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"I just never want to socialize with people ever again."
"You're the hospitality manager in a hotel. I don't think not socializing is an option."
Mark pauses halfway through buttoning up his pyjama shirt, shooting Donghyuck the stink-eye. "Maybe I'll quit."
Donghyuck doesn't even look up from the book that he's reading, nodding slightly. "Sure, love, sure."
"You're the worst, the worst, the absolute worst." His tone is glazed with fondness, a sharp contrast to the words themselves. Mark lifts up the covers of the bed, sliding himself into the place next to Donghyuck and pulling the covers back up to his chest. “Besides, you know the major part of the reason that I hate the hours.” He slides an arm around Donghyuck’s waist, pulling himself up to rest his head on Donghyuck’s chest.
Donghyuck idly strokes Mark’s hair, bending slightly to place a soft kiss on Mark’s temple. “Of course, love, I’d miss spending time with my husband too if my husband was as amazing as me.”
“You know what, I take it back,” pouts Mark, turning away huffily as Donghyuck laughs lightly, putting the book on the bedside table and throwing an arm around Mark to turn him back around.
Donghyuck lets Mark gather him in his arms, fitting his head into the hollow of Mark’s neck and placing a kiss at the base of Mark’s throat. “I miss spending time with you. Just you.”
“At least you’re spending the rest of your time with Maya, I’m just catering to the needs of random strangers,” sighs Mark, tipping Donghyuck’s head up to kiss his lips gently.
“That sounds weird,” giggles Donghyuck between kisses. “What needs are you catering to?”
Mark retaliates with a bruising kiss, but he’s giggling as well. “I hate you so much.”
“Evidently, I can feel the hatred,” snarks Donghyuck, wrapping his arms around Mark’s neck and burying his face in his hair. “So much hatred. You’re just radiating it.”
Mark sighs contentedly, breath fluttering against Donghyuck’s neck. “How was your day? The little devil give you a break today?”
“It was the usual. She’s gotten hooked on basketball now, so I had to play with her for a solid three hours when you were away. My bones were creaking. I’m growing old.”
“Hag,” snorts Mark, earning a pinch from Donghyuck and an indignant, “You’re older than me, idiot.”
There’s a knock on the door, and Mark startles, his head bumping against Donghyuck’s nose painfully. “What the f- duck, Minhyung.”
Mark takes Donghyuck’s face in his hands as Donghyuck swears under his breath. Mark holds a finger to his lips, placing a kiss to Donghyuck’s nose before he calls out gently, “Who is it?”
Unless there’s an unwelcome intruder in their house, there’s only one other person who could be standing outside their door. The door is thrown open as Mark sits up straight, and Maya, their five-year-old daughter, stands there uncertainly, shifting her weight from foot to foot as her Moomin blanket (a gift from her favorite uncle) trails behind her.
Donghyuck puts on his warmest, most genuine smile, the one that’s reserved only for Mark and Maya. “Hi, angel, why are you still up?”
“I didn’t get to see Dad before I went to sleep.”
“Yes, darling, because your dad now has a new working shift and you have a bedtime,” explains Donghyuck, beckoning her closer regardless. “Come up, give him a hug, he’s complaining about people again.”
Maya breaks into a huge grin and lets out a gleeful laugh, running up to the bed and launching herself upon it, clambering over Donghyuck to throw her arms around Mark’s neck. “I missed you!”
“I missed you too, darling,” coos Mark, swinging Maya from side to side as she fills the air with her giggles. “Papa was telling me that you’re getting better at basketball.”
“I am, I almost beat him today!”
Donghyuck nods. “She’s going to get good enough to beat you soon,” he warns Mark.
“I don’t think so,” says Maya. “Dad is the best.”
“Oh, so you can beat me, but not him? Didn’t think you were this partial, Maya Lee. Remember that you got your last name from me.”
“You have the exact same last name,” Maya deadpans, rolling her eyes sarcastically.
Mark laughs. “When did you learn to roll your eyes like that?”
“Papa taught me.”
“She’s using my knowledge against me,” grumbles Donghyuck jokingly as Maya jumps from Mark’s arms into Donghyuck’s. “Aren’t you? You’re the smartest one in the family by a mile.”
“I am. Papa almost put salt in his coffee this afternoon.”
Donghyuck hisses. “Stop exposing me. Are you my angel or my devil?”
“Angel. You’re the devil,” she smiles, pacifying Donghyuck’s offended look by placing a wet kiss on his cheek. “We’re the best team.”
“You’re right, we are.” Donghyuck gives Maya a high-five. “I love you, teammate.”
“I love you too, Papa.”
Mark’s heart just about melts in his chest. Two years ago, this scene? He wouldn’t have thought of it. Neither him nor Donghyuck were equipped to be parents. Then after Mark’s best friend was killed in a car accident, her child ended up with him. Mark won’t ever forget the look in Donghyuck’s eyes, hazy with tears but so, so resolute, telling Mark unequivocally that he’d do his best to try and be the best dad he could be, because there was no way in hell that he could let an angel like Maya grow up in an orphanage.
But it was a struggle. A constant struggle. They were both just out of college, and Mark didn’t even have a steady job yet. But Donghyuck convinced his bosses to switch his working conditions a bit so that he could stay home and work while taking care of his daughter.
Maya didn’t trust them at all initially, crying for her mother and refusing to listen to Donghyuck. She was more tolerating of Mark, because she was more familiar with him. Sometimes Maya would throw tantrums that the entire neighbourhood would be able to hear from their houses, and Mark would come home to Maya asleep on the couch, tired out from crying so much, while Donghyuck sat at the dining table, nursing a cup of coffee in his hands, tear tracks down his cheeks.
But Donghyuck never gave up, opening more and more of his heart to the child until at one point, she realized she could start doing the same. Things changed slowly, steadily, but the first major breakthrough was when Donghyuck went to pick Maya up from preschool, and she broke away from her group of friends, saying “Papa’s here to pick me up!”
She called me Papa, Donghyuck had said, eyes shining like galaxies as Mark wiped the joyful tears from his face.
Donghyuck only ever allowed himself to cry when he was in Mark’s arms. That was his safe space.
To see Donghyuck like this, now, tucked under Mark’s arm while holding their daughter and laughing with her, makes Mark say a silent thank-you to whoever is watching down on them. Things got better. Only because none of them let go.
Maya knocks on Mark’s head. “Is anyone home? What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing, darling, nothing,” smiles Mark, leaning forward to kiss her forehead. “Just that I’m lucky to have you.”
Donghyuck smiles at him fondly, prompting Mark to kiss his forehead as well. “The both of you.” Mark drags them both into a group hug. “My BFF.”
“Who? Me or Papa?”
“Both of you. My Best Family Forever.”
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