Second update of the night!  Don't miss out on 'Steady' as well!

#46 – Monster

They couldn’t believe it. 

He was here…in a bed…under their roof.

Their SON!

They had a son!

Kim Munhee, a beautiful little two year old boy whose parents had been killed in a car accident, one that left the little boy with a small scar on his forehead leading away from a line of missing hair in his left eyebrow. 

He was quiet.  According to the orphanage he was always quiet and kept to himself more than their other children, but Taemin and Kibum had fallen in love upon their first sight of the little boy who had been playing with some building blocks when they had been led into the room with a bunch of playing toddlers. 

It was a truly heartbreaking place – an orphanage.  Nothing can twist the heart of a parent more than seeing all of these children who want nothing more than the love and devotion that their parent’s wished to give them but were unable. 

They had stepped with trepidation into echoing room that seemed somehow imposing upon them.  Guilt that they could not take them all already starting to lay itself somehow on their shoulders.  How can you pick just one?  But they would have to, and they would do so.  Jinae had requested a sister, but the men figured that they would know when they spotted their child.

And they were right.

He had looked up at them when they came in the room and gave a small smile before going back to playing on the floor, not uttering so much as a peep. 

But Taemin had already fallen in love with the little boy’s eyes, older than they should be, but still happy and hopeful.  He tugged gently on Kibum’s arm and pointed to the boy silently. 

Kibum looked at his husband with a questioning look, but dropped to sit Indian-style on the floor in front of the toddler.

“Hi,” he said quietly, pulling blocks from the pile and starting to build his own house next to the little’s boy’s leaning structure. 

Taemin sat down as well and just watched the little boy as he carefully seemed to pluck through the pile, trying to find the exact right block to use next. 

“Hi,” the boy said, not looking up, but examining the red block he currently held in his hand. 

“What’s your name?” Kibum asked.

“Kim Munhee,” he said in his quiet little voice.

Taemin and Kibum looked at each other, slightly startled. 

Back when Minjung was pregnant with Jinae, they had been looking through both boy and girl names and Munhee had been the one that they had decided on if it had been a boy. 

“Shining…” Taemin said quietly without thinking, but the boy looked up.

“You’re name means shining.” Taemin said, smiling at the boy and reaching out to straighten a crooked block on Kibum’s tower.

Taemin and Kibum were both thinking that it must be fate and they knew right then – this was their son.

But Munhee, completely unaware of the momentous nature of this moment, just shrugged his little shoulders and went back to building.

“How old are you Munhee?” Taemin tried.

He held up two fingers in an awkward peace sign but didn’t say anything. 

“Two years old? You’re getting big aren’t you?” Kibum cooed, making the boy smile warmly at them in response. 

The couple had sat with Munhee for almost two hours just playing with him and talking quietly. 

When they moved to get up they knew that their first instinct was right – that this was their son.  And they went with the social workers to see how long it would take to bring him home.

It would take 7 months.  Seven months of paper work and social workers and interviews and affidavits, but every couple of days the couple came by, together or separate, to see their little boy.  And little by little he was getting used to them and would even run over when he saw them walk into the play room and hug their legs before they would pick him up. 

They brought Jinae, now five, over to see him and play with him too.  She was overjoyed at the thought of a little brother and of another child to play with.  Munhee wasn’t the sister she had asked for, but she would get to be a big sister either way so she was happy. 

Munhee though was still nervous today when they came to pick him up for good.  He had known that he was going home with them, that he wouldn’t stay at the orphanage anymore – but the orphanage was all that he could remember, so the thought of leaving it was scary for him. 

Instead of being the bright boy that they had known him to be over the past few months, he seemed to be back to that quiet little boy as they brought him into the apartment.  Jinae proudly took him by the hand and showed him her room and his room as well. 

The three bedrooms were all located at the end of the hallway.  Taemin and Kibum’s on the left side of the hall, Jinae’s directly at the end, and now Munhee’s directly across the hall from his new fathers’. 

Munhee had quietly followed along, his thumb in his mouth and his head twirling around trying to take everything in at once. 

After dinner the whole family ended up in Munhee’s new room.  It was painted a light blue color with building blocks and teddy bears painted on the walls at seemingly random intervals.  They played games with the little boy, trying to help him to see this new room as a good place and a fun place. 

