Work Text:
if you told gulf the love of his life would call him a kidnapper on their first meeting, then he would probably laugh and question you.
see, he's not entirely sure why he's in this lego store and how he got here.
well, if he's talking quite literally, then obviously he got here using his car to drive to the mall and he got here using his two feet to walk.
but he doesn't know how he got here in this lego store, crouching and looking at the cute (and expensive) lego sets this store has to offer.
he didn't even realize he already entered the place until a staff greeted him a good afternoon. his thoughts have been jumbled lately and maybe that's why.
being a ceo (well, training ceo but he's almost there) at an early age is difficult. gulf is the only child of two hardworking and esteemed business conglomerates, so one could imagine the pressure and the expectations those outside the family have been unnecessarily giving him.
his family has been nothing but supportive and open to his thoughts. they know handling a business--let alone multiples businesses--is tough, not for everybody, and so they wanted gulf to experience as much normalcy as he could at an early age.
that meant lego toys and park dates with preschool friends, actual school and not just home school, all the things stuck up rich parents usually stray away from in all the dramas gulf has watched.
he's forever thankful for them, but he knows it was never going to last long.
he's getting older, that's inevitable. he's at the golden age of 28 and so it's not just building legos anymore, but building actual houses and signing a shit load of paperwork and more buildings. what replaced the feeling of anger if someone toppled over his lego house was the feeling of anxiety as he double checks the work and quotations of his workers.
so... maybe there is a reason why he's in this lego store, after all. a trip down memory lane, perhaps? a safe space, his safe space. one where he could feel like the kid he used to be, even just for a few minutes or a few hours, worrying about losing a piece rather than losing a deal.
his hand is lingering on the thanos lego set right in front of him when a young girl walks up to him and stares.
just stares.
for a solid 30 seconds, the child just stares at him.
"awe you sad?"
gulf's surprised at the question. did he look sad?
"no, nong. i'm not sad."
"you look sad."
"i'm not sad, look." gulf smiles at the child, awkwardly moving his legs to face the child. his feet are already tired from the body weight pushed further into them, but he pays no mind. "do you want to reach something?"
the child shakes their head before she smiles widely at gulf, blinking. she reaches her arm out, up above gulf's head, and he crouches a little bit more so the girl could actually reach his crown.
"pwetty." the child says, patting gulf's head gently. gulf feels very warm and very giddy; children never lie and, although it's not the first time a child had told him he looked handsome or beautiful, he still gets fuzzy over the genuine compliments children give.
"you'we... you'we vewy pwetty, phi."
gulf looks at the child, just in time for her to squish his cheeks. it makes him laugh out loud; there's not much strength in her but the thought is there. he's being squished and he had just been called phi instead of khun.
"thank you. you're very pretty too, nong." gulf smoothens out her braids and she lights up, her face visibly lights up, making a cute sound and holds his hand.
"thank wu! dada did this!" she tells him. gulf momentarily removes his hand from her head as she picks up the twin braids and plays with them to show them off.
"well, your dada did very good!" speaking of... "where is he, anyway? are you lost? did you lose him?"
perhaps she didn't even realize at first and maybe gulf shouldn't have mentioned it, but her eyes widen and she looks back, just noticing the absence behind her. she's frantically looking everywhere, calling out her dada.
"dada! dada!" she cries out, just starting to sob. gulf panics a bit, keeping her close and patting her back.
"no no, don't cry. we'll find your dada, okay? we'll find him." gulf says softly, wiping the tears running down her face as she continues to cry out for her father. "do you... what was your dada's clothes?"
"he—hic—he has um—hic—black hair cover!" okay, so either a cap or a beanie "a hoodie, color—hic—um, white black? not black, not white."
gulf thinks hard, before showing the kid his sneakers with gray lines on it. "something like this?"
the girl nods frantically, "yes! wike that."
gulf nods. he stands up, feels his knees weaken for a few seconds from crouching, before reaching out to hold the child's hand.
"why don't we go to security so they can page you, okay?"
before she could even hold his hand, a nervous and angry voice suddenly yells at him.
"you kidnapper!"
gulf couldn't even process what has happened before he's forcefully pushed down the floor, hurting his behind.
he glares at the man looking down at him, carrying another child, who returns the scornful look he's giving.
how dare he accuse him!
if you told mew that he would accuse the love of his life as a kidnapper, he would probably die from embarrassment.
then again, life was weird like that and—you can't really blame him, when he's a single father of hyperactive twins, curious about anything and everything.
in hindsight, the mall may not have been the best place to bring his kids, but they kept crying about wanting to go to the mall and look at toys and god knows he's weak for his children.
so, really, what started as a fun and messy trip to the mall because of the ice cream he had bought them was now a hide and seek mew is not and will never be willing to participate in.
he's on the verge of tears at this point, carrying tawan so he'd get to look faster. the child must have been so confused at his father's frantic actions, but tawan has never been a fussy one. active, but not fussy.
he retraces his steps, asking people if they've seen a child about this tall, has her hair twin braided, wearing a purple outfit with knee socks, but nobody's seen her.
he was about to blame himself for even forgetting the auspicious colors for today when he sees—thank god—he sees sasi inside the lego store.
what he also sees is a man in a yellow and white stripe suit standing up and holding his hand out for sasi to take.
mew's brows furrow, anger and fear taking over, as he stomps inside the store, making sure he's securely holding tawan as he pushes the man down the floor.
