Dealing with the love of one's life is so nerve-wracking (Chapter 4)
Title: Dealing with the love of one's life is so nerve-wracking
Rating: PG:13
Genre: fluff and lots, comedy
Pairing: Chanyeol/Luhan, Xiumin/Kris, Tao/Sehun
Words: 8 522
Summary: Yifan and the love of his life yearn for a child to complete their family. Chanyeol meets the love of his life very out of nowhere, followed by two little kids. Tao sees the love of his life smiling at him with the most beautiful smile in the world. And it's how, with Yifan torturing the coffee, Chanyeol glaring at his cellphone and Tao staring after the waiter, they all are quite screwed.
A/N: Well, I might've got a little bit stuck at the final one. But since I'm going away for some time in almost two days and I'm not sure how it'll turn out, I decided I better cough up what's left. So, yeah, one more to go~
( Chapter 1) ( Chapter 2) ( Chapter 3)
*
"Taozi, sit down."
Zhoumi is worried. He's been watching Tao walking around the room and murmuring stuff to himself for the past fifteen minutes.
Tao doesn't really care. He's freaking out, in forty minutes he's meeting Sehun, it's a date, Sehun agreed, they're going to a Chinese restaurant, they're meeting, it's a date Tao can't even.
It's no easy matter, having a date with the love of one's life. He's been trying to figure out what to wear, to do and how to act since Wednesday, when Tao somehow gathered courage to ask Sehun out.
So, yeah, now, two days later, Tao is ready.
Kind of. Maybe. Probably. Not exactly. Not really.
Nope.
Tao sighs.
He looks at the clock and wonders whether he should go already.
Thirty eight minutes to go. And it takes about ten minutes to get to the restaurant.
Yeah, it's time to move.
Tao makes his way towards the door and stars putting his shoes on.
Zhoumi sighs and approaches his cute didi. When the man straightens up again, Zhoumi hugs him.
"Good luck," he says and smiles while ending the hug. Zhoumi raises his hand to ruffle Tao's hair, but he sees the man's expression, so he only rolls his eyes and takes the hand back.
Tao blinks at his ge, getting even more worried. He saved his hair, yeah, but somebody saying to have good luck usually screws everything up and there's ridiculous amount of bad luck and Tao can't have bad luck, he needs awesomeness, he needs to awe Sehun off his feet, he needs the love of his life to fall for him. There's no room for bad luck.
Zhoumi panics a bit too, seeing Tao panicking.
"Stop worrying." He catches the man's arms and shakes him a bit. "Now, I'm shaking out the bad stuff. There's no reason to worry. Your Sehunnie already adores you and will adore you only more. Just be yourself and stop freaking out so hard."
Tao smiles slightly at Zhoumi, who only grins back, happy that his speech did its work.
"So now go get him, tiger~" Zhoumi chuckles.
Tao ignores the last part and nods.
"Taozi," Zhoumi calls him one last time, when Tao is already outside. "Remember we won't be here later. You'll have the house to yourself." He grins wickedly and winks.
Tao glares a little and shuts the door loudly. Sehun is the love of Tao's life, he's not going to just go and try to get into his pants on their first date. He wants for things to be as meaningful as they can.
Zhoumi only chuckles, looking at the closed door.
"Is the coast clear?" Kyuhyun appears as soon as he hears the noise. He sees no dongsaeng around, so he grins. "How about we have our fun, too, before going out?"
Zhoumi narrows his eyes at his boyfriend while slowly walking towards him. He's definitely not saying no to the idea.
*
With Friday comes also the first date of Chanyeol and Luhan. Like, the first date without children. Just the two of them.
Chanyeol's pretty excited. As much as he adores the twins, spending time with only Luhan and not having to worry about little kids and where one disappeared to and even when he did, because he was just here a moment ago, how do they do that, it is a huge thing. And Chanyeol might kind of a little bit hope for, um, stuff. Like, adult stuff. A little bit of it, at least. Maybe. He's not going to force anything, but if an opportunity arises, he's going to be so into the idea.
Luhan's pretty excited, too. It's been long time since he had time without the twins. Like, besides work, but he doesn't count that. There were a few kind of dates that his friends made him to go to in the last few years, but they were done in two hours or so and Luhan was back to his little angels.
Therefore as excited as Luhan is, he's also very worried. Because this time he's leaving the twins with Chanyeol's friends. And for the whole night. How is he supposed to deal with that?
Luhan has met Minseok and Yifan. He knows they're awesome and probably the nicest people that exist in this world, but he can't help but be nervous. It's his first night without the twins. It's the twins' first night without him.
Except, a funny (and quite sad) thing, as the four are standing in front of the door to Minseok and Yifan's place, Luhan sees that his kids seem pretty excited, too. Like, he's about to go out and spend the night with his boyfriend, the first one in a few years, the one that his twins call appa, the one Luhan already imagines himself growing old with, and he's the least excited.
Luhan frowns at that thought, really unhappy with it.
Chanyeol, who just is about to ring the doorbell, notices the grimace and takes back his hand. He sneaks his hand around Luhan's waist, snuggling into the man a bit.
"It's okay if you're not sure. If at any point of the evening you'll decide we should get the twins, it's not a problem, we will," Chanyeol whispers into his boyfriend's ear. "So don't worry. We might call the guys later and I'll keep bothering them with texts to ask how they're doing. We don't even have to leave the twins here for the night, if you really aren't comfortable with it." He pecks Luhan's cheek lightly, smiling encouragingly.
Luhan smiles back. He adores how unproblematic Chanyeol is most of the time and how much he cares about others' well-being.
He pecks Chanyeol back and raises his hand to ring the doorbell himself.
*
From: Yifannie-ge
To: Tao
Jiayou!
From: Minseokkie-ge
To: Tao
Hwaiting!
From: Channie-ge
To: Tao
Hwaiting!
From: Luhan-ge
To: Tao
Hwaiting!
From: Luhan-ge
To: Tao
Hwaiting! \(^u^)/
From: Luhan-ge
To: Tao
Hwaiting! hateu
From: Mimi-ge
To: Tao
Once again, good luck!
From: Kyuhyun-ge
To: Tao
Keep away from our bedroom. And our stash.
From: Kyuhyun-ge
To: Tao
and, yeah, hwaiting and stuff, w/e
When Tao reaches the restaurant, he's still got twenty four minutes to go. He decides to wait for Sehun outside, thinking that fresh air might calm him down a bit, or at least do a better job at that than sitting inside.
As he's waiting, Tao pulls out his phone and looks through all the encouraging massages he's got during the last hour. It's pretty amazing and heart-warming, how much his friends care and support him. Even Luhan that he's met only twice sent a text. Actually, he sent three, but Tao suspects two of those are from the twins, the kids deciding each should send one, too. It's really adorable and Tao can't help but want to hug all of them in thanks for the nice vibes.
Well, except for Kyuhyun. The man's text might not seem as encouraging. But Tao knows the guy, he knows deep inside Kyuhyun is nice and cares. But, like, very deep inside where it's pretty difficult to reach most of the time.
Tao also thinks Kyuhyun should know better than to think Tao would go for any of his and Zhoumi's stuff. He had the misfortune of finding the couple's happy drawer once and, really, he doesn't want to get close ever again. Some of the stuff was actually pretty lame in his opinion, but, seriously, a thought of his geges doing anything with any of those things is already too much and he doesn't want that. He couldn't look at the couple without getting mental images and grimacing for weeks.
So, yeah, not happening. Kyuhyun doesn't have to worry.
Thirteen minutes to go. This so nice, how fast time flies while getting disgusted by the stuff his geges can maybe do at times.
But there is still time left, so Tao's wondering if everything is right, if he hasn't forgot anything. He doesn't think so. He's brought himself looking awesome, he's brought his love, he's brought money. Should he have some flowers, too? But Sehun isn't a girl. But maybe he likes flowers. Or maybe he likes chocolates? For sure he does, who doesn't like chocolates.
Very soon Tao is freaking out again and on the verge of going to buy chocolates. Really, going on a date with the love of one's life is so nerve-wracking.
"Hey."
Hearing a voice so close to him and so suddenly, Tao almost jumps in surprise. He turns to the side and feels like squealing inside as he sees Sehun grinning at him.
And it's the smile that hits Tao the most, the adorably happy smile, like Sehun is really excited meeting Tao, which makes him feel all warm inside.
"Sehunnie." Tao grins back. And then he smiles sheepishly, realizing what he just said.
"Tao-er," Sehun answers, chuckling.
Tao gapes, shocked by the other knowing that. It makes him pretty happy, too, that Sehun knows at least a bit of Mandarin.
"How do you-" Tao kind of starts, blinking at the younger.
"Jongdae-hyung had had a Chinese phase some time before we started working at the cafe and he got his crush on Joonmyun-hyung," Sehun explains with a smile. "I remember a few things."
"Joonmyun-hyung?" Tao doesn't know that one.
"The manager of the cafe."
Tao chuckles. He knows now, Jongdae's love for the manager has been very obvious since the beginning.
The two keep glancing at each other for a moment, smiling adorably.
"Shall we?" Tao points at the restaurant's door.
Sehn nods eagerly.
"I hope you don't mind it's Chinese?" Because Tao just felt like it would be a good choice, but he'd rather make sure.
"Not at all." Sehun smiles and Tao just can't help but smile back as he leads the younger to the restaurant, allowing himself to put a hand on Sehun's lower back, who only keeps smiling preciously.
*
"Bye bye." Luhan kisses each twin on the forehead. "Be nice and don't trouble Minseok and Yifan too much, okay?" He smiles at the kids, but it's a different kind of smile. It's one that Luhan has amazingly mastered, one that says he's a nice and lovely father, but it's only as long as they listen to him, so they better do.
"Have fun." Chanyeol smiles, waving at at the twins and his friends. He knows his hyungs should be able to deal with two kids. Well, most likely. Even though, as Baekhyun might be very, very hyper at times, Kyungsoo can be pretty stubborn, too, which isn't really a good combination.
Well, they'll manage. Somehow.
"But not too much fun," Luhan adds.
Chanyeol rolls his eyes and takes his boyfriend's hand.
"We're going."
The twins only keep waving, because the couple has been going for a few minutes already, with no result.
"Don't worry, Luhan," Minseok says, walking over to the twins and ruffling their hair. "We'll have fun, but the right amount of fun and they'll be fine."
"There's not going to be any problem. The twins are pretty much like little angels," Yifan adds, grinning at the twins.
Luhan and Chanyeol frown at Yifan, because what is he talking about. Has he confused them with some other kids? Because the twins are lovely, yeah, they're the most precious kids there are, but Luhan wouldn't use the word angels, even though he loves them more than he'd ever thought would be possible to love somebody.
"Anyway, seriously, we're going," Chanyeol says after a moment of silence and starts dragging Luhan towards the door.
"But remember, be good!" Luhan lets himself be a bit manhandled, but he still doesn't look away from his kids. "Call us if something's wrong." The men reach the door and Chanyeol opens it. "We love you!" Chanyeol closes the door from the outside.
The twins and the other couple look at the door for a minute as if expecting for Luhan to appear again, wanting to say something more.
"Well..." Yifan starts, not sure what to say now.
"Is he always like that?" Minseok asks, turning to the twins.
"It's the first time daddy's leaving us for the night." Baekhyun makes his way towards the couch and sits.
"Yeah, Chanyeol said so. It's pretty noticeable." Minseok and Yifan nods at each other, still glancing at the door.
"So..." Kyungsoo starts, walking over to his brother.
"What are we doing?" Baekhyun asks, beaming at the two men.
They glance at each other again.
