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Joon hummed softly as he carried Cheolyong, who was now half asleep, from the bathroom to his and Jihoon's bedroom after their bath.

"Umma... can I sleep here tonight...?" Cheolyong asked sleepily as his mother gently put him down on the large bed.

"Of course, sweetie," Joon smiled, wrapping the duvet around his son and joining him in bed once he'd rearranged his creams and soaps in the bathroom.

Joon smiled as he picked up a bottle of cologne that Jihoon sometimes wore, opened it and inhaled. It certainly was no replacement for Jihoon, but it did remind him of his lover and for a moment, he was able to imagine that Jihoon was holding him.

He nearly dropped the bottle in shock however, as what he was sure was the sound of footsteps loudly racing across the bedroom startled him.

"Cheolyong?" Joon hurried to the bedroom, only to find that his son was still in bed, nearly asleep.

At the sound of his mother's voice, Cheolyong roused a little, tiredly opening his eyes.

"...Go back to sleep, honey," Joon kissed Cheolyong's forehead, realizing that whatever might have made the sound of footsteps... just wasn't there anymore. "Umma will join you in a second."

The little boy nodded, not exactly alert, then went back to sleep.

A little shaken up, Joon made quick work of reorganizing the bathroom, then before joining his son for the night, he quickly went to the apartment entrance to make sure that the door was locked.

Admittedly, it made him feel a little more uneasy to find that it still was. What could have made that sound...?

"Umma...I miss Appa..." Cheolyong told his mother when Joon finally turned off the bedroom light and came to bed.

"Hey... I didn't know you were still up," Joon smiled.

"I want to wait for Appa," Cheolyong insisted, snuggling closer to his mother.

"Appa has to work tonight," Joon patiently explained, knowing from experience that when Jihoon was called in for a night shift, he would have to stay at his office for the whole night.

Also from experience, Joon was waiting for another question from his son but upon looking at the little boy when he was met with silence, he found that Cheolyong had already fallen asleep. With a little smile, Joon held Cheolyong closer to him and his hair. He was used to spending nights without Jihoon and of course, as he always did, he missed his husband terribly.

But this was the first night that Joon felt a little uneasy to be without his lover.

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Jihoon returned home the following evening, although Joon could tell that Jihoon was not only exhausted but also disturbed by the case he had been assigned. Given that they had finished setting up Cheolyong's room and it was the little boy's first night sleeping by himself, Joon had the opportunity to talk to his husband, who, despite not having slept for nearly twenty-four hours, couldn't sleep.

"It's a bad case, isn't it," Joon said softly, sitting down beside Jihoon on their bed.

"Yeah," Jihoon nodded, taking Joon's hands in his.

When he was at work, he had to be stoic and always alert. Even when he was emotionally affected by a case, he couldn't show any emotion. But with Joon, things were different.

"Want to talk about it?" Joon asked.

"I... Not right now," Jihoon said and Joon nodded in understanding.

He was a little surprised, however, when Jihoon started kissing him quite passionately, although he wasn't displeased and further welcomed his husband to his body as he laid down and let Jihoon ease himself on top of him.

It was when he was working on cases such as that on which he was currently working that Jihoon really struggled to keep his work separate from his personal life. Drug busts and financial corruption schemes were different; most of the times, no one was hurt and the cases were relatively easy to solve. It was the murder and cold cases however, that really pulled Jihoon in and with Joon readily providing access to his soft, milky skin, Jihoon found himself eagerly accepting the beautiful distraction.

"Changsun, I love you so much," Jihoon whispered against Joon's neck. "You and Cheolyong mean everything to me."

Joon smiled, gently combing his fingers through Jihoon's hair in regular, soothing motions. He knew that Jihoon's new case really must be upsetting for him to be talking like that. It wasn't that Jihoon never said that he loved them, but given the circumstances and the tone of Jihoon's voice, Joon knew that his husband was quite troubled. 

"I know," Joon whispered, kissing Jihoon's neck in turn. "We love you too," he added, letting Jihoon catch his lips in a deep kiss.

"Jihoon?" Joon said, when Jihoon's hands moved to massage his sides.

"Yeah?" Jihoon looked up to the beautiful sight of his gorgeous Changsun's lightly flushed cheeks, kiss-pinkened lips and pretty almond eyes. 

"When things settle down a little more, do you want to give Cheolyong a little brother or sister?" Joon suggested, a shy little smile further beautifying his features. 

He knew that Jihoon had always wanted a fairly large family but had started to rethink his dream after Joon had had Cheolyong. He never wanted Joon to have to go through so much pain again despite Joon's insistence that he really hadn't minded. This really made Joon love Jihoon even more and he realized that if they were ever going to make their little family bigger, he would have to be the one to initiate.

Sure enough, Jihoon was clearly surprised at the suggestion. He still would like to have more children, especially with Joon as their mother, but he had also come to be perfectly content with his family just as it was. 

"Are you sure?" He managed, his depression about the case momentarily blown away. 

Joon nodded and smiled, noting that his suggestion was having its desired effect. He had been considering the matter for quite some time already and had just been waiting for a good time to bring it up. There was no better time than now, he figured, hoping that the prospect of having another child would give Jihoon the little bit of positivity that he would need to keep investigating his current case.

"Yes," Joon reassured. "Besides, I heard that it hurts less after the first one."

The young couple shared another kiss, then another although they didn't intend to do anything more that night. Both of them were tired and really just needed the right dose of kisses to relax enough for sleep. Their private moment was abruptly ended however, when Cheolyong came running into their bedroom, crying for his parents.

"Umma! Appa! There're people talking in my room...!" The little boy wailed, reaching for his parents as they both got out of bed and hurried to him. 

"What do you mean?!" Joon asked, rather alarmed, as he clutched his little boy.

"I-I heard them...!" Cheolyong sniffled, burying his face in his mother's chest. 

"Sweetheart, you probably just had a bad dream," Joon cooed.

"Umma, I really heard them..." Cheolyong insisted.

"I'll go look, okay?" Jihoon reassured his son, rubbing his back in comfort.

Jihoon found nothing, however but when he returned to the bedroom, he was quite shocked to find how cold it suddenly was. Clearly, he wasn't the only one; Joon and Cheolyong were shivering in bed and Joon was hugging Cheolyong, trying to keep him warm.

Seeing as nothing could be done, Jihoon joined his family in bed and hugged them.

"Jihoon?" Joon said softly, when Cheolyong had fallen asleep. "What if he really did hear something?"

He didn't mean to sound paranoid, but the entire evening had seemed so strange.

"Hey... Don't worry," Jihoon kissed Joon. "We probably just need some time to get used to the place."

Joon nodded, still cold but not so cold that he wasn't now starting to feel tired.

He really wished that Jihoon didn't have to go to work the following day...

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Thanks for reading!

x Angela