(( Hello all~ a slightly shorter than usual chapter this week just because of where I needed to break the chapter since it's going to be too long for just one update ^^ ))

“Hakyeon?” ZiTao looked up from the white fluff rolling around on the floor while the blond was dangling a treat over her to the confuse look that Minseok had as he held the device to his ear. “Is something wrong? … What? I-… I mean, I think that should be fine, l-let me ask ZiTao,” Minseok stammered a little, lowering his mobile, holding it to his chest to muffle their part of the conversation. “ZiTao, how do you feel about children?”

“That’s a very heavy question, Hyung, we haven’t even lived together for a year and you wanna talk about children?”

“No, that’s not… My boss was wondering if we could watch his son. He has to go out of town for the day, and doesn’t know how late he’s going to be, but his husband isn’t in town either and he can’t reach their usual babysitter,” Minseok explained. ZiTao stared at him for a moment, long enough that Minseok started to raise his mobile back to his ear to tell Hakyeon they couldn’t, pausing when ZiTao looked back to Candi.

“I don’t see why he can’t come over here. I’m sure Candi would like a new friend to play with.” Minseok let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding, a light smile crossing his lips as he turned his attention back to his boss, whom he could all but hear pacing.

“What does he like to eat?” he asked, his smile growing a little at the relieved sigh the other let out.

The knock on the front door had Candi letting out an excited bark, and she jumped off of ZiTao’s lap, scurrying over to the door, getting under Minseok’s feet as he unlocked it. ZiTao called her and she ran back over to the couch, starting to jump up before she heard the door open and her attention was back on the door. Her tail was a blur of white as Hakyeon made his way in and she darted out of the room, ZiTao looking back into the hallway at a figure that was out of his sight due to the two older males in the doorway.

“Come on sweetie, it’s okay. I know it’s a new place, but they’re take good care of you.” Minseok knelt down, ZiTao straightening up on the couch to see over him, the small sandy-blond haired boy turning his focus to the copper haired male from where it had been on Hakyeon.

“Hello, I’m Minseok. What’s your name?”

“I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.” Minseok bit back a giggle.

“Sweetie, they’re not strangers,” Hakyeon said, petting the child’s hair, causing him to look up again.

“I don’t want a new home, mom.” The silver hair’s male look horrified, dropping to his knees as his hands moved to the child’s face.

“What? Why would you think you were going to a new home?!” he exclaimed, Minseok noticing just how quick tears were to lace his eyes.

“Because that’s your job, you find kids new homes.”

“Hyungwonnie, no no, that’s not what this is at all! I have to go out of town and go help a little girl who is very sad because of the new family she was sent to, but I’m coming back for you,” Hakyeon insisted, pulling the child to his chest tightly.

“Promise?” Hakyeon pulled back, placing one of his hands on the child’ cheek again.

“I promised the day they gave you to me that I would never let you go. I don’t want you to have to be home alone while I’m gone… Like when Taekwoon comes over and babysits you when dad and I go out.”

“Why can’t he watch me then instead of strangers?”

“Sweetie, they’re not strangers. Minseok is my best worker and a good friend of mine. I wouldn’t place you in the care of someone I didn’t trust.” Hyungwon looked over at Minseok, who was still knelt beside him, then over at where ZiTao was sitting.

“You’re sure you’ll come back for me?”

“As soon as I’m back in town.” Hyungwon seemed to finally relax, Hakyeon kissing his forehead before standing and offering a folded piece of paper to Minseok. “You have my mobile number, but here’s Wonshik’s, Taekwoon’s, the number to his doctor, the address of the hospital we take him to, the things he’s allergic to, the things he can’t have a lot of, foods he likes and if you can’t get a reach of any of us, as an absolute last resort… I pray it doesn’t come to that, but you can call his uncle Jaehwan. But only in case of an absolute emergency.” ZiTao bit back a laugh as Minseok took the list and Hakyeon gave Hyungwon one more kiss before slowly leaving.

“Are you hungry?” Minseok asked, locking the door behind Hakyeon, a little surprised when Hyungwon didn’t respond, finding the child’s focus on the blond sitting on the couch. “Oh, that’s my boyfriend, ZiTao.” Again Hyungwon didn’t respond, Minseok internally cringing a little before looking down at the list. ‘Make sure he eats something every couple of hours!’ was scrawled under the section of the list that dealt with food, his eyes glazing over what was listed as foods he liked. “We got some bananas the other day, so how about some cereal with them?” Minseok offered, already heading towards the kitchen as he didn’t entirely expect Hyungwon to respond. “Whatever you do, don’t hurt him while I’m gone,” he teased ZiTao, who broke his staring contest with Hyungwon to pout at the older. ZiTao turned his attention back to Hyungwon when Minseok was out of sight, frown still in place.

“Why did you stop talking after your dad left?” ZiTao asked, quickly losing the glimmer of hope that the child was going to respond. Hyungwon simply stood where Hakyeon had left him, staring at the Chinese male long enough that ZiTao started to get a nervous feeling in his stomach. “Why don’t you… I dunno, tell me about yourself?”

“My friend didn’t believe me when I told him I could hold my breath for a long time, so I stayed underwater at the pool for over three minutes.” The nervous feeling switched to discomfort and Minseok made his way back into the room.

“Why is your boss’ child weird?”

