“Mr. Wu, I have a Mr. Huang here to see you.”

Yifan looked over at the speaker before his attention shifted to the calendar on his desk. Right, ZiTao and Minseok were visiting for the younger’s birthday. But weren’t they early? He turned to his laptop, startled a little by the time, and he turned to the speaker, pressing one of the buttons.

“Thank you, send him in,” he replied, huffing a small sigh at the mess his desk was in. He was only half way through organizing his files so it would have a clean start the next morning when the door opened and he looked up, his throat tightening a little at the sight of the younger. The last time he had seen ZiTao, he had been scolding him over what he and Chanyeol had done, and it was almost four(five?) months after. They had spoken on the phone a few times over the last month, but that didn’t stop the tense silence that fell between them, and Yifan took a big breath and tried to smile without it seeming forced because he really did want to see the other, he just… wasn’t sure what to say. So he tried something simple to start with.

“Hey.” The word barely had time to leave his mouth before the door closed behind ZiTao, and the younger was closing the space between them; Yifan started to step around his desk, his arms coming up in the expectance of the other crashing into them, though they made a quick re-route to shield his face from the pen that was thrown at him. Yifan started to lower his hands, flinching when another pen was thrown at him, followed by one of the books that had been on his desk, a few of his file folders ending up on the floor with their contents flying everywhere as they weren’t thick enough to successfully be thrown at him.

“Ow,” Yifan cringed when a dull throb in his upper arm from his tape roller making contact, his hand coming up to rub the afflicted area before he ducked out of the way of his letter opener. “I just got done cleaning up my desk so that I could leave with you, and you decide to wreck my office?” He asked, groaning when something hard knocked into the side of his head, hand coming up to gingerly press against the new source of pain that he was pretty sure had been caused by his stappler.

“ZiTao, that hurts!” Yifan exclaimed before there was a pair of arms around his waist, and ZiTao’s face was pressed into his chest.

“And you leaving didn’t?” Yifan swallowed hard, his arms coming down to gently wrap around the blond, a small sigh leaving him.

“Of course it did.”

“I’m mad at you.”

“I know,” Yifan replied, resting his chin on top of the other’s head.

“You left… why did you leave?” Yifan’s eyes closed, pulling ZiTao closer. “I thought you left because of me… because of what I did, I thought you didn’t come back because of me, and it hurt… I got so mad at the thought that Yixing-Ge would still be able to be with you, but then Jie said he didn’t get to be with you either, and it made me hate myself for being the way I was… Then Minseok-Hyung left and I was alone… you never answered your mobile… I didn’t know what to do, I kept making the people I l-loved leave me,” ZiTao whimpered, Yifan’s heart throbbing as he tried to pull the younger closer.

“ZiTao, I didn’t leave because of you. I had told you about my mother being ill and how that was making it so I had to spend more and more time here. She just… she got to the point that my father had to stay home with her, and he needed me to work full time, and that wasn’t something I was able to do from Korea.” ZiTao turned his head a little, looking up at the older.

“You told Yixing-Ge… you told him to his face… I didn’t even get a call from you… Jie had to be the one to tell me… Why didn’t you tell me yourself?” ZiTao demanded, pulling back a little, though he kept a hold on the other as Yifan’s shoulders sunk.

“I told Yixing because he wouldn’t have asked me to come back, but you would… And I knew I could never say no to you. Not about something that I knew was going to hurt you.” ZiTao tensed a little, swallowing hard as tears welled up in his eyes again, and he buried his face against Yifan’s chest again. “Come on, let’s get you settled at home,” Yifan nudged, wiping at a tear that ZiTao had missed before the younger nodded, leaning into Yifan as an arm was wrapped around his waist to lead him from the office and down the hall. “Is Minseok in the waiting room?” He asked, looking to ZiTao, who’s attention was on the floor.

“Not exactly,” he said softly, Yifan’s eyebrows knitting together before opening the door to the waiting room. He looked around the room, eyes widening when they fell on a blond haired male and not the copper haired on he expected.

“Yixing?” The blond looked over at him, eyes lighting up with a smile as he stood, making his way over to the duo. “I… I thought Minseok-Hyung was coming with you,” he said, looking between the two blonds.

“ZiTao asked me to come with him,” Yixing stated, Yifan’s jaw hanging open a little as he looked down at the youngest.

“Last I checked, you didn’t want anything to do with Yixing,” he pointed out, ZiTao nibbling on his lower lip as he remembered the start of the plan ride.

 

“Please keep your seat belts fastened until the piolet turns off the seat belt light, indicating that it’s safe to move about the cabin. Shortly after, our flight attendants will be making their way down the aisles to offer refreshments.” ZiTao’s eyes closed and he rest his head back against the headrest, shifting a little to get more comfortable. “We ask at this time that you power off all electronic devices, and keep your mobile phones off until we land. Thank you for your cooperation.” The blond pulled his mobile out of his pocket, the screen lighting up as he held the power button, showing a picture he and Minseok had taken together a few months back before a message popped up asking if he wanted to turn off or restart the device. Selecting ‘power off’ he slid it back into his pocket, glancing at the blond beside him who looked at him in turn, his smile reaching his eyes.

“I was surprised when you asked me to come with you, ZiTao. I figured you would want Minseok-Hyung to go with you for your visit with Yifan-Ge,” Yixing commented, ZiTao looking out the window he was seated beside. The truth was that Minseok had gotten really sick, and ZiTao had found out from LuHan that he had been working harder than usual because he wanted to finish his internship before ZiTao’s birthday as one of the presents for him, but it had ended up just stressing him out. Sehun was busy with LuHan, and Chanyeol was the last person he was going to bring, so he had found himself outside the older’s door, holding out one of the tickets.

