Yixing was round at six the next morning, a zombie-like Jongdae and a very chipper Sungjong in his wake.  Luhan had gone into a fitful sleep and Semi, shattered, had finally gone to bed after rehydrating herself.

Yawning from lack of sleep, Minseok let the three visitors in.  Yixing took one look at him and raised an eyebrow.  He didn’t look as hyperactive as Sungjong, who was peering around every little corner with interest and openly wondering where the children were, but he was definitely much more awake than Jongdae.

“You are not coming into work today,” Yixing told Minseok as he passed him.  Jongdae smiled sleepily and clapped Minseok on the shoulder, letting out a gigantic yawn that practically showed his tonsils before shuffling after his boss.  Sungjong disappeared into the kitchen.

It took a little while to wake Luhan up, Minseok carrying the still-sleeping Jaehwan out of the room and back to his own bed, and the man was delirious and quivering.  Yixing asked him a few questions and then turned to his co-workers.

“He definitely needs professional medical treatment,” Yixing agreed, “but I honestly don’t know where I could send him without him being discovered.  I could probably wing a house visit and ensure it’s kept quiet, but he needs to stay in a hospital, and I could lose my job over that.  And if I lose my job, it’s not going to protect him anyway.”

“If he was in this condition in prison,” Jongdae pointed out, “he’d be in hospital in any case.”

“Under watch,” Yixing pointed out.  “And as soon as he was better, he’d be sent back to prison.  Not to mention the media coverage.  If we turn him back to the prison authorities over this, the media will jump on it because he escaped.  Mighty Mouth will find out in no time.  We can’t afford that, either.”

“I’m fine,” Luhan tried to insist, struggling to sit up.  All three of them shot him withering looks.  He grimaced with pain, clutching at his head.  “I don’t want to go to hospital.  Please.  Heo Youngsaeng has too many contacts on that circuit and he must be aware of the condition I got myself into in order to escape.  That was definitely in the news.”

That was something that had Yixing nibbling at his bottom lip.

“Minseok,” he said after a moment or two.  “You classified Heo Youngsaeng as Suho’s pet assassin back on Semi’s case, but exactly how dangerous and influential is he?”

“Very,” said a new voice as Sungjong slipped into the room.  “He’s the renegade bastard son of the current vice president, and extremely rich.”

“How did you find that out?” Minseok asked him.  Sungjong plopped himself down on Luhan’s bed and mimed typing before turning to the ill man.

He practically attacked Luhan, flinging himself at him and crushing him into a hug.  “Boss!  It’s been years!”

Flat on his back, Luhan returned the embrace and let out a weak little laugh.  “God, Sungjong, you’re an adult now.  Behave like one.”

“Don’t wanna,” the hacker whined petulantly, squeezing tighter and burying his head in Luhan’s collar like a little kid.  Yixing and Jongdae stared; Minseok was just confused.  The only person Luhan had ever been that relaxed around before was him.  His initial two year absence in prison must have driven Luhan to find other close friends, though given what he knew of Sungjong’s past, Minseok wondered how much of it was an innate competence at taking somebody who really, really needed it under his wing and lavishing attention on them to draw out their talents.  Given how helpless he was around children, it was just really, really odd.

“Really.  I might be contagious, Jong, get off.”

Pouting like a little child, Sungjong let him go.  Now smiling brightly, Luhan struggled to sit up again.

Yixing hastily coughed.  “Well, we’ll just pretend we didn’t see or hear any of that interaction, Sungjong.”

“Oh!”  The hacker looked like he’d only just realised his mistake.  “Whoops, yeah, you didn’t see any of that.”

Luhan sighed and reached over to flick him on the forehead.  “Idiot.  You’re supposed to be smarter than that.”

“Hyung!” Sungjong protested.

Yixing turned to Jongdae to confer with him in a low voice about doctors they might be able to safely ask to do a house visit to check up on Luhan and potentially arrange transferring him to hospital while Minseok watched the friendly banter between Sungjong and Luhan, who was trying to pretend he wasn’t thrilled to finally see another old friend of his.  After a few minutes, Yixing turned his attention back to Luhan to ask him a few more questions about his condition.  Once he was satisfied with the answers, he turned for the door, beckoning for Sungjong and Jongdae to follow.

