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He has been feeling pretty down for the entirety of today, not even making his most favourite cupcakes with his big brother could put a smile onto his face!
He doesn’t know exactly what he is feeling, his brain both too young and too tired to properly understand such big emotions. All he knows for definite is that his tummy sort of hurts and his chest aches in the way it usually does whenever he gets nervous about something.
Sitting up in his bed, Yunmin sniffles softly as tears well up in his eyes. For the last fifteen or so minutes they’ve threatened to fall and they just haven’t yet. He doesn’t like to cry, it makes him feel icky, but he just wishes that he would right now. Maybe crying will help make him feel better?
Though it could also make him feel worse.
All these possibilities are too much, and so he gets out of his bed and storms up to his bookshelf. He’s inches away from pulling the fairytales to the floor before he stops and remembers both his Daddy and Papa’s words from before.
A messy room isn’t safe for Yunnie, so we need to find a way to change what happens when you have some big emotions, okay? Daddy and Papa just want Yunnie to be safe.
He frowns and pulls his hand away from the book. He is not allowed to ruin his bedroom anymore. It’s not safe for him and it makes his Daddy and Papa sad whenever he does it.
So instead he considers what else he could possibly do. He wanders slowly back to his bed and takes his beloved chick plushie into both of his arms.
”Papa,” he whimpers, referring to the toy chick he has cuddled close to him, “what do?”
Yunmin’s tummy only seems to hurt more. When he is poorly, a cuddle from his Papa helps him to feel better. Little Papa in his arms isn’t much help, but his actual Papa downstairs might be. He has been told to not leave his room once his bedtime story has finished, he’s currently in the process of learning to sleep alone, but if he’s icky then it shouldn’t be a problem… right?
Daddy and Papa told him something about what he should do if he wakes up alone and sick- he can’t remember what it is, though.
He puts BbyongMING back onto his bed and quickly leaves his room- until he decides the hallway outside is a bit too cold and he rushes back inside his room to put his fluffy socks on.
Yunmin is careful on the stairs, going down them one at a time and very slowly. He doesn’t want to fall. He came close to doing that once, it was very scary for him. He goes into the lounge first.
He asks quietly, ”Daddy?”
But Yunho isn’t there. He stomps his foot against the floor in defeat- but then he hears it. He can hear his Papa singing softly, singing a song Yunmin does not know the name of but apparently it’s very special to Daddy and Papa.
He wonders if it’s the song for the video they showed him and Minho the other day? The one with Daddy and Papa running in a field together.
Yunmin goes towards the kitchen, and he is relieved to see his Papa. Mingi has his back to him, and he’s writing something down on a piece of paper. Perhaps it’s for shopping? Yunmin really loves to go shopping because there’s a nice old lady who goes there. She calls him cute and gives him a treat every time!
The pup rubs tiredly at his eyes. He opens his mouth to speak, to make his presence known, but no words come out and his sorrow grows. He wants to cuddle with his Papa so badly! Why won’t his words work anymore?
His vision is cloudy with tears until he blinks them away. He can’t speak, not right now for whatever reason, so he needs to come up with a plan to get Mingi’s attention.
It’s easier than he’d thought it would be.
And so he wanders up to his Papa, and he whimpers softly as he tugs on the bottom of the Omega’s grey hoodie sleeve. Mingi immediately looks down at him, worry in his eyes and an ache settled in his heart.
”Oh, my baby-”
Something in him breaks. His Papa’s caring tone of voice is too much for him to handle. He bursts into tears, salty water spilling from his eyes hot and fast. His entire body is trembling when he is lifted into his Papa’s arms, pulled into his safe embrace and held oh so perfectly close.
Yunmin buries his face into his Papa’s neck and he cries. He cries and cries until his head hurts and his chest feels that small bit tighter. The fingertips of his right hand curl into Mingi’s hoodie and he holds onto his parent as if he were a lifeline.
”It’s okay, Yunnie,” Mingi whispers to him, rubbing small circles onto the very bottom of his son’s back with his left hand, “Papa’s here, it’ll be okay.”
