one, two, three, for kocch
Title: one, two, three
Recipient: kocch
Pairing: Seungyoon/Taehyun
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Seungyoon and Taehyun adopt a two year old.
Notes: Dear recipient, I hope you like this!
Taehyun’s hip is digging into Seungyoon’s front uncomfortably. He sighs, tugs the covers away from his body and rolls onto his back. A thump comes from the baby blue monitor set up next to Seungyoon’s phone, followed by white noise and frustrated puffs of air.
Seungyoon kicks his leg out at Taehyun’s shin. “He’s up.”
When Taehyun doesn’t make a move or a sound, to indicate he’s awake, Seungyoon rolls back over. “Taehyunnie,” he presses his lips to Taehyun’s skin, to nose between Taehyun’s naked shoulderblades.
Taehyun shivers with it, and then pushes his elbow back into Seungyoon’s face. “Sleepin’.”
“Grumpy asshole,” Seungyoon grumbles, a sleepy smile on his face, and rolls away to catch their kid before he faceplants into his fluffy grey carpet.
Danah had given it to them, a year or two back, after Minho had brought her along for Taehyun’s birthday. I bought it and never used it, she’d said with a small smile in the dim hallway of Minho’s shop a month later, as Seungyoon was loitering about waiting for Taehyun to finish, it would look nice in the room you guys put together.
They talked about it, in the quiet of the morning, words easier to come at dark, skin sticking together and sheets rumpled at the foot of the bed. Doesn’t match the crib, Taehyun had said, and then kissed the words into Seungyoon’s mouth.
Now, Seungyoon curls his bare toes into the soft of the carpet and runs his finger over the sole of the small foot dangling over the side of the crib. Beau startles with a shriek, and then topples face first back into his bedding, sunny smile on his face when he rolls over and slaps his foot, wedged between the bars of the crib, down on Seungyoon’s thigh, “daddy.”
“Were you trying to climb out of your crib, baby Beau?” stretching over the crib, Seungyoon tugs the blinds up all the way, the wooden bar digging into his stomach. He wobbles on his toes when Beau catches a fistful of his shirt to pull himself up to his little feet again.
“Nu uh,” the boy shakes his head, ashy brown hair falling over his eyes. Seungyoon smoothens it back with a gentle hand and swings Beau out of his crib.
“You sure?” he checks, faking oblivion. Leaving the nursery door open, he pads back into the bedroom.
Beau looks at him carefully from his perch in Seungyoon’s arms, and lifts both hands to squish Seungyoon’s cheeks together, like Taehyun does to him every day. “Yes, daddy.”
“I completely believe you,” Seungyoon says dryly as Beau crawls uninterestedly out of his arms and across the bed, to flop over whatever part of Taehyun he can see under the blanket.
“Mornin’, daddy,” he strokes his hand down the side of Taehyun’s face, and squeals with laughter when Taehyun slides a hand around his middle, hauling him over his body and into his arms.
Seungyoon watches, heart swelling, as Taehyun squints his eyes open and leans over Beau, caging the boy in to whisper goodmornings and iloveyous into his ticklish ear.
Sprawling on his back, with hair flopping over his forehead, Seungyoon reaches a hand blindly over his head, pinching the top of Taehyun’s thigh. “You want to take him to the park before lunch? I was going to check in with Jinwoo hyung at the hospital.”
“You have to go in?” Taehyun shifts behind him. The bed dips at Seungyoon’s shoulder a moment later and Seungyoon gets a tiny foot to his nose as Beau trips over him. Oopsie, is what he says, climbing off the bed.
“Sorry, daddy,” Seungyoon corrects with a wince, and returns his gaze to the boy after glancing at Taehyun. “No, I just wanted to check on the cases I was on last month.”
“Sorry, daddy,” Beau parrots from where he’s stacking Taehyun’s notepads. Taehyun sits up next to Seungyoon, bed hair sticking up on the left, face soft from sleep. Seungyoon runs fingertips down Taehyun’s bare side and Taehyun squirms, tugs Seungyoon’s hand away and laces their fingers together.
“We can meet at the park for lunch,” he says, as they both watch Beau knock over the small tower of notepads he’s built. Taehyun’s favourite one falls open to the floor, but he doesn’t say anything, hums as Beau grabs at it with a clumsy fist, the page crinkling beneath his fingers.
“We’re meeting Seunghoon, yeah?” Seungyoon glances at him.
Taehyun nods, and hides a big yawn behind his palm. “Ask Jinwoo hyung to come,” he says, sticking his feet out from under the comforter. “I texted Minho last night.”
Seungyoon looks at him from under his lashes and snorts. “Miss him that much?”
Rolling his eyes, Taehyun shoves at his shoulder. “Shut up.” Seungyoon curls up in pretend pain, and sees Taehyun’s lips curling up at the corners. He’s taken less time off than Seungyoon, but hasn’t been back to the shop the last two weeks they’ve had Beau with them. Seungyoon knows he’s been texting Minho every day, sending sketches back and forth, no matter how much Taehyun tries to deny it by ignoring Seungyoon’s words.
Beau bounces over, hand stilling on Seungyoon’s shin as he looks him over. “Daddy hurt?”