“Jongdae suggested bringing Sungjong because of that depressive funk Luhan had that you were telling us about,” he murmured in an undertone to Minseok.  “Seems to have done him the world of good.”

“Yeah,” Minseok agreed quietly, but as Yixing opened the door, Luhan called out to him in Mandarin.

“Officer Zhang, do you know how my sister’s doing?”

Surprised at hearing his mother tongue, Yixing turned.  “She and Shixun are currently stranded on Jeju,” he replied.

“How are you getting them off there?”

Yixing shrugged helplessly.  “We’re working on it.  It’s just hard to communicate with them when the enemy’s hijacking communication lines too.  There’s only so much Sungjong can watch at any one time, especially if we’ve got him following up and verifying some of the leads you’ve given us.”

Luhan perked up.  “Are they useful?”

It was a moment or two before Yixing smiled and nodded.  Satisfied, Luhan slumped back against his pillows.  Minseok hurried away to get him more medication.  Luhan had fallen asleep by the time that he returned, though, so he left it on the bedside table and went to get breakfast, mentally calculating how much time he’d have before he needed to leave the house for work.  He was halfway through cooking the rice when he remembered Yixing had forbidden him from going to work, and as though the man was standing right beside him at that very moment, his phone abruptly pinged.  Smothering a yawn, he sat down at the island in the kitchen and took his phone out.

I meant it.  Go back to bed.

He smiled to himself before tucking his phone away again.  Yixing knew him far too well.

He must have fallen asleep on the counter, because the next thing he was aware of was Jaera’s happy voice babbling around the kitchen and a male voice correcting her grammar.

“This one.  Rara like muchy-much!”

“That one.  That one.  This, that.  Near, far, see?  And stop bloody talking about yourself in third person, it’s really creepy.”

There was a pause before Jaera piped up again.  “That Lulu meanie.  This Rara nice.  Now give Rara toklat.”

“God, you’re two, no.  Stop being so demanding.  Ow!”

Blearily, Minseok raised his head.  Luhan was standing on the other side of the kitchen near the cupboards, face screwed up in pain and hands hovering as though he wanted to strangle somebody.  In a familiar sight, Jaera had latched her tiny body around his leg and sunk her teeth into his knee.

“I didn’t ask for this,” Luhan muttered, his voice quavering like he was on the brink of tears.  “I just came to get your mum watermelon for her pregnancy cravings.  I do not deserve to be attacked by you.”

Visibly upset, Jaera stopped biting him.  “Not attacking Lulu oppa.”  She pouted.  “Tough love.”

“No love would be fine,” Luhan told her dryly, relaxing now that he was no longer being bitten.

“Jaera craving toklat,” the toddler pressed on, clearly trying to leap on her mother’s bandwagon as Luhan fussed for a moment, hands fluttering near Jaera’s form as though he was trying to figure out how to pry her off him without breaking her.  Eventually, he decided against it and attempted to walk around the kitchen as though she wasn’t there, which failed miserably.  Minseok started fully awake at the loud crash as his friend and daughter both went sprawling and hastily got off the stool, nearly tripping in his haste, to go round and check they were both okay.  To his utter astonishment – and Luhan’s too – when he arrived beside them, Jaera was straddling Luhan’s chest and laughing.

“Again, again!” she giggled.  “It’s fun!”

Realising he had company, Luhan tilted his head towards Minseok.

“She’s going to kill me,” he whined, making Minseok laugh too.

“Should you be out of bed?” he asked as he plucked the toddler off Luhan and sat her on his hip.  Jaera made grabby hands in Luhan’s direction, but Minseok gently pushed her hands back down to her side and she grudgingly obeyed.

“Oh, I’m fine,” Luhan said.  “Still have tetanus or whatever the damn thing is, but it was just a bad fainting spell earlier.  I think the concussion’s gone, too.  And it’s mid-afternoon; I can’t be in bed all day long.”

Minseok frow