Work Text:
When Taeui received a message from Chris—the first one in two months—he was slightly surprised.
In that moment, he had been reading to Hyeon Jin, who, even as a baby, refused to fall asleep unless Taeui was reading some ridiculous book on astrophysics or quantum mechanics or other science jargon. He placed the book down, replacing it with his phone as he clicked on the message.
[New Message From: Chris]
{I want to see you}
{Without that bastard, I mean}
{You mean you want to meet up?}
{We can, but I'll have to bring Hyeon Jin with me. Is that ok?}
{Yes. I need to bring Oliver, either way}
{1 PM this Saturday at XXX}
{See you soon, then}
Placing down his phone, Taeui pursed his lips thoughtfully, curious why Chris was reaching out so suddenly. Perhaps he….missed him? Was that possible, or was it just a pretentious notion?
Well, Taeui hadn't seen Chris in a while, and it would be nice to get out of the house for a bit without Ilay quite literally on his tail. Speaking of Ilay, it was probably smart to inform him prior to the meet to avoid any burdensome hassles.
Taeui sighed, picking up his phone once more.
{I'll be meeting up with Chris on saturday}
{I'm not trying to run away}
{Why}
{I don't know, he just wanted to meet up}
{He's bringing Oliver, so I plan to bring Jinnie}
{Is that so}
{What time and where}
{1 PM at XXX}
{Don't be long}
{Be back by 2:30}
{I will}
{Good}
{I'll be working then, so I trust you not to make
any stupid decisions}
{Thanks}
{I'll be late tonight, so don't wait up}
{Okay}
Taeui was planning to end the conversation there, but Hyeon Jin decided to perk his little head up, giggling. It was as if he knew Taeui was talking to Ilay. He reached up to tap Taeui's phone, babbling his baby nonsense.
Giving it a little thought, he lifted him into his arms and positioned his phone to snap a photo.
{See Attachment}
{We miss you}
Okay, that was a bit of a lie. Hyeon Jin was the only one who seemed to miss him, but he thought it was still cute.
{This user is typing}
Taeui waited for a moment. Then another. And another.
Still no reply. It was just Ilay typing and stopping without any new messages. At some point, Taeui got bored with waiting and opted to put his phone away on the bedside stand, flopping back down to sleep off.
Just as he slipped into repose, his phone dinged.
[New Message From: Ilay]
{I miss you both, too}
{Sleep well, my darlings}
Christoph and Oliver were exactly on time, seating themselves in the booth of the cafe at 1 PM on the dot.
Taeui and Jin, however, (though it was unnecessary to explicitly state Hyeon Jin as it wasn't like the baby had any choice) were exactly 13 minutes late.
He stumbled past the door of the cafe, with the baby in his arms, hair unkempt and clothes askew. Christoph raised an eyebrow at his rather bedraggled appearance before clearing his throat emphatically for Taeui to notice them.
"Oh! You guys are already here, of course you are," Taeui remarked hastily, settling himself opposite the duo.
"Hello, sir," Oliver courteously greeted as he smiled at Taeui.
"Hello, Oliver. It's good to see you after so long. And you, too, Chris, I was thinking about you recently," the other man replied warmly.
A merry little surge of satisfaction thrummed through Christoph when he heard those words, though he suppressed it in favor of an impassive nod.
Just when Taeui was about to say something else, his son cried out, gripping Taeui's shirt in a fistful of fabric.
Taeui shushed Hyeon Jin softly, rocking him in his arms until the baby's cries hushed into a delighted giggle. He smiled this gentle, yet utterly exhausted smile, before glancing up at Oliver's curious expression.
"Did you want to hold him?" Taeui offered to the 6-year-old boy.
Christoph couldn't help the frown that flashed across his face when Oliver nodded, neatly holding out his arms for Taeui to transfer the baby into them.
"Be careful, okay?"
Oliver gazed up at Taeui with a polite smile, though it was slightly dismissive.
"I will be."