“No, sugar.” Seungyoon says, uncurls, and Taehyun shoots him a look.
“Don’t call our kid sugar.” Seungyoon widens his eyes at Taehyun, and waves his hand around to emphasise.
“But he’s so cute!” he cries.
Taehyun rolls his eyes again dramatically, and Beau giggles at the foot of the bed, little body buzzing with energy. Then he slaps his hands down on Seungyoon’s shin as hard as he can. “Breakfast, daddy!”
They eat the cereal Seungyoon hates and Taehyun buys in bulk. Seungyoon’s on cutting duty this morning as Taehyun washes up, and he arranges the pieces of fruit in a smiley face Beau scrunches his nose up at when he presents the plate to him.
He is an oddly clean child, so they have to do barely any washing up after they’re done. Seungyoon grabs his backpack and Taehyun’s bag is overflowing with wipes and pacifiers and extra clothes.
“We need to buy a diaper bag,” he tells Seungyoon as he locks the door, and Seungyoon moves a step down from Beau, arm stretched out in case Beau needs to catch himself.
“You’re not taking the stroller?” Seungyoon asks, eyes on the small fingers Beau has wrapped around the railing.
Taehyun’s eyebrow shoots up. “On the subway and into the city? No thanks.”
They part in front of the building, after ten kisses for Beau, three for daddy Taehyun and two for Seungyoon.
Seungyoon grabs coffee from the shop across the hospital because the cafeteria coffee has only gotten worse in the time he’s spent there. Jinwoo is twenty minutes late, and doesn’t reply to the angry emojis Seungyoon spams him with. Ten minutes later, Seungyoon finds him asleep in one of the on-call rooms on the paediatrics floor.
“Just needed a little nap,” Jinwoo says, another ten minutes later, cross-legged on the bottom bunk with half of his coffee gone.
Seungyoon snorts. “When’d you get in?”
“Here?” Jinwoo glances at him. A thread on his coat pocket has come loose, and the bear sewn into his pocket now stares at Seungyoon with intimidating eyebrows and no mouth. “Seven-ish? It was a long night.”
Seungyoon hums. It was nice, staying home with Beau and Taehyun the last two weeks. They’d taken Beau to their favourite places in the city, gone to the kid-friendly parks Taehyun had scribbled down on a post-it and brought him to meet friends and family. They went to see Finding Dory three days ago, after picking Jinwoo up from his shift. Jinwoo had slept through the first half, and cried through the other.
Seungyoon gets to have another two weeks of that, but the uneasiness is already seeping into his chest at the thought of coming back to work and dropping Beau off at his Mom’s, despite his fingers itching to hold a scalpel again.
Jinwoo’s socked toes dig into Seungyoon’s thigh. His lips are pressed against the brim of his cup when Seungyoon looks up. “How’s Beau?”
“Taehyun took him to the park.” Seungyoon’s lips quirk up. “He’s so cute. I sat him down with a small notebook yesterday and he spent so long drawing, and when I asked him if he liked it, he said that yes, now he’s like daddy. He adores Taehyun.”
Jinwoo’s toes wriggle against his leg. “He likes you too.”
Letting out a small laugh, Seungyoon ignores the flutter in his chest at Jinwoo’s words. “I know.”
Jinwoo grins, and then eyes Seungyoon with a playful smile. “You guys okay now? No more freakouts?”
Seungyoon can feel the tips of his ears turn pink. “Shut up, that was once.” Beau had slipped off the top of the slide, his knees knocking into the plastic as he went down, and Seungyoon’s heart was in his throat. He’d had Jinwoo on the phone before anyone had time to blink. “And anyway, Taehyun panics more than me.”
“Please,” Jinwoo waves a hand. “You’re both as bad.”
“I was going to invite you to lunch,” Seungyoon says, stands up from the bed with a pointed huff. “But I’ve changed my mind.”
Jinwoo cackles, but launches himself towards Seungyoon to latch onto his arm despite it. “I was kidding! Re-invite me, please. I haven’t had anything but hospital food for the past seventy two hours.”
Seungyoon’s stomach lurches in sympathy. “Update me on the cases first?”
“Let me get the charts,” Jinwoo says, still smiling, and slips past Seungyoon and out the door.
They get off at the 72nd Street. Strawberry fields, Taehyun had texted when Seungyoon asked about their whereabouts. It’s a cloudy day, but the park is as packed as always. They move down the main path and find Taehyun sitting on a blanket on one of the fields off to the left. Minho is setting his backpack down, laughing at whatever Taehyun’s saying, and Seunghoon is further down the field, Beau perched on his shoulders with his fists clutching onto Seunghoon’s hair. Haute is chasing after them, barks loud and playful.
Seungyoon slides into the empty spot next to Taehyun, running his hand down Taehyun’s back in hello. He nudges Minho’s foot with his own. “I hear you’ve been missing Taehyun?”
Instead of the laugh and shake of head Seungyoon’s expecting, Minho makes a face and sinks down onto the blanket across from them. “Yeah,” he sighs, and plucks half of the banana Jinwoo’s peeled from his hand. “You know the kid we’ve been training? Hanbin? My half-hour sessions have been lasting three hours because of him.”