The boy’s entire body tenses as he chokes on his next cry. His face contorts more, his heart feels like it’s about to beat right out of his chest.
”Oh, sweetheart,” Mingi’s frown steadily gets deeper, his heart is heavy and his stomach is sick with worry, “what’s got you so worked up, huh?”
He doesn’t know, and that’s the problem. He knows that something is wrong, but he just doesn’t know what it is. His face moves out from being lodged into Mingi’s neck.
”Hey,” a calm voice joins the conversation, “what’s going on?”
”I don’t know,” is how Mingi replies, “he must have gotten himself out of bed and he found me in here.”
Yunho stands at Mingi’s left side so that he is able to see their son’s face. “Hey, my little Prince,” he begins softly, “can you tell Daddy and Papa what’s wrong?”
Yunmin whines as he shakes his head, the body part resting on Mingi’s right shoulder.
So Yunho asks him, “did you have a bad dream?”
Another shake of his head. More tears fall. Mingi’s hold on the pup tightens a little.
“Are you not able to find something?”
Yunmin sobs, and Yunho, for a split second, believes he’s cracked the case until the pup shakes his head again.
”Um,” he tries to think of what on earth else could be upsetting their boy so much, “did Minnie say words to you that weren’t very kind?”
Mingi and Yunho had noticed how quiet Yunmin had been today. There is always a chance that maybe a petty sibling argument had occurred, at some point, behind their backs.
”N-no,” and Yunmin immediately jumps to his big brother’s defence, “Minnie good b-boy.”
Yunho nods, smiling small. “You’re right.”
Yunmin adjusts his head a little and then a defeated, ”I d-dunno!”
”Don’t know what, love?”
Yunmin whines, his body shaking again. Mingi places a kiss to the boy’s forehead as he speaks, “I just all s-sad and I dunno wh-why! I tr-try smile but it n-no work!”
”Oh no,” Yunho frowns, trying his best to mask just how much the confession upsets him, “how long have you been feeling like that?”
”All the day, D-Daddy! I just s-so sad!”
”Is there anything Papa and I can do to help you feel better?”
Another cry, “I d-dunno!”
Mingi settles his chin onto Yunmin’s head, and Yunho catches a quick glimpse of the tears in the corners of his mate’s eyes. Mingi has always, and probably will always, feel the same sadness as their children do.
”How do you feel about coming to lay with Daddy and Papa tonight?”
Yunmin sniffles, “l-like sleepover?”
”Yeah! Exactly like a sleepover.”
”B-but no Minnie? Yunnie love Minnie.”
”I know Yunnie loves Minnie,” the oldest of the family says, “but I think Minnie is already asleep.”
Yunmin’s lip quivers.
”Minnie is having his own sleepover,” Yunho tells him, “right now with all of his plushies. Maybe when your brother gets home from school on Friday, all four of us can have a sleepover together and watch movies in the lounge. Does that sound okay?”
”C-can we watch fishes?”
”Fishes?”
”Th-the one with the orange fishes.”
”Nemo?”
”Y-yeah,” Yunmin sniffles, “I l-like that one.”
”Then we can watch it, yeah, and we’ll let Minnie choose movie two, okay?”
”Daddy and Papa movie three?”
”I think I already know what Papa will pick.”
”Sleep Beautiful?”
”Sleeping Beauty, sweetheart.”
Yunmin blinks. “I no like that, my name better.”
Mingi chuckles, the sound warming Yunho’s heart. He lifts his chin from Yunmin’s head and allows for the child to pull back a little. Yunmin frowns, noticing a tear on his Papa’s cheek.
”Oh no, Papa,” Yunmin cradles Mingi’s face within his two little hands, and he uses his thumbs to wipe the tears away, “no more cry now please?”
”Yunnie-”
”I see Daddy do it, yeah? No more Papa tears,” he pulls his hands back, “see? All gone now.”
