Work Text:
Kang Yohan never liked weekends or breaks or vacations. He was always going, going, going, never stopping. Besides, he never knew what to do with himself whenever he got a break, since like I said, he was always going, going, going. He also never liked breaks or vacations because it forced him to be in his house, alone with his thoughts and memories and well…he didn’t particularly like that. Just then, a loud peal of laughter shattered his thoughts and he blinked in surprise before he walked over to the window of his room and looked outside to see Gaon and Elijah playing with Kkomi, a bright smile on their faces, especially Elijah’s. He watched them for a moment until Gaon looked over at him and smiled, causing his eyes to widen and promptly shut the curtains, blocking his view of Gaon and Gaon’s view of him. He then let out a heavy sigh before he shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. He had work to do and staring at Gaon and Elijah definitely wasn’t going to get it done.
~*~*~*~*~*~
A little while later, as Yohan was sitting at his desk, going over some files for work, Gaon walked into the study, carrying Kkomi in his arms.
“Are you seriously working? On your day off?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Yohan looked up at him and huffed.
“Justice never rests” he replied. Gaon tsked as he walked over to the couch and sat down, beginning to pet Kkomi.
“Yeah, well, maybe justice should. You are human after all” he stated. Yohan huffed.
“And what would I do?” he asked. Gaon shrugged.
“I don’t know. What do you like to do for fun?” he asked as he continued to pet Kkomi, running his fingers through her soft gray fur. Yohan said nothing and stared at Kkomi, actually staring at Gaon’s fingers running through her gray fur, wishing that it was his hair that Gaon was running his fingers through. He then immediately shook himself; he could not believe that he was getting jealous of a fucking cat of all things but here he was.
“Sir?” Gaon called out, shaking Yohan out of his thoughts and making him look up at the young judge, who was looking at him with wide eyes.
“What?” he asked. Gaon huffed.
“Were you even listening to me? I had asked you what you liked to do for fun and you completely ignored me” he grumbled. Yohan smiled slightly.
“Sorry” he apologized before he shrugged.
“I don’t really know” he replied.
“He doesn’t do anything fun” a voice called out, making Gaon and Yohan turn to see Elijah wheeling into the room, a small smirk on her face. Gaon frowned.
“That can’t be right…” he murmured before he looked back at Yohan.
“You really don’t know what it’s like to have fun?” he asked. Yohan huffed.
“You know my background; you know my childhood. You think I know what fun is?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Gaon looked at him before he put Kkmoi down and stood to his feet, clapping his hands together.
“Alright, that’s it. We’re going to do something fun, the three of us” he declared. Yohan looked at him incredulously while Elijah looked at him excitedly.
“Where are we going?” she asked. Yohan looked at her in shock.
“Hold on, I’m your guardian! I decide if you go or not!” he exclaimed. Gaon huffed and looked over at him.
“If you go too, there’s not going to be a repeat of last time. Okay?” he offered. Yohan made a face before he huffed. Both Gaon and Elijah smiled; they knew they had won. Elijah then looked at Gaon, her eyes wide and almost child-like.
“So where are we going?” she asked. Gaon smiled.
“Where would you like to go?” he replied. Elijah hummed, thinking.
“The aquarium? I haven’t been there since I was a kid” she replied.
“You still are a kid” Yohan reminded, causing Elijah to look over at him and stick her tongue out at him.
“A little kid” she snapped. Yohan hummed, a small smile on his face, as Gaon nodded.
“The aquarium…I like it. Just let me check to see if it’s wheelchair accessible. It would just ruin the whole day if we went there and it wasn’t” he declared before he turned out of the study, heading for his room where his laptop was. While he was going to search to see if the aquarium was wheelchair accessible, Yohan looked over at Elijah.
“Do you really want to go to an aquarium?” he asked. Elijah nodded.
“I just want to get out of this house…I hate being stuck inside all day” she grumbled. Yohan huffed.
“You know I’m just trying to keep you safe” he murmured. Elijah pouted.