Taehyun snorts next to Seungyoon. “As long as you don’t actually let him near people…”
“I’ve learned from my mistakes,” says Minho mournfully, glancing at where Seunghoon is still running around with Beau. “I hope your kid pukes on him.”
“Is that because he won’t let you come to his dancing classes?” Jinwoo asks around a mouthful of strawberry.
“But it doesn’t make sense!” Minho argues.
“Of course it does,” Taehyun says. He reaches for the bag of takeout, starting to pull the boxes out. “It’s not like you let Jinwoo hyung come into your shop.”
“He’s allowed in the shop.” Pushing his hair back under his snapback, Minho grabs the box of food closest to him. “Just not near the objects that require sterilising whenever someone touches them or knocks them over.”
“I work in a hospital,” Jinwoo speaks. “I’m a surgeon.”
“That remains the biggest mystery of the century,” Minho says and separates his chopsticks with a harsh yank.
“Ha ha,” says Jinwoo, but he’s still smiling.
Seungyoon glances up just in time to see a blur of yellow crash into Taehyun and topple over into his lap. Beau grabs his ear, ow, and pulls himself up to his knees. “Hi, daddy!”
“Hey, babycakes.” Seungyoon wraps an arm around him, tickles his side with long fingers and tries to shift his leg so Beau’s knee is a little less close to Seungyoon’s pride.
“Beau,” Taehyun says, blowing on his food. He fixes Seungyoon with a look. “Beau, Beau, Beau.”
“Beau,” Beau parrots, and twists in Seungyoon’s arms when he spots the takeout. “Lunch.”
“So that’s where your heart lies.” Seungyoon reaches around him to move a steaming cup out of his reach, and Beau turns his head to flash him a grin. Seungyoon’s heart clenches.
“Food, daddy,” Beau reminds him and Seungyoon laughs fondly.
“Daddy’s cooling it for you,” he points at Taehyun who’s moved half his noodles into one of the food containers they carry around for Beau.
Seunghoon drops down next to Jinwoo at that moment, hair damp with sweat. He pushes it up with a hand, and grins at them, “best cardio I’ve done in weeks.”
Taehyun laughs, says something, and Seungyoon watches Haute wag his tail excitedly, skip around Seunghoon. He freezes when he spots Jinwoo, stays still as Jinwoo pets him gently, and turns to run the other way around the second Jinwoo pulls his hand away.
“Still afraid of you,” he tells Jinwoo while laughing, as Haute settles next to Minho, sniffling at him. “He’s like one of your interns.”
“My interns are not afraid of me, Seungyoonnie.” Jinwoo shakes his head, lips curled into a half-smile.
“Uh huh,” Seungyoon hums, eyeing Beau as he stabs at his noodles with chopsticks. “You good, sunshine?”
“Yesh,” he replies, and scoops a handful of noodles to shove it into his mouth. “D’licious.”
Seungyoon chuckles and reaches for his own lunch. They eat and talk, and afterwards they play with Beau until he collapses onto their blanket in a heap of giggles and messy hair. Taehyun rolls onto his front next to him and strokes his hair, talking in a hushed voice until he lulls him to sleep.
Jinwoo leaves first, after Haute rouses him from where he’d dozed off on Seunghoon’s shoulder. Taehyun moves to Minho’s side, pulling a notepad out of his backpack, and Seungyoon turns to Seunghoon, watches him gaze longingly at Beau, like Taehyun and Seungyoon had done for years.
“Are you thinking of proposing soon?” he asks quietly and Seunghoon turns his head with a startled laugh.
“No.” He pulls his knees in, rests his elbows on them. Seungyoon frowns.
“You think she’d say no?” picking at the grass beneath his fingers, he glances over at Taehyun. He’s nodding along to what Minho’s saying, and Seungyoon thinks back to five years ago. It had been Taehyun’s idea to get married.
“I don’t know what she’d say,” Seunghoon says, a smile playing on his lips. Seungyoon thinks he knows. “We have time.” He glances back at Beau, and Seungyoon follows his gaze, feels the familiar rush of yearning and hoping and longing. His heart thunders with the love for the boy lying two feet away, snuffling into Seungyoon’s hoodie pillowed under his head.
“Hey, Seungyoon,” Taehyun calls, and his gaze is knowing when Seungyoon locks their eyes. He waves his notepad at Seungyoon, and Seungyoon lets him pull him in. “Come look at this. Minho keeps trying to change my design when it’s already perfect as it is.”
“He’s biased, his opinion doesn’t count,” Minho says and Taehyun protests, and Seungyoon settles next to Taehyun, breathes out a sigh as Taehyun’s hand grips his knee.
“Tell him mine’s better,” Taehyun demands, looks at Seungyoon with his lip twitching, and so Seungyoon does. When Beau wakes up, an hour later, Minho lets him sloppily colour in one of the fresh tattoos on his wrist with Taehyun’s sharpie. Taehyun hands Minho his notepad and watches him tweak his pretty design.
They part a short time after that. Taehyun walks Beau down to The Lake, and Seungyoon catches the boy’s other hand so they can swing him between them until he’s squealing happily.
“Again, please,” is what he says as Taehyun scoops him up into his arms.
“Beau, look,” he stretches his arm out, finger pointed at the murky lake ahead of them.
