems.” She winks before heading back to Joonmyun who's frozen because she definitely learned that from her mother.

“Jin,” he complains when they’re practically at the bleachers. “You have a boyfriend!” He almost shouts, clutching at anything to help her see that what she just did makes him very upset.

But she just grins. "He likes it when I do stuff like this."

Joonmyun groans into his hands as Jin introduces herself to Kyungsoo.

Sehun and Jongin take seats on either side of Chanyeol, sending a grin over to Joonmyun just as the ref steps onto the field.

Luhan is infinitely proud of his son because Syaoran is the youngest boy on the team, a year younger than Hei. Syaoran has been playing for two years already, but before the season had started this year, Luhan had gotten a call asking for Syaoran to come in and try out. Both Luhan and Syaoran has been nervous, especially when three men had asked for Syaoran to do a few drills, but had stopped him after thirty minutes to announce that he would be skipping from basics to youth, not having to spend a year in rookie league. Luhan had bought him a buffet lunch and Syaoran had smiled for weeks. Luhan had as well until he'd figured out that he'd have to put up with Kris a lot more often.

Luhan doesn't want to be that parent who gives their own kid all the good stuff, but he has him up front at the start off the game. He's worried until Syaoran steals the ball from a sour-faced kid–he thinks the other team is shouting Hak Kun–and starts making his way down the field.

And then Luhan's screaming. He screams for the next twenty minutes, Xia giving encouraging cheers every now and then until his kid finally gets control of the ball and makes a successful pass to Ryung, who takes little to no time to launch the ball into the goal.

Hei, Chung Ho and Sang immediately flop on top of him, having finally made their way up to the goal.

It’s all fine and dandy, there’s a two-all tie, one from Chung Ho and two from Chin Hae and Yong Sun tag teaming it up to the goal and poor Jian really didn’t know where he was supposed to stand to block the kick. Luhan glanced over to Yixing who had a deep frown set on his face, Xiu Jan blinking in sympathy towards her brother. Shuang is dribbling the ball across the field, looking for someone to pass to when sour-faced kid get in front of him and takes the ball right from under him and Shuang goes down. Hard.

Zitao’s standing in record time, fists balled and Luhan is acutely aware of the tattoos on his arms and the multiple piercings in his ears and wow, if Luhan ever got in a fight, he’d beg Zitao to be on his side. But Kris holds him back with Lilah’s assistance because Jongdae’s already on the field.

There’s a circle of kids around Shuang and Jondgae’s sons all back away before he can push him away, which is what he does to the remaining players. He can hear the ref shouting something from the other side of the field but Jongdae could really care less. He assesses the damage. The kid’s covered in mud so it’s hard to tell if anything’s bleeding, but Shuang’s hugging his right leg in so Jongdae focuses in on that. “Do you think it’s broken?” He’s almost certain that it isn’t but it’s best to let the kid speak.

“No,” Shuang gasps out, eyes narrowed in pain. “I twisted it when I went down, I think it’s sprained,” he tries to explain between breathless gasps. Jongdae nods because yeah, he’s pretty sure that’s what happened and he kneels down on one leg to pick the kid up.

“Sir, you can’t be on the field.”

Jongdae whips his head around to stare at the ref and he stands slowly. He doesn’t recognize the guy. Maybe he’s new. Jongdae wonders why no one warned him. “Oh, I know.” He grins cheerfully, small hands his shirt which he tries to ignore because this shirt is silk. He elbows his way past the ref and notes, “it took you two minutes to get here. It took me thirty seconds. Do your job well or don’t do it at all.” And then he’s sauntering over to Tao whose arms are outstretched. As soon as Shuang is passed over, Tao curls himself around the boy protectively while Lilah perches her adorable concerned face on his shoulder. Jongdae gives her a reassuring smile, pats her head, and then sits down beside Luhan. “Honestly, referee’s aren’t like they used to be.”

Luhan smiles until he notices that the ref’s about to call time in. “Wait!” He shouts, standing. “We’re a player down!”