"Is there anything you two want to do?" Yifan asks.
"Do you have anything fun, hyung?" Baekhyun smiles at him.
"Yifan has plu-" Yifan covers Minseok's mouth as he's saying. He might like the twins, but he's not going to sacrifice his plush animals just like that.
Minseok rolls his eyes.
"We can watch a movie." Yifan points at the shelves with the DVD cases. "Or television."
Kyungsoo jumps off the couch and proceeds towards there, to check out the DVDs.
"Or you can find something in Jongin's room," Minseok adds. "As ones that would know better, you could give us advices what the room needs and should look like and all."
Baekhyun gets excited at that.
*
"Choose anything you want." Tao hands Sehun one of the menus laying on the table. Sehun thanks him with a little bow and takes it.
"And, seriously, anything. Whatever you like." Tao smiles at the guy. He wants Sehun to feel comfortable with him.
Tao looks through the menu, even though he's been here several times and knows what he likes in here. He glances at Sehun after a few moments and gets confused by the man's expression. Because Sehun looks pretty confused as well, looking at the pages.
"Is something wrong?"
Sehun glances at him and back at the menu.
"It's kind of in Chinese. With very little pictures," Sehun answers with an awkward smile.
Tao's eyes widen in panic.
"Oh dear, I forgot."
Sehun chuckles at that. He closes the menu and puts it back where it was before.
"Choose something for me, then."
Tao feels a bit better that Sehun doesn't mind that little fail. And then he gets distracted for a moment, when he sees Sehun licking his lips again. Like, seriously, can't Sehun keep his tongue inside his mouth? That would be very helpful.
Tao coughs lightly.
"So..." He looks at the page he's at. It might actually turn even better this way. Tao will suggest Sehun something and then he'll take another thing that goes well with Sehun's. So they'll be able to share. Such a great plan.
Tao grins at Sehun, who grins back, although a bit confused as to where the sudden happiness came from.
"How about this one?" Tao shows Sehun the page and points at something.
Except, all Sehun sees is lots of lines and shapes and that's it.
"I like this one, yeah. It looks pretty." Sehun chuckles.
"Oh, right." Tao chuckles, too. And then he proceeds to kind of describe the dish to Sehun a bit.
Sehun agrees again as it still looks pretty.
*
"You've got so much Pororo stuff, hyung," Baekhyun says, glancing at Minseok, as he's going through the toys.
"Jonginnie likes Pororo," Minseok answers. But he admits, letting Yifan go crazy and buy Pororo sheets, Pororo lamp, even Pororo crayons and more might've not been the best decision. But Yifan was so excited, so into shopping for stuff for Jongin, that Minseok couldn't say no.
"He must like it a lot," Baekhyun murmurs to himself, eying the Pororo blanket.
Yifan comes into the room and smiles at the sight of the biggest Pororo doll in Baekhyun's hands.
"Is Kyungsoo okay?" Minseok asks, wondering if it's okay to leave the boy alone.
"He's going through our DVDs. I told him to put aside any movie he would like to watch," Yifan answers, leaning against the wall and watching Baekhyun.
"Are the...?" Minseok kind of starts, but doesn't really continue, glancing at the youngest in the room.
"Hidden. Don't worry." Yifan smiles.
Minseok nods to himself and thinks for a moment.
"We probably should hide all of the things better, before Jongin comes," Minseok decides. Yifan blinks and nods, because, yeah, after a few years of living together with nobody else, who knows what kind of stuff one could find in unexpected places.
"What are the things?" Baekhyun asks, looking at the men innocently.
Minseok groans, because, of course, a kid always hears what adults don't want them to.
"The things..." Yifan starts, looking at his husband in panic. They can't really explain that without Luhan and Chanyeol ready to kick their asses later.
"You don't have any fun movies," Kyungsoo says, suddenly appearing in the room.
The two adults sighs in relief, thankful for the distraction.
"How do you know?" Yifan is a bit confused. "You only saw the covers."
"That's enough."
Yifan frowns a little, because usually it's him who chooses movies.
"What does Jongin like to watch?" Baekhyun asks, abandoning the Pororo doll and hoping maybe they'll have something in the room.
"He likes anime." Yifan looks at Minseok, who shrugs, as that's all he knows, too.
"Do you have any?" Both twins get pretty excited at that, because they like anime as well.
"Nope," Minseok answers, deciding to remember that they should figure out some, too.
"Maybe you could recommend some?" Yifan asks. He'll know what to buy later, as he has little idea about anime.
"Hyunnie, no!" Kyungsoo says, seeing his brother open his mouth, when he knows what's going to come out of it.
"Swimming anime." Baekhyun grins.
"Don't get Jongin that one," Kyungsoo says firmly.
"Why?" Minseok risks asking.
"Hyunnie likes weird things at times. That's not for Jongin." Kyungsoo shakes his head. He doesn't know the boy, but he's pretty sure Jongin wouldn't like such a thing.
"Okay..." Yifan agrees hesitantly, glancing at Minseok in confusion, who only looks back at him in the same way.
"You know nothing." Baekhyun pouts and slaps his brother's shoulder. Kyungsoo sticks his tongue out at the other twin.
"How about we search a few on the internet? You'll show us a few titles," Minseok suggests, not wanting the boys to fight.
The twins like the idea and start running to the room where they saw Yifan's laptop, shouting various titles.
"Naruto!"
"One piece!"
"Ouran!"
"Captain Tsubasa!"
"Sailor Moon!"
Minseok looks at Yifan, both kind of confused and amused at once. But they're worried, too, because some of the titles don't really sound like something for sever yeard old kids, and Jongin is even younger.
*
"That was nice," Sehun says, smiling and glancing at Tao mischievously.
It's about two hours later and they're done with the food and they talked a lot and Tao couldn't be happier with how cheerful Sehun has been during their time together.
"It was," Tao answers, smiling back.
He thinks for a moment and decides it's now or never (only not really). He slowly takes Sehun's hand and intertwines their fingers, glancing at the other carefully to notice any sign of disapproval. He sees none, only Sehun smiling adorably, biting on his lower lip and squeezing Tao's hand lightly.
Tao grins, looking to the side. He's so glad and their hands fit so well and Sehun feels warm and perfect.
"How about a movie?" Sehun suddenly suggests, with his other hand pointing at the cinema a few building further, and pulls Tao a bit closer to himself.
Tao can't help, but keep on smiling, delighted that Sehun wants to prolong their time together.
Of course, Tao agrees.
*
A few minutes later Tao is staring at a poster of a movie.
He's already at the cinema, Sehun happily talking by his side, but Tao is only staring, worried.
"I've wanted to see the movie for a while," Sehun tells excitedly at Tao. "Nobody wants to go with me. And going by myself wouldn't be fun. When I asked Joonmyun-hyung, he tripped over nothing and walked into a table and apologized to it. And then he said no. Jongdae-hyung wasn't into the idea either. I'm guessing, because Joonmyun-hyung wasn't. And, really, nobody wanted to go with me." Sehun pouts, thinking about that again.
Tao glances at Sehun, looks back at the poster and again at Sehun. He blinks a few times and feels like something clicks in his mind.
"I'll go with you," Tao hears himself saying.
Sehun looks pretty surprised by the offer, but Tao's sure he himself is more surprised.
"Really?" Sehun beams at him and Tao can only nod.
It seems like Sehun really wants to see the movie very, very, very much, because he embraces Tao for a short moment and quickly runs away to buy tickets.
Tao blinks some more, kind of thrown off by the sudden hug and only now blushing a bit.
He can go to see any movie, if he's going to keep getting hugs for that. Even such movies, Tao thinks carefully, glancing at the poster.
Because the poster suggests bad things. Scary things. And Tao doesn't like scary things.
But for Sehun, he will deal. As long as there are no ghosts, Tao can deal.
*
As it turns out, Tao can't deal.
Because there are ghosts in the movie and it becomes very, very obvious in only a few minutes. He doesn't like that.
Tao's eyes widen, too scared to close them, because what if something happens when they're closed and he can't see and it might be worse and then he'll open his eyes and something will be in front of his face, a ghost maybe or something else scary and his heart will just stop and he's never even kissed the love of his life or said he likes him and Tao can't just die like this.
"Are you okay?" Sehun whispers, leaning over to Tao.
The man looks at Sehun, eyes still big and the fear obvious. He coughs and tries to look braver than he's feeling. Which isn't a lot, because he's not feeling brave at all.
"Y-yeah," Tao answers quietly, looking away.
"Are you sure? You keep squeezing my hand. Hard." Sehun points to their joined hands.
"Oh, sorry." Tao wants to let go and take his hand, but it's Sehun who squeezes now.
"It's okay. If it helps, it's okay," he says quietly, caressing the back of Tao's palm with his thumb.
Tao looks at their hands for a moment, finding it nice and kind of relaxing.
Except, then he glances at the screen and there's this sound and he's not relaxed anymore.
"Do you want to get out of here? We don't have to stay," Sehun asks. He's worried and feels guilty, because it's kind of his fault, Tao being scared like this.
Tao shakes his head, looking at the screen again.
"I can't. I need to know what happens, that it gets solved and everything is okay again," Tao answers, feeling stubborn, scared, desperate and terrified. So he's staying.
"Okay." Sehun looks at Tao carefully. "But if anything is wrong, tell me. Don't hesitate to hold my hand or... pretty much anything. Okay?"
Tao smiles slightly through the fear. Sehun caring for him and being worried makes him feel nice and warm inside.
And then the closet opens and the nice kind of disappears, along with his sanity.
"Let's hope it gets solved in the end," Sehun whispers to himself. He's seen too many horror movies not to know that some people like having a "but..." at the end. Like, everything seems all nice and better, but it suddenly doesn't. Or it doesn't even end well.
Looking at Tao, Sehun thinks they really need a happy ending in this one. Desperately so.
*
"Stop splashing the water." Yifan glares at the twins while trying to cover himself with a towel.
"We're not," Kyungsoo answers, smiling cheerfully.
"We're playing," Baekhyun adds, splashing some more water.
"Then play calmer." Yifan frowns at the two.
He should've known that the twins getting that excited at the suggestion of a bath was a bad sign.
And then they found bath toys, as in duckies, ships and a crocodile. And a bottle of bubble bath, so now the foam is pouring of out the bathtub, the bottle empty.
Yifan gets hit in his head with a little duck and sighs.
"Minseok, do you want to play with us?" he yells, wanting his husband to hear him, as the other man is busy in the kitchen.
"I'm cleaning. Have fun," Yifan hears Minseok yell back and snorts.
(What he doesn't know is that Minseok is long done with the cleaning after dinner and even more after the preparation for the dinner, as the twins wanted to be nice and offered to help. And the men accepted their help. Which then turned out to be lots of fun, but it ended up pretty messy, too.)
"Yifannie-hyung, be the crocodile." Baekhyun hands the toy to the man. Yifan glances at the thing and takes it. "And your crocodile name is Ken." The boy claps his hands happily, making more bubbles get on Yifan's face and hair.
Yifan only wipes the bubbles off his face and narrows his eyes, not exactly liking the name.
"We'll be ships and ducks," Baekhyun continues, pushing a few toys towards his twin, who's too busy playing with the most colorful ship to mind whatever Baekhyun is making up at the moment.
"Okay." Yifan sighs. In the end, why not to play with them. He's already mostly wet anyway. So he folds the towel, puts it on the floor and sits on it.
"So, the ships are swimming with stuff, bringing things to people in the city," Baekhyun starts the story. "There are lots needed, so they swim and swim," he continues, but suddenly Kyungsoo's ship bumps into the main one of Baekhyun. "Hey, you weren't supposed to-" He frowns. "So the ship falls over and people fall off and into the water."
