Sorry this one took so long.  I kind of got caught up in writting for a couple of the later ones that I just had the urge to write for.  Anyway enjoy Color!  It's a ball of fluff!

#29 – Color

It was truly a horrible day outside. 

The weather was frigid, way below freezing without factoring in the wind-chill.  The skies were steel grey, a rather odd effect to see in the middle of a city full of sky scrappers where it really did seem like the buildings were disappearing into the sky above them.  It was one of those days in the middle of February where one can become so sick of seeing grey that Valentine’s Day actually seems like a good holiday if only for the color it brings to the occasion. 

And this year winter was hanging on with a vengeance.  It had started early with a freak snowstorm at the beginning of November and had not loosened its grip any since.

But the bleak weather could do nothing to dampen the mood of this family. 

Inside their apartment, Taemin, Kibum and there two children were having a ball.

That Saturday morning had arisen, just as dull as the preceding weeks had been, and Kibum had woke earlier than everyone else, just like normal. 

He had put a pot of coffee on and pulled out his sketch pad.  He had been placed on a committee at work that was trying to come up with some ideas for the new fall line.  He had always found these quiet hours of the morning to be his most creative, and being the only one who couldn’t sleep in on Saturdays, Kibum knew that he would have some time to himself. 

He sat himself down at their kitchen table and started to fine tune some of the designs that he had started working on yesterday at work, humming quietly to himself. 

The light padding of feet down the hallway revealed a rumpled Jinae, still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and she took in her Appa. 

“M…m…morning Ap..Appa,” she said through her yawn. 

“Morning sweetie, how did you sleep?”  He asked, starting to put his things away. 

The seven-year-old saw what he was doing and climbed up onto the chair across the table and looking intently at Kibum’s sketch pad. 

“Appa is a good drawer…” She said and immediately her face brightened, “I am too!  Can I color with you Appa?!  Can I?  Can I?”  She asked excitedly. 

Kibum just smiled, “Go and get your coloring books and crayons and I’ll make you some breakfast alright.  You eat and then we’ll color.”

“Yaaaayyy!” Jinae shouted and her little feet pounded down the hallway as she raced back to her room. 

This of course woke up the four-year-old Munhee who immediately decided that he wanted to color too. 

Kibum laughed lightly and whipped up a quick breakfast of toast and eggs, knowing that anything that took much longer would result in a revolt by the kids who wanted to get to their coloring now that the thought had entered their brains. 

He placed the dirty dishes in the sink, deciding to clean them up later.  He refreshed his coffee and sat at the table with his children, smiling over the top of his cup as Jinae pushed her crayon box across the table to share with her little brother.

“Appa Appa! Look!” Munhee shouted, lifting his Power Rangers coloring book (a gift from the SHINee “son” Yooguen who was in his junior year of college at Seoul National University).

It was really just a mass of squiggles covering the images and the blank spaces around the page, but Munhee was proud of his work.

“It’s great Munhee!” Kibum exclaimed, rubbing the young boy’s head, “But let’s keep it down.  You’re Papa is still sleeping.”

Taemin hadn’t come to bed until well after Kibum had fallen asleep.  He had been finishing up an article last night and probably only made the deadline by the skin of his teeth.  That happened when you had two children to take care of, with school and friends and practices and life in general.

Taemin’s job allowed for him to stay home with the children more often than Kibum’s did.  Taemin only had to make it in to an office at least twice a week, so those other days would often find him home writing from his office while Munhee took his nap, and calling sources on the phone and researching from his computer. 

But sometimes being the at-home parent means that Taemin’s job gets pushed aside until after the children have fallen asleep.  And this story had been a real pain for Taemin.  It was a study of the so-called “liberalization” of the public discourse in Asia, including the move in public opinion towards acceptance of homouality in the region.  It had become an intensely personal story for Taemin, for obvious reasons, and he had thrown as much effort into it as his body could tolerate.  It was a great piece and Kibum was incredibly proud of Taemin for taking it on.

But for right now, Taemin was asleep in their room, probably lying on his back, covers kicked off and his mouth hanging open with a light snore filling the room. 

So Kibum was entertaining the children, relishing in his time with them and still struck with the awe that filled him every time he thought of how easily this family could not have come to be. 

He twirled his wedding ring absently around his finger as he watched Jinae help Munhee to tear the page out of his coloring book so it could be displayed on the fridge door. 

As this played out in the kitchen, Taemin was slowly rising to consciousness himself.  He heard the sporadic giggling of his children ringing down the hallway and finding the way directly to his ears. 

He had found himself smiling before he even managed to fully open his eyes. 

He untangled his legs from the blankets curled around his legs, kicking them free and pulling himself out of the bed before turning and quickly returning sense to the mayhem that he had wrought on his matrimonial bed. 

He padded gently out of his room and down the hallway towards the laughter filling his kitchen. 

The sight that greeting him was of the three loves of his life, bent over their well-worn kitchen table, all coloring a part of the same sheet from a coloring book. 

Occasionally the stress of life that every parent feels when trying to balance family and work could get to him, but waking up to sights like this – it made all of that stress just melt away. 

He leaned up against the corner leading into their kitchen and just watched his family.  He gazed on the jumpy energy that Munhee always exhibited, the bright clear exuberance that always seemed to flow from Jinae to infect those around her and the wondrous smile that Kibum always wore when gazing upon their children.  Life was perfect.

Just then Kibum glances up and saw his husband and smiled from ear to ear.

“Look who finally woke up?” He said jokingly.

Dark hair swished about as Jinae and Munhee turned their heads and saw that he was awake. 

“Papa!” They shouted, scrambling down from their chairs and colliding with Taemin.  It was part of their weekend ritual.  The two would “wrestle” their Papa to the ground and it would quickly devolve into a mass of tickling fingers and gasped laughs on the floor of their living room. 

Pink tinged cheeks soon grew sore from the widths of their smiles and the three continued their assaults. 

Kibum’s loud laugh also echoed throughout the apartment as he watched the cartoon-like mass of flailing limbs tore about on the floor. 

He stood up and began to brew another pot of coffee for his husband as put his own work away. 

Eventually the squall picked itself up from the floor and the children returned to the table to finish their picture “for Papa!” while Taemin sipped some glorious caffeine into his system and dropped a kiss onto Kibum’s cheek. 

“Sorry I was late to be last night,” he muttered quietly.

Kibum just smiled and grabbed the hand that Taemin wasn’t holding his coffee mug in.  “That’s alright.  You get your article in on time?”

“Barely.” Taemin smiled ruefully.  “But hopefully the editor likes it as it is.”

“He’ll love it,” Kibum said with confidence, laying his own kiss to Taemin’s cheek and patting his lover’s cheek with a free hand.

“Papa!  Papa!  Look!” Jinae shouted, holding up the picture that her brother and she had been finishing at the table. 

“It’s you Papa!” Munhee added, smiling with the tip of his tongue sticking out of his mouth.

It was one of the Power Rangers, that much Taemin could recognize.  The suit was several different colors, and apparently “he” had a green and purple face, but it was something given to him as a gift by his children so like any parent he oo-ed and aww-ed over it and proudly displayed it up the on the fridge next to the other pictures that they had colored that morning.

How could life ever get better than this?