Chapter Text
This was not what Kim thought of when Chay said that he had to tell him something extremely important.
Large brown eyes stared back at him.
Okay, so it wasn’t the worst thing he imagined out of every outcome he could think of, but it necessarily wasn’t the best. When Kim read his text, he headed to the family mansion in utter worry, because some part of him believed that the day had come where Chay was going to break up with him. Ever the pessimist.
Instead, he was met with a beaming Chay, dimples and all, and an equally excited baby who was then pushed into his arms.
“P’Kim you’re here! I missed you!” Kim couldn't stop the small smile from showing just from hearing how excited Chay was to see him. He didn’t think that he could ever get over feeling the rush of happiness when Chay was near him.
“I missed you too angel,” he murmured, feeling aware of the light weight in his lap. He kept a gentle grip on the baby who was wriggling around, trying to keep balance. Chay was too busy fluttering around the room to hear him, and Kim just watched him with an upturned lift of his lips.
“Oh!” He suddenly straightened up, and he turned around to face them with wide eyes. “I have to use the bathroom.” He walked towards them and smiled sweetly at Kim. “Can you watch Venice until I come back, please?”
Kim covered up the grimace he felt coming forward when he looked down at Venice who was obliviously grinning up at him. He turned to Chay and nodded; the forced upturn of his lips turned genuine when his boyfriend gasped happily and leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek. Venice babbled and smacked his tiny hands on the denim of Kim’s lap. Chay cooed at the baby. “Aw, don’t worry baby, here comes your kiss!” He crouched down and peppered the left side of Venice’s face with tiny kisses, making the infant erupt into loud giggles. Chay let go after one last loud smooch and ran to the bathroom, leaving Kim alone with his cousin…nephew…he wasn’t sure.
Kim dealt with the news of Venice like how he deals with most things: he simply didn’t care. All he heard was that his uncle, Gun, had impregnated his mistress, but now the former head was dead, the baby had no use for the family. He was surprised that Vegas had decided to keep the baby, but Kim was sure that the adoption of Venice had more to do with Pete. They were raising the child as their own, so Kim assumed that although biologically Venice was his cousin, he was going to regard the child as his nephew.
Again, Kim could really care less. But when it came to Chay, everything mattered.
So when he and Chay were watching a movie in his apartment, Kim couldn’t stop himself from smiling when Chay received a picture of Venice from Porsche and proceeded to gasp and coo over how adorable the baby was.
So here he was, holding a baby in his lap whilst his beautiful, wonderful boyfriend was taking his own sweet time in the bathroom.
“How long does it take for someone to pee?” Kim grumbled and looked unimpressed at Venice who giggled at his annoyed tone.
He felt dread build up within him when he saw drool collect in the corner of Venice’s mouth. Oh no, oh please no , he thought when the pool got larger and larger with each passing second until the wad of saliva dripped right onto his jeans.
He grimaced at the feeling of the warm-now-cooling slobber soaking into his pants, and he tried to keep the nausea from moving up from his stomach to his throat. Kim looked around the bedroom to distract himself from the fact that this child just drooled all over his Gucci jeans. He winced when he felt another drop of saliva and willed himself to calm down.
Chay had texted him that he needed to tell Kim something important, and although he didn’t exactly share the information yet, just by looking around the room and the fact that they were in the main family house, Kim had an idea of what Chay was going to tell him. The bedroom looked like any other suite in the mansion, with a large living and dining area and a door on the other side of the room, which led to the master bedroom. The living area contained five large bags on the ground, with one of them opened which revealed folded stacks of clothes, baby clothes. The dining table had a wired device which looked like a bottle warmer, accompanied by several baby bottles.
Kim had a feeling what Chay was going to tell him.
Speaking of, Chay bounced into the room with a large smile on his face and Kim could help but mirror it back. His angel was so beautiful. He could stare at him for a lifetime. Venice seemed to agree since he started to kick his legs and wiggle, showing off his large toothless smile the second he caught his eyes on Chay.
“Hi P’Kim,” he cradled the older man’s face in his hands and pecked his lips, and again, and again, and again . Well, until the younger man was satisfied, but Kim felt like he himself needed more. Chay turned to face the baby, and Kim watched him as his face lit up and his voice turned high-pitched when he spoke to him. “Hi Venice,” he caressed his cheek, “did you behave for P’Kim?” A moment of silence passed as if Chay was actually expecting him to answer. Instead Venice babbled happily, making more drool smear across his face. Instead of being grossed out, Chay snatched a small towel that was hanging off the armrest (was that there the whole time?) and gently wiped his cheeks. He gasped dramatically, “I bet you were such a good boy! Was hanging out with P’Kim fun? Mmm I’m sure it was.”
