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Minho awakes excited, and that’s because his Daddy and Papa have spent the entire week reminding him of the same thing.
He leaves his comfy bed behind in an instant, swiftly making his way across his room, and the smell of cooking eggs fills his nose. He practically squeals in delight, pulling his bedroom door open and jumping out into the hallway. He looks to his left, and then his right, and then he makes a quick dash for the stairs.
The child goes down the stairs slowly so that he doesn’t accidentally fall, and then he heads in the direction of the kitchen. There, he finds his most favourite Uncle, and he does a little happy dance in order to correctly manage his increasing excitement.
His grin is wide as cheers, “Uncle Jongie!”
The Alpha smiles down at the eggs he’s currently cooking, the little voice making his heart warm, and he takes a step back before turning around. He wanders around the kitchen, a light frown of playful confusion on his face.
Minho giggles, “I’m down here, Uncle Jongie! I’m small, remember?”
”There’s that voice again,” Jongho says, stopping in the centre of the room and he huffs softly as he places his hands onto his hips. He glances around the room once more, “but where is it coming from?”
The child rushes to close the gap between himself and the other man, practically tackling him into a hug. Jongho chuckles, and he ever so slightly leans down in order to scoop the boy up into his arms. Minho wraps his own arms around the Alpha’s neck, loosely as to not hurt him, and he hums happily in the familiar embrace.
”Good morning,” Minho verbally greets him, pulling back in order to look the man in the eyes, “are you making me some breakfast?!”
”I am, yes,” Jongho nods, “is that okay?”
”It is,” the boy confirms, and then he shrieks softly before placing a kiss to Jongho’s right cheek. He tells him, “I’ve missed you so much!”
Jongho’s heart doubles in size, and the glint within his eyes is one of pure adoration. “I’ve missed you too, Minnie. Have you been a good boy for Daddy and Papa?”
“Yeah! I’ve been really, really good and I even got a treat yesterday!”
”What treat did you get?!”
”Chocolate,” Minho grins, “I get to eat it after my dinner today. I thought about sneakily getting some and eating it in my room last night, but I also thought that might not be a good idea. I don’t want to get in trouble, you know? Being in trouble is no fun.”
”No,” Jongho agrees with a shake of his head, “it’s no fun at all.”
Minho looks over at the eggs in the pan, and then he gets an idea, “can I help you make the breakfast?”
”Of course you can,” Jongho tells him, carefully placing the child down onto the floor of the kitchen, “do you think you could get the bread for me please?”
The pup nods sternly, and he fetches his stool from where it sits beside the bin in the corner of the room. He picks it up, and takes it back over to where Jongho is. He places it down and steps up onto it. Minho reaches over, pushes up the door of the bread box, and then pulls out the new loaf. He closes the box and steps down from his stool.
”Done it, Uncle Jongie,” he says, basically throwing the bread up onto the counter near to where the eggs are being cooked.
”Good job,” Jongho smiles at him, stirring the eggs carefully to ensure that they do not get even a little bit burnt.
Minho gasps softly, “did Uncle Sangie bring his stickers today? Do I get a sticker for being helpful?”
Before Jongho can reply, Minho is frowning deeply and spinning around in a circle. It makes Jongho feel a little dizzy, seeing it out of the corner of his eye. He asks him, “what’s wrong, little Yun?”
Little Yun. The nickname given to Minho by the pack due to just how alike he is to his Alpha parent. The pair share the same kind eyes, infectious laughter, bright smile, and hair colour. Their facial shape is the exact same, their more specific skin details like freckles and moles are incredibly alike too.
Perhaps all of their similarities should annoy Mingi in some sort of way, but it does not. Sure Mingi carried him for nine months, and then endured a frightening labour to bring him into the world, but he just simply adores the way Minho is so much like Yunho.
Everyone has quietly agreed that their next baby will most likely be a mini Mingi. Mingi is currently three months pregnant, and a check-up is where both he and Yunho are right now. Minho knew of his little brother’s existence, because he’s certain it’s going to be a brother and he won’t hear any other opinions on it, before his parents themselves even knew about the pregnancy. His drawings went from three people to four, and when his Daddy has asked him who the fourth person was, he had told him quite simply that it’s the little pup in Papa’s tummy.
