Chapter Text
Dinner was pretty calm. Everyone seemed to be back to their normal selves. A happy and loving family. They had discussed the chicken for a while. Seonghwa was very unwilling to have a pet chicken in the house but he couldn’t resist both Yeosang’s and Yunho's puppy eyes. Practically since day one the oldest had begged them for a puppy and Seonghwa had always denied it. Now… Okay he didn't quite have a puppy but it was still a pet.
When everyone was done eating, Yeosang ran up to his room to the tiny chicken. Wooyoung and San excitedly ran after him to play with the fluffy chick. Jongho and Mingi at least thanked for dinner. Which Seonghwa really hadn't made but he did order it so he guessed that was why they told him thanks. Then they went to the living room, blasting the TV with a game of Fifa as they yelled at each other, the others in the kitchen easily hearing them with the open floor plan. Seonghwa started loading up the dishwasher and got surprise help from Yunho who started putting all the plates down.
Hongjoong ended up going back to his sketch on his tablet. Still sipping at his water from dinner. It was like it was before… except now all of them had a better understanding of each other's feelings. Maybe it wasn't so bad after all. To have the kids get to talk to each other. It seemed to make them closer brothers as well.
Then Yunho came up behind him while he was washing the pan he had used earlier when he actually tried to cook and hugged him tightly. Seonghwa turned the water off and put the pan down to turn around and hug Yunho. But Yunho just spun with him. At some moment Hongjoong looked up to see the two spinning around in the kitchen. Seonghwa tried to get his arms around Yunho as the boy held him tightly.
“What are you two doing?” Hongjoong laughed. Yunho let go of Seonghwa and ran around the kitchen island to Hongjoong to hug him. Seonghwa chased after him and finally got to hug him. Yunho laughed as Seonghwa placed a kiss in his hair. It was a sweet moment, the both of them hugging the son they had had for the longest time out of all the kids. Yunho had stayed with them since he was 8. Now he was 12, he had recently had his birthday.
“I… Have a question”
“Yes?” Seonghwa and Hongjoong said in unison, making Yunho giggle.
“Earlier when we were talking about you two, and Seonghwa nudged you?” Yunho said, all of them pulling out of the embrace to look at eachother, Hongjoong going to take a sip of his water.
“Yeah, what about it?”
“... Was it because you didn't want Appa to say you had sex?”
…
To say that Hongjoong choked on his water was an understatement.
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A few months later, Hongjoong was packing a few designs into his bag. Planning to head into the office building his company had. There was a big meeting that was happening today and he was going to have an interview with a new photographer that had applied for the job. Then there was also another more calm meeting in the morning with the production team. They apparently had some issues and Hongjoong as the boss was sent down to see what he could do for the situation. Which meant it was a day full of a lot of talking. Which was.. Less than ideal when he had kids he wanted to talk to after work but he would manage.
He ran down the stairs, and walked through the hallway into the kitchen, meeting Seonghwa cooking breakfast. He rounded the counter into the kitchen to place a quick peck on the olders cheek but right as he was about to Seonghwa turned his head so their lips met instead. Hongjoong pretended to wipe his mouth in disgust as Seonghwa giggled at him.
A fond smile made itself known on Hongjoong’s face, eyes crinkling as he stared at his partner's beautiful face. He stared into his soft eyes, feeling himself get lost in the bright stars.
“Oh don’t look at me like that, you have work to get to” Seonghwa chuckled, pushing Hongjoong away with his elbow. Continuing his aimless poking at the pancakes he was making. Hongjoong snorted before leaning his head on Seonghwa’s shoulder.
“What is it hunny?” The older asked, grabbing the younger’s hand.
“It’s gonna be a long day, a lot of talking, but I wanna talk to the kids too when I come home” He pouted.
“Look, you know more than anyone that even if you can’t talk they'll still spend time with you. Jongho loves just sitting with you and you could easily watch tv with them. I think Mingi’s show will be on tonight” Seonghwa reassured him, smiling brightly as he ruffled the shorters hair with his free hand. Hongjoong grumbled a bit as he had spent a little bit of time to make himself look more presentable for today. They had big business partners coming and he didn’t wanna miss this deal.
“Plus most of them are going to be out for the day so I think all of us will be pretty tired,” Seonghwa said, finally flipping the first pancake. It was cooked nicely, a little bad, but it was the first pancake and they always turned out bad.
“Oh, where are they going?” Hongjoong asked, lifting his head from the others shoulder. Seonghwa’s hand still resting on his head. It trailed down lightly before massaging Hongjoong’s neck.
He hummed as he felt the tension in his shoulders lessen up a bit.
“I think they’re heading out to see if they can get Yunho a gift for his birthday, which means I'm going with them” Hongjoong nodded, eyes slipping closed as Seonghwa hand kept rubbing into his neck. He really should go to a doctor soon. Sitting all day slouched over his desk was not good for him.
“Are you planning on seeing if you can find what he asked us for?”
“Yup, they should be up soon, we were gonna head out pretty early, want us to drop you off at work?” Seonghwa said, pouring new batter into the pan. Hongjoong laughed at him, pulling away from Seonghwa’s hand as he grabbed his computer bag again. Double checking that he had all his things before flinging it over his shoulder.
It hit the salt shaker that was still standing on the desk, causing a large clattering sound to echo throughout the kitchen. Seonghwa just turned to him with a ‘really?’ look and Hongjoong smiled nervously.
A few minutes later, Yunho came out of his room rubbing at his eyes. His hair was messy and he was pouting hard. Hongjoong giggled a little at their eldest.