"you kidnapper!"
he's sure that they're being stared at, but he doesn't care. this man, to him, is a possible threat. no matter how cute he might be, angrily staring at mew, he's still a threat.
"how dare you accuse me of being a kidnapper!" the man exclaims and mew wants to laugh. he's about to throw a rebuttal, when sasi tugs his sweatpants at the opposite direction.
"wha—" he's dumbfounded as sasi kneels beside the man, seemingly trying to help him sit or stand up.
"dada, no push! that's bad!" sasi reprimands him, reprimands /him/ , as she takes the stranger's face in her hands, like she's inspecting any forming bruise. "pwetty phi good!"
did my daughter just call him pretty phi? wait no — did she just defend a stranger?!
"sasi, no. you don't talk to strangers."
"no! phi is nice! he help me!"
mew stares at her like she's grown another head, before his attention gets caught by the stranger standing up and fixing his suit jacket.
"thanks for that." the stranger says with a bite. the anger quickly melts away as he looks down at sasi, patting her head before looking back up at mew, the shine in his eyes gone. "if you'll excuse me."
when the stranger walks away from them, he's stunned. he only comes back to his senses when he feels sasi punching his leg.
"bad dada! you huwt phi!" she tells him, looking angrily at him. it's cute, but what is going on? "say sowwy! go!"
"moon, i don't—"
"sowwy! say sowwy!" she exclaims even louder this time and mew flinches as more people stare at them, bowing his head in apology.
"okay, okay, i'll say sorry."
"stupid guy with his stupid beanie and his stupid face."
gulf is grumbling as he walks towards, well, anywhere really. he left the store as he felt more and more people looking at them. the staff seemed apprehensive to move towards them, so he just did them a favor of leaving before things get worse.
"hey! hey, you! yellow suit!"
he's just sent a text to his driver to pick him up at the mall when he hears it. he looks down at what he's wearing and looks around, confused. he becomes annoyed, though, when he sees the man who had pushed him down walking towards him. he's now carrying both sasi and the other kid as he speed walks towards him.
"what?" he asks, eyes narrowing at the man. he's not speaking fast enough for gulf's liking, opting to open and close his mouth like a fish. gulf is one step to turning around, but sasi beats him to it.
"my dada wants to say sowwy." she tells him, before looking at her dad. "right, dada?"
gulf raises his eyebrow at the man who sputters, nodding. "yes, i—um, i'm really sorry for accusing you of being a kidnapper. i mean, you can't blame me, but i shouldn't have done that and i apologize if it hurt—"
"okay, okay. just one sorry is enough." gulf stops him, raising his palms up. "you're rambling."
"sorry." the man apologizes again, smile widening in embarrassment as he catches himself apologizing again for... apologizing.
"ice cweam date!" sasi exclaims all of a sudden, eyes shimmering. "can we get ice cweam? give phi ice cweam."
he looks at gulf and then back to his daughter. "oh no no, he might be busy, moon. we can't ju—"
"awe you busy, phi?" sasi asks, eyes wide and staring intently at gulf. full of hope. how could gulf say no to her?
he sends a quick text to his driver without even looking at his phone, before responding. "no, i'm not busy, nong."
that's how mew found himself inside another ice cream parlor, in line to pick flavors.
his eyes don't stop looking at gulf and tawan sitting in one of the booths, though; tawan seems to be talking about something and gulf—that's his name, gulf—is listening closely, reacting with exaggeration to satisfy the child. his heart melts at tawan laughing and gulf smiling sweetly at the child that he needed to pause and why did his heart melt?
"dada." mew shakes his head and looks at sasi, who's pointing at the empty space in front of him and the old lady at the cashier who's looking at them. he bows at her, ordering four different flavors.
"your husband is very cute."
if mew had been drinking something—and thank god he wasn't—he would've spattered it everywhere at the comment.
"he's not my, no, not my—"
"oh, no? boyfriend, then?" she asks, handing him the receipt. mew shakes his head.
"n-no, not my boyfriend. just an—um, an acquaintance." he smiles awkwardly at her and she laughs.
