Glancing at his phone when it bleeped awake at a stupid early time on a Saturday morning, Suho picked it up and groaned when he saw the caller ID. For half a second he thought about silencing the damn phone but then remembered what had happened last time that he had done such a thing and quickly pressed to answer the call, “You better have a damn good reason to be calling me on my day off Chanyeol.”

There was a pause, followed by a long sigh from the other, “We need a family meeting.”

The tone of the voice had Suho sitting up almost immediately, all thoughts of sleep gone from his head. Their resident large troll had just spoken in the calmest but heart-breaking voice that anyone could have spoken to them in and some things did not belong to their happy virus in the slightest. “What’s wrong?” it was the only question that Suho could think to ask though part of him was dreading the answer.

“Can you just call a meeting?” Chanyeol said, still sounding down, “We…I need to tell you all together.”

Suho nodded despite the fact that he knew that he could not be seen right now and swallowed a sudden lump in his throat, “Okay. Usual place?”

“No, somewhere else,” came the reply, “Somewhere different.”

This could not be good, not in the slightest and that had Suho even more worried than ever before. Clearly this was not the type of family meeting that was going to be all sunshine, rainbows and happiness which meant that he would need a place where the kids could be scurried off to so that the adults could have a quiet time together. There weren’t many places, or at least ones that they wouldn’t get hassled at but Suho knew that this sort of situation needed to be sorted and it needed doing fast.

After a few seconds he hit upon a perfect place, “How about Rockies? It’s out of the way and generally keeps everyone sorted out.”

“Yeah…that’ll be fine,” came the disgruntled voice back from the other and was that a sniffle that Suho just heard or was he imagining things.

Suho sighed and tried again, “Is something the matter with you and Baekhyun?”

“No…well…yes but…not now,” Chanyeol’s voice came softly back over the phone, “Just make the reservation for Rockies and I’ll see you there.”

“Okay,” Suho says softly, noting the word ‘I’ll’ instead of ‘we’ll’ but not commenting on it before the phone is hung up and he’s left there, sitting on his bed feeling as though something has changed drastically for the worst but he can’t figure out what exactly.

Taking a deep breath, which turns automatically into a sigh, Suho quickly called up Rockies to make a reservation for a very large table and then set about contacting everyone. Thankfully there’s no major problems or hiccups with getting people to meet up – Suho puts it down to the fact that Chanyeol has requested a family meeting – and they all agree to be there for the other.

~*~

The restaurant is not as packed as it should be but that’s just another thing that somehow makes this situation just a little bit easier and Chanyeol has absolutely no problem in working out there the others are because they’re really too hard to miss these days. They beat Suju’s OT15 by one and it was in the process of growing steadily so really soon going out for things like this would be extremely hard to manage. His heart fell a little at the notion of that figure for a second or two but he shook his head, checked his phone for the millionth time that morning to confirm that there were no desperate texts or calls from his beloved back at home before making his way over to the group.

His smile was dry and lacking, more of a front than anything else and he barely even managed a “Hi” before hands were grabbing onto his arms an hauling him down into a seat, kids were being bundled up by their respective mothers to be taken to the soft play area and Sehun was dragged along for the company as well despite being pregnant because apparently he was going to have to get used to the squeaky kids in soft play areas sometime sooner rather than later or some rather strange excuse like that.

Chanyeol blinked, “whoa…I’m not that bad right.”

“You look like hell,” Chen said with about as much tact as a fish out of water, “What’s wrong? Are you and Baekhyun okay?”

“Yeah, nothing bad has happened to your relationship or anything like that has it?” chimed in a worried looking Yixing who had a tight hold on Chanyeol’s hand right at that second in time.

Chanyeol shook his head, “No…no nothing like that. Our relationship is fine. It’s just…it sounds so silly to even say it.”

“What?” Tao asked, leaning in to nuzzle affectionately against the other, “You can tell us, we won’t get mad.”

Taking a deep breath, Chanyeol knew he should just cut to the chase, “Baekhyun found out that he can’t have kids.”

There was a collective intake of breath around the table, they all knew how bad that news would devastate Baekhyun because whilst he was the biggest diva on the planet, second only to Heechul, it had become very clear over the last few months that he wanted to become a father. So to learn that he couldn’t bare children naturally would be a huge blow to their resident puppy and every last one of them felt it in their hearts. Immediately Minseok and Yixing were wrapped around Chanyeol’s large frame, pushing Tao out so that he could comfort the others because he was yet to become a father and it only made sense. Kai couldn’t get back his two elders to join in so had to settle on just tapping onto Chanyeol’s knee with his fingers.

Chanyeol was stunned for a few seconds before breaking down like some damn that had broken and was more than happy to take the affection that he received at that moment. It probably explained why none of them noticed the figure who had overheard the statement and gone hurrying back towards the soft play area not five seconds after hearing the words.

