Work Text:
The pan hisses as Jongdae places the lid on top of it. He's trying to remember if he forgot an ingredient or two since he doesn't recall this dish being so bland. He's supposed to recreate his family recipe for Bulgogi, following the instructions step by step. Yet he feels he has failed, and sometimes he feels guilty that Yixing is stuck with a husband that’s horrible with cooking.
It’s not like I’d let him slip away from my fingers -- he begins to think as he smirks in victory.
He's so deep in his thoughts that he doesn't notice a crawling figure approaching behind him stealthily. One year old Kai is restless and upset as he tugs his daddy's pants and whimpers for attention. The sight of his daddy's scared reaction and slight jump causes a giggle to escape Kai's throat. Though the happiness lasts a short while, when he remembers why he was here in the first place.
"Oh gosh, Kai! Don't scare your daddy like that," Jongdae scolds him with a smile before lifting his mischievous son into his arms. He loves how his son isn't old enough to hate his hugs yet.
He only notices the discarded phone on the floor when Kai points at it and whimpers Ba Ba.
"Oh you want to talk to Ba?" Jongdae asks with a bewildered face. He didn't think that his son would miss Yixing already, especially since the elder left only a few hours ago.
Kai wiggles in his arms and tries to reach out for the phone. He lets out a whimper before screeching Fone, fone as a pair of tears fall onto his cheeks. He's unhappy that he can't grab the android phone back into his hands, and he's mad at his daddy for always restraining him from touching things. His daddy never lets him do fun stuff.
"Fone fone fone," Kai keeps repeating as he squirms in his daddy's arms.
Jongdae doesn’t relent as he walks towards the play pen. He grips a little tighter when Kai begins to wail No no, a normal occurrence since the toddler hates the restrictions of a play pen. He tolerates the strong kicking and Kai’s little fists as he keeps walking towards the living room.
"I know sweetie, but not in the kitchen. It's too dangerous," Jongdae tells him softly.
He sometimes hate how their little boy is too spoiled and how he’s the one who has to deal with the No no daily. He’s still scowling at the thought of Yixing receiving the angelic side of Kai, instead of the mischievous side.
He places his son into the playpen before walking back towards the kitchen in search for the discarded phone. He goes back with his phone in his hand, dodging the random toy that Kai has thrown towards his arm. He approaches his son with a hurt look as he rubs his arm and kneels down.
“Ow! Kai, that wasn’t nice. You hurt daddy,” he pouts while rubbing his arm. He pretends to sniff and gives Kai his sad face, an indication that the toddler has done something wrong.
As expected, his son stops his howling and stares back at him, focusing on the arm. He reaches out his arms as he sniffs and tries to grab onto his daddy’s clothes.
“Da da,” and Jongdae smiles as he accepts his son’s hug. He kisses the toddler’s cheek as he hears his son say Sowie.
He stares at Kai's wide eyes, swollen from crying, and the tousled hair that's a perfect replica of his own unkempt hair. He sometimes wonder why Kai is such a crybaby when he knows neither he or Yixing were. He blames Jongin, his younger brother, for passing on the gene. He’s forced back to reality when Kai takes the phone away from his hand, and lights up the screen as he presses the middle button.
"Let’s talk to Ba and then we’ll eat lunch," Jongdae decides before unlocking his phone and tapping the call app.
As he dials Yixing's cell, he sincerely hopes that the elder isn't busy with work, and that Yixing won't feel guilty when Kai cries during goodbye's.
***
Yixing is having an unproductive day today. He's trying to finish a deadline, but his partner, Taekwoon, is easily distracted. Though, if he has to be honest, they’re both equally distracted. They started off well in the beginning, finishing half of their work, but then a colleague starts showing them a video of '10 Inventions With A Plastic Bottle' and suddenly they're all distracted and on YouTube. Yixing had tried to get them back on track about an hour ago, but failed horribly when they found a video of a cat befriending a bunny. Ten videos later, and it's already lunch time. They’re now looking at cats chasing after a laser beam. He's just grateful that their boss is away for the week so he's not being reprimanded.
Halfway through lunch time, he sees his phone ringing and the name Jongdae lights up across the screen. He smiles automatically, already feeling better at the thought of hearing his husband's voice soon. He swipes the screen and accepts the call, cringing when he suddenly hears a loud scream after Jongdae's Hi honey.
He chuckles at the sound of Kai's Ba Ba chanting.
"Your son misses you," Jongdae tells him in his deadpanned voice.
"Our son, love."
"Your son threw a ball on me when I refused to give him my phone. I told you we spoil him too much."