Mingi smiles small, and he places a kiss to the centre of Yunmin’s forehead. He and Yunho are raising two very thoughtful, and apparently very observant too, boys.
”Daddy, Papa,” the boy says quietly, looking between the two, “I still sad. I still dunno why!”
”Being sad is no fun, is it?”
”N-no, Papa.”
”But it is okay to feel sad, yeah? Even if you don’t know why you’re feeling that way. Sometimes we need to feel some big emotions, and that’s perfectly fine.”
”Daddy get sad?”
”Sometimes,” Mingi nods, “Papa gets sad too.”
”Papa get panic?”
Mingi’s heart falls. ”Something like that, yeah.”
”I no like it when Papa panic.”
”Papa doesn’t like it either.”
”Neither does Daddy.”
Mingi looks over at Yunho, and he sends him a small smile. The reason Yunmin had been conceived in the first place, if they are both being completely honest, is because Mingi was off of his birth control due to it interfering with his anxiety medication.
Their next respective heat and rut cycles had synced up and a few weeks later- well there was a positive pregnancy test in Mingi’s hands.
“Papa,” Yunmin pats the right side of Mingi’s face in order to get his attention. Mingi looks back toward the boy who looks so much like himself, “I sorry.”
Confused, Mingi asks him, “why are you sorry?”
”B-because I got out bed, you and Daddy say I try no do that anymore.”
”Oh, honey,” Mingi begins, “you did the right thing by coming to find us. If you’re upset or need us, of course you can get out of bed. We told you this the other day, remember? When you went to bed all on your own for the first time.”
Because the both of them wake up in the middle of the night to find Yunmin lying between them more often than not. Sometimes, when he’s in his own room, either Mingi or Yunho have to stay at his side until he’s fast asleep.
Yunmin nods small, “I no remember. I sorry.”
”You don’t need to apologise, baby,” Mingi tells him, “it’s okay.”
Yunmin sniffles and sets his head back onto Mingi’s shoulder. “Papa,” he says slowly, “I know why I sad now.”
”Why is it?”
”Missed Daddy and Papa,” he mumbles, “knew ‘bout bedtime and didn’t like it.”
Yunho asks, “didn’t like what?”
”All alone,” Yunmin says, “no like being alone.”
Mingi and Yunho look at each other before turning their gazes towards their son.
“I know I have to,” the boy clarifies, “jus’ no like it. It’s all lonely. Yunnie don’t like lonely. What if some monsters get Yunnie?”
”There will be no monsters coming to get Yunnie,” Yunho promises him, “none at all. And do you know why?”
”Wh-why?”
”Because monsters aren’t real,” he says, “and even if they were, Daddy and Papa would scare them away for you.”
”You would?!”
”Of course we would! No monsters are getting our Yunmin, okay?”
”And no monsters for Minnie too?”
”No monsters for anyone.”
Yunmin considers.
Mingi then tells him of something himself and Yunho had agreed on a few days ago. “Daddy and I talked about bedtime, you know? And we said that if you can stay in your room all by yourself for five or six nights, then you can have one or two nights in with us, okay?”
”S-so Yunnie sleep on own and have Daddy and Papa sleepovers?”
”That’s right,” Yunho nods, “does that sound okay to you?”
”And no monsters will get Yunnie?”
Mingi confirms, “no monsters will get Yunnie.”
Once again, Yunmin considers the offer he has been given. Mingi and Yunho decide to use the little boys quiet time to their advantage. Mingi leaves the room first in order to head upstairs, Yunho turns the light off and then follows after him.
They enter their bedroom, already dressed in comfy clothes to sleep in because today has been quite a lazy Sunday. Mingi places Yunmin down onto the bed and he goes to retrieve the tv controller whilst Yunho closes the door over.
They never have their door shut all the way at night, at least not whilst their boys are still so young.
Yunho sits down on the right side of Yunmin and he turns on the bedside table lamp.
“Daddy,” the boy begins, “I have think now!”
Yunho asks him, “what did you decide?”