Yunho had spent some time trying to convince him that they didn’t have a pup here, but Minho wasn’t having any of it. He knew that his Papa had a baby, and he knew that this baby was the reason as to why Mingi was feeling so ‘icky’ all the time. He wasn’t about to be told he was wrong, not when he was so certain. After story time that night, Yunho went downstairs to finish washing the dishes whilst Mingi disappeared into the bathroom. Five minutes later, Mingi came downstairs with a positive pregnancy test in his hands.
The pack were more than a little shocked by this second pregnancy announcement, and that’s mostly because the two men had stated firmly that one was enough for them.
Minho’s birth was filled with many different complications, complications that still sometimes give Yunho nightmares even now.
He’ll never forget the way Mingi’s hand went limp in his own one after pushing for ten minutes, and he’ll never forget how much blood was on the bed, and he’ll never forget how Mingi went from relatively okay to three shades paler than what he should have been in what felt like a blink of an eye.
Yunho will never forget the Doctors quickly pulling him out of the room, away from the worsening scene. He’ll never forget collapsing into Hongjoong’s arms in floods of tears, replaying over and over again within his mind the moment Mingi used the last bit of his strength to reach for him, a silent plea for his mate to come back.
Yunho had almost lost both Mingi and Minho that day, and it took almost two hours of pacing up and down the same hallway for him to find out that they were both okay.
It’s his worst fear that these complications are going to repeat themselves, and Mingi’s worried about it happening too, and so that’s why they had initially said no more pups are the first one— but here they are. Mingi is pregnant with pup number two, definitely their last one, and they truly are so excited to meet them despite their concerns. They just hope that this second pup enters the world in a far less dramatic way than what Minho had.
Whatever happens, they’ve agreed to get through it in the same exact way they get through everything else, and that’s together. They agreed to this immediately after agreeing to actually go through with this second pregnancy— they’ve had a lot of private conversations behind closed doors.
Minho asks, no longer spinning around, “where is my Uncle Sangie? I cannot see him anywhere!”
Jongho chuckles small, because there are plenty of rooms in his house the boy hasn’t checked yet. “How about you go and find him?”
”He doesn’t need to,” a third voice announces, and Minho’s happy dance very quickly returns, “I’m right here.”
Minho crosses the room and cuddles his Uncle Yeosang too, the side of his head coming to rest against the man’s stomach, and he gasps softly upon a realisation. He can hear a little heartbeat in there— wait, no, he can hear two little heartbeats in there. They’re very faint, barely noticeable, but they’re there. How simply exciting!
Minho jumps back, Yeosang’s arms falling from around him in the process, “we’re making some breakfast!”
”What are you having?”
”Eggs and some toast,” he says, “are you eating breakfast with us too?”
”Ah, not this morning,” Yeosang shakes his head, “I’m feeling a bit poorly today.”
”Oh,” Minho frowns lightly, “is it because of the p—”
”Minnie, can I borrow you for a second?”
Minho spins on his heel, previous question forgotten about. “Yes, Uncle Jongie?”
”Do you think you could get me the dish from the drying rack, please?”
”Okay,” the boy nods, and he grabs his stool once more and sets it down in the correct place in order to complete the task. He fetches the metal dish he helped his Daddy clean up only yesterday lunch time, and he hops down from his stool. He carries it over to where Jongho is stood, and he goes on his tip toes in order to place the dish onto the counter. Jongho scoops the eggs into it.
Minho decides that he wants to help some more, and so he gets his stool so that he can stand next to his Uncle Jongho. Yeosang’s heart melts at the sight of the two of them quietly conversing, but it also aches with a certain longing.
He and Jongho are the only adult members of the pack to not have any pups of their own. They’ve been trying in secret to conceive for a few months now, but to no avail. With every negative test he holds in his hands, Yeosang is growing more and more worried that maybe he won’t be able to carry pups at all.
Yeosang asks, noticing a slight lull in the pairs conversation, “did you have any good dreams last night, Minnie?”