“Are you sure? I feel like a caged bird” she grumbled. Yohan opened his mouth to say something when Gaon came back into the room.
“It’s wheelchair accessible, so we can go” he declared, a bright smile on his face. Elijah looked at him with wide eyes.
“Really?” she asked. Gaon nodded before he shooed her.
“Go on, go get ready” he instructed. Elijah nodded and quickly wheeled out of the study as Yohan crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, raising an eyebrow as he crossed his arms.
“And how, exactly, are you going to be paying for this adventure?” he asked. Gaon smiled as he turned to look at him.
“You’re going to be paying for it” he replied. Yohan’s eyes widened.
“Me?” he exclaimed. Gaon nodded.
“Mm” he replied. Yohan huffed.
“And what if I say no?” he asked. Gaon raised an eyebrow.
“Do you want to disappoint Elijah?” he asked. Yohan’s eyes widened, his mouth falling open in shock as Gaon smirked; got ‘em. Yohan then pointed at him.
“You—” he started when Gaon smiled.
“Come on, get dressed. We need to get there before it gets too crowded” he declared as he turned and headed out of the study, leaving Yohan alone with Kkomi. Yohan then looked at the cat before he huffed and shook his head.
“These two…” he grumbled as he stood to his feet, heading to his bedroom to get changed.
~*~*~*~*~*~
A little while later, when they arrived at the aquarium, Gaon carefully helped Elijah out of the front seat, holding her in his arms as Yohan got her wheelchair out of the trunk, placing it on the ground before wheeling it over to Gaon and Elijah, Gaon carefully placing Elijah down.
“Good?” he asked. Elijah nodded and Gaon smiled as he walked behind the wheelchair and began pushing her, Yohan following behind the two of them at a slight distance. When they reached the ticket booth, Gaon ordered three tickets which Yohan begrudgingly paid for. They then headed inside, Elijah looking around with child-like wonder. Gaon looked down at her and smiled softly while Yohan looked at both of them, feeling something tugging at his heart strings.
“Where do want to go first?” Gaon asked, looking down at Elijah, shaking Yohan from his thoughts. Elijah shook her head.
“I just want to see everything” she replied. Gaon chuckled softly before he nodded.
“Seeing everything it is” he agreed as he began walking, pushing Elijah along, Yohan following behind. They first started off with the arthropods, which had different tanks full of lobsters and sea stars and sea urchins, sea sponges, crabs, and sea anemones. Elijah stared at all of these tanks in wonder before she noticed something at the end of the exhibit.
“What’s that?” she asked. Gaon smiled as he pushed her over to the end of the exhibit and motioned to the area.
“These are touch tanks. You can touch the different animals that are in here” he explained. Elijah looked up at him with wide eyes.
“Can I?” she asked. Gaon laughed and nodded.
“Sure. I’ll do them with you” he offered. Elijah nodded and both of them then carefully laid their palms flat in one of the tanks, allowing the shrimp that were in it to crawl over their hands. Elijah let out little squeals while Gaon laughed as the shrimps claws were ticklish. Yohan, of course, was not sticking his hand in the touch tanks, no thank you, but he was more than content to watch Gaon and Elijah enjoy themselves. After playing in the different tanks, Gaon walked over to where the paper towels were and grabbed two, handing one to Elijah so that they could wipe the water off. Gaon then looked at Yohan and raised an eyebrow.
“You don’t wanna touch any of the animals?” he asked. Yohan made a face of disgust at him.
“Absolutely not” he replied. Elijah smiled and giggled like a child as she whipped her hand.
“The shrimp tickled. I’ve never done that before” she murmured. Yohan raised an eyebrow.
“Did they now?” he asked as Gaon took Elijah’s paper towel and tossed it into the trash with his own before they began walking again, heading to the next exhibit. Elijah nodded.
“Mm. They were very skittish but if you placed your hand right, they would run over it and it tickled” she replied. Yohan hummed as they continued out of the exhibit and into the next exhibit, which was full of different tanks that contained lionfish, shrimpfish, stonefish, polka-dot batfish, alligator pipefish, banded pipefish, and warty anglerfish. Elijah immediately noticed the lionfish and let out a gasp as she pointed at it.