"Other ships help them out of the water," Kyungsoo joins the story cutely and Baekhyun smiles at his brother.
Yifan looks at each twin and smirks.
"And then Ken the crocodile appears and attacks the people in the water and ships," he continues the story, making the toy swim quickly towards the fallen ship.
"Aaaah!" the twins scream.
Yifan growls loudly, the crocodile swimming around.
"They're all so tasty," he says, chuckling evilly. "Nom nom nom~"
"The ducks come to fight the evil crocodile," Kyungsoo decides, taking two, and Baekhyun nods and follows his twin.
The ducks starts attacking the crocodile, however the fight is pretty difficult, with Ken being very strong.
"Here, evil Ken, take this!"
The ducks kind of starts flying all over the place.
"I hear you're having fu- ouch!" is what the three suddenly hear, totally out of nowhere and out of the plot, and they turn towards the door.
Minseok is standing there, frowning, with his hand on his nose.
"A duck just attacked me," he pouts.
*
After the movie Sehun decides he's gonna take Tao home. The older appreciates the thought, but feels too distracted to get very excited. He's still suffering through the movie.
Because the movie turned out to be even worse than Tao expected. And the ending was the worst. A very, very, very open ending. Tao hates such in normal movies, but an open ending in a horror movie about ghosts is the worst thing ever.
Tao feels like a ghost might attack him at any moment. He's terrified and he hates that. He's not even able yet to care that he must look like a petty, weak human being in Sehun's eyes. He's sure he'll be freaking out over it soon, though, when the night ends and it's not so scary and dark everywhere.
Sehun feels like shit, too, but in a totally different way. He knows it's his fault, Tao being so terrified and he hates himself for it. All he can do now is walk Tao home and hold his hand, which don't seem to help much either.
Either fortunately or not, Tao's home isn't far from the cinema and it takes only a few minutes to get there.
Sehun only feels worse as he's watching Tao fumbling in his pocket, searching for the keys. The older man clearly looks like he doesn't really want to, like he dreads being home and alone and scared. Sehun hates that, too.
But it takes him a few moments to sets his mind on the idea, only when Tao sighs and puts the key into the door, Sehun puts his hand on Tao's.
"Might I stay over?" he asks stupidly.
Tao looks at him shocked, eyes widening.
"I mean, not for, like, stuff. I d-don't mean s-stuff." Sehun realizes he's mumbling dumbly, but he's kind of panicking and can't do differently. "I just want to stay. With you."
Tao looks to the side, biting his lower lip, while he's thinking. He really wants to agree. Knowing somebody is at home with him and the somebody is Sehun would help a lot. But he doesn't want the other to think that he has to stay with him, that it's his fault or something like that.
"Are you sure?" Tao asks to make sure, even though he desperately wants Sehun to stay.
"Yes, of course." Sehun smiles slightly and squeezes the man's hand.
Tao smiles back softly and finally opens the door, already feeling better now that he knows he's not the only one coming in.
*
"No. Don't! P-please!"
Sehun wakes up, confused by whatever he's hearing. He opens his eyes and looks around. It doesn't help much, because it's dark, but he quickly remembers what happened in the evening, why the bed doesn't feel like it does every night and why his side is feeling much warmer.
"Tao, wake up, it's okay," Sehun whispers, caressing the other's head.
Sehun's eyes are getting used to the darkness and now he kind of sees Tao's silhouette. The man is moving slightly, like he's dreaming about something bad, and he's still making sounds and begging somebody or something to stop.
"Tao." Sehun shakes Tao by his arm softly. "Wake up. It's only a dream."
"No- What?" Tao mumbles, slowly opening his eyes and his nightmare stopping. He's breathing heavily, he's tense and he still feels ridiculously frightened, like he's gonna die in a few seconds.
"It's okay, you're safe," Sehun whispers, moving closer to Tao and embracing him. "It was just a dream and there's no reason to worry, because I'm here with you."
Tao doesn't answer; he cuddles into Sehun and listens to the man's voice, adoring how relaxing and loving it is. Suddenly the nightmare doesn't matter anymore, everything is okay again and as long as Tao feels Sehun's warmth next to him, he can fall back asleep.
*
Zhoumi sleepily walks towards the bathroom. He's really tired and not exactly sober, so he just wants to lie down and sleep and not care.
It's five in the morning and he and Kyuhyun came back only fifteen minutes earlier. The night was awesome, their friends were awesome, but now Zhoumi is done.
He just wants to wash his teeth, face and then to pee and he'll be all ready to sleep. He considers not putting on his pajama as well, he might as well just take off his clothes and sleep in his boxers (which still will be more clothing that he has on some nights).
It's pretty dark, but Zhoumi doesn't even bother turning on the light as he's going through the corridor. He's lived here for two years, he doesn't need to.
Except suddenly something fair and white and unexpected passes by Zhoumi.
He freezes.
There should be no such thing, such a thing shouldn't exist, shouldn't be moving through their place as it wishes.
Does it want to do bad things to them?
Is it a ghost?
Aren't ghosts supposed to be not real?
Knowing he'll most definitely regret it and a lot, because he's seen horror movies and he knows how things work, Zhoumi turns around to see where the ghost white being seemed to be moving to.
Then he frowns, because he doesn't see the being standing behind his back. It doesn't make sense. Aren't ghosts supposed to scare the shit out of you, when you turn around and they're standing just there in front of you?
Zhoumi is confused.
Except, then he sees the door of Tao's room closing and he's terryfied again, because the ghost white, scary being is about to hurt his beloved, little Tao. And Zhoumi won't have that.
Therefore he quickly runs to his and Kyuhyun's bedroom to wake his lover up, as he's sure the man managed to fall asleep while waiting for him. Zhoumi rolls his eyes at the thought, because he knows it's true.
And ignoring that fact, Zhoumi just jumps on the bed and shakes Kyuhyun by his arms.
"- the fuck," Kyuhyun mumbles sleepily, opening his eyes and glaring at Zhoumi.
"There's a ghost!" Zhoumi says, not stopping the shaking.
Kyuhyun kind of stares, which isn't the easiest thing to do while being shaken. He puts his hands on Zhoumi's and stills them.
"What?" he asks, wondering if he's still sleeping and having a dumb dream.
"A ghost! It went to Tao's room! We need to save him! Move!"
"Did you have a nightmare?" Kyuhyun only keeps staring, because it doesn't make sense, it's not really Zhoumi's style to freak out like this.
"I wasn't even sleeping. I was going to the bathroom and saw it!"
"Were you sleepwalking or something?" Kyuhyun frowns as Zhoumi's never done that before.
Zhoumi snorts.
"For fuck's sake, there's no time for this." He gets off Kyuhyun and grabs his arm. "Let's go!" He starts dragging the man off the bed and out of the room and Kyuhyun is too surprised to stop him at first, and then just lets it be, deciding that this way they'll be over it sooner.
So Kyuhyun lets himself be dragged and then they're standing in front of Tao's door, which Zhoumi opens quietly. He steps inside carefully, still not letting go of his lover's arm.
"You're being ridi-" is as far as Kyuhyun gets as they're walking into the room and then he sees a person lying next to Tao. He glances at Zhoumi and the man seems to be even more surprised.
So it kind of makes sense, now, Zhoumi thinks, letting go of Kyuhyun's arm and stepping closer to the bed to get a better look at whomever it is.
It must be Sehun. He's the one Tao has been talking about for a few weeks. He described the man as pretty pale, blond-haired and tall. So it all makes sense now.
Though, Tao was so sure he wouldn't bring Sehun home for the night and here they are. Zhoumi feels like chuckling. But, as much as he can see in the dark, they seem to be dressed, he needs to admit that.
"Should we take a picture?" Kyuhyun whispers into Zhoumi's ear.
The man glares and slaps his lover's arm quietly.
"It's too dark," he answers, shaking his head at Kyuhyun's amount of dumb. He sees that the other wants to say something more and doesn't even let him. "If you try using a flash, Tao'll decorate your ass with his stick."
Kyuhyun doesn't say anything for a moment. Both because Zhoumi is right about that and because a sentence about Tao's stick always sounds funny, especially in a sentence about somebody's ass.
"Let's go." Zhoumi sighs, as even in the dark and barely seeing his lover's face he knows what Kyuhyun's thinking.
He takes Kyuhyun's hand and they both leave Tao's room.
*
"Let's wake them up~"
"No! What if they'll get angry?"
"They won't."
"Baek, stop it."
Minseok is waking up slowly, listening to the whispers. It takes him a while to figure out what might be happening. It's a little difficult at first, but the moment he remembers Kyungsoo and Baekhyun, Minseok realizes who's standing in the doorway of his and Yifan's bedroom and arguing about what to do.
"But it's morning already."
"Maybe hyungs don't get up so early."
"It's 8am."
"Exactly. I heard it's early for some people."
"What? It can't be, it's not."
Minseok is just lying and listening to their conversation. He's kind of wondering what to do. He's torn between hoping for Kyungsoo to convince Baekhyun it's a ridiculous hour and for them to go away or maybe sitting up and figuring something out. It's early, so his planning has lots of flaws.
But Kyungsoo doesn't seem to be succeeding and they don't seem like they're going away soon, so Minseok sighs.
He takes a few moments and sits up. And, yeah, there they are, the twins, talking in the doorway of the bedroom.
They don't notice him at first, so he coughs at which they jerk in surprise and looks towards him.
"You woke hyung up!" Kyungsoo slaps Baekhyun's shoulder.
"B-but..." Baekhyun pouts and makes a sad face like he's going to cry in a moment.
Minseok is confused whether the kid is really sad or just trying to get out of any potential troubles.
He ignores that, though, and, having no better ideas for the moment, he gestures for the twins to get on the bed. Also, he doesn't feel like getting up, too.
The twins jump in joy at that and quickly run to the bed, jumping on it and lying between Minseok and still sleeping Yifan.
Baekhyun wants to say something, but Kyungsoo covers his mouth and points at the sleeping man.
Minseok smiles and decides that for all the times Yifan has slept in, he might as well not sleep in today.
"Wake him up," he says softly, grinning.
The twins grin back, liking the idea. They look at each other, which Minseok assumes is some kind of twins telepathic communication thingy, nod and then look at Yifan, their grins turning mischievous.
Minseok can only watch and laugh as the twins stand up and jump on Yifan, screams of all three following.
*
When Tao wakes up, he's feeling confused. He kind of remembers the scary movie, the ghosts and his panic, except he's as relaxed and comfortable as he hasn't been in a long while. He thinks about it for a moment and pays attention to how amazingly warm and amazingly nice and amazingly right he's feeling.
But then Tao opens his eyes and it becomes obvious why he's feeling this way: cuddling with Sehun seems like definitely the reason for that.
He's torn whether to feel shy and lame for the reason why he's snuggling with Sehun at the moment, but he decides that for now it doesn't make sense, he doesn't want to and in the end Sehun seems pretty content with his arms around Tao's waist and his head hidden in Tao's neck.
Tao's feeling just right like this.
Then he feels Sehun's breath quickening, then slowly moving his hand. Tao gets distracted by that a little, as the hand is caressing his bare skin on his side and that's just not very calming.
Except, the hand doesn't stop caressing his side and the fingers seem to start playing on Tao's skin.
Tao's eye twitches, but he's confused whether to want Sehun to stop or not really. He doesn't have to decide, though, because in a few moments the younger does stop and raises his head to look at Tao adorably, blinking and half-asleep. Tao hardly holds himself from kissing this cute being's cute nose.