"no need to be shy about it. i'm sorry about assuming. here you go." mew puts sasi back on her feet before taking the tray. he thanks the old lady and walks towards their table.
admittedly, it's awkward between the two of them. they're quite literally strangers who just know each other's names, but mew's children can't seem to get enough of gulf.
"dada, talk to p'gup." tawan says. "he's good at telling stories, dada! like you!"
mew looks at gulf, who's looking shy at tawan's compliment. "i'm sure your dada is better than me."
tawan looks at mew and then at gulf, before pouting. "i can't choose."
mew should feel, at the very least, hurt by this because he's the father and gulf is someone they just met for an hour or two, but weirdly, he doesn't. he just laughs it off.
"do you write?" mew asks him. gulf nods his head.
"i've always wanted to be a writer, like a children's book writer, but my current situation makes it difficult to do so." gulf says. he takes a spoonful of ice cream. "do you?"
and that launches a really lengthy conversation between the two. they discuss things they're interested in, topics they're passionate about.
gulf hasn't had a great time as he has right now for a long time and mew feels the same way.
it's gotten to the point where sasi is taking a nap on mew's lap while tawan's taking a nap on gulf's.
"i think we should pause here." gulf quietly says, pointing at the sleeping children. as if on cue, tawan stirs and wakes up. he looks blearily at the both of them and the two adults are smiling softly at the little boy.
"wannie, why don't you go to your dada for a moment, okay?" wannie , oh god mew's heart is going to burst. when tawan moves towards him, gulf stands up.
mew may or may not have panicked, but he didn't show it.
"my driver just texted me." gulf tells him and mew fights the urge to look disappointed. he's about to ask him for his number, but gulf continues. "i'll grab something real quick and then come back before i leave. is that okay?"
mew nods and he feels starstruck at the beaming smile gulf gives him, before he speedwalks out of the parlor.
it's a little over seven minutes when gulf comes back with two red bags that suspiciously look like lego bags.
"i know this is a bit... over the top, but i really can't help it and i'd really be happy if you won't say anything against these right now." gulf explains, setting the bags down on the table.
he pushes the first one closer to sasi, "this is for sasi because she was looking at the thanos box when we were talking."
the girl squeals in excitement, grabbing the box and thanking him loudly.
he pushes the second box towards tawan, "this is for tawan because he was talking about star wars and how much the two of you enjoy them."
mew and gulf could see the sparkles in their eyes, so really, mew can't even comment on it.
then he pushes his phone towards mew, "and this is for p'mew to put his phone number in so i could keep in touch with him."
mew can't even lie; he's shocked at how smooth that was. he looks at gulf and is surprised at how red his ears are. he made himself shy.
"wow, that was..." mew can't help but laugh, putting his contact number in gulf's phone. "and here i thought i'd get the phone."
gulf grins at him, saving his contact and sending a mew a message so he'd be able to save his phone number. his phone suddenly rings and gulf takes it.
"yes, i'll be right there. thank you for waiting." gulf tells the caller, before dropping the call.
"go, nong. we're okay. i'm getting a cab." mew tells him and gulf nods. "i'll text you later when we get home."
when both of them finally got home, there was this fluttering feeling inside their chest at the weird yet welcome turn of events.
they couldn't even hide their giddy smiles during their calls.
"and they lived happily ever after. the end."
mew looks at his children fast asleep in their beds, before closing the book and silently walking out their room, making sure to turn off the lights and lightly close the door.
they're older now, but every now and then, they'd ask their dad to read them a bedtime story just to feel younger.
mew's cleaning up the breakfast bar where his laptop is when he feels two arms snaking around his waist and someone breathing in his scent. he smiles knowingly, turning around to look at the sleepy face in front of him.
"gulf." he whispers, brushing the hair that's covering his lover's eyes up. "i thought you were already fast asleep."
"mmm phi is not there." gulf says, a bit slurred having just woken up, before he pulls mew even closer and pushes his face against his neck. mew laughs lightly, patting gulf's head.
"na na, let's go to bed already, okay?"
as they lie in the dimly lit room, mew's fingers absentmindedly tracing patterns on gulf's hand on top of his chest, mew can't help but think back on their first meeting and compare it to where they are now.
sure, there were a lot of ups and downs, especially considering gulf's stand in life, but at the end of the day, they chose and will choose each other amidst every negative experiences.
he's also immensely grateful that, alongside him, his children also chose gulf. hell, they'll probably choose gulf over mew.
"why are you laughing?"
"i still can't believe i accused you of being a kidnapper."
gulf grunts, before snuggling against mew. mew thinks he's asleep, but then he speaks.
"you've accused me of being a kidnapper, i should accuse you of something, too. actually it isn't even accusing because i have proof."
mew looks at gulf, who's grinning. mew just attacks gulf with kisses and gulf can't stop laughing.
"i have proof that you're a robber because you have stolen my heart and the kids are your accomplices."