But Yunmin’s attention is very quickly captured by something, or rather someone, else. Both of his eyes are shining at the tv screen. He points with a bright smile on his face, “Spider-Man!”
Yunho grins, and Mingi chuckles softly.
”Papa we watch it?”
”What’s the magic word?”
”PLEASE!”
”Hey, hey,” Yunho runs his hand through the pups dark hair, “little voices please. Minnie is sleeping, remember?”
“Oh,” Yunmin blinks, “I sorry. Yunnie like Spider-Man, though.”
Mingi puts the film on, setting the volume so that the characters voices are barely audible. He settles down on the other side of Yunmin, and immediately the boy cuddles into his side. Mingi curls his right arm around their son.
”Papa, I no feel well.”
”Well we’ve had some quite big emotions tonight, haven’t we? That might be the reason why.”
”Yunnie room all clean.”
Mingi smiles, proud, “well done, baby.”
Their little boy had fallen into the habit of trashing his room every time his big emotions became too much for him to handle. His toys would fly across the space, his books would be pulled off the shelves, his duvet screwed up on the floor and all of his pillows messy.
If he felt angry he would do this, and if he felt sad or scared he’d do it too. Even when he was happy once, he kicked his bin over and threw all of the balled up pieces of paper into the air. He said it was snowing, Yunho and Mingi stood stunned.
They have worked on it, though, how to deal with big emotions in a way that is safe. Yunmin nearly broke his main light once by throwing a toy up at it, only not having done so because Yunho got there just in time to prevent it from falling to the ground.
“Would you like me to get Papa for you?”
Yunmin nods against Mingi’s shoulder. It seems that the conversation about the sleepover/sleeping alone arrangement is now waiting until the morning.
Yunho leaves the room to retrieve a familiar plush from Yunmin’s bedroom. He is pleasantly surprised to see that the room is in fact clean. There is not one item that isn’t where it should be. He goes over to the boys bed and collects BbyongMING from it. The Aniteez plush was purchased by Uncle Jongho.
When he gets back into his own room, Yunmin’s eyes are already heavy. He is breathing slowly, though sometimes it’s still a little bit stuttered. Yunho sits down at Yunmin’s side and offers the plushie to him.
Taking the chick plushie into his right hand, Yunmin says a small, “thank you, my Daddy.”
“You’re welcome, Yunnie.”
”My room all clean?”
”Super clean! Daddy and Papa are very proud of you.”
”Minnie too?”
”You’ll have to tell Minnie in the morning but I know he will be proud as well.”
Yunmin smiles small, more than content playing with BbyongMING’s little arms. He snuggles a little closer to Mingi.
Yunho asks him, “do you know why else we are proud of you?”
”Why?”
”Because you went to find Papa when you had some big emotions,” he says, “and big emotions, like Papa told you earlier, are of course okay to have but this time you went to find some help instead of messing up your room. That’s a huge step, Yunnie! It is so amazing that you did that. We know big emotions can be scary for you, but it’s important you know they’re okay to have, yeah? It’s okay to not know why you’re feeling a certain way sometimes.”
“W-will it happen again, Daddy?”
Yunho is honest when he tells him, “I don’t know, honey, but what I do know is that both Daddy and Papa will always be here for you if you have big or even little emotions, okay? If you know what you’re feeling or if you don’t, we’ll be there to help make it better. Just like we did today.”
Yunmin sniffles. “Daddy, Papa make Yunnie happy. All the time, they the bestest. And Minnie too. And Hajoon.”
Both Alpha and Omega feel their hearts warm. Their gazes are filled with adoration.
Mingi tells him, ”you make us so happy too, love, so unbelievably happy.”
Yunmin adjusts his head on Mingi’s shoulder, “big emotions okay?”
”Yes,” Yunho nods.
”And n-not knowing what wrong is okay?”
”It is,” Mingi tells him, “it can be quite frustrating but sometimes we do feel things and do not know why. If it happens again, please come and find Daddy or Papa just like how you did today. And if Daddy and Papa are not there for some reason, like if you’re staying with Uncle Wooyoungie, then you tell him instead. We are all here to help, okay?”