"Tao," Sehun murmurs quietly and smiles softly.
Tao's eye twitches again, because Sehun's voice is all sleepy and deep and rough and very distracting, especially hearing his own name like that.
"Sehunnie," Tao answers after a moment, when he realizes he probably should, and smiles back.
Sehun blinks some more and looks around at the way they're lying. Tao hopes he doesn't mind how tangled their limbs are.
"Am I too heavy?" Sehun asks after a few seconds of thinking, seeing how part of his body is placed on Tao.
"Nope," Tao answers quickly, his embrace on Sehun tightening, as he doesn't want the man to move away. "Not at all. Just perfect," kind of sneaks out and Tao almost thinks that maybe it shouldn't.
Except he doesn't, because Sehun chuckles at that, grinning, and does something and hides his face in Tao's neck again.
The something has Tao grinning brightly as well, because Sehun just kissed his cheek.
*
"We are-"
"-ready!"
The twins run into the kitchen, when the two adults are still not sure about greeting the new day. Especially Yifan isn't very happy about that, he doesn't even remember when was the last time he woke up at 8am on a day off. It's annoying, because he was glad he didn't remember.
Yifan glances at two little, definitely too energetic monster and hopes that Jongin has the ability to sleep in. Or that maybe they'll be able to get him used to that, because, seriously, he needs his beauty sleep.
The twins get on the chairs and beam at Yifan, who's still glaring at his coffee.
"What about the reward?" Baekhyun asks and Kyungsoo nods at that.
"Oh, right." Yifan straightens up, because it was his idea. That the twins will get a reward, if they'll get themselves all ready and washed up before breakfast. At least that is done.
Minseok glances at the three from where he's looking for something inside the fridge. He knows what's coming. He's got the reward before, somehow at the beginning of their relationship. He's heard the stories of Tao and Chanyeol getting theirs, too. Ah, how can he not love his husband.
Yifan gets up from his seat and walks towards one of the counters. He takes out two packages of ramen and smiles at the twins.
"So let's get the reward done," he says, grinning and reaching over for the pot.
"What?" Kyungsoo asks, confused, while Baekhyun is just staring.
"Two bowls of delicious ramen, that's your reward." Yifan beams at the twins.
Minseok snorts into the eggs. He knew that was coming and he tries not making any sounds, but the boys' expressions are just priceless.
*
"So you go." Tao points at the bathroom. "And I'll wait for you in the kitchen." He smiles, making little step backwards and looking at Sehun walking into the bathroom. The man only smiles back and nods, waving adorably.
When the bathroom door closes, Tao sighs, still smiling, turns and goes to the kitchen.
Where he freezes in the doorway, shocked by the sight of Kyuhyun and Zhoumi grinning at him.
"Taozi!" The oldest waves at Tao happily. Kyuhyun only keeps smiling with that little smile of his behind which Tao sees evil.
"Oh, right. You're back," Tao mumbles. He kind of forgot the two men's plan for the night.
"We told you we would be back late at night." Kyuhyun smirks at his dongsaeng. "Is something wrong with that?"
Tao blinks, wondering what to say or do. And then there's Sehun and is this a right moment to introduce him to the couple? Tao isn't sure. Maybe he should distracting the younger somehow and make him go?
"Tao-er?"
Too late, Tao thinks as he feels a hand on his elbow and Sehun's voice follows.
Tao turns to the younger man and smiles hesitantly.
"Is everything o- Oh!" Sehun notices Kyuhyun and Zhoumi and cuts off. He bows at them quickly, smiling shyly. "Hello!" He bows again.
Tao wants to squeal at how cute Sehun is being again. And he sees his two geges find him adorable as well.
"You're Sehun, right? Seat down." Zhoumi pats the chair next to him.
Sehun glances at Tao and tightens his hold on the older's elbow. Tao nods at him, wanting to show that it's not a bad idea, Zhoumi won't bite him, he's not Kyuhyun, so he doesn't have to be scared about anything, Zhoumi will keep his mouth to himself.
So Sehun takes a deep breath and lets go of Tao's elbow. He makes hesitant steps, but in a few seconds reaches the chair Zhoumi pointed. Thankfully, Tao follows, but before he can sit next to Sehun, Kyuhyun grabs his hand and drags him into the seat on the other side of the table. Sehun pouts seeing Tao not next to him.
"I'm Zhoumi," the man says, putting his palm on Sehun's shoulder in a try of getting his attention back from Tao. "And he's Kyuhyun." He points at Kyuhyun, not even looking at the man. "We've lived with Tao for two years and known him even longer, so if you want to know anything, just ask. We know lots of various stuff and we'll be happy to tell." Zhoumi beams at Sehun, totally happy with himself.
Next to him, Kyuhyun is grinning as well, excited at the prospect of embarrassing his dongsaeng. The guy has cockblocked him much too many times, so now it's the time for his little revenge. Like, the first part of it, before the actual cockblocking Tao might happen.
Sehun smiles a bit more confidently at the offer. He likes having such a possibility, to get needed informations from people that Tao, if asking the man himself would be difficult or just simply a not good idea.
He's not going to overuse it, though.
"Thank you, Zhoumi-sshi. I'll ask, if I need to." He bows at the two older man with gratitude.
"Don't be so formal. Call me hyung." Zhoumi pats Sehun's head affectionately. "Or gege. Whichever you prefer," he adds after a moment of thought. Then he glances at his boyfriend. "Call Kyuhyunnie whatever you want to, too." Zhoumi grins at his lover, who only rolls his eyes.
Tao hopes Sehun doesn't start calling Zhoumi gege. He wants to be the only one Sehun calls that. Well, the only one Sehun would call that. Could call that. At times. If the times sometimes happened, because for now Tao has heard only his name. He likes that a lot, too, though.
Zhoumi then proceeds to start asking Sehun questions. They're pretty basic, about the man's job, hobbies, college, food and other preferences. Tao sighs at how annoyed Sehun is probably feeling, because he doesn't seem to be at all, and Tao's pretty proud at how Sehun is bravely managing the conversation, the lots of questions.
Tao doesn't really stop that, because it would happen sooner or later, and he thinks that before Sehun actually tries to send him subtle, mental cries for help in a form of panicked looks, he doesn't have to interfere.
He shouldn't have forgot that his geges are evil, though.
"Have you kissed yet?" Kyuhyun asks suddenly, ignoring how Zhoumi was in the middle of a question. The older doesn't mind that, though, quickly answering instead of Sehun.
"Of course, they did. We saw them sleeping together." Zhoumi shakes his head with exasperation at his lover, because that's obvious.
Tao wants to ask about Zhoumi and Kyuhyun walking into his room at night and their reasons for doing so, when they were back late and most likely drunk. Unfortunately, Tao isn't fast enough.
"Did you do the do?" Kyuhyun asks, deciding that Zhoumi's argument makes sense.
"Do the do?!" Tao slaps Kyuhyun's arm, hating both Kyuhyun asking and the way he did.
On the other hand, Sehun is chuckling, because the expression always makes him laugh. Zhoumi just shakes his head and promises himself to distract Kyuhyun from the internet more.
After a few more slaps, which finally make Kyuhyun stop laughing evilly, Tao decides it's the right time to finish the meeting and show Sehun the exit where he can ran away from the craziness.
As much as he doesn't mind the questioning, Sehun thinks it's a good time to go back home, too. He's both in hurry, because he was supposed to be back yesterday, and not in hurry, because coming back means more questions. But he lets Tao walk him to the door and regrets having to leave him already.
"We'll meet again soon, right?" Sehun asks and gently takes the other's hand, smiling at Tao shyly and adorably. He just hopes looking at the man like that will make him agree immediately, even if there is any thought in his mind of not meeting Sehun.
"Of course!" Tao answers quickly and Sehun grins, because that was too excited not to be honest and eager.
So Sehun is kind of going out, but not really, and they keep holding the other's hand and smiling at each other, not wanting to let go, wishing to stay together.
But standing like that and just glancing at each other, even with Tao, gets a bit annoying soon, especially if one wants something more. So Sehun takes a deep breath and makes a step towards Tao. Then he makes another one and shortly kisses Tao's lips.
Sehun steps back and tries to control the silly smile that wants to appear on his face.
"Be mine," kind of sneaks out of Tao's mouth, before he manages to get his mind together after the kiss.
Sehun looks at Tao in shock for the first moment, having not expected that, but then he grins, makes the step closer to Tao again and wraps his hands around the older's neck.
"Okay," Sehun whispers and kisses Tao.
Tao still doesn't manage to figure out how he said that, because the answer and the second kiss are too distracting and beautiful for him to be thinking of anything else. Especially the kiss. It's not just a peck this time and Tao needs to wrap his arms around Sehun's waist to hold himself standing, when he feels Sehun's glorious tongue touch his own.
Both men feel amazingly and like they never want the kiss to end, for the other one to step away, to be apart for however short moment. They feel like they fit together just perfectly.
Except, the perfection gets ruined quickly by a whistle, clapping and weird clicking sound.
With suffering hearts, Tao and Sehun pull apart and look to the side, which is where the sounds are coming for.
Sehun is torn about what to feel at the sight of amused Kyuhyun whistling and clapping and also Zhoumi making pictures; Tao is pretty sure what to do, though: he'll wait for Sehun to be out of their place and go for his staff. Or even the sword, he doesn't care.
"They looks so cute together, don't you think so, Kuixian?" Zhoumi asks Kyuhyun dreamingly, taking one more picture of Sehun and Tao embracing each other.
Kuixian only laughs.
Tao glares.
Sehun tries not to feel like he wants to spit in the two men's coffees, if they visit the cafe one day.
*
"But are you sure there was no trouble?" Luhan asks again.
Minseok rolls his eyes hearing the question, Yifan stares at the man and Chanyeol doesn't even seem to be listening at this point.
They're all sitting in the kitchen. Luhan sent the twins to get all their things together and the kids said they wanted no help. So it left the adults chatting and drinking coffee while waiting for the two.
"Yeah, we are. They were lovely," Minseok repeats. He gets that it's the first time for the twins to spend the night without their father, for Luhan to spend the night away from his kids, but the guy kind of worried too much.
Luhan nods, glancing at his tea again. He bits on his lower lip, still worried. Chanyeol raises his head and looks at his lover. He smiles and takes the man's hand, Luhan smiling back at the gesture.
"And I see a very lovely hickey on your neck," Minseok adds after a moment, deciding it's a good moment to change the subject and distract Luhan from worrying.
Luhan's eyes widen and he covers the hickey with his hand.
Minseok and Yifan glance at each other, amused smiles on their faces. Then they look at Chanyeol, who is chuckling, obviously very proud of himself.
Luhan glares at his lover a bit, annoyed by the pleased look.
"You're the one who's going to be sporting the scratch marks on your back for quite some time," he says, sticking his tongue out.
Yifan frowns a little and Minseok just glances at his two friends, not sure how to react.
"You should be glad I'm not into doing that as well," Chanyeol answers. He thinks distantly that he might start, that could be hot at times, just as hot as he finds the marks on his own back.
"How could you get your hands to my back, when I was lying down and you were ridi-"
"Stop," Yifan cuts Luhan off. He doesn't want to hear anything, just nothing about whatever the two might've done last night, especially as it seems there was a lot of doing stuff. Chanyeol is the lovely dongsaeng of his that isn't into telling rated stories and Yifan would want to keep it that way.
"Is something wrong?" Kyungsoo asks, walking into the kitchen. Baekhyun follows behind him, looking just as confused when he sees his dads trying not to laugh while looking at Yifan, Yifan frowning and Minseok just glancing around.
