By six in the morning, Minseok was already busy.  Jaera had woken up crying and Semi was too tired to deal with her, so he took the toddler into the conservatory and sat with her on his lap, bouncing his knee every so often as she on her dummy and tried to his shirt with her stubby fingers.  Taeyong was likely to sleep in until eleven or twelve – he always did when he came to stay – and Minseok knew that he had to get in contact with his parents.

Trying to ignore one of Jaera’s hands grabbing at his cheek, he started up his laptop and made the mistake of opening his emails.  Nearly seven hundred were sitting in the inbox even though he’d been up to date at midday the previous day.  With a groan, he resigned himself to looking through them.  Jaera tugged on his shirt collar and then tried to strangle him with his tie before losing interest and deciding that it was much more fun to attack the table with her teeth, which she’d been incredibly proud of ever since they’d started making their appearance when she was three months old.  Minseok eventually gave up on trying to pull her away from the table and focussed instead on the task in front of him.  After half an hour, that all came to a screeching halt when Jaera arrived reluctantly at the conclusion that the table genuinely wasn’t edible and tried to attract her father’s attention again.

“Shh, shh,” he murmured when she started wailing, planting a kiss on the top of her head.  Jaera wasn’t satisfied, though, and flailed around for several moments before hitting the power button for the laptop.

The screen suddenly going black seemed to fascinate her, and she went still with a delighted coo before pressing the spacebar.

“You know what?” Minseok told her, suddenly relieved that the emails were no longer there, “I think you’re right.  Do you want breakfast?”

Jaera pressed the spacebar again and then burst into tears when the computer didn’t respond.  Minseok scooted his chair back and cradled her in his arms.

“It’s okay, poppet, it’s okay,” he told her.  “You can play with it later.  Let’s have something to eat first.”

The passage and kitchen lights had been when he returned to the main part of the house, and he wasn’t totally surprised to see Luhan rooting through the cupboards in search of food.

“Try the one to the right of the sink,” he said, Jaera now resting her head quietly on his shoulder.  “It’s got rice and stuff in it.”

Luhan shuffled over to it and gave him a bleary thumbs up to show him he’d got the message, half-turning towards him.  When he’d found the rice, he straightened up and started to ask where the rice cooker was.

It was at that point that he caught sight of the member of the family he hadn’t yet met.

“Wow,” he said, waving a hand vaguely at Jaera and father.  “That’s cute.”

Minseok almost managed a smile.  Jaera, hearing a stranger’s voice, turned her head in Luhan’s direction.  There was a pause of several seconds before she let out a hiss like a belligerent cat and then buried her head back in Minseok’s shoulder.  Luhan jumped with surprise.

“Jesus,” he mumbled.

“Jaera,” Minseok murmured reproachfully, but he couldn’t stop the smile from spreading over his face.  Luhan eyed the child warily.

“I can already tell she’s like the baby from The Incredibles.”  He shuddered.  “Please keep her away from me.”

Jaera bit into Minseok’s shoulder and he winced.  “Yeah, she is.  The rice cooker’s behind the microwave, if that’s what you’re looking for.”

Mumbling something about still finding it very hard to believe that Minseok had settled down and was now basically a normal person, Luhan let out a yawn and started cooking the rice.  Minseok set Jaera down on the table – this one she knew better than to try and eat – and started getting out the various things that his family would need for breakfast.

After a minute or two, Luhan looked around awkwardly.

“Do you lot normally have rice in the morning?” he asked, almost reluctant.  “And also, is that safe?”  He pointed at Jaera, who had crawled over to the other end of the table and was attempting to get to her feet, eyes on the highchair just out of her reach.

Minseok glanced in the direction Luhan was pointing.  “Yeah, it’s fine.  She’s too scared to jump without help.  And Semi will probably have rice, but she’s not going to be up for a good few hours.  Just put on however much you need.”

After a slight hesitation, Luhan nodded and returned to the rice cooker.  Seconds later, Jaera concluded yet again that the highchair was too far away and sat down and started crying, reaching out towards it with grabby hands.  Minseok set down the bowls he’d just taken out on the table and heaved her up under the arms.

“Come on, princess.  Let’s get you fed.”

There was a little snort from Luhan.  Minseok ignored him.  Silence ensued for a while as Jaera happily munched her food; then Luhan scooped his cooked rice into a bowl and vanished, presumably to the comfort of the duvet and the living room sofa.

Jaera was perfectly happy to stuff her face for several minutes once Luhan was gone, though Minseok chided her gently on her manners.  Looking thoroughly disgruntled at her father using paper towel to clean mashed banana on her fingers (Minseok had often wondered if that look meant she was annoyed he wouldn’t let her them clean, or if it was better translated as “why are you not wiping me down in finest linen, pleb?”), she eventually decided it was time to speak up.

“Bad man,” she said.  “Lala no like.”

“Jaera.  Rara,” Minseok corrected out of habit.

Jaera thought about it for a few moments and then gave