“There’s boats, daddy.” He’s still in Taehyun’s arms, watching with big eyes, and Seungyoon leans in to kiss his rosy cheek.
“Should we rent one?” he asks Beau and grins when the boy nods enthusiastically, meeting Taehyun’s eyes. “Daddy can show you his rowing skills.”
Taehyun snorts. “You’ll be rowing, asshole.”
They both do, taking turns holding onto Beau just in case and helping him twist the paddles. Taehyun takes Beau into his lap when they find the ducks, so he doesn’t leap out of the boat, and Seungyoon gets them as close as he can.
“Where’s the daddy ducks?” Beau asks, tugging at one of the straps on his orange life-jacket. “There’s Beau duck.”
“The small brown one? He kind of looks like you,” Seungyoon agrees.
Taehyun wrinkles his nose at the thought and Seungyoon laughs, but he still points out the two closest ducks to Beau and makes up a story Beau listens to with rapid attention. He holds one of Beau’s hands in his, strokes his thumb over the back of his palm and smiles that tiny, tiny smile Seungyoon had never seen until Beau had come to them.
He nudges Taehyun’s sneaker, his heart pulsating in his throat. “He likes you,” he says after Taehyun’s looked up.
Taehyun laughs, jarring for the quiet of the moment, and seems to know all the words Seungyoon hasn't said. "I know," he says, tightens his hold around Beau just so. “He likes you too.”
Ten minutes past seven, they get home. Seungyoon’s arms ache from carrying Beau the last two blocks, and he wonders how Taehyun did it all the way to the park and halfway back. They do dinner, a significantly less messy affair than lunch, and Seungyoon spends thirty minutes coaxing Beau to take a bath.
“Just get in with him,” Taehyun says finally with a sigh, tugs Beau back against his legs and frames the boy’s face with his hands, squeezing his cheeks together. “You stinker,” he says, leans down and pecks Beau’s puckered lips loudly. Beau laughs, and grabs onto Taehyun’s hands with his own.
“Nam Taehyun,” Seungyoon says dramatically. “Brought down by his two year old.”
“Shamelessly so,” Taehyun agrees and lifts Beau into the tub.
It’s the shortest bath they’ve had so far, despite Seungyoon getting completely soaked as well. Taehyun wraps Beau up in a fluffy towel and throws one at Seungyoon’s face.
“Thanks, boo,” Seungyoon drawls and hears Taehyun snort down the hall.
“Beau!” Beau yells. Seungyoon laughs, and sets about cleaning the mess they’ve made.
He gets to the nursery in time to see Taehyun open Beau’s favourite storybook; a hand-me down Taehyun’s mom had kept safe from when she’d been a child.
Taehyun is in the sturdy crib with Beau, legs pulled to his chest so he’d fit, and Beau’s head is pillowed on Taehyun’s arm as he rubs at one of his eyes with a yawn. Seungyoon settles down on the carpet and presses his face against the bars of the crib.
Beau glances at him, grins, and turns back to listen to Taehyun. The book is in Korean, so Taehyun is half-translating half-making things up as he goes. Seungyoon jumps in when it’s time to do voices, because Taehyun sucks at it.
“Rawr,” Taehyun had said, the first time they’d read Little Red Riding Hood, and the wolf was about to eat the grandma.
Beau had reached up and stroked his cheek gently. “Kitty.”
Seungyoon does accents, makes faces at the boy through the bars, and together they watch him giggle and then doze off, mid-story.
“Seunghoon wore him out,” Taehyun whispers and shifts a little, glances down at their boy with a gaze so gentle and soft it warms Seungyoon’s heart.
Seungyoon wedges a hand between the bars to caress Beau’s shin, and the pang he’d felt in his chest at the park withers away, slow and steady, the same way Beau had come into their lives.
He runs his open palm across the fluff of the grey carpet, curls his fist into it.
“There’s two other families they’re looking at,” he’d told Taehyun three weeks back, the thundering of his own heart louder than the traffic they were stuck in. “Let’s not get our hopes up.”
“I know,” is what Taehyun said, not looking at Seungyoon. They’d sat in silence and Seungyoon had tried, but all he could think about was a small boy, perfect and theirs. Someone to wrap up in their cosiest blanket and pour all their love into.
“I think we should put the carpet in his room,” Taehyun had said, a few minutes later.
A clunk brings him out of his thoughts and he looks up to see Taehyun climbing out of the crib. “Are you going to move or continue staring at him for another few hours?” he whispers, and his lips are curled up, playful, but he’s watching Seungyoon with the fondness Seungyoon knows he reserves just for them.
He chuckles quietly and stands up, holds Taehyun’s hand to help him balance. Beau’s sleeping face is peaceful, and his arm is thrown over his head the way Taehyun’s always is when he sleeps.
Taehyun comes to the floor with a grunt, the heel of his palm digging into Seungyoon’s shoulder. Seungyoon hears his harsh intake of breath as he stills, and Taehyun’s fingers are at the back of his neck, curled into the short hair there.
“You think we’re doing okay?” he asks, quiet and uncertain and hopeful, and Seungyoon’s chest is bubbling.
He turns his face into Taehyun’s shoulder, presses his lips to the warm skin. “Yeah, we are.”