Yunmin nods in both appreciation of the words and agreement of the plan, and then he brings the plush of BbyongMING into his arms. “Yunnie watch movie now?”
Mingi chuckles small, and he places a kiss to the top of the pups head. “Yunnie can watch the movie now, yes.”
Yunmin smiles brightly, immediately allowing himself to get hypnotised by the bright colours on the screen and the (mostly) playful nature of Tom Holland’s first Spider-Man film. His arm is hurting a little bit, up high where his half moon tattoo is, but it stops after a few seconds so he doesn’t say anything. If it hurts again, he’ll tell someone.
It’s not a tattoo, but he is still too young to properly understand what it is and what it means, so that’s what they’ve decided to refer to it as for now. San and Wooyoung do the same with their son, because he has a matching mark in the exact same spot.
Yunho leans over to place a kiss to Yunmin’s right cheek and then he lies down beside his mate and their youngest pup. Mingi’s phone buzzes on the nightstand after fifteen or so minutes and he frowns lightly, wondering who could be trying to contact him so late.
His right arm stays curled around his child as he reaches over with his left to grab the mobile device. He sees a notification from Wooyoung, and he opens it immediately.
wooyoungie: just out of curiosity, has yunnie been fussy all day today? hajoon has been spacey since he woke up and he told me like twenty mins ago he felt sad but didn’t know why.
Mingi sighs small, and he types slowly because doing so with his left hand is a little difficult.
mangi: he has been, yeah. he’s given us a reason now but didn’t know why at first either
mangi: is hajoon okay now?
wooyoungie: still a bit on edge but has calmed down significantly. been sat with san and i for like thirty minutes? think he’s finally dozing back off to sleep
wooyoungie: and i don’t mean san btw
Mingi smiles an amused smile, and then he takes a glance towards the pup at his side. Yunmin looks to be fighting to keep his eyes open, his breathing is steady and his gaze on the tv is unfocused. His big emotions often tire him out very quickly. He looks back at his phone:
mangi: same with yunnie, think he’s a few seconds from sleep
wooyoungie: shit
mangi: not the first time this has happened with them, is it? their emotions linking up like this
wooyoungie: no
mangi: do you think high school didn’t teach us enough?
wooyoungie: yeah, this fated mates thing must be more complicated than we’d initially thought
mangi: maybe
Wooyoung disappears offline after reading that, and Mingi moves out of their messages. He’s greeted by his home screen, a photograph of Yunho sat with the boys. Yunmin is on his lap, and Minho is kneeling up behind him with his arms around Yunho’s shoulders. The older of their boys’ chin is settled onto Yunho’s left shoulder. Mingi adores this photo so much. They all look so happy in it.
He doesn’t know how long he spends staring at the photo before he feels a hand in his hair. Mingi turns and is greeted by the gaze of his mate. Blindly, he sets his phone back down onto the nightstand.
”Hey, Princess,” Yunho says gently, bringing his hand back towards himself, “is everything alright?”
“Yeah,” Mingi nods, “Wooyoung just messaged.”
”Oh yeah?”
”Hajoon has been having some pretty big emotions too today,” Mingi says, “said he didn’t know why he was so sad.”
Yunho sighs, “maybe the four of us should look into it more? What’s going on between the two of them?”
“I’ll call Wooyoung tomorrow,” the Omega agrees. Hajoon, or little Wooyoung, and Yunmin are already so connected to one another and they’re not even four yet. God knows what may happen in the future.
Yunho sends him a small smile and Yunmin decides at that point, in his sleep, to move away from Mingi. He rolls all the way over until he’s somewhat awake and climbing on top of Yunho.
He settles his head onto the left side of his Daddy’s chest, listening to his heartbeat. Yunho smiles down at him, and begins brushing through the pups dark brown hair with the tips of his right fingers. Yunmin blinks sleepily a few times before he coughs lightly and then moves back into his dream world. His left arm curls upward, he clings onto Yunho’s hoodie. His right hand is resting limply on the mattress.