“Don’t be mean, ZiTao,” the older scolded lightly, setting a bowl on the coffee table before patting the couch. “Come sit down, Hyungwon,” Minseok suggested, the sandy blond haired boy making his way over to sit beside Minseok, who was now on the middle cushion of the couch. Minseok the television, flipping through the channels until he found one of the children’s programs and the three sat in silence until Hyungwon flinched, seeming like he almost dropped the bowl before he looked down at his feet, eyes wide as he stared at the fluff ball that was jumping at his leg.

“What is that?” He asked, ZiTao patting his lap, causing the white fluff to jump up onto the couch and sit on his lap.

“Her name is Candi,” ZiTao stated, Hyungwon’s eyes locked on the creature.

“What’s a Candi?” he asked, ZiTao’s eyebrows knitting together.

“Have you never seen a dog before?” He asked, Minseok nudging his shoulder a bit for his tone.

“Dad’s allergic, so I’ve never been around them before,” Hyungwon stated.

“But… he didn’t sneeze when he was here,” ZiTao countered, Hyungwon shaking his head.

“That’s not dad, that’s mom. Dad’s out of town too,” he replied, setting his half empty bowl on the coffee table, staying bent forward so that he was able to see Candi around Minseok. The eldest leaned back, Candi padding her way off of ZiTao’s lap and over to Hyungwon’s; the child had a mixture of curiosity and concern as he stared at the puppy, flinching when she yipped at him. “It’s staring at me.” ZiTao almost laughed, remembering half an hour earlier when he had the same thought about Hyungwon.

“You can pet her, she won’t bite,” Minseok said, Hyungwon looking up at him before back at the puppy before he reached out carefully, his hand stopping an inch from her when she started to sniff him. She yipped again, his hand and causing a soft giggle to escape the child before he started to pet her head, cooing over her. “She hasn’t gone on a walk since this morning; would you like to take her on a walk, Hyungwon?” Minseok asked, the child’s eyes flashing to him, lips starting to curl up.

“Can I?” he asked excitedly, the pair nodding and Minseok picked up the half eaten bowl, setting it in the kitchen sink while ZiTao called Candi to the front door to clip on her leash. Minseok and ZiTao slipped into their shoes, ZiTao watching Hyungwon pick Candi up, carrying her out of the apartment as soon as the door was open. The sandy-blond haired boy pet her almost constantly, the leash attached to her collar gathering dirt and a little mud as it dragged along the ground.

“Hyungwon?” Minseok called, the child looking back at the pair.

“Yes?”

“The point of taking her for a walk is for her to walk, not for you to walk while carrying her,” Minseok teased, earning a small pout from Hyungwon.

“But she’s so cute, what if she gets all dirty?” he asked, Minseok shaking his head a little, looking ahead and noticing that they were nearing one of the parks ZiTao and him enjoyed having picnics at, smiling when he noticed Hyungwon was staring at it.

“Would you like to go play?” he asked, the sandy-blond haired boy looking back at him before nodding excitedly. ZiTao expected Hyungwon to go off and start climbing on the play structure as the other children were once he handed Candi back as Minseok and ZiTao took a seat on one of the benches, so when he turned his attention back to it after adjusting Candi’s collar to find no sign of the blond his stomach dropped a little, posture straightening.

“Hyung, we lost him,” he said in a short breath, starting to stand when he felt a hand on his shoulder pulling him back.

“ZiTao, relax,” the older soothed, brushing one of his knuckles against ZiTao’s cheek before he pointed off to the side where Hyungwon was sitting in a flowerbed, and the blond’s eyebrows knitted together.

“What… what is he doing?” he asked, Minseok shrugging as he leaned back against the bench they were sitting on.

“Playing? That’s what children do?”

“But… why isn’t he playing with the other children? That’s also something that they do, isn’t it?

“He’s an only child, so I imagine he doesn’t see other children a lot,” Minseok tried to reason, though ZiTao didn’t seem convinced.

“He told me he had a friend, in a very… strange way,” ZiTao said, Minseok cracking a smile.

“Is that why you looked scared when I came back into the living room with cereal for him?” he asked, ZiTao shoving his shoulder.

“You’d be freaked out too if the first thing a child said to you was that he tried to drown himself in proving a point to his friend,” he pouted, Minseok opening his mouth to reply before Candi yipped excitedly and the pair noticed Hyungwon was standing in front of them, staring. Minseok recovered first, smile playing over his lips as he leaned forward a little.

“You having fun? ZiTao was worried since you’re not playing with the other-” he cut off when something bitter was shoved into his mouth, and he pulled back, blinking a couple of times before he pulled what had been put in his mouth out, staring down at it; a purple-blue flower. He watched Hyungwon try to put one in ZiTao’s mouth as well, but the other had been prepared enough after witnessing Minseok being attacked with it that he was able to catch it and Minseok turned his attention back to the child.

“This will protect you,” Hyungwon stated, the pair exchanging a look.

“Protect us from what?”

“From the aliens. It’ll heal you, too, if you’re dying,” he added before he turned and made his way over to a different flowerbed.

“This is why I told you he was weird.”

"He is a little... Different," Minseok said, ZiTao shaking his head and laughing.

(( Angel said that the child could be from MonstaX and I was so happy x3 I also think I'm the only one here who will have any idea about the little easter egg about the breath holding, but that's okay. ))