“What is that?” she breathed. Gaon wheeled her over to the tank and stopped before it as he hummed.
“It’s a lionfish” Yohan stated, making Elijah and Gaon look over at him.
“You know what type of fish it is?” Elijah asked. Yohan smirked.
“The sign does say what type of fish it is” he teased, tapping the sign. Elijah pouted and Gaon shot him a look, causing him to sigh.
“But I actually do know about this fish” he declared. Elijah looked at him curiously.
“How do you know about it?” she asked. Yohan smiled.
“It’s a venomous fish” he replied. Gaon rolled his eyes.
“Of course you would know about this fish” he murmured as Elijah looked up at him with wide eyes.
“It’s venomous?” she breathed. Yohan smiled and nodded.
“To other fish. To humans, it’s not fatal, but those that have been stung by its dorsal spines will experience extreme pain, and possibly headaches, vomiting, and breathing difficulties” he explained. Elijah’s eyes twinkled as she turned to look back at the lionfish as Gaon sighed.
“Now look at what you’ve done” he murmured. Yohan shrugged.
“What can I say, she’s definitely my niece” he replied. Gaon groaned softly before he looked down at Elijah.
“Are you ready to see some of the other exhibits?” he asked. Elijah was quiet before she looked up at him.
“Ready” she replied. Gaon nodded and wheeled her out of the exhibit, Yohan at his side, as they continued through the aquarium, Elijah looking around with child-like wonder at a world she had never seen other than on a screen. Anytime she wanted to stop and look at something, Gaon was more than happy to stop and let her look at the exhibit while Yohan stood beside them, arms crossed with a “bored” expression on his face, but in actuality, he was enjoying himself more than he thought he would. Seeing Elijah as, excuse the pun, happy as a clam was something that he hadn’t seen in a long time…the last time he remembered her being this happy, his brother was still alive. And seeing Gaon happy was a plus too. Of course, Gaon was always happier than Elijah and himself, but here he seemed more relaxed and he seemed to be just as excited about the exhibits as Elijah. At one point, they came upon a feeding tank where you could feed turtles and Yohan immediately knew Elijah would want to feed them so he walked over to the employee and bought two small cups, handing them both to Elijah who took them with wide eyes and a bright smile. She then began to feed the turtles, smiling brightly as she watched them snap at the carrots and leaves of lettuce she dropped into the water. Meanwhile, Gaon pulled out his phone and snapped a few photos, a small smile on his face as he captured the memories. He then looked up and noticed how Yohan was smiling fondly at Elijah so he snapped a quick photo, smiling at both the quality of the photo as well as the fact that he captured this rare smile before it was gone. He then placed his phone back in his pocket just as Yohan looked at him.
“What were you doing?” he asked. Gaon smiled.
“Just snapping some photos for memories” he replied as he knelt down beside Elijah, who was still staring at the turtles.
“Ready to get going? We still have more to see” he stated. Elijah looked at him and nodded, causing him to smile before he pushed himself to his feet and walked behind the wheelchair, beginning to push again. Yohan soon followed after them, walking beside Gaon in silence before he looked at the young judge.
“Do you want me to push? You’ve been pushing this whole time” he stated. Gaon looked back at him and shook his head.
“I’m fine” he replied. Yohan hummed.
“Then I don’t want to hear anything about your arms being sore tomorrow” he declared. Gaon tsked before he nodded.
“Yes, yes” he replied as they continued to walk through the aquarium, soon stopping in the exhibit that was full of fish native to the Western and South Pacific Ocean.
“Woah” Elijah breathed as she watched the different types of fish dart and swim in and around the large coral reefs that the aquarium had built.
“Pretty impressive, huh?” Gaon asked as he stood on one side of her while Yohan stood on the other side of her. Elijah nodded.