*
( Chapter 5)
Rating: PG:13
Genre: fluff and lots, comedy
Pairing: Chanyeol/Luhan, Xiumin/Kris, Tao/Sehun
Words: 8 522
Summary: Yifan and the love of his life yearn for a child to complete their family. Chanyeol meets the love of his life very out of nowhere, followed by two little kids. Tao sees the love of his life smiling at him with the most beautiful smile in the world. And it's how, with Yifan torturing the coffee, Chanyeol glaring at his cellphone and Tao staring after the waiter, they all are quite screwed.
A/N: Well, I might've got a little bit stuck at the final one. But since I'm going away for some time in almost two days and I'm not sure how it'll turn out, I decided I better cough up what's left. So, yeah, one more to go~
( Chapter 1) ( Chapter 2) ( Chapter 3)
*
"Taozi, sit down."
Zhoumi is worried. He's been watching Tao walking around the room and murmuring stuff to himself for the past fifteen minutes.
Tao doesn't really care. He's freaking out, in forty minutes he's meeting Sehun, it's a date, Sehun agreed, they're going to a Chinese restaurant, they're meeting, it's a date Tao can't even.
It's no easy matter, having a date with the love of one's life. He's been trying to figure out what to wear, to do and how to act since Wednesday, when Tao somehow gathered courage to ask Sehun out.
So, yeah, now, two days later, Tao is ready.
Kind of. Maybe. Probably. Not exactly. Not really.
Nope.
Tao sighs.
He looks at the clock and wonders whether he should go already.
Thirty eight minutes to go. And it takes about ten minutes to get to the restaurant.
Yeah, it's time to move.
Tao makes his way towards the door and stars putting his shoes on.
Zhoumi sighs and approaches his cute didi. When the man straightens up again, Zhoumi hugs him.
"Good luck," he says and smiles while ending the hug. Zhoumi raises his hand to ruffle Tao's hair, but he sees the man's expression, so he only rolls his eyes and takes the hand back.
Tao blinks at his ge, getting even more worried. He saved his hair, yeah, but somebody saying to have good luck usually screws everything up and there's ridiculous amount of bad luck and Tao can't have bad luck, he needs awesomeness, he needs to awe Sehun off his feet, he needs the love of his life to fall for him. There's no room for bad luck.
Zhoumi panics a bit too, seeing Tao panicking.
"Stop worrying." He catches the man's arms and shakes him a bit. "Now, I'm shaking out the bad stuff. There's no reason to worry. Your Sehunnie already adores you and will adore you only more. Just be yourself and stop freaking out so hard."
Tao smiles slightly at Zhoumi, who only grins back, happy that his speech did its work.
"So now go get him, tiger~" Zhoumi chuckles.
Tao ignores the last part and nods.
"Taozi," Zhoumi calls him one last time, when Tao is already outside. "Remember we won't be here later. You'll have the house to yourself." He grins wickedly and winks.
Tao glares a little and shuts the door loudly. Sehun is the love of Tao's life, he's not going to just go and try to get into his pants on their first date. He wants for things to be as meaningful as they can.
Zhoumi only chuckles, looking at the closed door.
"Is the coast clear?" Kyuhyun appears as soon as he hears the noise. He sees no dongsaeng around, so he grins. "How about we have our fun, too, before going out?"
Zhoumi narrows his eyes at his boyfriend while slowly walking towards him. He's definitely not saying no to the idea.
*
With Friday comes also the first date of Chanyeol and Luhan. Like, the first date without children. Just the two of them.
Chanyeol's pretty excited. As much as he adores the twins, spending time with only Luhan and not having to worry about little kids and where one disappeared to and even when he did, because he was just here a moment ago, how do they do that, it is a huge thing. And Chanyeol might kind of a little bit hope for, um, stuff. Like, adult stuff. A little bit of it, at least. Maybe. He's not going to force anything, but if an opportunity arises, he's going to be so into the idea.
Luhan's pretty excited, too. It's been long time since he had time without the twins. Like, besides work, but he doesn't count that. There were a few kind of dates that his friends made him to go to in the last few years, but they were done in two hours or so and Luhan was back to his little angels.
Therefore as excited as Luhan is, he's also very worried. Because this time he's leaving the twins with Chanyeol's friends. And for the whole night. How is he supposed to deal with that?
Luhan has met Minseok and Yifan. He knows they're awesome and probably the nicest people that exist in this world, but he can't help but be nervous. It's his first night without the twins. It's the twins' first night without him.
Except, a funny (and quite sad) thing, as the four are standing in front of the door to Minseok and Yifan's place, Luhan sees that his kids seem pretty excited, too. Like, he's about to go out and spend the night with his boyfriend, the first one in a few years, the one that his twins call appa, the one Luhan already imagines himself growing old with, and he's the least excited.
Luhan frowns at that thought, really unhappy with it.
Chanyeol, who just is about to ring the doorbell, notices the grimace and takes back his hand. He sneaks his hand around Luhan's waist, snuggling into the man a bit.
"It's okay if you're not sure. If at any point of the evening you'll decide we should get the twins, it's not a problem, we will," Chanyeol whispers into his boyfriend's ear. "So don't worry. We might call the guys later and I'll keep bothering them with texts to ask how they're doing. We don't even have to leave the twins here for the night, if you really aren't comfortable with it." He pecks Luhan's cheek lightly, smiling encouragingly.
Luhan smiles back. He adores how unproblematic Chanyeol is most of the time and how much he cares about others' well-being.
He pecks Chanyeol back and raises his hand to ring the doorbell himself.
*
From: Yifannie-ge
To: Tao
Jiayou!
From: Minseokkie-ge
To: Tao
Hwaiting!
From: Channie-ge
To: Tao
Hwaiting!
From: Luhan-ge
To: Tao
Hwaiting!
From: Luhan-ge
To: Tao
Hwaiting! \(^u^)/
From: Luhan-ge
To: Tao
Hwaiting! hateu
From: Mimi-ge
To: Tao
Once again, good luck!
From: Kyuhyun-ge
To: Tao
Keep away from our bedroom. And our stash.
From: Kyuhyun-ge
To: Tao
and, yeah, hwaiting and stuff, w/e
When Tao reaches the restaurant, he's still got twenty four minutes to go. He decides to wait for Sehun outside, thinking that fresh air might calm him down a bit, or at least do a better job at that than sitting inside.
As he's waiting, Tao pulls out his phone and looks through all the encouraging massages he's got during the last hour. It's pretty amazing and heart-warming, how much his friends care and support him. Even Luhan that he's met only twice sent a text. Actually, he sent three, but Tao suspects two of those are from the twins, the kids deciding each should send one, too. It's really adorable and Tao can't help but want to hug all of them in thanks for the nice vibes.
Well, except for Kyuhyun. The man's text might not seem as encouraging. But Tao knows the guy, he knows deep inside Kyuhyun is nice and cares. But, like, very deep inside where it's pretty difficult to reach most of the time.
Tao also thinks Kyuhyun should know better than to think Tao would go for any of his and Zhoumi's stuff. He had the misfortune of finding the couple's happy drawer once and, really, he doesn't want to get close ever again. Some of the stuff was actually pretty lame in his opinion, but, seriously, a thought of his geges doing anything with any of those things is already too much and he doesn't want that. He couldn't look at the couple without getting mental images and grimacing for weeks.
So, yeah, not happening. Kyuhyun doesn't have to worry.
Thirteen minutes to go. This so nice, how fast time flies while getting disgusted by the stuff his geges can maybe do at times.
But there is still time left, so Tao's wondering if everything is right, if he hasn't forgot anything. He doesn't think so. He's brought himself looking awesome, he's brought his love, he's brought money. Should he have some flowers, too? But Sehun isn't a girl. But maybe he likes flowers. Or maybe he likes chocolates? For sure he does, who doesn't like chocolates.
Very soon Tao is freaking out again and on the verge of going to buy chocolates. Really, going on a date with the love of one's life is so nerve-wracking.
"Hey."
Hearing a voice so close to him and so suddenly, Tao almost jumps in surprise. He turns to the side and feels like squealing inside as he sees Sehun grinning at him.
And it's the smile that hits Tao the most, the adorably happy smile, like Sehun is really excited meeting Tao, which makes him feel all warm inside.
"Sehunnie." Tao grins back. And then he smiles sheepishly, realizing what he just said.
"Tao-er," Sehun answers, chuckling.
Tao gapes, shocked by the other knowing that. It makes him pretty happy, too, that Sehun knows at least a bit of Mandarin.
"How do you-" Tao kind of starts, blinking at the younger.
"Jongdae-hyung had had a Chinese phase some time before we started working at the cafe and he got his crush on Joonmyun-hyung," Sehun explains with a smile. "I remember a few things."
"Joonmyun-hyung?" Tao doesn't know that one.
"The manager of the cafe."
Tao chuckles. He knows now, Jongdae's love for the manager has been very obvious since the beginning.
The two keep glancing at each other for a moment, smiling adorably.
"Shall we?" Tao points at the restaurant's door.
Sehn nods eagerly.
"I hope you don't mind it's Chinese?" Because Tao just felt like it would be a good choice, but he'd rather make sure.
"Not at all." Sehun smiles and Tao just can't help but smile back as he leads the younger to the restaurant, allowing himself to put a hand on Sehun's lower back, who only keeps smiling preciously.
*
"Bye bye." Luhan kisses each twin on the forehead. "Be nice and don't trouble Minseok and Yifan too much, okay?" He smiles at the kids, but it's a different kind of smile. It's one that Luhan has amazingly mastered, one that says he's a nice and lovely father, but it's only as long as they listen to him, so they better do.
"Have fun." Chanyeol smiles, waving at at the twins and his friends. He knows his hyungs should be able to deal with two kids. Well, most likely. Even though, as Baekhyun might be very, very hyper at times, Kyungsoo can be pretty stubborn, too, which isn't really a good combination.
Well, they'll manage. Somehow.
"But not too much fun," Luhan adds.
Chanyeol rolls his eyes and takes his boyfriend's hand.
"We're going."
The twins only keep waving, because the couple has been going for a few minutes already, with no result.
"Don't worry, Luhan," Minseok says, walking over to the twins and ruffling their hair. "We'll have fun, but the right amount of fun and they'll be fine."
"There's not going to be any problem. The twins are pretty much like little angels," Yifan adds, grinning at the twins.
Luhan and Chanyeol frown at Yifan, because what is he talking about. Has he confused them with some other kids? Because the twins are lovely, yeah, they're the most precious kids there are, but Luhan wouldn't use the word angels, even though he loves them more than he'd ever thought would be possible to love somebody.
"Anyway, seriously, we're going," Chanyeol says after a moment of silence and starts dragging Luhan towards the door.
"But remember, be good!" Luhan lets himself be a bit manhandled, but he still doesn't look away from his kids. "Call us if something's wrong." The men reach the door and Chanyeol opens it. "We love you!" Chanyeol closes the door from the outside.
The twins and the other couple look at the door for a minute as if expecting for Luhan to appear again, wanting to say something more.
"Well..." Yifan starts, not sure what to say now.
"Is he always like that?" Minseok asks, turning to the twins.
"It's the first time daddy's leaving us for the night." Baekhyun makes his way towards the couch and sits.
"Yeah, Chanyeol said so. It's pretty noticeable." Minseok and Yifan nods at each other, still glancing at the door.
"So..." Kyungsoo starts, walking over to his brother.
"What are we doing?" Baekhyun asks, beaming at the two men.
They glance at each other again.
"Is there anything you two want to do?" Yifan asks.