Recipient: kocch
Pairing: Seungyoon/Taehyun
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Seungyoon and Taehyun adopt a two year old.
Notes: Dear recipient, I hope you like this!
Taehyun’s hip is digging into Seungyoon’s front uncomfortably. He sighs, tugs the covers away from his body and rolls onto his back. A thump comes from the baby blue monitor set up next to Seungyoon’s phone, followed by white noise and frustrated puffs of air.
Seungyoon kicks his leg out at Taehyun’s shin. “He’s up.”
When Taehyun doesn’t make a move or a sound, to indicate he’s awake, Seungyoon rolls back over. “Taehyunnie,” he presses his lips to Taehyun’s skin, to nose between Taehyun’s naked shoulderblades.
Taehyun shivers with it, and then pushes his elbow back into Seungyoon’s face. “Sleepin’.”
“Grumpy asshole,” Seungyoon grumbles, a sleepy smile on his face, and rolls away to catch their kid before he faceplants into his fluffy grey carpet.
Danah had given it to them, a year or two back, after Minho had brought her along for Taehyun’s birthday. I bought it and never used it, she’d said with a small smile in the dim hallway of Minho’s shop a month later, as Seungyoon was loitering about waiting for Taehyun to finish, it would look nice in the room you guys put together.
They talked about it, in the quiet of the morning, words easier to come at dark, skin sticking together and sheets rumpled at the foot of the bed. Doesn’t match the crib, Taehyun had said, and then kissed the words into Seungyoon’s mouth.
Now, Seungyoon curls his bare toes into the soft of the carpet and runs his finger over the sole of the small foot dangling over the side of the crib. Beau startles with a shriek, and then topples face first back into his bedding, sunny smile on his face when he rolls over and slaps his foot, wedged between the bars of the crib, down on Seungyoon’s thigh, “daddy.”
“Were you trying to climb out of your crib, baby Beau?” stretching over the crib, Seungyoon tugs the blinds up all the way, the wooden bar digging into his stomach. He wobbles on his toes when Beau catches a fistful of his shirt to pull himself up to his little feet again.
“Nu uh,” the boy shakes his head, ashy brown hair falling over his eyes. Seungyoon smoothens it back with a gentle hand and swings Beau out of his crib.
“You sure?” he checks, faking oblivion. Leaving the nursery door open, he pads back into the bedroom.
Beau looks at him carefully from his perch in Seungyoon’s arms, and lifts both hands to squish Seungyoon’s cheeks together, like Taehyun does to him every day. “Yes, daddy.”
“I completely believe you,” Seungyoon says dryly as Beau crawls uninterestedly out of his arms and across the bed, to flop over whatever part of Taehyun he can see under the blanket.
“Mornin’, daddy,” he strokes his hand down the side of Taehyun’s face, and squeals with laughter when Taehyun slides a hand around his middle, hauling him over his body and into his arms.
Seungyoon watches, heart swelling, as Taehyun squints his eyes open and leans over Beau, caging the boy in to whisper goodmornings and iloveyous into his ticklish ear.
Sprawling on his back, with hair flopping over his forehead, Seungyoon reaches a hand blindly over his head, pinching the top of Taehyun’s thigh. “You want to take him to the park before lunch? I was going to check in with Jinwoo hyung at the hospital.”
“You have to go in?” Taehyun shifts behind him. The bed dips at Seungyoon’s shoulder a moment later and Seungyoon gets a tiny foot to his nose as Beau trips over him. Oopsie, is what he says, climbing off the bed.
“Sorry, daddy,” Seungyoon corrects with a wince, and returns his gaze to the boy after glancing at Taehyun. “No, I just wanted to check on the cases I was on last month.”
“Sorry, daddy,” Beau parrots from where he’s stacking Taehyun’s notepads. Taehyun sits up next to Seungyoon, bed hair sticking up on the left, face soft from sleep. Seungyoon runs fingertips down Taehyun’s bare side and Taehyun squirms, tugs Seungyoon’s hand away and laces their fingers together.
“We can meet at the park for lunch,” he says, as they both watch Beau knock over the small tower of notepads he’s built. Taehyun’s favourite one falls open to the floor, but he doesn’t say anything, hums as Beau grabs at it with a clumsy fist, the page crinkling beneath his fingers.
“We’re meeting Seunghoon, yeah?” Seungyoon glances at him.
Taehyun nods, and hides a big yawn behind his palm. “Ask Jinwoo hyung to come,” he says, sticking his feet out from under the comforter. “I texted Minho last night.”
Seungyoon looks at him from under his lashes and snorts. “Miss him that much?”
Rolling his eyes, Taehyun shoves at his shoulder. “Shut up.” Seungyoon curls up in pretend pain, and sees Taehyun’s lips curling up at the corners. He’s taken less time off than Seungyoon, but hasn’t been back to the shop the last two weeks they’ve had Beau with them. Seungyoon knows he’s been texting Minho every day, sending sketches back and forth, no matter how much Taehyun tries to deny it by ignoring Seungyoon’s words.
Beau bounces over, hand stilling on Seungyoon’s shin as he looks him over. “Daddy hurt?”
“No, sugar.” Seungyoon says, uncurls, and Taehyun shoots him a look.