Even from the other side of the field, he can see the cocked eyebrow of the other coach.

“Oh?” The smoky-eyed coach speaks with a crooked smile. “So are you saying that our team would have to be handicapped in order for yours to even have a chance at winning?”

Luhan grits his teeth because he’s never been a fan of Baekhyun. Once, at the store, the man had grabbed the last package of Maybelline’s Volum Express, the thickest available, smirking as he’d headed towards the cashier. Luhan had held a personal vendetta against the man since. As Jongdae ruffles through the duffel bag beside him in search of a first aid kit, Luhan glares at the opposing coach and nods towards the ref. When Syaoran passes him to take his place on the field, Luhan stops him with a hand on the shoulder. “I’m gonna need you to win.”

Syaoran’s face melts into understanding and he nods, jogging over to stand between Levi and Ryung. The whistle blows and all three are sprinting for the ball, Ryung sliding in to stop an unsuspecting Chun while Levi grabs the ball and Syaoran runs alongside him.

Levi, Sang, and Ryung have each made a goal–Ryung demanding several side dishes and waiting for Minseok’s shouts of, “Okay! Just kick the ball!” before Ryung slips the ball into the goal, past a goalie with heavily lined eyes–as well as Hak Kun, Chun, and Myung Dae, who had been so surprised that he’d become a statue while Jian picked himself up off the ground and only realized he’d made a goal when he turned and saw Jin screaming his name from the bleachers. Then he’d smiled and well, maybe Luhan doesn’t hate everyone on the South Korea team.

The game’s almost over when Kris starts prepping a bottle because Sofie’s started making noises from behind him. Ella had been up a minute ago, but the girl must have been up all night or something because she’d just shifted herself so that she was lying all the way across Kris’s lap before falling back asleep. Luhan watches because while Kris is extremely talented in the art of parenting–the only art he’s good at, to be honest–he’s not a superhero. So Luhan starts to stand because Kris is fastened to the bench by a body and he has to somehow get Sofie from his back to his front and Luhan’s ready for Kris to admit he can’t do it and ask for help. But then he tilts the carrier with those freakishly large hands, tugs Sofie out, passes her to his other hand, and holds her against his front, grabbing the bottle he’d kept balanced on his knees and Luhan just gives up there and then.

Levi steals the ball from the other team and Kris shouts, “Great job, Long!”

Luhan freezes because since when have they had a kid named Long on their team? He asks Kris exactly that and the man looks at him like he’s stupid.

“Levi’s name is Long.”

Luhan really doesn’t like Kris.

Another problem Joonmyun has with the league is that even though the kids are eleven, the game is played with actual football rules. Anything that is a rule in the official league is a rule in the youth teams. And maybe there’s a little bit of tweaking, but still. Joonmyun is opposed. The games are timed, much like the official ones, and the stopwatch in his hand tells him that there’s five minutes left and it’s the final quarter. The score is five-all and Baekhyun is nervously chewing on his pencil.

Nam is bringing the ball over to the goal when some kid from the other team steals the ball right out from under him and Baekhyun curses. Haneul somehow gets the ball back and passes it to Chin Hae, who wasn’t paying attention and has a small attack before accidentally kicking the ball out of bounds. Chanyeol laughs and the ref doesn’t really know what to do before shrugging and calling, “foul!”

There’s two minutes left when the goalie throws the ball into the field and Hak Kun steals it from a shorter kid before stumbling and having the ball taken by the tallest kid on the field. Every single person beside Joonmyun seems to be holding their breath as Chin Hae storms forward with Yong Sun right behind him. The tall kid looks around before sliding forward onto the ground and kicking the ball towards a teammate who practically sprints forward and Haneul slips in the mud trying to stop him so the kid maneuvers around him and then kicks the ball slipping at the last second and kicking slightly to the side. There’s twenty second left as Hwan dives for it, and his fingers skim the ball before he falls to the ground. Syaoran gets to his feet. The ball hits the back of the net.

Syaoran stares at the ball until Sang and Hei attack him from the sides and he goes down into the mud laughing.