Venice only smiled up at him, his grin widening as his eyes got smaller, whilst releasing happy gasps and kicking his legs out in excitement. Chay giggled back at him and scooped him into his arms. Kim watched as the baby rested his head on Chay’s shoulder contently before pushing himself off with a frown. He huffed as he patted his tiny hands on Chay’s chest, making uncomfortable high-pitched squeals. Kim looked both uncomfortable and nervous, because the last thing he wanted was a crying baby.
As the youngest of his brothers, Kim was the baby; he never had to do the caretaking since he was the one who got taken care of. When Macau was born, their relationship with the minor family was already so strained that he barely spent time with his younger cousin. He was sure that the family staff had their own families, but they never brought their children around, and his studio was a child-free space. Safe to say that Kim was never around children, much less babies, so having Venice less than three feet away from him made him want to crawl out of his skin with how uncomfortable he was.
It seemed that Chay felt the opposite even though he was also the youngest in his family. He simply looked at Venice with an exaggerated pout and turned him around, so his left hand was under the baby’s bum and his right arm was securely wrapped around his middle. Venice looked satisfied as he rested his back on Chay’s chest, the high-pitched noises were silenced. Kim’s boyfriend cooed. “You just wanted to see P’Kim, huh?” Venice gasped happily as he was bounced. “Yeah? I bet you missed him, but he’s right there, see?” Chay spoke soothingly near his ear whilst lifting his pointer finger in Kim’s direction.
Kim forced a smile on his face with every excited noise his nephew let out. “So,” he started when Chay turned himself around, with Venice strapped to his side, to attend to the mess on the dining table. He ignored how the baby turned to where the new voice was coming from. “What did you want to tell me?”
“Oh yes!” Chay exclaimed before setting the baby down into his rocker that was on the ground. He then made his way over to Kim, sitting cross-legged beside him so his kneecaps were touching Kim’s left thigh.
“P’Pete called me last night, asking me if it was okay to watch Venice since he and P’Vegas had to go meet with P’Kinn and hia in Singapore.”
Kim recalled briefly that his older brother and Porsche were in Hougang to see their hotel in the city. Why Pete and Vegas had to meet with them, Kim had no idea, but he also could care less. Then he remembered that they were supposed to be there for a week, which meant that…
Kim felt the realisation build up in him slowly like a pinhole leak until it had entirely filled him with dread as he turned his head to face an oblivious Venice, who was sound asleep in his rocker.
Chay understood his boyfriend’s realisation when he looked at his annoyed expression. With a soft sigh, he inched his back forward so he could place both of his hands on Kim’s leg. “P’Kim,” he spoke softly, so low that the slightest sound of the wind could cover it up. “P’Pete was very frantic over the phone, he tried to seem calm and told me that if I wasn’t able to watch Venice, it would be fine, but I could tell that he was worried. I didn’t want them to worry, and you know, it’s not like I was busy with university or anything.”
Kim couldn’t help but pout as he pulled Chay forward by his waist and balanced him when the younger man got comfortable on his lap. “You could be busy with me,” he mumbled grumpily into Chay’s collarbone, making him laugh. Immediately, he stopped before turning his stiff upper body to the baby, letting out a relieved breath when he saw that Venice was still sleeping.
“I know that this is not the ideal way to spend with everyone gone, but I couldn’t say no, especially since I wanted to do it,” he said before leaning down to kiss Kim quickly. He let out a sigh. “I just didn’t want to not tell you.”
Kim felt his insides melt seeing how distraught his boyfriend looked, with his plush pouty lips and the way his lashes were downturned at the corner of his eyes, making him resemble a sad puppy.
Chay was giving him the choice of not coming over, so he didn’t have to spend time with his nephew, and whilst that did seem tempting…
He sighed; the thought of not seeing Chay for a week left him feeling hallow and dark. Yeah, that wasn’t happening, he didn’t know how he had spent 22 years without his sweet angel. He groaned loudly, sounding like a croaky frog and nothing like the expressionless mafia prince everyone was used to. Well, Chay wasn’t just everyone, he thought as he tightened his hold around his boyfriend’s waist. “You have a heart of gold, angel,” Kim murmured before pursing his lips together. Chay smiled before giving him a peck. “I can’t leave you for a week, I always need you, you know that.” The corner of Chay’s mouth twitched upward hearing the older man sound so lovesick. “But now Venice needs you too, so I guess I have to share.”