“Don’t call our kid sugar.” Seungyoon widens his eyes at Taehyun, and waves his hand around to emphasise.
“But he’s so cute!” he cries.
Taehyun rolls his eyes again dramatically, and Beau giggles at the foot of the bed, little body buzzing with energy. Then he slaps his hands down on Seungyoon’s shin as hard as he can. “Breakfast, daddy!”
They eat the cereal Seungyoon hates and Taehyun buys in bulk. Seungyoon’s on cutting duty this morning as Taehyun washes up, and he arranges the pieces of fruit in a smiley face Beau scrunches his nose up at when he presents the plate to him.
He is an oddly clean child, so they have to do barely any washing up after they’re done. Seungyoon grabs his backpack and Taehyun’s bag is overflowing with wipes and pacifiers and extra clothes.
“We need to buy a diaper bag,” he tells Seungyoon as he locks the door, and Seungyoon moves a step down from Beau, arm stretched out in case Beau needs to catch himself.
“You’re not taking the stroller?” Seungyoon asks, eyes on the small fingers Beau has wrapped around the railing.
Taehyun’s eyebrow shoots up. “On the subway and into the city? No thanks.”
They part in front of the building, after ten kisses for Beau, three for daddy Taehyun and two for Seungyoon.
Seungyoon grabs coffee from the shop across the hospital because the cafeteria coffee has only gotten worse in the time he’s spent there. Jinwoo is twenty minutes late, and doesn’t reply to the angry emojis Seungyoon spams him with. Ten minutes later, Seungyoon finds him asleep in one of the on-call rooms on the paediatrics floor.
“Just needed a little nap,” Jinwoo says, another ten minutes later, cross-legged on the bottom bunk with half of his coffee gone.
Seungyoon snorts. “When’d you get in?”
“Here?” Jinwoo glances at him. A thread on his coat pocket has come loose, and the bear sewn into his pocket now stares at Seungyoon with intimidating eyebrows and no mouth. “Seven-ish? It was a long night.”
Seungyoon hums. It was nice, staying home with Beau and Taehyun the last two weeks. They’d taken Beau to their favourite places in the city, gone to the kid-friendly parks Taehyun had scribbled down on a post-it and brought him to meet friends and family. They went to see Finding Dory three days ago, after picking Jinwoo up from his shift. Jinwoo had slept through the first half, and cried through the other.
Seungyoon gets to have another two weeks of that, but the uneasiness is already seeping into his chest at the thought of coming back to work and dropping Beau off at his Mom’s, despite his fingers itching to hold a scalpel again.
Jinwoo’s socked toes dig into Seungyoon’s thigh. His lips are pressed against the brim of his cup when Seungyoon looks up. “How’s Beau?”
“Taehyun took him to the park.” Seungyoon’s lips quirk up. “He’s so cute. I sat him down with a small notebook yesterday and he spent so long drawing, and when I asked him if he liked it, he said that yes, now he’s like daddy. He adores Taehyun.”
Jinwoo’s toes wriggle against his leg. “He likes you too.”
Letting out a small laugh, Seungyoon ignores the flutter in his chest at Jinwoo’s words. “I know.”
Jinwoo grins, and then eyes Seungyoon with a playful smile. “You guys okay now? No more freakouts?”
Seungyoon can feel the tips of his ears turn pink. “Shut up, that was once.” Beau had slipped off the top of the slide, his knees knocking into the plastic as he went down, and Seungyoon’s heart was in his throat. He’d had Jinwoo on the phone before anyone had time to blink. “And anyway, Taehyun panics more than me.”
“Please,” Jinwoo waves a hand. “You’re both as bad.”
“I was going to invite you to lunch,” Seungyoon says, stands up from the bed with a pointed huff. “But I’ve changed my mind.”
Jinwoo cackles, but launches himself towards Seungyoon to latch onto his arm despite it. “I was kidding! Re-invite me, please. I haven’t had anything but hospital food for the past seventy two hours.”
Seungyoon’s stomach lurches in sympathy. “Update me on the cases first?”
“Let me get the charts,” Jinwoo says, still smiling, and slips past Seungyoon and out the door.
They get off at the 72nd Street. Strawberry fields, Taehyun had texted when Seungyoon asked about their whereabouts. It’s a cloudy day, but the park is as packed as always. They move down the main path and find Taehyun sitting on a blanket on one of the fields off to the left. Minho is setting his backpack down, laughing at whatever Taehyun’s saying, and Seunghoon is further down the field, Beau perched on his shoulders with his fists clutching onto Seunghoon’s hair. Haute is chasing after them, barks loud and playful.
Seungyoon slides into the empty spot next to Taehyun, running his hand down Taehyun’s back in hello. He nudges Minho’s foot with his own. “I hear you’ve been missing Taehyun?”
Instead of the laugh and shake of head Seungyoon’s expecting, Minho makes a face and sinks down onto the blanket across from them. “Yeah,” he sighs, and plucks half of the banana Jinwoo’s peeled from his hand. “You know the kid we’ve been training? Hanbin? My half-hour sessions have been lasting three hours because of him.”