”You stole my baby,” Mingi pouts.
Yunho looks over at his mate, ”he’s my baby too.”
Mingi’s frown gets deeper.
A lighthearted, ”you get cuddles from him all the time! Please let me have this?”
”Not all the time.”
Yunho raises his eyebrows.
Mingi huffs in defeat. “Fine.”
Yunho smiles brightly and wraps his arms securely around the pup on his chest. Yunmin always likes to be as close to someone as possible. Uncle Seonghwa barely gets any room to breathe when they have a cuddle.
”He grows to look more like you every single day,” Yunho says. Yunmin has Mingi’s everything, including the two little moles on his face.
”Just like you and Minnie,” Mingi tells him, “every time I see him it’s just like you but shorter.”
Yunho hums. “Thank you.”
Mingi looks confused. “What for?”
”For carrying them,” he says, “for keeping them safe for their separate nine months. Thank you, Princess, for bringing them both to us.”
”Thank you for doing all you could to make it as easy and comfortable as possible,” Mingi then adds, “even though their births didn’t go to plan.”
Yunho tended to Mingi’s every single need during his two pregnancies, it was like his Omega’s standard Princess treatment but times by a thousand.
Minho had been born via an emergency c-section due to rapid blood loss on Mingi’s part, Yunmin had been born on the floor of their bedroom not long after Mingi woke up with sharp pains in his tummy.
Both of their boys had decided to be rather dramatic with their entrances to the world, unlike every other pack pup who were born without much fuss or any complications at the hospital.
”You’re thinking about it.”
”I can’t help it.”
Mingi lies on his right side, placing his left hand onto the right side of his Alpha’s face. “I’m here,” he tells him, “Minho’s here and so is Yunmin. We’re okay.”
”B-but that nightmare-”
”Was exactly that, baby, just a nightmare. I can’t image how you were feeling that day, even though you have described to me many times what it was. But Minho and I are okay, we’re here with you and we always will be. And because everything was fine in the end, we got to have our little Yunnie too.”
Yunho has nightmares of Minho’s birth, still even seven years later, and it isn’t as cruel as it perhaps sounds. Yunho will never forget the way Mingi’s hand went limp in his own after two pushes, he will never forget watching his mate become so pale, and he will never forget trying to get the Doctors attention but instead seeing so much blood on the bed Mingi was on.
Yunho had been quickly pulled away from Mingi, and no matter how hard he had tried to fight himself out of the Doctors’ holds, they were just too strong. He had spent a while sobbing in Hongjoong’s arms, the pack Alpha called when nothing else would calm him down.
He had been left pacing up and down the same plain corridor for two hours before finally being told that both Mingi and Minho were okay. They were alive. A lot of tests had been done on the both of them, but Mingi was asleep and stable and Minho was awake and ready to meet him.
Yunho carefully guides Yunmin’s head to the other side of his chest, Mingi knows why. Mingi settles his head onto Yunho’s now free left shoulder.
Curling his left arm around his Omega’s shoulders, Yunho whispers, “I love you, and our boys, more than anything.”
”I love you too,” Mingi tells him, “all three of us do. So much. You take such good care of us, sweetheart, thank you.”
Mingi feels Yunho’s kiss against his forehead. He has no trouble at all believing his Alpha‘s words when the older whispers against his skin, ”for the three of you, I would do absolutely anything.”
After all, Yunho has proven that claim to be a fact so many times already. Mingi brings his head up for a second to place a kiss to his husband’s lips, and then he settles his head back down again.
His left arm curls around both Yunho and Yunmin’s bodies. He breathes easily with his little family- or part of it, anyway.
At some point throughout the night, however, Mingi must’ve moved away from them. The following day, he awakes with a body curled up in both of his arms. He recognises it immediately to be Minho. He doesn’t even need to open his eyes to know.
He and Yunho wake up with both of their pups lying between them, the older having joined them in the middle of the night, and well they couldn’t be more thankful for the life they get to share together.