“Ge is special to you too… and you’re the one who brought me the gift box in it in the first place.
 

“I can be a nice guy sometimes. I know Yixing-Ge doesn’t get to see you much either, so I thought that it would be nice to ask him to come along.” ZiTao grumbled, Yifan shaking his head.

“That’s going to make things awkward,” he said softly, the two younger males giving him a curious look. “Never mind, come on, let’s go,” he brushed off, wrapping his free arm around Yixing before guiding them down to the parking lot under the building.


“We’re not going to your apartment?” Yixing asked from the back seat, leaning forward so that his chin was almost resting on Yifan’s shoulder; he had given up the passenger seat to ZiTao saying that it was his birthday trip so he deserved it.

“I didn’t have a place for ZiTao and Minseok-Hyung to sleep in an apartment as small as that, so my parents said that we could all stay at their house,” Yifan explained, pulling into one of the residential driveways.

“Does that mean we get to meet your parents?” Yixing asked, remembering that Yifan had said there wouldn’t be the chance when they spent the week at the beach house.

“You’ll probably see my father, but I’m not sure if my mom will be up for new visitors,” he replied, looking over at the passenger seat, a small smile quirking his lips when he heard soft snores from the youngest. Yixing looked over at the sleeping blond as well, tilting his head so that it rest against Yifan’s.

“He let me hug him,” he stated, feeling Yifan’s eyes flicker to him. “When I went to give him the gift box you made for him, he didn’t seem that happy to see me, but I’m sure that’s because he was still hurting about what happened. Eventually he took the box and opened it… When he saw the plane tickets he broke down into tears and let me pull him into a hug. He even offered for me to come inside after, but I didn’t want to over step any boundaries, since I knew he wasn’t my biggest fan. And then he showed up outside Junmyeon and my apartment, offering me one of the plane tickets.” Yifan hummed politely, reaching up and soothing his fingers over the back of one of Yixing’s hands. “It meant a lot that he asked me to come with, even if I’m probably the last person he wanted to come with.”

“Maybe it’s his way of trying to make up for being cold to you before,” Yifan suggested, Yixing pulling back and unfastening his seatbelt.

“Maybe,” He agreed before Yifan reached over, carding his fingers through ZiTao’s hair, pulling a sleepy groan from the blond.

“ZiTao, time to wake up. We’re here,” he whispered, ZiTao turning his head and blinking slowly at him, looking to the house a moment later. He offered a small nod, sitting up and staring at his lap for a few moments before he slipped out of the car. Yifan had grabbed both of their bags before the blonds could, and they trailed after him. Once inside they went down a couple of hallways before the eldest stopped, opening one of the doors to reveal a guest room.

“You can each have your own room, I’ll be taking the one across from this one. I also have an early meeting in the morning but it should be done by the time you two are up and have had breakfast,” Yifan explained, setting down ZiTao’s bad as the blond made his way over to the bed, dropping himself on the edge of it, rubbing one of his eyes with the heel of his hand. “Would you like anything to eat before you go to bed?” he asked, earning a shake of the other’s head, a small smile crossing his lips. “Alright, I’ll leave you to sleep then,” he added, padding over to stand in front of ZiTao, leaning down to place a kiss on the top of his head. “Thank you for coming and spending these days with me, ZiTao,” he soothed, running his fingers through the other’s hair once he had laid down, skipping changing into his sleep ware. Yifan bit back a chuckle, taking Yixing’s hand as they made their way out of the room.

“Do you want to sleep in my room?” Yifan asked, a smile crossing Yixing’s lips before he stretched up, giving the other a peck on the cheek.

“You have an early meeting, I wouldn’t want to keep you up, or make you worried about waking me up when you got up in the morning,” he replied, opening the door next to ZiTao’s. “Besides, I think that it’s ZiTao who should get to stay in your bed this trip,” he added.


Yifan’s face scrunched a little as his alarm pulled him from sleep, and he slowly became aware of the heated weight on his chest, the of the one to his side, blinking his eyes open slowly. The blond laying on top of his chest came into focus with a couple of blinks, the one laying on his side snuggled up to him reaching his attention a moment later. He reached with his free arm for his mobile, turning off his alarm before he looked at the two snuggled against him, a smile crossing his lips.

“How did you both manage to crawl into my bed without waking me up?” he murmured softly, careful as he unhooked ZiTao’s grip on his arm, shifting as far to the other side of the bed as he could before he rolled Yixing off of his chest, watching as the blond shifted a little, using ZiTao’s stomach as a pillow. Yifan stifled a laugh with the back of his head, wishing he would be in the room to see the look of the youngest’s face when he would wake with Yixing snuggling him. He quickly changed into his work attire, then pulled out a gift box from his bag, staring at it for a long while before setting it on the nightstand on the side of the bed, along with a small card, sneaking out after.



‘I though Minseok-Hyung was coming with you’

ZiTao frowned at the note that had been sitting on top of the small wrapped box, turning it over to see if there was any further explanation on the back. When he found no such explanation, he looked down at Yixing, who happened to have rolled away from him before the youngest had woken up, then back to the box, pulling off the ribbon and wrapping. Inside were a few slips of paper, each having an address and some printed text: couple’s total massage voucher, couple’s yoga class voucher, lunch special for love birds…

Yifan’s comment about the weekend being awkward finally made sense.