Taehyun snorts next to Seungyoon. “As long as you don’t actually let him near people…”
“I’ve learned from my mistakes,” says Minho mournfully, glancing at where Seunghoon is still running around with Beau. “I hope your kid pukes on him.”
“Is that because he won’t let you come to his dancing classes?” Jinwoo asks around a mouthful of strawberry.
“But it doesn’t make sense!” Minho argues.
“Of course it does,” Taehyun says. He reaches for the bag of takeout, starting to pull the boxes out. “It’s not like you let Jinwoo hyung come into your shop.”
“He’s allowed in the shop.” Pushing his hair back under his snapback, Minho grabs the box of food closest to him. “Just not near the objects that require sterilising whenever someone touches them or knocks them over.”
“I work in a hospital,” Jinwoo speaks. “I’m a surgeon.”
“That remains the biggest mystery of the century,” Minho says and separates his chopsticks with a harsh yank.
“Ha ha,” says Jinwoo, but he’s still smiling.
Seungyoon glances up just in time to see a blur of yellow crash into Taehyun and topple over into his lap. Beau grabs his ear, ow, and pulls himself up to his knees. “Hi, daddy!”
“Hey, babycakes.” Seungyoon wraps an arm around him, tickles his side with long fingers and tries to shift his leg so Beau’s knee is a little less close to Seungyoon’s pride.
“Beau,” Taehyun says, blowing on his food. He fixes Seungyoon with a look. “Beau, Beau, Beau.”
“Beau,” Beau parrots, and twists in Seungyoon’s arms when he spots the takeout. “Lunch.”
“So that’s where your heart lies.” Seungyoon reaches around him to move a steaming cup out of his reach, and Beau turns his head to flash him a grin. Seungyoon’s heart clenches.
“Food, daddy,” Beau reminds him and Seungyoon laughs fondly.
“Daddy’s cooling it for you,” he points at Taehyun who’s moved half his noodles into one of the food containers they carry around for Beau.
Seunghoon drops down next to Jinwoo at that moment, hair damp with sweat. He pushes it up with a hand, and grins at them, “best cardio I’ve done in weeks.”
Taehyun laughs, says something, and Seungyoon watches Haute wag his tail excitedly, skip around Seunghoon. He freezes when he spots Jinwoo, stays still as Jinwoo pets him gently, and turns to run the other way around the second Jinwoo pulls his hand away.
“Still afraid of you,” he tells Jinwoo while laughing, as Haute settles next to Minho, sniffling at him. “He’s like one of your interns.”
“My interns are not afraid of me, Seungyoonnie.” Jinwoo shakes his head, lips curled into a half-smile.
“Uh huh,” Seungyoon hums, eyeing Beau as he stabs at his noodles with chopsticks. “You good, sunshine?”
“Yesh,” he replies, and scoops a handful of noodles to shove it into his mouth. “D’licious.”
Seungyoon chuckles and reaches for his own lunch. They eat and talk, and afterwards they play with Beau until he collapses onto their blanket in a heap of giggles and messy hair. Taehyun rolls onto his front next to him and strokes his hair, talking in a hushed voice until he lulls him to sleep.
Jinwoo leaves first, after Haute rouses him from where he’d dozed off on Seunghoon’s shoulder. Taehyun moves to Minho’s side, pulling a notepad out of his backpack, and Seungyoon turns to Seunghoon, watches him gaze longingly at Beau, like Taehyun and Seungyoon had done for years.
“Are you thinking of proposing soon?” he asks quietly and Seunghoon turns his head with a startled laugh.
“No.” He pulls his knees in, rests his elbows on them. Seungyoon frowns.
“You think she’d say no?” picking at the grass beneath his fingers, he glances over at Taehyun. He’s nodding along to what Minho’s saying, and Seungyoon thinks back to five years ago. It had been Taehyun’s idea to get married.
“I don’t know what she’d say,” Seunghoon says, a smile playing on his lips. Seungyoon thinks he knows. “We have time.” He glances back at Beau, and Seungyoon follows his gaze, feels the familiar rush of yearning and hoping and longing. His heart thunders with the love for the boy lying two feet away, snuffling into Seungyoon’s hoodie pillowed under his head.
“Hey, Seungyoon,” Taehyun calls, and his gaze is knowing when Seungyoon locks their eyes. He waves his notepad at Seungyoon, and Seungyoon lets him pull him in. “Come look at this. Minho keeps trying to change my design when it’s already perfect as it is.”
“He’s biased, his opinion doesn’t count,” Minho says and Taehyun protests, and Seungyoon settles next to Taehyun, breathes out a sigh as Taehyun’s hand grips his knee.
“Tell him mine’s better,” Taehyun demands, looks at Seungyoon with his lip twitching, and so Seungyoon does. When Beau wakes up, an hour later, Minho lets him sloppily colour in one of the fresh tattoos on his wrist with Taehyun’s sharpie. Taehyun hands Minho his notepad and watches him tweak his pretty design.
They part a short time after that. Taehyun walks Beau down to The Lake, and Seungyoon catches the boy’s other hand so they can swing him between them until he’s squealing happily.
“Again, please,” is what he says as Taehyun scoops him up into his arms.
“Beau, look,” he stretches his arm out, finger pointed at the murky lake ahead of them.