~*~

It was strange to hear someone knocking at the door, especially only an hour or so after Chanyeol had gone out and whilst part of him didn’t want to get out of bed right this second, Baekhyun knew that he couldn’t really ignore the door for that long. So with a sigh, he pulled himself out of bed and moodily made his way to the door. It was probably the mailman with a package or something as crazy as that, normally that’s what it was.

He let out a strangled yelp when he was suddenly tackle hugged by an all too familiar and most definitively pregnant Sehun who virtually squished his head flat with his affection, “Oh Beak! You can’t let yourself get so down over this.”

“Hey maknae, stop hogging the hugging and get inside,” Kyungsoo’s voice was next, shoving the youngsters forward so that they could all actually get into the room beyond without too much trouble.

Baekhyun found himself in almost a state of panic as he was propelled into the living room, plonked down on the sofa only to be hugged by Luhan and Sehun from either side whilst the kiddies were bundled up in Kris and Kyungsoo’s arms for the time being. “What…what are you guys doing here?” he managed to stammer out softly, almost terrified of the situation that was building around him.

“Chanyeol told us,” Kris said softly, “We had a family meeting but since all of the Daddies are sorting him out we thought it best to come and comfort you.”

“I don’t need comforting,” Baekhyun lied, trying to pretend that he wasn’t eyeing the children across the room with almost jealousy, “I’m fine.”

“Heh you are so not,” Kyungsoo said, moving to join in on the hug after passing Sooye over to Kris to hold which was becoming a fine balancing act right now, “Baekhyun its fine to cry over something like this or get annoyed or angry. We all know how much you wanted kids of your own, you’re utterly great with them and you’re probably the most favourite uncle.”

“Cause you spoil them all rotten and really do look after them all so well,” Luhan supplied, running his fingers through the others hair gently, “Don’t let this get you down though Beak. There are other ways to have kids.”

Baekhyun sighed, “But it’s not going to be same, it never will be. I won’t get to feel their life growing inside me like you guys did.”

Kris snorted, “Don’t believe all the trash you watch on telly and read on the internet Beak, it is not pretty.”

Baekhyun blinked, “What?”

“The end result is,” Kyungsoo smiled softly, “But the whole pregnancy thing is pretty overrated.”

Luhan nodded, “Yeah…I mean look at us three. Kris didn’t know about it but when he did he got chronic back pain and cravings for stuff he shouldn’t have been eating. I was sick to the point where everyone thought that my condition had come back and Kyungsoo…”

“Trying to get shoes to fit swollen feet that don’t look like they belonged to some old granny is a nightmare,” Kyungsoo finished off with a smile, “Then there’s the cravings, the mood swings, the sweats, the fact that you want to be held by your partner but you can’t stand it at the time and then when the time actually comes for you to have a baby…oh my god.”

“Yeah that’s the one thing we can all agree on,” Kris sighed, “Labour is not fun.”

“At least you didn’t say ‘my style’ there,” Luhan laughed but shook his head, “But I agree, it’s not fun. It’s bloody painful.”

“And you end up with a scar on your tummy which you just can’t hide no matter what you do,” Kyungsoo sighed gently, “It would totally destroy you to have that sort of mark there Baek.”

“Thanks guys,” Sehun said with a mocking little pout, “Really what I need to hear right now.”

Kris grinned at the youngster, “Oh just you wait, you’ve got the worst of it to come. Especially if you start lactating, geez that’s bloody awful.”

Kyungsoo looked up at him, “I thought you didn’t go through that.”

Kris shook his head, “Thankfully I didn’t but I saw what happened with Luhan and Jesus.”

“Yeah…I was meant to warn you about that Sehun,” Luhan grimaced towards the youngster.

Sehun whined, “Can I just kill Tao now and be done with it?”

“No, cause then you would whine constantly because you wouldn’t have your panda in your life,” Luhan bopped the other on the head, glancing towards Ai who had toddled across to the sofa to look at them, “Come here baby, give you Uncle a cuddle cause he needs it.”

Baekhyun thought about declining but then saw that wonderful bright smile that Ai would give off and he knew he was done for. Gently he pulled the small boy into a hug and let the tears roll down his face in a long series of lines, happy to be simply allowed to cry. He knew that he would get over it, that eventually the pain would subside and he could have a family with Chanyeol but the pain was still so fresh right now and there was nothing that he could do but open up his heart and cry like the baby that he felt like he was at the moment. 

Authors babbling:

Yeah this one has been in my head but I didn't want to make it too angsty becaus it could have easily become that. I do have plans for Baekyeol adopting at some point int he future so that will be nice for everyone ^^ 

Oh and does anyone fancy making me some Chapter header images? I keep on trying to find good pictures but I kinda at it.