Early on though, Munhee started to yawn.

Kibum picked the little boy up and cuddled him against his chest.  “Alright big man, it’s been a long day for you hasn’t it?”  The boy nodded against Kibum’s next, his thumb firmly planted in his mouth.  “You want to go to bed now?”  Another nod was the response.

Taemin and Kibum had put the little boy down for naps before at the orphanage and as Taemin ushered Jinae out to her own room to get herself changed for bed (“But it’s too early!”), Kibum started to ready the little boy.

He opened a drawer and showed the little boy all the pajamas that they had bought for him.  “You want to pick out what you want to wear?”

Munhee seemed to study them seriously before leaning down and pushing on a deep purple set that had stars and planets covering them. 

“I like those too!” Kibum said quietly. 

He made quick work of Munhee’s clothes, making sure to put the little boy in pull-ups instead of regular underwear.  Munhee was potty trained but at night, and for his first night in a new place, he thought that it was safer to put the little boy in the pull ups so Munhee wouldn’t end up embarrassed by any accidents. 

Just then Taemin returned from getting Jinae to settle down in bed with a book to occupy her for a while.

“Hey big guy!” he said lightly and picked Munhee up when the little boy stood there and held his hands straight up in the air, indicated that he wanted to be held.

“Are you alright little one?” he asked quietly, sitting on the bed and holding Munhee close while Kibum put his clothes in the clothes hamper. 

A small shrug was the only response.

Taemin rubbed the little boy’s back gently, “It’s alright Munhee, you’re safe here.  We love you and want to look after you.  This is your home, you’re safe here.” 

Munhee sniffled slightly, but nodded.

Kibum sat down next to them and gently ran his hand through Munhee’s thick head of hair.

“Are you afraid?”

“Munster…” and he gestured one spit covered hand towards the closet and looked up at his new fathers with a nervous look on his face. 

“A monster?  In the closet?”  Taemin asked, to which the little boy nodded his head once more and he even harder on his thumb which he hade jammed back into his mouth. 

“Oh baby,” Kibum said, leaning down and kissing Munhee on the crown of his head.  “There are no monsters here.”

Kibum smiled gently at Munhee and walked over to the closet, sliding open the pocket door and pulling the string to turn on the light inside.  He turned slightly to look back at Munhee whose eyes were locked on the designer. 

“Look,” and Kibum walked into the closet, standing inside and turned around and smiled at Munhee, “no monsters here.”

Munhee seemed to study Kibum, and then glanced between the two men.  “Light,” he said, pointing at the closet, “munsters in dark, not light…”

“Smart boy!” Taemin said, ruffling Munhee’s hair and earning a smile in return.  “So you know what we can do?”

Munhee shook his head.

“We’ll leave the light on in the closet tonight.” 

Munhee looked like it was a brilliant idea and even clapped his hands together. 

“No monsters will get you here.”

Kibum stepped out from the closet and closed the door, leaving the light on behind him – and from underneath the door a pale line of light shown. 

“And if you ever get scared in the night, you can come to us.”  Kibum said, picking Munhee up and placing the child in his own lap now.  “We’ll never get mad at you for waking us up in the middle of the night.  If you need us we’ll be right there in a second.” 

“Nothing could keep us away.” Taemin added, smiling warmly at the boy.  “This is your home now, you’re part of our family, and we do everything for our family.” 

“Famey…” Munhee said softly. 

“Yes, family.” Kibum said, squeezing Munhee softly in a hug. 

The men finally got Munhee down to bed, singing him some soft lullabies.

It would be a couple of months before Munhee would be able to sleep without the light on, but as he adjusted to life with his new family he became more comfortable with the apartment and soon he could make it through the nights without the light on, because he didn’t fear the monsters anymore. 

So - this is the 50th one-shot I've written.  I know it's number 46, but I have four of the later ones already finished and just waiting for me to write the stories in between them all.  Wow - I hit the half-way mark!  Honestly, I thought that taking on the 100 prompt challenge would be impossible, but you guys have been great and I'm half-way there!  The other half doesn't seem nearly as daunting now that I've got this far!

Thanks and please remember to comment!