“There’s boats, daddy.” He’s still in Taehyun’s arms, watching with big eyes, and Seungyoon leans in to kiss his rosy cheek.
“Should we rent one?” he asks Beau and grins when the boy nods enthusiastically, meeting Taehyun’s eyes. “Daddy can show you his rowing skills.”
Taehyun snorts. “You’ll be rowing, asshole.”
They both do, taking turns holding onto Beau just in case and helping him twist the paddles. Taehyun takes Beau into his lap when they find the ducks, so he doesn’t leap out of the boat, and Seungyoon gets them as close as he can.
“Where’s the daddy ducks?” Beau asks, tugging at one of the straps on his orange life-jacket. “There’s Beau duck.”
“The small brown one? He kind of looks like you,” Seungyoon agrees.
Taehyun wrinkles his nose at the thought and Seungyoon laughs, but he still points out the two closest ducks to Beau and makes up a story Beau listens to with rapid attention. He holds one of Beau’s hands in his, strokes his thumb over the back of his palm and smiles that tiny, tiny smile Seungyoon had never seen until Beau had come to them.
He nudges Taehyun’s sneaker, his heart pulsating in his throat. “He likes you,” he says after Taehyun’s looked up.
Taehyun laughs, jarring for the quiet of the moment, and seems to know all the words Seungyoon hasn't said. "I know," he says, tightens his hold around Beau just so. “He likes you too.”
Ten minutes past seven, they get home. Seungyoon’s arms ache from carrying Beau the last two blocks, and he wonders how Taehyun did it all the way to the park and halfway back. They do dinner, a significantly less messy affair than lunch, and Seungyoon spends thirty minutes coaxing Beau to take a bath.
“Just get in with him,” Taehyun says finally with a sigh, tugs Beau back against his legs and frames the boy’s face with his hands, squeezing his cheeks together. “You stinker,” he says, leans down and pecks Beau’s puckered lips loudly. Beau laughs, and grabs onto Taehyun’s hands with his own.
“Nam Taehyun,” Seungyoon says dramatically. “Brought down by his two year old.”
“Shamelessly so,” Taehyun agrees and lifts Beau into the tub.
It’s the shortest bath they’ve had so far, despite Seungyoon getting completely soaked as well. Taehyun wraps Beau up in a fluffy towel and throws one at Seungyoon’s face.
“Thanks, boo,” Seungyoon drawls and hears Taehyun snort down the hall.
“Beau!” Beau yells. Seungyoon laughs, and sets about cleaning the mess they’ve made.
He gets to the nursery in time to see Taehyun open Beau’s favourite storybook; a hand-me down Taehyun’s mom had kept safe from when she’d been a child.
Taehyun is in the sturdy crib with Beau, legs pulled to his chest so he’d fit, and Beau’s head is pillowed on Taehyun’s arm as he rubs at one of his eyes with a yawn. Seungyoon settles down on the carpet and presses his face against the bars of the crib.
Beau glances at him, grins, and turns back to listen to Taehyun. The book is in Korean, so Taehyun is half-translating half-making things up as he goes. Seungyoon jumps in when it’s time to do voices, because Taehyun sucks at it.
“Rawr,” Taehyun had said, the first time they’d read Little Red Riding Hood, and the wolf was about to eat the grandma.
Beau had reached up and stroked his cheek gently. “Kitty.”
Seungyoon does accents, makes faces at the boy through the bars, and together they watch him giggle and then doze off, mid-story.
“Seunghoon wore him out,” Taehyun whispers and shifts a little, glances down at their boy with a gaze so gentle and soft it warms Seungyoon’s heart.
Seungyoon wedges a hand between the bars to caress Beau’s shin, and the pang he’d felt in his chest at the park withers away, slow and steady, the same way Beau had come into their lives.
He runs his open palm across the fluff of the grey carpet, curls his fist into it.
“There’s two other families they’re looking at,” he’d told Taehyun three weeks back, the thundering of his own heart louder than the traffic they were stuck in. “Let’s not get our hopes up.”
“I know,” is what Taehyun said, not looking at Seungyoon. They’d sat in silence and Seungyoon had tried, but all he could think about was a small boy, perfect and theirs. Someone to wrap up in their cosiest blanket and pour all their love into.
“I think we should put the carpet in his room,” Taehyun had said, a few minutes later.
A clunk brings him out of his thoughts and he looks up to see Taehyun climbing out of the crib. “Are you going to move or continue staring at him for another few hours?” he whispers, and his lips are curled up, playful, but he’s watching Seungyoon with the fondness Seungyoon knows he reserves just for them.
He chuckles quietly and stands up, holds Taehyun’s hand to help him balance. Beau’s sleeping face is peaceful, and his arm is thrown over his head the way Taehyun’s always is when he sleeps.
Taehyun comes to the floor with a grunt, the heel of his palm digging into Seungyoon’s shoulder. Seungyoon hears his harsh intake of breath as he stills, and Taehyun’s fingers are at the back of his neck, curled into the short hair there.
“You think we’re doing okay?” he asks, quiet and uncertain and hopeful, and Seungyoon’s chest is bubbling.
He turns his face into Taehyun’s shoulder, presses his lips to the warm skin. “Yeah, we are.”