Christmas Card
Undomesticated
There’s a manic, deranged little glint in Yixing’s eye that Jongdae’s only accustomed to seeing when he hasn’t had enough sleep, and that is worrying. Not that he can say anything about it, though, because then he’ll only get accused of being a party-pooper and not getting into the Christmas spirit.
Which is complete bull, because he is totally into Christmas and all that entails. He’s just not sure why they have to take a photo for a custom Christmas card when they could just buy them and be done with it, but he’s long since learnt you don’t argue with Yixing in this kind of mood. He’s not good at listening to sense at the best of times.
And honestly, if wearing a Christmas hat and keeping Sunhwa from biting Jongseok in revenge for his theft of her advent calendar is enough to keep him happy, he’s all for it.
“Okay!” Yixing calls, clapping his hands for attention. Shang just gives him a bored look, having already registered all seventy-five of his complaints about this stupid hipster idea (as he calls it). Jongdae can’t really argue with him. It is both stupid, and slightly hipster, but Yixing wants to do it, so they’re doing it.
It just gives him more leverage to manoeuvre for his own Christmas requests.
“Everyone stay right where you are, I’m going to set the camera’s timer so I can be in the photo too.” Jongseok flops onto his stomach, losing patience with this photo-taking. Usually he’s a bit of a camera- – all of the children are, seeing as attention is like a drug to them (Yixing blames Jongdae’s influence) – but today, he’d rather be watching Home Alone. Kevin really gets him on a spiritual level, if you ask Jongseok.
Jongdae takes the chance to readjust Sunhwa’s reindeer antlers, but resigns himself to the fact that she’s not going to look happy. She hasn’t had her nap yet – he can see that she’s overtired, but Yixing swore this would take half an hour at most. Of course, that was two hours ago, but Jongdae’s used to things taking a lot longer than they should.
Sometimes it works out well. Like when he and Yixing just happen to be in the shower together, and things get a bit steamy. It’s not his fault they get carried away, now, is it?
Shang sighs, unimpressed by his father’s lame attempts to get the camera to work. How can his parents be so pathetic? You’d think they’d be way more awesome, seeing as they produced him as a child. “Ba, that’s the wrong button.” He calls, taking the camera from his father. “You need to go into the settings and – yeah.” He sets the timer, reasoning that the quicker they do this, the quicker he can get back to his Xbox. Or maybe his guitar. He’s not sure really – he just knows he’d rather be anywhere than here.
“Thanks, darling,” Yixing smiles at him, ruffling his hair – because Shang might be eleven and rapidly turning into the grumpiest preteen he’s ever seen – but he’s still utterly adorable when he wants to be. Especially in an elf hat.
Shang grunts in response, shuffling back to his spot beside Jongdae, who’s wrestling Sunhwa away from Jongseok yet again. Yixing skids to a halt next to his partner, shouting “Smile!” as the camera flashes.
Everyone blinks a bit, blinded by the too-bright light. Yixing grins in satisfaction. Finally, he’s going to have a picture of his family to rival all those perfectly-edited adverts in the magazines. It’s going to be great, and then he can brag to Jongin about how photogenic his family is compared to Jongin’s quite obviously inferior offspring.
“Okay, well, if we’re done here, I’m off – “ Shang starts, but Yixing snorts. So naïve.
“Get back into your position,” Yixing says warningly, fingers digging into Shang’s shoulder; Shang gulps. “We need to do at least three, so we can pick the best one.”
Internally, Jongdae groans. . This could – scratch that – will take forever. He’s beginning to regret agreeing to this little Christmas obsession of Yixing’s. “Baby,” he nudges Yixing, afraid he’s going to bruise Shang if he holds on that tightly. “Let him go. He’s got to work the camera.”
Shang is released, but neither he nor Jongdae like the dangerous glimmer in Yixing’s eyes.
***
It takes another hour for Yixing to take several more photos, and Jongdae is really wondering why they didn’t just ask someone to take the damned photo for them, but that would be logical, and when has this family ever done anything that had a whiff of common sense about it?
The youngest two have devolved into a snarling mess on the floor; Jongdae did try to detach them from one another, but they both seemed to be holding their own and so he’s given up. They’ll stop fighting eventually.
He thinks so, anyway.
Yixing grabs the camera, eager to see how well the photos have turned out. Jongdae tenses, hoping they’ve gone as well as Yixing wants them to, or – well, they’ll have to do it all over again. And he’s pretty sure none of them are willing to do that. Especially now Jongseok’s just managed to rip Sunhwa’s reindeer antlers in two.
Oh dear. Might be time to separate them, after all.
“How the hell did this happen?” Yixing demands, shoving the camera in Jongdae’s hands. He does not look pleased.
Jongdae winces, looking down at the screen. Instead of the picture of a happy, smiling family he'd really, really been hoping to see, there's a scene of total chaos. Shang looks as if he's about to fall asleep, elf hat at an odd angle, while Sunhwa - ever the little drama queen - has her little jaws clamped down around Jongseok's wrist, as he yowls in pain. Whoops. Jongdae should probably have noticed that one.
Yixing is the only one even attempting to smile.
He laughs nervously. "Well, at least this actually representative of our family?"
Judging by the stormy look on Yixing's face, his little comment is not appreciated. .
For fs2619.
Comments