Chay suddenly beamed and squealed, reaching his hands out to cup Kim’s cheek before latching his top lip with both of his. After a few minutes, they separated and breathlessly, Chay laid his forehead against Kim’s. “I love you,” he muttered, making Kim grin and rake his hands through his beautiful bouncy curls.
“I love you more, my beautiful angel.”
A sound brought them out of your happy, domestic bubble, and they both turned to face an unhappy Venice, who was furrowing his eyebrows unhappily whilst pouting. He was continuously letting out deep guttural noises, his face looking more and more upset as the time went on without either of them went to get him. Before either of them knew it, Venice scrunched his eyes together and opened his mouth to let out a loud and powerful cry, bringing his hands to his head.
Before Kim could even process what was going on, Chay leaped off of his lap and rushed to Venice and cooed at him whilst picking him and pulling him close to his chest. The older man leaned back into the suede couch and watch Chay, smirking when he saw his boyfriend rocking the baby from side to side, giving an extra wiggle in hips.
“What’s wrong, baby?” Chay asked in a high-pitched baby voice in an attempt to calm Venice down, but it didn’t work, only made him cry louder.
Kim was impressed seeing Chay move down his mental list of trying to understand why Venice was crying. If he was in his boyfriend’s shoes, he knew that he would have a mental breakdown ten seconds in. However, Chay was a professional with how calm he was when Venice decided that he didn’t like the tiny stuffed giraffe anymore and tried to distract him with a soft picture book. It made noise when it was crinkled, which caught his attention for five seconds before he started crying again. After the unfortunate ending of the fourth attempt, Chay realised that yeah, nothing was working; when he moved his arms to hold the baby more securely to his chest, moving his right hand under his bum, his eyebrows raised in acknowledgement before letting out the laugh of disbelief startling Venice in the process.
He turned to Kim, with his eyes wide in shock as he continued to pat the baby’s bum. “Someone has a full diaper, and someone is not happy about it.”
Kim couldn’t stop from wrinkling his nose even if he tried, because he’s seen dirty diapers on television, and he really did not want to see it in real life. Without a second thought, Chay brought both of them to the plush carpet displayed in front of the seating area. “Can you give me that, please?”
Without a word, Kim handed him the plush baby blanket that was splayed on the other side of the couch. Like really, where was all of this stuff coming from?
He watched as Chay gently laid the baby onto the blanket and quickly strutted to the table where the diaper bag was. He came back to his original spot as soon as Venice let out another cry. Kim didn’t know what he was expecting, but the overwhelming stench of a baby diaper was not it.
Oh my gosh , he gagged though he tried really hard to not actually produce any vomit. Kim wasn’t religious but in that moment he thanked God when Chay asked him to prepare Venice a bottle. He said yes of course, anything to get away from… that , but did Kim know anything about making a bottle? Of course he didn’t, and he didn’t realise that until he was face-to-face with a bottle warmer and many baby bottles.
“Um angel?” he called out, turning his head to the side to find his boyfriend, who was still kneeling on the ground and taking his sweet time to clean the baby, all the while making happy and cooing noises.
Finally finishing, Chay had Venice’s bottom half clothed and the baby was now perched onto his lap. He was chewing on his fingers, but he seemed much happier than he did moments ago.
Chay pouted slightly when he saw Kim was standing in front of the table, staring blankly at the empty bottle in his hand. “Babe,” he started, then sighed, before getting up and walking over to Kim. “Do you need help?”
Kim only looked at his boyfriend helplessly. The youngest man huffed and shook his head, allowing his curls to swish with him. “P’Kim,” he huffed. “The formula carton has the instructions written on it. Do you want to hold him, and I’ll do it?”
“No,” Kim shook his head too fast for Chay’s liking. “I-I’ll do it,” he nodded and quickly turned to the box of formula. Before he did anything, Chay stopped him again.
“Did you wash your hands?”
His boyfriend obviously knew his answer, because he had his eyebrows raised just daring Kim to lie to him. Of course Kim knew better, so he sighed and put the bottle on the counter and went to wash his hands. After drying them, he went back and read the instructions on the back of the can.
And dang , he didn’t know it had all of these steps. He had heat up the water to exactly 40°-50°C, then make sure the proportions of the powder and water were correct before mixing them, and then he had to wait for everything to cool to 37°C before it could be given to Venice. Honestly, he wished that either one of them could breastfeed, because honestly, what was this?
But Kim just kept and followed through the instructions, wincing every time the baby let out his unpleasant wails. Chay did his best to calm and distract him until his bottle was made.