“I had a dream I lived in a castle with my brother,” Minho says.
Both adults are amused. Yeosang tilts his head to the side, slightly endeared, “how do you know that you’re having a brother?”
”Because I just do,” he says, “Papa has a boy pup, I just know.”
Jongho wonders, “are you going to be upset if you have a little sister?”
”No,” Minho shakes his head, “but I’m not having a sister, Uncle Jongie, so it doesn’t really matter. I’m getting a little brother.”
“Minnie—”
”I know I am,” the boy says, growing a little frustrated because why does nobody seem to believe him about this, “I’m going to help name him and everything. Daddy and Papa said I could.”
”They did, did they?”
”Uh,” Minho thinks, and then he shakes his head, “no, they didn’t. But they will when I ask them!”
Yeosang smiles fondly, and Jongho leans down in order to place a kiss to the top of the boys head. Minho accepts the action with a soft giggle, his face flushing red with light embarrassment. He then realises that he hasn’t actually said ‘good morning’ to Uncle Yeosang yet, and so he goes to do it right away.
He wraps his arms around Yeosang’s hips, looking up at him. “Good morning Uncle Sangie,” the little boy says with a bright smile, and then he places a kiss to the Omega’s clothed stomach, “good morning little pups!”
Yeosang immediately freezes, his smile falling as well as his heart. Jongho is glad he’s turned the stove off, his own body ceasing to function as well. Minho frowns a little, noticing the sudden quiet in the room. He steps back, and he wonders why his Uncle Yeosang has tears in his eyes. Did he do something wrong?
Oh no, this isn’t good.
He turns to his Uncle Jongho, “did I do something bad? I didn’t mean to, I really promise.”
Neither of the two men answer him, and Jongho replays the words over and over again within his mind. It feels a little bit like a cruel prank, but Minho is a child and so they both know that his comment, as heartbreaking as it is considering their situation, is completely innocent.
Minho’s own eyes shine with tears, and he feels incredibly guilty. Uncle Yeosang leaves the room, and Minho sniffles as he watches him go. He admits quietly, “I w-want my Papa.”
Jongho snaps out of his daze, hearing a soft sob from behind him and he can feel Yeosang’s distress steadily growing. He turns to the little boy who is now sobbing quietly in the middle of the kitchen, his little body trembling with the force of his cries.
He crouches down in front of the pup, and he goes to reach for him but Minho shakes his head and stomps his foot against the floor. ”I want m-my Papa!”
”Minnie—”
”I w-want my P-Papa,” Minho cries, and he even cries in the same exact way Yunho does, “I want my P-Papa now.”
”He’ll be back later, love, just let me—”
”I didn’t mean to make Uncle S-Sangie sad,” he says with a shake of his head, “I didn’t mean to be bad. I just w-wanted to say good morning.”
“You weren’t bad,” Jongho promises him, “you just shocked us, that’s all.”
”But how? All I did was say good m-morning.”
”You said good morning to Uncle Sangie,” the Alpha says, “but then you also said good morning to someone else—”
Minho nods, “the pups.”
“That’s what shocked us, Min,” his voice is gentle, and he can see the child beginning to calm a little as he continues to explain the situation, “we don’t have any pups.”
”B-but you do,” Minho sniffles, “there’s two in Uncle Sangie’s t-tummy. They’re just really s-small right now. Smaller than Papa and Daddy’s pup.”
Jongho swallows his own emotions. “There are no pups in your Uncle Sangie’s tummy, okay?”
”There are two!”
”No, Minnie, there aren’t,” and he hates to be so firm but this isn’t the conversation he thought he’d be having today and with a literal child no less, “but Uncle Sangie and I would really like a pup, and so that’s why he got a bit sad.”
“So why can’t you have one? I’m sure th-that you have two!”
”We don’t, little Yun,” Jongho shakes his head, blinking back his own threatening tears, “sometimes it takes a little bit longer for pups to appear for some people, okay? It’s confusing, I know that, but unfortunately that’s just how it works.”