"Do you have anything fun, hyung?" Baekhyun smiles at him.
"Yifan has plu-" Yifan covers Minseok's mouth as he's saying. He might like the twins, but he's not going to sacrifice his plush animals just like that.
Minseok rolls his eyes.
"We can watch a movie." Yifan points at the shelves with the DVD cases. "Or television."
Kyungsoo jumps off the couch and proceeds towards there, to check out the DVDs.
"Or you can find something in Jongin's room," Minseok adds. "As ones that would know better, you could give us advices what the room needs and should look like and all."
Baekhyun gets excited at that.
*
"Choose anything you want." Tao hands Sehun one of the menus laying on the table. Sehun thanks him with a little bow and takes it.
"And, seriously, anything. Whatever you like." Tao smiles at the guy. He wants Sehun to feel comfortable with him.
Tao looks through the menu, even though he's been here several times and knows what he likes in here. He glances at Sehun after a few moments and gets confused by the man's expression. Because Sehun looks pretty confused as well, looking at the pages.
"Is something wrong?"
Sehun glances at him and back at the menu.
"It's kind of in Chinese. With very little pictures," Sehun answers with an awkward smile.
Tao's eyes widen in panic.
"Oh dear, I forgot."
Sehun chuckles at that. He closes the menu and puts it back where it was before.
"Choose something for me, then."
Tao feels a bit better that Sehun doesn't mind that little fail. And then he gets distracted for a moment, when he sees Sehun licking his lips again. Like, seriously, can't Sehun keep his tongue inside his mouth? That would be very helpful.
Tao coughs lightly.
"So..." He looks at the page he's at. It might actually turn even better this way. Tao will suggest Sehun something and then he'll take another thing that goes well with Sehun's. So they'll be able to share. Such a great plan.
Tao grins at Sehun, who grins back, although a bit confused as to where the sudden happiness came from.
"How about this one?" Tao shows Sehun the page and points at something.
Except, all Sehun sees is lots of lines and shapes and that's it.
"I like this one, yeah. It looks pretty." Sehun chuckles.
"Oh, right." Tao chuckles, too. And then he proceeds to kind of describe the dish to Sehun a bit.
Sehun agrees again as it still looks pretty.
*
"You've got so much Pororo stuff, hyung," Baekhyun says, glancing at Minseok, as he's going through the toys.
"Jonginnie likes Pororo," Minseok answers. But he admits, letting Yifan go crazy and buy Pororo sheets, Pororo lamp, even Pororo crayons and more might've not been the best decision. But Yifan was so excited, so into shopping for stuff for Jongin, that Minseok couldn't say no.
"He must like it a lot," Baekhyun murmurs to himself, eying the Pororo blanket.
Yifan comes into the room and smiles at the sight of the biggest Pororo doll in Baekhyun's hands.
"Is Kyungsoo okay?" Minseok asks, wondering if it's okay to leave the boy alone.
"He's going through our DVDs. I told him to put aside any movie he would like to watch," Yifan answers, leaning against the wall and watching Baekhyun.
"Are the...?" Minseok kind of starts, but doesn't really continue, glancing at the youngest in the room.
"Hidden. Don't worry." Yifan smiles.
Minseok nods to himself and thinks for a moment.
"We probably should hide all of the things better, before Jongin comes," Minseok decides. Yifan blinks and nods, because, yeah, after a few years of living together with nobody else, who knows what kind of stuff one could find in unexpected places.
"What are the things?" Baekhyun asks, looking at the men innocently.
Minseok groans, because, of course, a kid always hears what adults don't want them to.
"The things..." Yifan starts, looking at his husband in panic. They can't really explain that without Luhan and Chanyeol ready to kick their asses later.
"You don't have any fun movies," Kyungsoo says, suddenly appearing in the room.
The two adults sighs in relief, thankful for the distraction.
"How do you know?" Yifan is a bit confused. "You only saw the covers."
"That's enough."
Yifan frowns a little, because usually it's him who chooses movies.
"What does Jongin like to watch?" Baekhyun asks, abandoning the Pororo doll and hoping maybe they'll have something in the room.
"He likes anime." Yifan looks at Minseok, who shrugs, as that's all he knows, too.
"Do you have any?" Both twins get pretty excited at that, because they like anime as well.
"Nope," Minseok answers, deciding to remember that they should figure out some, too.
"Maybe you could recommend some?" Yifan asks. He'll know what to buy later, as he has little idea about anime.
"Hyunnie, no!" Kyungsoo says, seeing his brother open his mouth, when he knows what's going to come out of it.
"Swimming anime." Baekhyun grins.
"Don't get Jongin that one," Kyungsoo says firmly.
"Why?" Minseok risks asking.
"Hyunnie likes weird things at times. That's not for Jongin." Kyungsoo shakes his head. He doesn't know the boy, but he's pretty sure Jongin wouldn't like such a thing.
"Okay..." Yifan agrees hesitantly, glancing at Minseok in confusion, who only looks back at him in the same way.
"You know nothing." Baekhyun pouts and slaps his brother's shoulder. Kyungsoo sticks his tongue out at the other twin.
"How about we search a few on the internet? You'll show us a few titles," Minseok suggests, not wanting the boys to fight.
The twins like the idea and start running to the room where they saw Yifan's laptop, shouting various titles.
"Naruto!"
"One piece!"
"Ouran!"
"Captain Tsubasa!"
"Sailor Moon!"
Minseok looks at Yifan, both kind of confused and amused at once. But they're worried, too, because some of the titles don't really sound like something for sever yeard old kids, and Jongin is even younger.
*
"That was nice," Sehun says, smiling and glancing at Tao mischievously.
It's about two hours later and they're done with the food and they talked a lot and Tao couldn't be happier with how cheerful Sehun has been during their time together.
"It was," Tao answers, smiling back.
He thinks for a moment and decides it's now or never (only not really). He slowly takes Sehun's hand and intertwines their fingers, glancing at the other carefully to notice any sign of disapproval. He sees none, only Sehun smiling adorably, biting on his lower lip and squeezing Tao's hand lightly.
Tao grins, looking to the side. He's so glad and their hands fit so well and Sehun feels warm and perfect.
"How about a movie?" Sehun suddenly suggests, with his other hand pointing at the cinema a few building further, and pulls Tao a bit closer to himself.
Tao can't help, but keep on smiling, delighted that Sehun wants to prolong their time together.
Of course, Tao agrees.
*
A few minutes later Tao is staring at a poster of a movie.
He's already at the cinema, Sehun happily talking by his side, but Tao is only staring, worried.
"I've wanted to see the movie for a while," Sehun tells excitedly at Tao. "Nobody wants to go with me. And going by myself wouldn't be fun. When I asked Joonmyun-hyung, he tripped over nothing and walked into a table and apologized to it. And then he said no. Jongdae-hyung wasn't into the idea either. I'm guessing, because Joonmyun-hyung wasn't. And, really, nobody wanted to go with me." Sehun pouts, thinking about that again.
Tao glances at Sehun, looks back at the poster and again at Sehun. He blinks a few times and feels like something clicks in his mind.
"I'll go with you," Tao hears himself saying.
Sehun looks pretty surprised by the offer, but Tao's sure he himself is more surprised.
"Really?" Sehun beams at him and Tao can only nod.
It seems like Sehun really wants to see the movie very, very, very much, because he embraces Tao for a short moment and quickly runs away to buy tickets.
Tao blinks some more, kind of thrown off by the sudden hug and only now blushing a bit.
He can go to see any movie, if he's going to keep getting hugs for that. Even such movies, Tao thinks carefully, glancing at the poster.
Because the poster suggests bad things. Scary things. And Tao doesn't like scary things.
But for Sehun, he will deal. As long as there are no ghosts, Tao can deal.
*
As it turns out, Tao can't deal.
Because there are ghosts in the movie and it becomes very, very obvious in only a few minutes. He doesn't like that.
Tao's eyes widen, too scared to close them, because what if something happens when they're closed and he can't see and it might be worse and then he'll open his eyes and something will be in front of his face, a ghost maybe or something else scary and his heart will just stop and he's never even kissed the love of his life or said he likes him and Tao can't just die like this.
"Are you okay?" Sehun whispers, leaning over to Tao.
The man looks at Sehun, eyes still big and the fear obvious. He coughs and tries to look braver than he's feeling. Which isn't a lot, because he's not feeling brave at all.
"Y-yeah," Tao answers quietly, looking away.
"Are you sure? You keep squeezing my hand. Hard." Sehun points to their joined hands.
"Oh, sorry." Tao wants to let go and take his hand, but it's Sehun who squeezes now.
"It's okay. If it helps, it's okay," he says quietly, caressing the back of Tao's palm with his thumb.
Tao looks at their hands for a moment, finding it nice and kind of relaxing.
Except, then he glances at the screen and there's this sound and he's not relaxed anymore.
"Do you want to get out of here? We don't have to stay," Sehun asks. He's worried and feels guilty, because it's kind of his fault, Tao being scared like this.
Tao shakes his head, looking at the screen again.
"I can't. I need to know what happens, that it gets solved and everything is okay again," Tao answers, feeling stubborn, scared, desperate and terrified. So he's staying.
"Okay." Sehun looks at Tao carefully. "But if anything is wrong, tell me. Don't hesitate to hold my hand or... pretty much anything. Okay?"
Tao smiles slightly through the fear. Sehun caring for him and being worried makes him feel nice and warm inside.
And then the closet opens and the nice kind of disappears, along with his sanity.
"Let's hope it gets solved in the end," Sehun whispers to himself. He's seen too many horror movies not to know that some people like having a "but..." at the end. Like, everything seems all nice and better, but it suddenly doesn't. Or it doesn't even end well.
Looking at Tao, Sehun thinks they really need a happy ending in this one. Desperately so.
*
"Stop splashing the water." Yifan glares at the twins while trying to cover himself with a towel.
"We're not," Kyungsoo answers, smiling cheerfully.
"We're playing," Baekhyun adds, splashing some more water.
"Then play calmer." Yifan frowns at the two.
He should've known that the twins getting that excited at the suggestion of a bath was a bad sign.
And then they found bath toys, as in duckies, ships and a crocodile. And a bottle of bubble bath, so now the foam is pouring of out the bathtub, the bottle empty.
Yifan gets hit in his head with a little duck and sighs.
"Minseok, do you want to play with us?" he yells, wanting his husband to hear him, as the other man is busy in the kitchen.
"I'm cleaning. Have fun," Yifan hears Minseok yell back and snorts.
(What he doesn't know is that Minseok is long done with the cleaning after dinner and even more after the preparation for the dinner, as the twins wanted to be nice and offered to help. And the men accepted their help. Which then turned out to be lots of fun, but it ended up pretty messy, too.)
"Yifannie-hyung, be the crocodile." Baekhyun hands the toy to the man. Yifan glances at the thing and takes it. "And your crocodile name is Ken." The boy claps his hands happily, making more bubbles get on Yifan's face and hair.
Yifan only wipes the bubbles off his face and narrows his eyes, not exactly liking the name.
"We'll be ships and ducks," Baekhyun continues, pushing a few toys towards his twin, who's too busy playing with the most colorful ship to mind whatever Baekhyun is making up at the moment.
"Okay." Yifan sighs. In the end, why not to play with them. He's already mostly wet anyway. So he folds the towel, puts it on the floor and sits on it.
"So, the ships are swimming with stuff, bringing things to people in the city," Baekhyun starts the story. "There are lots needed, so they swim and swim," he continues, but suddenly Kyungsoo's ship bumps into the main one of Baekhyun. "Hey, you weren't supposed to-" He frowns. "So the ship falls over and people fall off and into the water."