Kim took the warm bottle and handed it to Chay, who sat Venice up against his chest and gently out the nipple to his mouth. Immediately, Venice latched onto the silicone material and ate greedily with both of his tiny hands clasping around the bottle tightly. “Wow, someone was very hungry,” Chay laughed.
Kim just watched Chay handle Venice with so much care, and he couldn’t believe how someone could be so patient. He already knew that his boyfriend was too good for this world, but now he could believe that he really was an angel on earth. The baby gulped down his food so eagerly, and he huffed with annoyance when he realised that he needed to tilt the bottle higher to finish every last drop of milk. With a small laugh, Chay lightly held the bottom of the bottle and gently angled it upwards, and Venice went back to finishing his food.
Finally, when he finished, Chay slowly separated the bottle from his tiny hand, careful to not make Venice notice before handing it out to Kim. The older man went over to them and took the bottle and went to the kitchen area. Even though he had very very limited knowledge of babies, he wasn’t stupid enough to not know that he needed to wash the bottle.
He looked over his shoulder and saw Venice sitting on the middle of Chay’s lap whilst the older man had an arm securing his middle and the other hand was patting against his back, so the baby could burp. Kim just looked at his nephew, and he couldn’t believe how small he was: he was sitting right smack in the middle of Chay’s lap, so his teeny tiny, socked feet weren’t touching Chay’s kneecaps, and his back wasn’t even touching Chay’s stomach.
He is so small , Kim thought, and he felt a small smile making way on his face. He looks like a ball.
The slight curve of his mouth was wiped away when the large brown eyes met his. When Venice saw his uncle, his mouth curved upwards, and it opened to reveal a toothless smile. Any normal person would have cooed at the sight, but all it did to Kim was make him grimace and turn his back to him.
Once the baby was fed and burped, Chay picked him up and placed him in his little rocker and turned on the television. He browsed through the channels and cheered victoriously when he found a kid-friendly channel. Cocomelon bled through the speakers of the television and Venice perked up when he heard the new noises. Kim fought the urge to groan when he heard it. He really couldn’t believe this was happening to him.
He smirked when he saw that Chay was seated alone on the couch, with his right holding his phone and scrolling through it. With quick movements, Kim wrapped his arms around Chay, eliciting a squeak of surprise from his younger boyfriend. He glared at Kim before getting comfortable in his arms.
“This is so boring,” Kim whispered in Chay’s ear, causing him to get a light hit on his arm.
“Well it’s a good thing that this is not targeted for you then, isn’t it?”
Kim grinned and hid his smile by tilting his head downwards and pressing his mouth to Chay’s shoulder. He looked over his boyfriend’s shoulder to the phone in his hand whilst his thumb was scrolling down his feed on Instagram. Kim observed as he occasionally liked his friend’s post and felt his heart squeeze affectionately when Chay never hesitated to like any of the posts that had to do with him.
“Well,” Chay drawled, turning his head to glance at Kim before looking at his phone again. “Venice has to eat soon before his nap, so we have to keep him awake somehow without tiring him out.”
So Kim sat back and relaxed into the plush couch and soon enough, it was 11:00. Chay hopped up off the couch and moved back to the kitchen to heat up the baby food. Venice babbled when he noticed Chay shift above him.
“Hi sweet baby,” gasped Chay. “I’m heating up your food, I’ll be right here don’t worry.” After he set the steaming tiny cup of puree on the counter, he quickly went back to Venice and scooped him out of his rocker. He buckled him into his high-chair, and Kim put back a smile when he saw his nephew pouting when he was separated from Chay.
He could sympathise with him, Kim thought.
Venice sat quietly in his chair and patted his tiny hands on the white table tray that was attached to the chair. Chay sat across from Venice, whose mouth dropped when he saw the food placed in front of him.
“Someone’s hungry,” Chay giggled. Don’t worry, see? Here we go…”
Kim stood up and walked closer to the pair as Chay made a dramatic play of picking up the baby food with the tiny spoon and gently placing it into Venice’s mouth, which parted into a small circular ‘o’. He couldn’t get over how small his nephew was; he understood that he was six months, but he really wasn’t expecting a human smaller than the length of his arm. Venice was strapped in his high chair with his legs just barely hanging off the chair. The tray chair was completely covering his legs, and that image made Kim fight the smile that was trying hard to creep up on him.
He was brought out of his trance when he heard Chay laugh; it was a full-bellied genuine laugh that rang like soft bells and made his stomach simultaneously warm and erupt with butterflies. Kim felt so lucky to hear that beautiful laugh every single day. He simply couldn’t get enough of it, and he didn’t want to.
I’m in love with you.