Word count: 885 ish

Why, oh why, had Luhan ever agreed to adopt? Oh yeah. Because Minseok was so darn cute. He'd look at a puppy harshly for Minesok, and puppies were the best thing since Maryland cookies. 

The reason he was asking himself this existential question was because his son Sehun was currently running around their house like he was on crack, or at least mescaline. Well, sugar was a little-kid drug! Luhan may or may not've taken him to the fun fair  - Tao didn't want to go, it wasn't goth enough, and Ruby just didn't - and bought him a candyfloss the size of a small universe. 

And now it was nine o'clock at night, and as he'd pissed off the fates somehow, Minseok had an important meeting tomorrow. Luhan wasn't exactly sure how important a meeting could be when you worked at Battersea Dog's Home, but still. He was gonna have to grovel so hard if he couldn't somehow capture and put to bed the slippy little eel he called his son. 

At least he could still see him...wait. WHERE THE HELL WAS HE??

"Sehun! Come back!" he yelled desperately, wracked with images of terrible happenings. Sehun with his fingers in the toaster, Sehun 'decorating' the bathroom with toothpaste, Sehun jumping on Minseok's bed... Lord almighty. He was screwed.

"I'm here, pop!" screamed the sugar-fuelled little brat from the stairs. Luhan winced. That had to have been loud enough to wake Minnie and the kids up. Fortunately, the doors leading to the bedrooms remained mercifully closed as he charged up the stairs on his tickle-or-capture mission.

Then the door to his daughter's room opened: "Dad, I actually need to sleep here! Tell Sehun to shut up, I don't care if he's only five!" Vampire Ruby. God. Luhan winced again, and Sehun fell over, KO'd by the sheer force of his big sister's words. Luhan scooped him up and dragged him back to bed.

••

Next morning, he was glad it was Monday. Today, his husband and two of his children had work or school. Luhan, however, worked part-time joint managing his coffee shop. So on Monday, it was just him at home, because Sehun usually had a play date over at Jongin's or Baekhyun's. Unfortunately, he still had to get up at seven. Minseok flatly refused to get both Ruby and Tao ready in the morning.

He understood why.

"Tao, you know you have to wear school uniform! Go and take that t-shirt off," Minseok's voice woke him up, and not in that nice velvety 'it's noon, want to shag like bunnies?' way it had when they were twenty and not forty. Nope, now that voice was his cue to go and wake Ruby. God help him.

Rubes...wasn't a morning person. Luhan wasn't sure how it had happened, but somewhere between years 6 and 7 she began to need ever increasing quantities of caffeine in the morning. And as to waking her up, well. She could probably sleep through world war three.

He entered the cave. Seeing as his eldest had painted her room wine red and it always seemed dark as Satan's heart in there, 'cave' was probably the best word to use. There was a small, unmoving lump under the ironic my little pony bedsheets. Luhan kicked it.

The lump did not stir. So he kicked it. And then he kicked it again. He gave up and shoved her out of bed when his foot began to hurt.

"GOD, papa, I'd have gotten up in just a minute!" Ruby yelled, still half-asleep but fully angry.

Luhan just looked at her and sighed; she was always like this in the morning. Her black frizz of hair was tangled as hell; she still had smears of blue (blue?) lipstick on her face and it was hard to be intimidating in the old ratty sweatshirts she slept in. Though she managed it somehow.

"Just don't fall asleep again, will you?" he asked the African-American teen swaying before him.

"I won't, promise." Ruby said lazily, saluting him.

Once that was dealt with, time to make breakfast. Dishing up enough pancakes to feed a small army one hungry Tao, Luhan was struck with an internal dilemma; maple syrup or chocolate sauce? Minsoek liked maple syrup, but the kids liked chocolate, and he could only carry one bottle. Luhan smiled as he grabbed the maple syrup.

"Aww, my favorite! Thanks babe," smiled Minseok as he saw Luhan with the pancakes. Luhan grinned and pecked his husband on the lips.

"Um, minors at the table." remarked Tao over the top of his book.

"We don't care."

"You're disgusting!"

"I'M GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!!" a small, localised whirlwind hurtled through the kitchen, grabbed its backpack and ran out the door. "I'll get a doughnut so don't worry I'm not skipping breakfast dad!"

Tao raised his eyebrows. "Well, I have to go too. Can I take your iPod on the bus?"

Minseok pointed out that Tao didn't like the music on his iPod.

"Doesn't matter; I deleted all the Leonard Cohen and put My Chemical Romance on instead. Bye!"

Luhan squeezed his husband's hand in a silent gesture of solidarity. Minseok loved Cohen. Tao was doomed.

Then Sehun started screaming, and Minseok had to leave, and Monday started in earnest.

••

Thank you to all the people who subscribed! I hope you like this ;)

Anyway, this is the first in a series of drabbles set in the same au. So you can read as a one of or as a series.

Can't believe I managed to write something so uncracky...