A brief moment of quiet. “Okay,” the boy is frowning deeply, his face damp with his tears, “I’m sorry Uncle Jongie.”
“Minnie—”
”I’m sorry for making you both sad,” he says, “and I’m sorry that you can’t h-have any pups right now.”
Jongho brings the boy into his arms, and that’s mostly because he cannot stand to see the child so upset but also because his own tears start to fall. Minho hugs him back, relaxing into the embrace with ease.
”It’s okay,” the Alpha tells Minho, “please don’t worry, alright? Uncle Sangie is going to be okay, and so am I. I appreciate you saying sorry, though, Minnie, that was a very good thing to do. It was very kind.”
”Can I go and say sorry to Uncle Sangie too?”
”In a minute, alright? I think I should speak to him first.”
A sad, “okay.”
”Do you think you could wash your hands for breakfast please? Maybe you can go and get your favourite plush? The Panda one, yes? She can join us for breakfast.”
Minho nods, and he accepts the small kiss Jongho places to his cheek. He then pulls back from his Uncle, and without another word, he heads back upstairs. This so isn’t how he wanted his morning to go. He feels horrible now. Uncle Sangie has never made him upset before, and so that means he’s done it to him first. He knows it was an accident, but still he’s disappointed in himself.
Jongho watches him leave, and he stands upright with a small sigh escaping the back of his throat. He wanders into the lounge, hoping to find his mate there but no such luck. He continues on and stops outside the downstairs bathroom, hearing the fan humming from inside. He knocks on the door, and the soft sob that follows breaks his heart.
“Sangie,” he begins, “I’m coming in, okay?”
No reply, but plenty enough warning. It’s an odd case of deja vu for the both of them, Jongho walking in ready to comfort Yeosang crying quietly in the bathroom— the only difference is that there are no negative pregnancy tests lying around this time.
Jongho pushes the door over behind them, not all the way so that they’re still able to hear Minho if he were to need them, and he cradles Yeosang’s face within his hands. He would ask him if he’s okay, but he knows the answer to that already. It’s the same answer as he himself would have to the question.
Yeosang pushes through the touch and instead he falls into his Alpha’s arms. He buries his face into the younger man’s neck, cherishing the familiar scent and how immediately calmer it makes him feel. His heart continues to throb behind his chest, but the pain of the words does begin to subside a little.
Jongho holds onto the man he loves, and he allows the older to scent him. He feels the tension leaving the Omega’s body the longer their embrace lasts.
Yeosang sniffles, and then he pulls back. His eyes are bright red, his face is flushed and his cheeks are stained with tears. The sight hurts Jongho, and he brings his hands back up to carefully wipe the evidence of sadness away with his thumbs.
The older of the two lifts his own hands, the natural tremble of them slightly quicker than it normally is, and he wraps them around Jongho’s wrists. Jongho stills his movements, uncertain of what’s happening.
Yeosang asks him, “are you okay?”
Jongho’s heart does this odd thing where it seems to stop and skip a beat beneath his chest at the same exact time. “Yeah,” he nods, “are you okay?”
”No, Jongie,” Yeosang says, because he knows that their struggle to conceive pups is hurting his Alpha just as much as it’s hurting him, “are you really okay?”
The younger blinks slowly, and he shakes his head. “No,” he admits, “not really.”
Yeosang places their foreheads together, and he lightly brushes the tips of their noses in the process. “It was negative,” he says, not wanting to second guess himself, “the last test.”
“It was,” Jongho agrees, “I saw it. It was negative.”
The older exhales shakily, “I really wanted it to be positive.”
”I know, angel,” Jongho whispers, “I wanted it to be positive too.”
The two of them spend a quiet moment together before they hear the stairs creak. In that time, Jongho carefully explains to Yeosang what exactly he had told Minho, and Yeosang is okay with the explanation that’s detailed enough but not too detailed.
Yeosang pulls back, hearing his name being called from the kitchen. He collects himself, and then moves past Jongho in order to leave the bathroom. Jongho follows after him, making sure to turn the fan off before he does so.
They find Minho in the kitchen. The boy has his Panda plushie in one hand, and in his other hand is a piece of paper. He approaches Yeosang, and offers the paper up to him.