“It’s beautiful” she whispered as she continued stare at the exhibit. Gaon smiled and even Yohan cracked a small smile as they all looked at the exhibit and watched the fish swim around. At one point, Elijah reached up and took Gaon’s hand, causing him to look down at her in surprise before he looked over at Yohan, but even his boss didn’t seem to notice what his niece had done. Gaon blinked before he let out a soft laugh and turned his attention back to the exhibit, the three of them standing in silence, just enjoying the fishes.
~*~*~*~*~*~
After spending a good while staring at the Polynesian Reef exhibit, they continued through the aquarium, stopping to check out the sea turtle exhibit where a giant sea turtle swam around in the tank (Elijah was quite taken with him) as well as the exhibit that housed a giant pacific octopus.
“Holy shit” Yohan murmured when he saw the octopus, Gaon and Elijah nodding in agreement.
“I’m grossed out but I can’t seem to look away” Elijah murmured. Gaon and Yohan nodded in agreement to that statement as they stared at the giant octopus before Yohan shuddered.
“I’m going to have nightmares about that thing now” he murmured. Gaon and Elijah looked over at him, Gaon frowning slightly.
“Do you want to leave this exhibit? We’re practically done at this point” he explained. Yohan shook his head.
“I’m fine, we’ll leave whenever Elijah feels like she’s ready to go” he replied. Elijah yawned slightly.
“I think I’m ready” she replied. Gaon smiled.
“Are you? You don’t want to stop by the gift shop?” he asked. Elijah huffed.
“Of course I want to stop” she replied. Gaon laughed and nodded.
“Yes, yes, we’ll head over there now” he assured as he began to push Elijah towards the gift shop, Yohan huffing as he followed after them.
“I am not buying you anything” he declared. Both Gaon and Elijah laughed.
“You say that now” Gaon teased as they walked into the gift shop, Yohan narrowing his eyes.
“I mean it” he grumbled. Gaon hummed and nodded as he pushed Elijah around the shop, making sure to take his time so that she could look at everything. As soon as she reached the stuffed animal section of the shop, her eyes immediately zeroing in on a very cute sea otter plushie.
“Gaon, can you get that for me?” she asked, pointing to the plushie. Gaon raised an eyebrow before he pointed to the sea otter plushie.
“This one?” he asked. Elijah nodded and Gaon smiled as he walked over to the cubby and searched the plushies until he found probably the fluffiest plushie of the bunch. He then walked over to Elijah and held it out, smiling.
“Here you are” he declared. Elijah grinned and reached out, taking the plushie, giving it a squeeze.
“So you found something?” a voice asked from behind them, making them turn to see Yohan looking at them with a raised eyebrow and his hands on his hips. Elijah nodded and he sighed before holding out his hand.
“Let me see” he instructed. Elijah pouted but handed the plushie over to him, which he took and looked at before walking over to the cashier. The cashier quickly run up the plushie, which he paid for before walking back to Elijah, handing her the plushie.
“Here. So you can’t say I didn’t do anything nice for you today” he declared. Elijah grinned and took the plushie, giving it a squeeze as Gaon laughed.
“So you do have a heart under all that tough and prickly persona of yours” he teased. Yohan shot him a look but didn’t say anything as the three of them headed out of the giftshop and headed home.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The drive back to the mansion was surprisingly comfortable, what with Gaon and Yohan sitting up front and Elijah sitting the back, her sea otter plushie clutched tight in her arms as she dozed, her head lolling to the side. There was silence in the car since Yohan didn’t like to listen to the radio and Gaon didn’t seem to mind the silence whenever they road together, so silence it was. It was probably also better that there wasn’t any music or talk show playing so that Elijah could get some rest. They spent almost the full day at the aquarium, so it wasn’t surprising that the poor thing was tired. When they returned, Gaon and Yohan slipped out of the front as quietly as they could before Gaon opened up the back passenger door, unbuckling Elijah before slipping his arms under her knees and back, lifting her into his arms as Yohan took the wheelchair out of the trunk. They then, as quietly as they could, shut both the trunk and passenger door before Yohan locked the car, deciding to not honk the horn in fear of waking Elijah up. Once the car was locked, both men headed towards the front door, Elijah unlocking it before he stepped inside, pushing the wheelchair in front of him. He then held open the door so that Gaon and Elijah could enter and once they were inside, he shut the door behind them, locking up. He then turned on the lights so that they could see where they were going as they headed to Elijah’s room. Yohan then opened the door, allowing Gaon to walk over to Elijah’s bed and carefully place her down, making sure that her sea otter plushie was still tucked into her arms as he tucked her into bed, smiling softly.
