海滩 - Hǎi Tān - Beach

It was the first time in a very long time (read: 2 months, 3 weeks and 17 days) since Wu Yifan had had a day off work. He cracked open a sleep encrusted eye to take a peek at the digital alarm clock sitting beside a photo of his (demon) lovely children. It read 6:23am, also known as too-early-for-normal-human-beings-to-function-at-when-given-a-glorious-day-off-from-a-very-strenuous-job o’clock. With that in mind, Yifan rolled over in his blanket, effectively creating a burrito of warmth and snuggles before releasing a sigh of bliss as he slowly sunk back into the comfortable embrace of sleep.

“Baba~” Luhan’s whiny voice penetrated Yifan’s incredibly precious moment of tranquility.

Yifan’s eyebrow twitched as the bed dipped ever so slightly and Luhan’s voice became increasingly clearer and whinier, “Baba wake up~”

Maybe if he pretended to be in a deep state of REM sleep, Luhan would get bored and leave Yifan to sleep for maybe an hour or two more.

“Is baba still sleeping?”

Yifan restrained the urge to groan at the soft lisping sound of Shixun floating over from the doorway.

“Like a log…” Luhan pouted as he plopped onto the soft sheets beside the thick tuft of dark hair poking out from the duvet. He ruffled the silky strands with his little hand, “Baba wake up.”

Shixun set down the train set he was holding by the door and pitter-pattered his way over to the edge of the bed where his forehead just about skimmed the top (he was always the shorter twin and he wasn’t as stupid as his gege to risk his amazingly precious life by climbing the very precarious looking stack of books Luhan had constructed earlier to get onto the bed) which meant he had to strain his neck in order to see Luhan and his Baba, “Poke him on the nose, gege. That’s what ZiZi-gege does.”

Luhan frowned as he stared down at his baba’s fluffy hair, “I can’t see his nose, Shixun.’

‘What do you mean you can’t see his nose? It’s on his face.”

“I’m not stupid, Shixun. I know it’s on his face.”

“Well poke it then, stupid.”

“Stop calling me stupid! I’m not stupid, stupid.”

“Yes you are, you can’t even find Baba’s nose when it’s on his face.” Shixun smirked smugly at his brother, nose high in the air as he crossed his arms.

Luhan huffed as his little hands balled into fists, “Well everyone can find your nose Shixun," Luhan smirked condescendingly down at his younger brother, "because it's so big!"

Shixun gasped, grasping his nose softly, wounded, "No it's not!"

"Yes it is! It takes up half of your face!"

"No it doesn't! Stop being mean!" Shixun huffed angrily, hair flopping into his eyes as he stomped his bare foot on the cream carpeted floor.

Luhan laughed victoriously at the sight of his younger brother's scrunched up face and began to joyfully jump around the bed (dangerously close to Yifan's amused face), waving his arms manically as he sang, "Shixun has a big nose! Shixun has a big nose! Shixun has the biggest nose in the world!"

By now, Shixun was near tears (not tears of sadness, no, but tears of anger because only babies cried when they were upset and Shixun was certainly not a baby), "Stop it! Stop singing that!"

Luhan ignored Shixun's cries as he continued to sing and dance his celebratory tune which Yifan found disturbingly catchy despite it's annoying, borderline whiny, high tone.

"What's going on in here...?" Yifan didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the sound of Yixing's dazed, sleepy voice.

"Gege!" Shixun wailed as he ran wildly towards Yixing's open arms, “Luhan’s bullying me!”

Luhan immediately stilled with an air of apprehension at the sight of the eldest Wu sibling, but Yixing was not fooled by the look of innocence that Luhan had horrifyingly perfected by the time he was 2. He could spy the slight twinkle of mischief in those large doe eyes and the miniscule twitch of the corner of his lips as he restrained the smirk aching to reveal itself.

"Luhan.." Yixing sighed before he proceeded to scold the elder twin as Shixun made mocking faces from his safe perch in their eldest brother's arm as Luhan's face slowly fell into a displeased pout.

Yixing took in a breath as he turned his direction to the suspiciously still lump in the middle of the bed beside Luhan's now sulking slumped form, "Baba," Yifan flinched and held his breath in resignation, "I know you're awake."

Two betrayed gasps and a strangled groan filled the room.

--

"So what do my two favourite boys want to do today? Baba has the whole day off, isn't that exciting?"

Yifan's grin was met with silence as his twin boys both scooped forkfuls of scrambled eggs into pouting mouths as they looked anywhere but at Yifan.

"How about the beach? It's a lovely day and we can even stay overnight. How 'bout that boys?" Yifan grinned, trying (in vain) to ease his boys' foul moods. Yifan sighed as he sipped at his coffee as he was met by more silence: the only sounds coming from the boys' plastic cutlery tapping at their trays as they scooped in mouthfuls of eggs and rice, ignoring their pitiful Baba. There was nothing Yifan could do when the twins were in one of their moods. No amount of cuddles, kisses or bribing could bring them out of their sulk. Nothing.

Except, maybe Jongin.

Though Yifan doubted Junmyeon would appreciate his son being kidnapped everytime the twins kicked up a fuss. Which was a lot.

"We may be Baba's favourites but Baba isn't our favourite!" Luhan was the one to break the silence as he glared accusingly at Yifan, Iron Man plastic fork pointed threateningly at Yifan's dazed face with a piece of scrambled egg dangling off the end of the middle prong, "Isn't that right, Shixun?" Luhan turned to his younger brother for reinforcement against their evil Baba.

Shixun nodded vigorously, eyes dangerous slits as he looked down his nose at his Baba's shocked face, How on earth does a 5 year old manage to look so intimidating with cheeks that full of food?