Yeosang takes the drawing. There are two stick figures on the page, one red and one blue. There’s a heart between them, and the following words are written at the bottom of the page: i’m so sorry uncle sangie <3 love from minnie.
The Omega smiles down at him, the smile small but real, and Minho offers him one back. “It’s okay,” he promises the boy, “you just—”
”Shocked you,” Minho finishes for him, “Uncle Jongie told me. I’m sorry you can’t have pups yet, Uncle Sangie, and I’m sorry for what I said. I really thought that— no, I’m just sorry for what I said. I didn’t mean to make you so sad. I don’t like it when you are sad.”
Yeosang kneels down to Minho’s height, and he places a kiss to the centre of the younger’s forehead. “It’s okay, love, I know you didn’t mean it,” he says, “thank you for saying sorry.”
Minho hums, “I got my Panda plushie to have breakfast too. Can you— will you sit next to us?”
”I will,” Yeosang nods.
”And Uncle Sangie,” the child begins, a little hesitant because he doesn’t know how this question is going to go, “I love you so, so much. Do you— do you still love me too?”
Yeosang’s heart breaks. It hurts that the boy even feels the need to ask him this question in the first place. “Of course I love you,” Yeosang tells him, placing the drawing onto the floor so that he can caressing along the boys cheekbones with his thumbs, “I love you so much, Minnie, you mean the entire world to me and more. You are so important to me, and you always will be, alright? Please never think that I don’t love you because that’s simply not the case.”
”Are you sure?”
”I’m so sure,” Yeosang nods, “I love you so much, little Yun, and I always will do. I was the first Uncle to hold you after you were born, did you know that?”
The boy shakes his head.
”Well I was,” the Omega says, taking his hands away from the boys face, “your Daddy and Papa let me hold you first out of everyone, much to your Uncle Wooyoungie’s annoyance. But, to be honest with you, I loved you even before you were born. I loved you even when you were in your Papa’s tummy.”
”And you will always love me no matter what?”
”That’s right.”
”Do you pinky promise?” Minho holds out his right pinky, and Yeosang links his own left one within it immediately. Minho smiles softly, and then he takes a step closer to the man. “Can I please have a cuddle, Uncle Sangie?”
Yeosang nods, and he brings the boy in for a cuddle. Minho relaxes immediately into the embrace, and he can feel the two extra heartbeats again but he doesn’t say anything about it this time. Just because he was right about his Papa having a baby, doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s right about Yeosang too.
He sighs small, and Yeosang scoops him up into his arms as he stands. Minho wants to tell Yeosang to be careful when carrying him, but he doesn’t. The three of them sit down for breakfast together, Yeosang only eating a small dish, and then Yeosang goes upstairs to help Minho pick out an outfit for the day. The three of them wash and dry up the plates together, and then they settle on the sofa to watch a movie after Yeosang has folded up his apology picture and put it into his bag.
Minho asks if he can sit on Yeosang’s lap, and of course the Omega tells him that it’s okay for him to do so. They’re half way through the movie when Mingi and Yunho return. The reunion they think goes well overall, and they’re pleased to find out that unborn pup is doing exceptionally well.
But then Minho mumbles sadly to Yunho that he accidentally made Uncle Sangie and Uncle Jongie sad today. His parents are both immediately confused. Minho reaches over for Mingi, and whilst he still can, Mingi takes his son into his arms and presses a comforting kiss to the side of his head.
Jongho looks at Yeosang, and the two of them have a whispered conversation whilst Yunho and Mingi are both completely distracted by their pup. Jongho asks Yeosang what he’s comfortable with their friends knowing, and Yeosang tells him that he can say anything he wants to so long as he’s comfortable with it as well… and Jongho tells him that he is.
Yeosang suggests to Minho that they go and play outside for a bit, and the boy agrees to do so surprisingly quickly. After they disappear together, Jongho tells Mingi and Yunho everything he thinks they need to know in order to grasp the situation properly.