"Other ships help them out of the water," Kyungsoo joins the story cutely and Baekhyun smiles at his brother.
Yifan looks at each twin and smirks.
"And then Ken the crocodile appears and attacks the people in the water and ships," he continues the story, making the toy swim quickly towards the fallen ship.
"Aaaah!" the twins scream.
Yifan growls loudly, the crocodile swimming around.
"They're all so tasty," he says, chuckling evilly. "Nom nom nom~"
"The ducks come to fight the evil crocodile," Kyungsoo decides, taking two, and Baekhyun nods and follows his twin.
The ducks starts attacking the crocodile, however the fight is pretty difficult, with Ken being very strong.
"Here, evil Ken, take this!"
The ducks kind of starts flying all over the place.
"I hear you're having fu- ouch!" is what the three suddenly hear, totally out of nowhere and out of the plot, and they turn towards the door.
Minseok is standing there, frowning, with his hand on his nose.
"A duck just attacked me," he pouts.
*
After the movie Sehun decides he's gonna take Tao home. The older appreciates the thought, but feels too distracted to get very excited. He's still suffering through the movie.
Because the movie turned out to be even worse than Tao expected. And the ending was the worst. A very, very, very open ending. Tao hates such in normal movies, but an open ending in a horror movie about ghosts is the worst thing ever.
Tao feels like a ghost might attack him at any moment. He's terrified and he hates that. He's not even able yet to care that he must look like a petty, weak human being in Sehun's eyes. He's sure he'll be freaking out over it soon, though, when the night ends and it's not so scary and dark everywhere.
Sehun feels like shit, too, but in a totally different way. He knows it's his fault, Tao being so terrified and he hates himself for it. All he can do now is walk Tao home and hold his hand, which don't seem to help much either.
Either fortunately or not, Tao's home isn't far from the cinema and it takes only a few minutes to get there.
Sehun only feels worse as he's watching Tao fumbling in his pocket, searching for the keys. The older man clearly looks like he doesn't really want to, like he dreads being home and alone and scared. Sehun hates that, too.
But it takes him a few moments to sets his mind on the idea, only when Tao sighs and puts the key into the door, Sehun puts his hand on Tao's.
"Might I stay over?" he asks stupidly.
Tao looks at him shocked, eyes widening.
"I mean, not for, like, stuff. I d-don't mean s-stuff." Sehun realizes he's mumbling dumbly, but he's kind of panicking and can't do differently. "I just want to stay. With you."
Tao looks to the side, biting his lower lip, while he's thinking. He really wants to agree. Knowing somebody is at home with him and the somebody is Sehun would help a lot. But he doesn't want the other to think that he has to stay with him, that it's his fault or something like that.
"Are you sure?" Tao asks to make sure, even though he desperately wants Sehun to stay.
"Yes, of course." Sehun smiles slightly and squeezes the man's hand.
Tao smiles back softly and finally opens the door, already feeling better now that he knows he's not the only one coming in.
*
"No. Don't! P-please!"
Sehun wakes up, confused by whatever he's hearing. He opens his eyes and looks around. It doesn't help much, because it's dark, but he quickly remembers what happened in the evening, why the bed doesn't feel like it does every night and why his side is feeling much warmer.
"Tao, wake up, it's okay," Sehun whispers, caressing the other's head.
Sehun's eyes are getting used to the darkness and now he kind of sees Tao's silhouette. The man is moving slightly, like he's dreaming about something bad, and he's still making sounds and begging somebody or something to stop.
"Tao." Sehun shakes Tao by his arm softly. "Wake up. It's only a dream."
"No- What?" Tao mumbles, slowly opening his eyes and his nightmare stopping. He's breathing heavily, he's tense and he still feels ridiculously frightened, like he's gonna die in a few seconds.
"It's okay, you're safe," Sehun whispers, moving closer to Tao and embracing him. "It was just a dream and there's no reason to worry, because I'm here with you."
Tao doesn't answer; he cuddles into Sehun and listens to the man's voice, adoring how relaxing and loving it is. Suddenly the nightmare doesn't matter anymore, everything is okay again and as long as Tao feels Sehun's warmth next to him, he can fall back asleep.
*
Zhoumi sleepily walks towards the bathroom. He's really tired and not exactly sober, so he just wants to lie down and sleep and not care.
It's five in the morning and he and Kyuhyun came back only fifteen minutes earlier. The night was awesome, their friends were awesome, but now Zhoumi is done.
He just wants to wash his teeth, face and then to pee and he'll be all ready to sleep. He considers not putting on his pajama as well, he might as well just take off his clothes and sleep in his boxers (which still will be more clothing that he has on some nights).
It's pretty dark, but Zhoumi doesn't even bother turning on the light as he's going through the corridor. He's lived here for two years, he doesn't need to.
Except suddenly something fair and white and unexpected passes by Zhoumi.
He freezes.
There should be no such thing, such a thing shouldn't exist, shouldn't be moving through their place as it wishes.
Does it want to do bad things to them?
Is it a ghost?
Aren't ghosts supposed to be not real?
Knowing he'll most definitely regret it and a lot, because he's seen horror movies and he knows how things work, Zhoumi turns around to see where the ghost white being seemed to be moving to.
Then he frowns, because he doesn't see the being standing behind his back. It doesn't make sense. Aren't ghosts supposed to scare the shit out of you, when you turn around and they're standing just there in front of you?
Zhoumi is confused.
Except, then he sees the door of Tao's room closing and he's terryfied again, because the ghost white, scary being is about to hurt his beloved, little Tao. And Zhoumi won't have that.
Therefore he quickly runs to his and Kyuhyun's bedroom to wake his lover up, as he's sure the man managed to fall asleep while waiting for him. Zhoumi rolls his eyes at the thought, because he knows it's true.
And ignoring that fact, Zhoumi just jumps on the bed and shakes Kyuhyun by his arms.
"- the fuck," Kyuhyun mumbles sleepily, opening his eyes and glaring at Zhoumi.
"There's a ghost!" Zhoumi says, not stopping the shaking.
Kyuhyun kind of stares, which isn't the easiest thing to do while being shaken. He puts his hands on Zhoumi's and stills them.
"What?" he asks, wondering if he's still sleeping and having a dumb dream.
"A ghost! It went to Tao's room! We need to save him! Move!"
"Did you have a nightmare?" Kyuhyun only keeps staring, because it doesn't make sense, it's not really Zhoumi's style to freak out like this.
"I wasn't even sleeping. I was going to the bathroom and saw it!"
"Were you sleepwalking or something?" Kyuhyun frowns as Zhoumi's never done that before.
Zhoumi snorts.
"For fuck's sake, there's no time for this." He gets off Kyuhyun and grabs his arm. "Let's go!" He starts dragging the man off the bed and out of the room and Kyuhyun is too surprised to stop him at first, and then just lets it be, deciding that this way they'll be over it sooner.
So Kyuhyun lets himself be dragged and then they're standing in front of Tao's door, which Zhoumi opens quietly. He steps inside carefully, still not letting go of his lover's arm.
"You're being ridi-" is as far as Kyuhyun gets as they're walking into the room and then he sees a person lying next to Tao. He glances at Zhoumi and the man seems to be even more surprised.
So it kind of makes sense, now, Zhoumi thinks, letting go of Kyuhyun's arm and stepping closer to the bed to get a better look at whomever it is.
It must be Sehun. He's the one Tao has been talking about for a few weeks. He described the man as pretty pale, blond-haired and tall. So it all makes sense now.
Though, Tao was so sure he wouldn't bring Sehun home for the night and here they are. Zhoumi feels like chuckling. But, as much as he can see in the dark, they seem to be dressed, he needs to admit that.
"Should we take a picture?" Kyuhyun whispers into Zhoumi's ear.
The man glares and slaps his lover's arm quietly.
"It's too dark," he answers, shaking his head at Kyuhyun's amount of dumb. He sees that the other wants to say something more and doesn't even let him. "If you try using a flash, Tao'll decorate your ass with his stick."
Kyuhyun doesn't say anything for a moment. Both because Zhoumi is right about that and because a sentence about Tao's stick always sounds funny, especially in a sentence about somebody's ass.
"Let's go." Zhoumi sighs, as even in the dark and barely seeing his lover's face he knows what Kyuhyun's thinking.
He takes Kyuhyun's hand and they both leave Tao's room.
*
"Let's wake them up~"
"No! What if they'll get angry?"
"They won't."
"Baek, stop it."
Minseok is waking up slowly, listening to the whispers. It takes him a while to figure out what might be happening. It's a little difficult at first, but the moment he remembers Kyungsoo and Baekhyun, Minseok realizes who's standing in the doorway of his and Yifan's bedroom and arguing about what to do.
"But it's morning already."
"Maybe hyungs don't get up so early."
"It's 8am."
"Exactly. I heard it's early for some people."
"What? It can't be, it's not."
Minseok is just lying and listening to their conversation. He's kind of wondering what to do. He's torn between hoping for Kyungsoo to convince Baekhyun it's a ridiculous hour and for them to go away or maybe sitting up and figuring something out. It's early, so his planning has lots of flaws.
But Kyungsoo doesn't seem to be succeeding and they don't seem like they're going away soon, so Minseok sighs.
He takes a few moments and sits up. And, yeah, there they are, the twins, talking in the doorway of the bedroom.
They don't notice him at first, so he coughs at which they jerk in surprise and looks towards him.
"You woke hyung up!" Kyungsoo slaps Baekhyun's shoulder.
"B-but..." Baekhyun pouts and makes a sad face like he's going to cry in a moment.
Minseok is confused whether the kid is really sad or just trying to get out of any potential troubles.
He ignores that, though, and, having no better ideas for the moment, he gestures for the twins to get on the bed. Also, he doesn't feel like getting up, too.
The twins jump in joy at that and quickly run to the bed, jumping on it and lying between Minseok and still sleeping Yifan.
Baekhyun wants to say something, but Kyungsoo covers his mouth and points at the sleeping man.
Minseok smiles and decides that for all the times Yifan has slept in, he might as well not sleep in today.
"Wake him up," he says softly, grinning.
The twins grin back, liking the idea. They look at each other, which Minseok assumes is some kind of twins telepathic communication thingy, nod and then look at Yifan, their grins turning mischievous.
Minseok can only watch and laugh as the twins stand up and jump on Yifan, screams of all three following.
*
When Tao wakes up, he's feeling confused. He kind of remembers the scary movie, the ghosts and his panic, except he's as relaxed and comfortable as he hasn't been in a long while. He thinks about it for a moment and pays attention to how amazingly warm and amazingly nice and amazingly right he's feeling.
But then Tao opens his eyes and it becomes obvious why he's feeling this way: cuddling with Sehun seems like definitely the reason for that.
He's torn whether to feel shy and lame for the reason why he's snuggling with Sehun at the moment, but he decides that for now it doesn't make sense, he doesn't want to and in the end Sehun seems pretty content with his arms around Tao's waist and his head hidden in Tao's neck.
Tao's feeling just right like this.
Then he feels Sehun's breath quickening, then slowly moving his hand. Tao gets distracted by that a little, as the hand is caressing his bare skin on his side and that's just not very calming.
Except, the hand doesn't stop caressing his side and the fingers seem to start playing on Tao's skin.
Tao's eye twitches, but he's confused whether to want Sehun to stop or not really. He doesn't have to decide, though, because in a few moments the younger does stop and raises his head to look at Tao adorably, blinking and half-asleep. Tao hardly holds himself from kissing this cute being's cute nose.