Yunho was turning 13 in not too long! Which was a pretty big thing. All the kids had been excitedly talking about it for a week. How big he had gotten, how he was gonna be a teenager, how he was going to leave their school the next year. The oldest was soon transferring to one of the bigger schools in the city. Everyone had been devastated at that but Yunho seemed pretty excited. It wasn’t like he was gonna be alone either. Yunho was a social butterfly and had many friends in his grade. Even if he often hung out with his brothers when he wanted to, it wasn't like he was a loner like Hongjoong had been when he was a kid. He was also pretty excited to follow with one of their older friends, Yeonjun.
The teenage boy Wooyoung had met one day, the both of them apparently skipping class and deciding to hangout behind the school. Even though that boy was two, almost 3 years older than Wooyoung, he was very kind. Seonghwa did however give him a very stern stare the first time he came over to play games.
“Good mornin’” he croaked out, suddenly sniffing the air before his face lit up.
“Pancakes!” He yelled excitedly as Seonghwa flipped over the one he was working on. Then he ran back into the corridor, presumably to go wake the others up.
“I’ll have to get going now, say good morning from me to the rest” He said, going over to grab his shoes, definitely not almost falling over as he tried getting his foot in. Seonghwa just laughed at him, picking up the forgotten salt shaker and going over to continue making pancakes.
“I will! Don’t–”
“Forget to eat, yeah I know” Hongjoong said, before he closed the door. The air was still quite chilly outside. February hadn’t quite left them yet and he could see his breath when he breathed out. It was fresh, nice, it gave Hongjoong some hope that even if today was a lot, it would be good.
–
When he finally arrived at the office he wished a good morning to the receptionist and any co-workers walking by. A few people stopped him on the way to the office to ask some stuff but they were either simple questions or ones he could tell them to email him or someone else to get it fixed later.
When he finally made it to his office he put his stuff down, gathering what he needed before heading to his meeting. It had been pretty boring. Just a long talk about teamwork. Then he rushed to his second meeting. Which went very well. They seemed to hit it off and arranged another meeting but the paperwork was done. Now they had a new partner to work with and one of his co-managers was set to work with them more directly.
Now however, he was exhausted. He had walked himself out of the office to go grab himself something to eat. Texting Seonghwa as he stood in line at the cafe. It was a café he had very fond memories of. He had gotten food here for San when he was still living in the park alone. He was known as a bit of a regular so ordering was never a problem. They always got it right.
He sat in one of the window seats, eating his food as he watched the people walk outside. He saw a few very nicely dressed people and his brain started making up a few ideas for new designs. He really had been having quite a good week or so of inspiration.
Then, Seonghwa called.
“Hello?” He picked it up. Hearing a familiar sigh on the other end. He laughed slightly as he took another bite of his food. “What's goin’ on?” He asked, mouth still full.
“ They found the pet store and now they're looking for accessories for Brian” Hongjoong laughed loudly, causing a few people to turn and look at him.
“ Plus! Mingi found puppies and he's asking if we can get one for Yunho… And Yunho is not disagreeing at all” Right as the older said that he could hear Mingi distantly say something along the lines of ‘He's always wanted one!’, along with a mantra of please’s that could only belong to Yunho.
“And you call me because?”
“ I need you to convince Jongho to drag his older brothers away… and maybe San as well”
“Okay hand over the phone” Hongjoong laughed, hearing it rustle a bit before Jongho’s voice could be heard through the line.
“Hai?”
“Hello JJongie, do you mind getting the others away from the pet store? For Eommas sake, I'll get you something if you do?”
“ Okay!” Jongho loudly said, giggling as Hongjoong could hear him hand back the phone, before Wooyoung was screaming loud enough to be heard.
“ Thank you” Seonghwa said, before hanging up abruptly, probably to stop Wooyoiiung from screaming his lungs out. But Hongjoong didn't really have time to laugh as he read the time on his phone.
Shit, he was late for his interview–
–
The receptionist, a very nice old woman who just needed a job before her retirement, yelled out a hello as Hongjoong ran towards his office. Out of all days he could be late of course it had to be an important day like this! He truly could never be on time when it was something he really cared about. He had been looking for a new photographer for ages, his old ones had acted weirdly with a few of the younger models and he could not have that in his work space. He saw how much comments like those ones they made could bring down a model's spirit, his boyfriend was one for fuck sake.
When he finally made it to his office he stopped outside the door. His shoot director would be with him and had probably already let themselves inside. Gosh why did he have to be late today. He panted a little, trying to straighten both himself out and his outfit after having run up the stairs. Once he was finally ready he knocked on the door, well– before realising it was his office–
“I’m so sorry I'm late! I got caught up in a family matter” because getting your kids out of the pet store was definitely super serious. He finally allowed himself to breathe out a little as he saw his director sitting there with a cup of coffee, the other young man turning to look at him, his own cup in his hand.
He looked… He looked familiar didn't he? Something about his features screamed familiarity. Maybe they’d gone to school together or something. He was, after all, in the fashion industry in a big city, so there was a pretty high possibility that they went to the same college. Or maybe they worked together before? Hongjoong had been to a few different jobs before finding a truly stable one to support both him and Seonghwa. Because even if modelling did get Seonghwa good money, the older didn't always have companies to work with. Well, now he always did. Hongjoong would gladly take him in whenever he could as he loved having Seonghwa model for him.
Then it hit him. When the young man, or should he say older, smiled politely and Hongjoong saw a familiar look in his eyes. This wasn't someone he had spent little time with. Not at all he had actually spent most of his life with them–
“Hongjoong?” He said in disbelief. Joong could see his shoot director look over at him in confusion, and maybe a bit of horror at the lack of a proper honorific.
But he didn't need one. No. Hongjoong’s brother definitely didn't need to use honorifics with him.