Yifan sighed heavily into his coffee, "I already apologized for this morning Luhan so why don't we just let bygones be bygones, hm?"

"But Baba," Luhan's overly horrified face made Yifan wonder when his second youngest had adopted such a theatrical personality (Yifan noted it was probably Chanyeol.), "You betrayed us!" (Yifan made a second note to stop letting Luhan hang around Chanyeol so much).

"Oh well then since you're both so angry at me, I guess neither of you want to go get ice cream later on," Yifan shrugged his shoulders as he got up to put his now empty mug into the sink, "I guess it'll just be me, your geges and Uncle Junmyeon's family."

Yifan could pratically hear their ears pricking as all motion stopped behind him.

"Uncle Junmyeon's family?" was Shixun's tentative reply.

Yifan hummed, smirking as he proceeded to wash his coffee mug, "Your Uncle Junmyeon and I were going to take all of you to get ice cream once school finishes since you've all been such good boys lately but since you don't want to go," Yifan sighed regretfully as he turned to face his sons, "I guess I'll just have to drop you off at Auntie Sooyeon's house whilst we go have fun."

Shixun's extra special, limited edition I spent a lot of money on that set Shixun don't break it train print fork clattered onto the table, grains of rice and bits of egg splattering across the smooth marble counter top. His face paled as he slowly turned his head to face his brother who had his spoon paused halfway to his mouth, wearing a similarly open-mouthed disbelieving expression on his small face. 

Luhan gulped as he slowly put his spoon down onto his plate, "A-Auntie Sooyeon?" 

Yifan's evil cackles resonated through his brain as he triumphantly stared at his sons' identical pallid faces and thanked every deity out there for gifting him with an ice queen younger sister who was terribly awkward with children and had an uncanny ability of being unable to be around children without making them cry or feel incredibly uncomfortable, "Yes, your Auntie Sooyeon. You like your Auntie Sooyeonnie, don't you boys?"

Yifan smiled a chillingly sweet smile as he made his way over to the house phone, "Let me just call her now and tell her I'll be dropping you boys off la-"

"WE'RE SORRY BABA YOU'RE OUR FAVOURITES WE LOVE YOU PLEASE BABA NO!!!"

Yifan smirked, gotcha. 

"I'm sorry, what was that boys?" Yifan blinked innocently as he looked at his twins who were both clasping their hands together and looking at him with impossibly large, wet puppy eyes and quivering moist lips.

"We're sorry Baba, please don't leave us behind at Auntie Sooyeon's house!" Shixun begged, widening his eyes further as his little brain provided him with quick flashbacks of the last time they went to visit Auntie Sooyeon where she dressed both he and Luhan in matching dresses. Shixun had never been so scarred in all his five years of existence.

"Yeah!" Luhan piped up from his seat, "We want to go get ice cream with Jongi- I mean, Baba and everybody else too!"

"Are you sure? I mean," Yifan smirked slightly, "I'm sure your Auntie Sooyeon would be delighted to see you boys."

"We're sure, Baba!"

Yifan sadistically chuckled at the desperation etched on his sons' faces before sighing exaggeratedly, "Alright, if you insist, I won't call her." 

Both boys let out a collective sigh of relief as they watched their Baba step away from the phone and they didn't stop watching until Yifan walked over to the fridge - on the other side of the kitchen. 

Yifan hummed happily as he pulled out some fruit for the twins to have as a little snack after they'd finished their breakfast, completely unaware of the silent conversation Luhan and Shixun were having with their eyes in the way that creeped everybody in the Wu household the heck out.

"Baba..." Yifan made of noise of acknowledgement at Luhan as he bumped the fridge door shut with a bony hip, plopping a variety of fruit down onto the kitchen counter top.

"What time are we going to the beach?" 

Yifan nearly cut his finger off.

"What?" He mumbled unintelligently as he spun round on his heels, a misshapen mango in one hand and a dripping knife in the other.

"The beach," Shixun cut in condescendingly (well, as condescendingly as a 5 year old could possibly be), "You said we were going to the beach earlier."

Luhan nodded in agreement beaming in excitement as he began to rattle on with little to no breaks for air, "So, when are we going to go Baba? After Xing-ge finishes school? But that's ages away! Can we go to Jon- I mean, Uncle Junmyeon's house and play whilst we wait for geges to finish school? Yeah, let's do that. We should do that, shouldn't we Shixun?" 

Yifan began to wonder if Luhan was a mutant and therefore didn't need oxygen to survive.

It would explain a lot of things.

Wow, I'm just a super crappy author I'm really sorry for how delayed this was ;-; I just really had an internal struggle over whether or not to carry on with writing this because of Luhan's departure (which really rocked me because wow second bias and wow OTP lukai struggles) and now Taozi too (cries) But I feel like I've finally moved on because no matter how much I love OT12, OT9 is ♥ 

I've also been incredibly busy with school because I'm in my final year now and the amount of work and prep for exams just to get into university is INSANE and its because of this that I can't really promise you when Chpt 6 where we'll finally meet appa jun will be up but I'll probably be working on it (slowly but surely) because all the subbies and comments are really just too cute ^^

It was also my birthday on the 12th! (Yup, same as Soo's hehe ♥) which was nice and omgosh talking about Soo HAVE YOU ALL SEEN THE TRAILER FOR HIS MOVIE IM SCREAMING IT LOOKS SO GOOD I CANT WAIT TO WATCH IT IVDSJCLSIDJCSD

*ahem* fangirl moment over but yeah, hope you enjoyed this (crappy) chapter and I'll hopefully seen you guys soon! 

Much love xxxx