He tells them all that had happened in the kitchen, both before and after the ‘good morning little pups’ comment, and he tells them the backstory of their struggle to conceive too. Mingi and Yunho both look completely heartbroken when he’s finished. Jongho had asked them to not interrupt or ask any questions until he was done speaking, and they actually did stick to their agreement to do just that.
Of course they do have questions though, and Jongho answers them the best that he can. He tells them that they’ve been trying to have pups for six months but haven’t had even the slightest glimpse of a faint second line on any of the tests. Mingi and Yunho tell him that they’re so sorry, and that they’ll speak to Minho about what is and what isn’t an appropriate comment to make. It’s slightly different when he does it to his own Papa, but doing it to someone else isn’t okay because of reasons like this— he has no idea what someone may be going through behind the scenes.
Mingi joins the pup and Yeosang in the garden, and Yunho isn’t surprised at all to see Minho come running in all on his own merely a minute later. They allow some time for Mingi and Yeosang to chat, and then it’s time for them to head home.
Yeosang grabs his bag, the bag that has the folded up version of his apology drawing inside of it. He feels a wave of dizziness wash over him as he does so, and his stomach churns a little bit. He closes his eyes, leaning against the wall to steady himself.
He’s okay by the time he has company, and he stands with a smile on his face like nothing even happened at all. He says goodbye to his friends, and of course he says goodbye to Minho too. Minho tells him that he’s sorry again for making him sad, and Yeosang simply tells him that he loves him. Jongho tells him the same exact thing, and then they’re gone.
They’re in their own home for an hour before Yeosang goes upstairs and locks himself in one of the bathrooms, using the simple excuse that he just needs to go and Jongho doesn’t bat an eyelid. Instead, he goes to the kitchen and starts preparing some lunch for the both of them.
Yeosang knows that he’s probably being cruel to himself, but he has noticed that things are a little different than what they had been before. He’s getting tired quicker, and certain foods that he used to love sound awful to him now. He finds two pregnancy tests in the back of the cupboard, does what he needs to do with the first one, and then lays it on the counter. He repeats the process with the second, and then he just waits.
Jongho is humming softly to himself as he chops up some vegetables for a soup, and after about five minutes he feels a strange relief wash over him. He doesn’t know where it’s come from, but he dismisses it rather quickly. He hears the stairs creak behind him about ten seconds later.
He places the vegetables into a pot, listening to Yeosang enter the kitchen. The Omega comes to a quick stop, and suddenly the room is thick with a certain heat the Alpha has never quite felt before. Jongho frowns, feeling uneasy, and his heart falls when he turns around to see Yeosang stood with fresh tears making their way down his face.
Yeosang doesn’t look particularly sad, though. Jongho glances downward, and there’s two familiar white sticks in the older’s hands. He feels his own stomach knot— there’s no way, right? Yeosang looks down at the tests in his hands.
“Jongie,” Yeosang begins, and his next words are dangerously quiet, “he was right.”
Jongho refuses to allow himself to get his hopes up. He moves his gaze back upward so that he’s once again looking at the man he loves. He just needs to make sure that he’s understanding the current situation correctly, “who was right?”
“Minnie,” the older says, still staring down at the positive tests in his hands. He repeats what he had said before, “he was right.”
A sudden nervous lump forms within his throat. “Right about what?”
Yeosang is quiet for a moment, and Jongho silently wills for him to begin speaking again. His mind is rushing at a million miles per hour, and he knows that Yeosang’s one is doing the same thing. He can feel the emotions his mate is feeling as well as his own ones. The happiness, the confusion, the relief, the shock, the disbelief, the worry— it’s all very overwhelming.
“Well I don’t know if there are two pups,” Yeosang sniffles softly, and then he turns the white sticks over so that Jongho can see the two deep red lines displayed on both of them, “but there’s definitely one.”
Jongho stares at the tests, stunned, and he wonders for a brief moment as to whether or not he may be dreaming right now. “You’re—"
”Yeah,” through a relieved gasp, and Yeosang looks up into his partners eyes. His smile is wide, and Jongho falls in love with him all over again, feeling his own eyes pool with tears of pure joy, when his Omega officially announces to him, “I’m pregnant.”