"Tao," Sehun murmurs quietly and smiles softly.
Tao's eye twitches again, because Sehun's voice is all sleepy and deep and rough and very distracting, especially hearing his own name like that.
"Sehunnie," Tao answers after a moment, when he realizes he probably should, and smiles back.
Sehun blinks some more and looks around at the way they're lying. Tao hopes he doesn't mind how tangled their limbs are.
"Am I too heavy?" Sehun asks after a few seconds of thinking, seeing how part of his body is placed on Tao.
"Nope," Tao answers quickly, his embrace on Sehun tightening, as he doesn't want the man to move away. "Not at all. Just perfect," kind of sneaks out and Tao almost thinks that maybe it shouldn't.
Except he doesn't, because Sehun chuckles at that, grinning, and does something and hides his face in Tao's neck again.
The something has Tao grinning brightly as well, because Sehun just kissed his cheek.
*
"We are-"
"-ready!"
The twins run into the kitchen, when the two adults are still not sure about greeting the new day. Especially Yifan isn't very happy about that, he doesn't even remember when was the last time he woke up at 8am on a day off. It's annoying, because he was glad he didn't remember.
Yifan glances at two little, definitely too energetic monster and hopes that Jongin has the ability to sleep in. Or that maybe they'll be able to get him used to that, because, seriously, he needs his beauty sleep.
The twins get on the chairs and beam at Yifan, who's still glaring at his coffee.
"What about the reward?" Baekhyun asks and Kyungsoo nods at that.
"Oh, right." Yifan straightens up, because it was his idea. That the twins will get a reward, if they'll get themselves all ready and washed up before breakfast. At least that is done.
Minseok glances at the three from where he's looking for something inside the fridge. He knows what's coming. He's got the reward before, somehow at the beginning of their relationship. He's heard the stories of Tao and Chanyeol getting theirs, too. Ah, how can he not love his husband.
Yifan gets up from his seat and walks towards one of the counters. He takes out two packages of ramen and smiles at the twins.
"So let's get the reward done," he says, grinning and reaching over for the pot.
"What?" Kyungsoo asks, confused, while Baekhyun is just staring.
"Two bowls of delicious ramen, that's your reward." Yifan beams at the twins.
Minseok snorts into the eggs. He knew that was coming and he tries not making any sounds, but the boys' expressions are just priceless.
*
"So you go." Tao points at the bathroom. "And I'll wait for you in the kitchen." He smiles, making little step backwards and looking at Sehun walking into the bathroom. The man only smiles back and nods, waving adorably.
When the bathroom door closes, Tao sighs, still smiling, turns and goes to the kitchen.
Where he freezes in the doorway, shocked by the sight of Kyuhyun and Zhoumi grinning at him.
"Taozi!" The oldest waves at Tao happily. Kyuhyun only keeps smiling with that little smile of his behind which Tao sees evil.
"Oh, right. You're back," Tao mumbles. He kind of forgot the two men's plan for the night.
"We told you we would be back late at night." Kyuhyun smirks at his dongsaeng. "Is something wrong with that?"
Tao blinks, wondering what to say or do. And then there's Sehun and is this a right moment to introduce him to the couple? Tao isn't sure. Maybe he should distracting the younger somehow and make him go?
"Tao-er?"
Too late, Tao thinks as he feels a hand on his elbow and Sehun's voice follows.
Tao turns to the younger man and smiles hesitantly.
"Is everything o- Oh!" Sehun notices Kyuhyun and Zhoumi and cuts off. He bows at them quickly, smiling shyly. "Hello!" He bows again.
Tao wants to squeal at how cute Sehun is being again. And he sees his two geges find him adorable as well.
"You're Sehun, right? Seat down." Zhoumi pats the chair next to him.
Sehun glances at Tao and tightens his hold on the older's elbow. Tao nods at him, wanting to show that it's not a bad idea, Zhoumi won't bite him, he's not Kyuhyun, so he doesn't have to be scared about anything, Zhoumi will keep his mouth to himself.
So Sehun takes a deep breath and lets go of Tao's elbow. He makes hesitant steps, but in a few seconds reaches the chair Zhoumi pointed. Thankfully, Tao follows, but before he can sit next to Sehun, Kyuhyun grabs his hand and drags him into the seat on the other side of the table. Sehun pouts seeing Tao not next to him.
"I'm Zhoumi," the man says, putting his palm on Sehun's shoulder in a try of getting his attention back from Tao. "And he's Kyuhyun." He points at Kyuhyun, not even looking at the man. "We've lived with Tao for two years and known him even longer, so if you want to know anything, just ask. We know lots of various stuff and we'll be happy to tell." Zhoumi beams at Sehun, totally happy with himself.
Next to him, Kyuhyun is grinning as well, excited at the prospect of embarrassing his dongsaeng. The guy has cockblocked him much too many times, so now it's the time for his little revenge. Like, the first part of it, before the actual cockblocking Tao might happen.
Sehun smiles a bit more confidently at the offer. He likes having such a possibility, to get needed informations from people that Tao, if asking the man himself would be difficult or just simply a not good idea.
He's not going to overuse it, though.
"Thank you, Zhoumi-sshi. I'll ask, if I need to." He bows at the two older man with gratitude.
"Don't be so formal. Call me hyung." Zhoumi pats Sehun's head affectionately. "Or gege. Whichever you prefer," he adds after a moment of thought. Then he glances at his boyfriend. "Call Kyuhyunnie whatever you want to, too." Zhoumi grins at his lover, who only rolls his eyes.
Tao hopes Sehun doesn't start calling Zhoumi gege. He wants to be the only one Sehun calls that. Well, the only one Sehun would call that. Could call that. At times. If the times sometimes happened, because for now Tao has heard only his name. He likes that a lot, too, though.
Zhoumi then proceeds to start asking Sehun questions. They're pretty basic, about the man's job, hobbies, college, food and other preferences. Tao sighs at how annoyed Sehun is probably feeling, because he doesn't seem to be at all, and Tao's pretty proud at how Sehun is bravely managing the conversation, the lots of questions.
Tao doesn't really stop that, because it would happen sooner or later, and he thinks that before Sehun actually tries to send him subtle, mental cries for help in a form of panicked looks, he doesn't have to interfere.
He shouldn't have forgot that his geges are evil, though.
"Have you kissed yet?" Kyuhyun asks suddenly, ignoring how Zhoumi was in the middle of a question. The older doesn't mind that, though, quickly answering instead of Sehun.
"Of course, they did. We saw them sleeping together." Zhoumi shakes his head with exasperation at his lover, because that's obvious.
Tao wants to ask about Zhoumi and Kyuhyun walking into his room at night and their reasons for doing so, when they were back late and most likely drunk. Unfortunately, Tao isn't fast enough.
"Did you do the do?" Kyuhyun asks, deciding that Zhoumi's argument makes sense.
"Do the do?!" Tao slaps Kyuhyun's arm, hating both Kyuhyun asking and the way he did.
On the other hand, Sehun is chuckling, because the expression always makes him laugh. Zhoumi just shakes his head and promises himself to distract Kyuhyun from the internet more.
After a few more slaps, which finally make Kyuhyun stop laughing evilly, Tao decides it's the right time to finish the meeting and show Sehun the exit where he can ran away from the craziness.
As much as he doesn't mind the questioning, Sehun thinks it's a good time to go back home, too. He's both in hurry, because he was supposed to be back yesterday, and not in hurry, because coming back means more questions. But he lets Tao walk him to the door and regrets having to leave him already.
"We'll meet again soon, right?" Sehun asks and gently takes the other's hand, smiling at Tao shyly and adorably. He just hopes looking at the man like that will make him agree immediately, even if there is any thought in his mind of not meeting Sehun.
"Of course!" Tao answers quickly and Sehun grins, because that was too excited not to be honest and eager.
So Sehun is kind of going out, but not really, and they keep holding the other's hand and smiling at each other, not wanting to let go, wishing to stay together.
But standing like that and just glancing at each other, even with Tao, gets a bit annoying soon, especially if one wants something more. So Sehun takes a deep breath and makes a step towards Tao. Then he makes another one and shortly kisses Tao's lips.
Sehun steps back and tries to control the silly smile that wants to appear on his face.
"Be mine," kind of sneaks out of Tao's mouth, before he manages to get his mind together after the kiss.
Sehun looks at Tao in shock for the first moment, having not expected that, but then he grins, makes the step closer to Tao again and wraps his hands around the older's neck.
"Okay," Sehun whispers and kisses Tao.
Tao still doesn't manage to figure out how he said that, because the answer and the second kiss are too distracting and beautiful for him to be thinking of anything else. Especially the kiss. It's not just a peck this time and Tao needs to wrap his arms around Sehun's waist to hold himself standing, when he feels Sehun's glorious tongue touch his own.
Both men feel amazingly and like they never want the kiss to end, for the other one to step away, to be apart for however short moment. They feel like they fit together just perfectly.
Except, the perfection gets ruined quickly by a whistle, clapping and weird clicking sound.
With suffering hearts, Tao and Sehun pull apart and look to the side, which is where the sounds are coming for.
Sehun is torn about what to feel at the sight of amused Kyuhyun whistling and clapping and also Zhoumi making pictures; Tao is pretty sure what to do, though: he'll wait for Sehun to be out of their place and go for his staff. Or even the sword, he doesn't care.
"They looks so cute together, don't you think so, Kuixian?" Zhoumi asks Kyuhyun dreamingly, taking one more picture of Sehun and Tao embracing each other.
Kuixian only laughs.
Tao glares.
Sehun tries not to feel like he wants to spit in the two men's coffees, if they visit the cafe one day.
*
"But are you sure there was no trouble?" Luhan asks again.
Minseok rolls his eyes hearing the question, Yifan stares at the man and Chanyeol doesn't even seem to be listening at this point.
They're all sitting in the kitchen. Luhan sent the twins to get all their things together and the kids said they wanted no help. So it left the adults chatting and drinking coffee while waiting for the two.
"Yeah, we are. They were lovely," Minseok repeats. He gets that it's the first time for the twins to spend the night without their father, for Luhan to spend the night away from his kids, but the guy kind of worried too much.
Luhan nods, glancing at his tea again. He bits on his lower lip, still worried. Chanyeol raises his head and looks at his lover. He smiles and takes the man's hand, Luhan smiling back at the gesture.
"And I see a very lovely hickey on your neck," Minseok adds after a moment, deciding it's a good moment to change the subject and distract Luhan from worrying.
Luhan's eyes widen and he covers the hickey with his hand.
Minseok and Yifan glance at each other, amused smiles on their faces. Then they look at Chanyeol, who is chuckling, obviously very proud of himself.
Luhan glares at his lover a bit, annoyed by the pleased look.
"You're the one who's going to be sporting the scratch marks on your back for quite some time," he says, sticking his tongue out.
Yifan frowns a little and Minseok just glances at his two friends, not sure how to react.
"You should be glad I'm not into doing that as well," Chanyeol answers. He thinks distantly that he might start, that could be hot at times, just as hot as he finds the marks on his own back.
"How could you get your hands to my back, when I was lying down and you were ridi-"
"Stop," Yifan cuts Luhan off. He doesn't want to hear anything, just nothing about whatever the two might've done last night, especially as it seems there was a lot of doing stuff. Chanyeol is the lovely dongsaeng of his that isn't into telling rated stories and Yifan would want to keep it that way.
"Is something wrong?" Kyungsoo asks, walking into the kitchen. Baekhyun follows behind him, looking just as confused when he sees his dads trying not to laugh while looking at Yifan, Yifan frowning and Minseok just glancing around.
*
( Chapter 5)