Jongdae scowls when his husband has the gall to laugh at his complain. He'd hang up on him if he didn't secretly miss him too when the day gets rough.
He stares at Kai's desperate attempts to crawl out of the pen and how he's reaching for the phone again. He rubs his son's back, trying to calm him down a little before replying to his husband.
"Should have married someone else," he mutters under his breath and Yixing is used to the younger's half hearted complaints.
"I miss you too baby. You always make my day better," the elder replies and Jongdae rolls his eyes at the obvious sweet talk.
Well two can play this game -- the younger thinks. He knows he only has two minutes before Kai starts screaming again for the phone.
"Aww that's sweet. Then you wouldn't mind putting him to bed tonight? Thanks baby," the younger says in a fake sweet tone and doesn't let Yixing reply yet. "Anyway, I’ll turn call you over on Skype so Kai can see you.”
He can vaguely hear Yixing’s chuckles before he hangs up. It takes a while to find the Skype icon due to Kai’s insistence on helping his daddy. Luckily, he’s able to guide his son on tapping the right icon and the app automatically signs in for him. Yixing’s name is listed in Favorites so he can easily click it and allows it to ring.
He ignores Kai’s whimpering and the toddler’s stretched arms as he stands up. He then bends over the pen, and places the phone in a slanted angle on the floor of the play pen. He watches his son crawl over to the phone and sits comfortably in front of it. He tussles the toddler’s hair lovingly before leaving the one year old with the phone. As he walks away, he can hear Yixing’s cheerful Hello cutie and Kai’s excited squeals.
“Who is this little cutie? What’s your name?” Yixing asks him with a smile.
Kai raises his arms in excitement while shouting Ai.
“That’s right! And who am I?”
“Ba!”
“And where’s daddy?”
Kai points towards the kitchen.
“Wow, what a smart boy,” he praises his son and Kai giggles at his Ba’s cute voice.
The boy suddenly remembers that he has a nice ball to play with. So he crawls towards the end of the play pen.
“Ball!” Kai shouts before trying to grab it with his small hands. He sits right besides it, grabs it and tries to throw it to his Ba. He shouts Ball again as he tries to tell his Ba to throw it back.
“I can’t give it to you cutie. We’ll play with the ball later okay?”
Kai doesn’t understand the word later, but luckily his attention span is so short and his parents sometimes take advantage of that. So Yixing is relieved when he sees his son crawling to the next toy, a green balloon that was blown a few days ago.
“Loon!,” he tells his Ba as he crawls to the balloon and tries to grab it, but it keeps flying off to due to the rushed movements. He whimpers at the repeated failure and Yixing feels bad he’s not there to help his son catch it.
“It’s okay buddy. We can play with the balloon later.”
Kai stops crawling at his words and sits up as he points to the balloon. He stares at his Ba as he says Loon and gestures to his Ba to give it to him.
“I can’t give it to you buddy, but we’ll play later okay?”
“Loon,” he says again dejectedly while pointing. His eyes starts to glaze with tears and Yixing panics at the thought of seeing his son cry.
“How about we play with something else?” Yixing asks him as he tries to think of an object that he can use as a toy too. Then he remembers how Kai loves playing hide and seek so he smiles at his son as he suggests the new game.
“How about we play hide and seek? You love this game,” he tells him before hiding away from the camera.
“Where did Kai go?” he asks to himself as he hears Kai’s Ba Ba. Then he pops his face into the screen and points at his son with a gasp, There he is!
The boy giggles and claps while screaming Baba. He makes grabby hands towards his Baba, wanting to be held.
Yixing repeats his action a few times, earning some loud giggles from his end, and he smiles proudly for accomplishing a simple task.
Taekwoon looks over to his partner’s side and shakes his head at Yixing’s hyper mood. He can’t count the amount of times Yixing would call his family and spend more than an hour talking to the adorable boy. He stops behind his partner’s chair and places his hands on Yixing’s shoulders.
“Oh sure, rub it in that you have a cute son and a husband,” he tells his partner with an unimpressed look before waving cutely at Kai.
“Woon!” Kai shouts as he grabs the phone off the floor and tries to hug it. The phone slips from his tiny hands and falls onto the ground, causing the toddler to whimper in frustration.
Luckily Jongdae returns in time to help his son put the screen back in place.
“There you go,” Jongdae kisses the toddler’s red cheek and holds the screen in front of him. “We have to eat lunch now.”
He sighs dejectedly as he watches his son ignore his words and looks at the screen, noticing his husband’s interactions with Taekwoon.
“But Kai loves you as much,” Yixing replies with a smile before patting Taekwoon’s ass jokingly. Taekwoon pretends to be insulted as he steps away from the dimpled man.