Luhan grins and he’s pretty sure that he’s radiating pride. Tao and Lilah cheer from the sidelines, a smiling Shuang perched on his shoulders and Lilah hugging his leg. Jian comes running over to Yixing, who grins brightly and practically shouts how well he did. Ryung shouts from center field how his dad is treating for lunch and Minseok races over, slamming his hand over the boy’s mouth.

Luhan steps on field at the same time as the other coach and they both start shouting something about lining up and shaking hands. Luhan stands at the back of the line, Syaoran in front of him, and greets all the players before squeezing Baekhyun’s hand particularly hard. The man gives a tight-lipped smile back that promises a tough game next season and Luhan gives a chirpy, “good game!” before returning to his side to pack up the equipment. When he finally has everything in the bag, there’s no one of the field save for the ref, and he makes the slow journey to the parking lot. Everyone’s congregated near the center so Luhan leans the bag up against the rear of his Escalade and joins the group, picking Xia when she rushes over to his from standing beside Yixing.

Jongin and Sehun are standing strategically behind Jin and when Jongin whispers something to Sehun about only a five-year difference, Joonmyun yanks the clipboard out of Baekhyun’s hands and hits Jongin’s shoulder, shooing him away with angry glares while Jin gives him amused stares.

Levi stands off to the side with Chin Hae and Yong Sun jumping up and down in a circle around him. Xiu Jan is talking with a bleary-eyed Ella and Lilah, who keeps walking in circles around Tao. Hak Kun is pouting, Chun by his side as he routinely murmurs about how this is the first game he’s ever lost and Chun just nods, rolling his eyes every now and then.

Chanyeol reaches for Sofie before Superdad Kris can stop him and tosses the child into the air, making faces and laughing while Kris laughs nervously and makes to snatch his child back every time a shiny object catches Chanyeol’s eye.

Haneul holds the tray of cookies above his head and gives everyone a small smile, thanking each person profusely when a cookie is taken. Jongdae takes two.

“So, pretty good last game, huh?” Minseok grins, messing with Ryung’s hair as the boy swats his hands away. Baekhyun grumbles in response.

Chanyeol’s eyes light up and he stops. Kris takes the moment to snatch Sofie away and hold her protectively against his chest. “Hey, you guys wanna do something? Like, I don’t know, we could–”

“Eat pizza!” Ryung shouts.

“Best teams ever sleepover!” Chin Hae shouts and Xiu Jan eyes him warily. Hak Kun groans because he really doesn’t like soccer and Chun elbows him in the side.

“I don’t think your mom would like that,” Kyungsoo starts slowly and Jin shakes her head.

“Mrs. Do is very agreeable,” she argues on the woman’s behalf.

Sehun frowns and shakes his head. “That’s sixteen kids. Who’d wanna deal with that?”

Luhan is ready for it right before it happens.

“They could sleep in the basement. We just got a new tv down there,” Kris starts, rocking Sofie in his arms.

“We have a pool, too,” Levi adds.

Chin Hae screams and Jian frowns slightly.

Shuang looks like he’s about to cry and Kris taps his cheek. “You can come over right after you visit the doctor. We can ice your ankle while everyone watches movie.”

Zitao looks like he’s gonna cry and he throws an arm around Kris before taking off to his car, giving Lilah a big smile before he leaves.

Luhan sashays over to stand beside Kris. “I can buy pizza and bring that if–”

“It’s fine, Lu,” Kris smiles despite Luhan’s downturned lips because Lu. “I’ve got it. You were a great coach and good luck on improving for next year.”

Luhan gives a tight nod and grabs Syaoran, yanking him away from where Hei is practically pouncing on him in congratulation. He tows the kid over to the car, throws the bag into the trunk, buckles in both of his kids and throws the car into reverse. As he’s speeding out of the parking lot, he catches Kris’s smirk and wants to scream. Syaoran asks when they’re heading over to Levi’s tonight.

He hopes to god that the glitch in the system will be corrected by next year and Kris will be on the Canada team and Luhan can beat the pants off the guy.