“Get some rest” he murmured. He then turned to walk away when a hand suddenly gripped his wrist, making him stop and look back to see Elijah sleepily looking at him.
“Gaon” she murmured, causing him to smile and take a step towards her before kneeling down.
“Yes?” he replied. Elijah blinked at him before she snuggled under her blankets, looking almost like a child instead of a sixteen-year-old.
“Thank you for today…I had fun” she murmured. Gaon smiled and gently pet her head.
“You’re welcome” he replied, waiting for her to fall back asleep before he slipped his hand out of hers before he walked over to the door and quietly slipped out, shutting the door behind him before he headed into the study, where Yohan was sitting at his desk, Kkomi lounging on the couch.
“So, did you have fun today?” he asked as he walked over to the couch and sat down, Kkomi immediately padding over to sit in his lap. Yohan looked at him and hummed.
“It was alright. Nice to be out of the house, I guess” he replied. Gaon smiled.
“I think Elijah had fun, which was really what I was going for” he mused. Yohan hummed again as he watched Gaon stroke Kkomi, wishing that the young judge would run his fingers through his hair or pet it the way he pet Kkomi.
“You know, I don’t know why you always insist sitting over there when this couch has enough space for two” Gaon called out, shaking Yohan from his thoughts. He then looked up to see Gaon looking at him expectantly, so he sighed and pushed himself to his feet, walking over to the couch and sitting down beside Gaon.
“Happy?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at Gaon, who just smiled.
“Very” he replied. Yohan huffed and rolled his eyes before he looked down at Kkomi.
“You like him and you like Elijah, but you don’t like me. I’m hurt” he murmured. Gaon looked over at him and huffed.
“She’s warm up to you…eventually” he teased. Yohan tsked before he reached out and gently scratched Kkomi’s head, Kkomi letting out a purr of happiness.
“See, she likes you” Gaon declared. Yohan huffed.
“She just likes someone to give her attention” he replied. Gaon looked over at him and smirked.
“So…like you then” he mused. Yohan looked at him with wide eyes.
“Are you calling me a cat?” he asked. Gaon smiled.
“Maybe” he replied before he reached out and began gently running his fingers through Yohan’s brown hair.
“I’m sure you like pets just as much as she does” he mused. Yohan’s eyes widened and he wanted to argue that he did not, but he couldn’t deny that Gaon’s fingers felt rather relaxing as he continued to run his fingers through his hair. He then huffed before he leaned forward and rested his head on Gaon’s shoulder, Gaon looking at him in shock before he huffed and continued to gently run his fingers through his hair. He continued to do this until he heard soft and deep breathing, so he looked over to see Yohan fast asleep, looking so much younger and more innocent than Gaon had ever seen him. He smiled at him before he looked down at Kkomi, who was looking back at him with big yellow eyes.
“See? What did I tell you? Just like a cat” he whispered. Kkomi let out a soft meow and Gaon laughed softly before he yawned, quickly covering his mouth with his hand before he sighed. He then looked around the big empty mansion before he hummed and looked down at Kkomi again.
“A little nap never hurt anybody” he murmured before he carefully slipped his arm out from behind Yohan’s back (since the man was kind of lying on it) and placed it at his side as he carefully rested his head on top of Yohan’s, soon drifting off to sleep. Kkomi watched her two masters for a moment before she curled into herself, making herself comfortable on Gaon’s lap before she too feel asleep. The large mansion soon fell silent, the sound of soft breathing the only thing that could be heard echoing through the halls.