“Jongdae! He grabbed my ass!” Taekwoon points accusingly at his partner. Yixing simply gaped before stuttering an incoherent excuse.
“I can see that.” Jongdae slants his eyes towards his husband without malice, and holds on the urge to scold him until later tonight. He ignores Yixing’s pouting and reminds the elder that their son needs lunch.
“Alright, it’s lunch time. Say goodbye to Baba?” Jongdae asks sweetly to his son, who’s beginning to whimper at the word Bye.
“Baba has to go back to work now. Be a good boy for daddy, okay? Can you say bye to Baba?” Yixing smiles at his whimpering son.
Kai doesn’t like the idea of saying Bye so he’s immediately unhappy and tears begin to form in his eyes. He sniffs as he mumbles No no and pushes his daddy’s hands away.
“No go, no go,” Kai crawls away from his daddy’s reach and hugs the phone to his chest. He juts his bottom lip and shakes his head when his daddy asks for the phone back.
“You’ll see Baba tonight again, and if you say bye now, he can come home earlier,” Jongdae tries to explain to his son as he rubs the toddler’s back. He can hear Yixing’s muffled It’s okay, he doesn’t have to say bye.
“Don’t you want to say bye to Baba before he goes back to work?” Jongdae tries again as he tries to stare at his son’s eyes. Kai looks at him in an unsure gaze before handing the phone back to his daddy.
Jongdae smiles at him before holding the phone in front of them, waving bye to his husband.
“Say bye,” he tells his son. “Bye Baba.”
He gestures to his son to wave bye along with him, and kisses the wet cheek to soothe the toddler’s sadness.
“Bye,” Kai says sadly with a pout before reaching towards his daddy for a much needed hug.
Jongdae grabs his son with one arm and lifts him out of the play pen. They wave bye one last time before he ends the call with one tap.
“We’ll see Baba again, and he’ll play ball with you,” he whispers to his son’s ear as he walks towards the kitchen.
Despite Kai’s deep pout, and miserable face, he knows the one year old will be fine until then.
***
Yixing stares helplessly at the screen, and pouts in sadness at the thought of breaking his son’s heart. He whimpers before wailing loudly I want to go home~
Taekwoon rolls his eyes as he returns to his desk. He starts muttering under his breath about Yixing being a whipped father, and he wishes that he has other friends to go out to the bar with.
So much for hanging out tonight at the bar -- he thinks solemnly.
“That’s it! I’m going home, and I don’t care if he fires me!” Yixing announces loudly as he slams his fist to the desk. He winces internally, but doesn’t dare to show it in his expression.
Taekwoon merely scoffs as he has heard of this before.
“Be sure to tell that to Jongdae when he finds out you’re unemployed.”
Yixing simply whimpers and his shoulders fall in dejection. He knows that Jongdae sacrifices his own career to be with Kai, and he wouldn’t appreciate Yixing’s stupid decision to suddenly quit.
He walks towards Taekwoon’s chair and shakes his partner’s shoulders as he pouts.
“Do you think I’m whipped?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think they’re taking advantage of my weakness?” Yixing asked, referring to his husband and son.
His partner merely scoffs in reply, an indication that it was a stupid question. Yixing hangs his head in shame for being so gullible.
“You love being whipped anyway,” Taekwoon reminds him.
Yixing thinks back to the moments where he takes care of his husband on hand and foot, and Kai’s loud crying at the middle of the night. Though it seems so stressful, he’s glad to have them both in his life. He smiles at the thought of seeing them again later tonight.
“You do know you can’t leave until our deadline is done,” Taekwoon interrupts his thought.
Yixing whines again, and shamelessly pouts as he walks back to his desk.
***
When Yixing returns home around six, he’s surprised to see Kai wide awake and crawling rather quickly towards him. He grins brightly before walking closer to his son, and scooping him up into his arms. Kai squeals loudly before rubbing his face against his Baba’s neck.
“Were you a good boy today?” he asks his son in a cheery tone.
Kai tries to tell him about his day with incoherent words and points to the playpen so he can show his Baba the new castle he made.
Jongdae greets his husband with an exhausted look before shoving Kai’s towel into his arms.
“Put him to bed already, or you’re not getting any of my ass,” he tells Yixing with a glare before sashaying up the stairs. He’s going to spend the next hour in a bubble bath, and will ignore any loud screaming for as long as his heart can take it.
Yixing stares at his husband’s ass with amusement before his attention is brought back to Kai’s loud Baba. He finally walks to the playpen and coos at his son’s hard work.
Though his day may have started rough and painful, he loves going back home to his adorable handful of a son.