Now with Taeui's child in his arms, Oliver crossed over back to Christoph and settled down beside him— close, but not close enough that they were touching. When he quietly spoke up again, mumbling about how endearing the baby was, despite his sporadic periods of silence, it had Christoph's frown growing even deeper.
A sharp tsk snapped him out of his intermittent stupor, and he looked up to find Taeui shaking his head. Though instinct almost made him frown again, Christoph made a point of resisting and smoothing his expression into something more placid. He allowed himself a sigh at the other man's meticulous behaviour, stiffening until his back sat parallel to the chair.
"How has…that bastard been treating you?" Christoph muttered, toying with the delicate handle of his teacup. The amber liquid swirled and glinted under the lighting fixture before settling back in ripples of Earl Grey.
"Please don't curse in front of my baby. Or your kid," Taeui implored with a coaxing tone.
Oliver's smile contorted into a rather confused, and perhaps even disgruntled curl of his lips, hearing the words "your kid". Chris, finding the feeling mutual, simply reached out a hesitant hand and adjusted his hair. The action was subtle, a swift arrangement of Oliver's inky strands, but it was nonetheless significant.
He coughed, the muted buzz in the back of his eyes ebbing past the restrictive flow of the painkillers and back into his mind.
"Ilay's been fine. More than fine, really. He hasn't let me do a single thing."
Taeui's languid, relaxed voice pushed back against the relentless ache, somewhat alleviating the coarse pain. Although, as his words sank in, Chris couldn't stop the frown that tugged at his lips once more.
"Is that so? Never thought I'd live to see that…" he muttered in reply, bringing the porcelain cup to his displeased lips to take a sip.
He spared a glance at the complacent baby in Oliver's arms, unable to keep his eyes from wandering back to those rounded, puppy-like eyes and warm-toned skin. It was good that the child looked more like Taeui, rather than Rick, considering the world might really go up in flames if there were two Ricks in it.
"You can- uhm- you can hold him, if you want," Taeui said, nibbling at the rim of his own teacup— a nervous tic he had.
Though Christoph didn't exactly want to, the child was oddly entrancing, and soon enough, in his arms, instead of Oliver's.
"He's very cute, Mr Tay," Oliver remarked, poking at the baby's round cheek. "I sort of want to bite his cheeks."
Taeui laughed, high and melodic, nodding in agreement to Oliver's statement.
"I do it all the time, to be honest. You really can't help yourself sometimes."
Christoph tuned out their meaningless conversation, lost in the mesmerizing vesuvianite irises that wrapped around abyssal pupils. What a rarity.
The baby paused his soft cooing to reach out a little hand and touch Christoph's cheek. His face lit up with absolute delight when it made contact with the supple skin, prodding and rubbing at his cheek. If it weren't for that smile that was identical to the man before him, Christoph would've already pushed him away, for the sensation was so disgusting and unfamiliar that he wanted to throw up.
"Can we keep him, Mr. Christoph?" Oliver asked with the utmost solemnity. "He's really too cute for his own good. I'll take really good care of him!"
"Well, I don't know if you can keep him, but you can come play with him occasionally, if you want to."
Christoph still hadn't bothered with a reply, as he was much too focused on how the baby tried to hug Christoph, pressing his chubby cheek against his shirt. He moved him into a slightly different position, holding him up so that his arms could wrap around Christoph's neck. When Hyeon Jin fell silent, his giggles softening into a hush, he was about to pull back and see if everything was okay, until Taeui spoke up.
"He's just asleep. That's good, though, it means he likes you a lot, he usually only falls asleep in my or Ilay's arms."
Oliver looked up at Christoph—more specifically, the baby in his arms—and held his breath for a moment, before expelling it with a sigh.
It seemed he was tired.
"Are you tired?" He asked blankly, gazing distantly at Taeui's tranquil smile.
A bit startled at being addressed, Oliver rubbed his hands together in his lap as he replied, "A little. I couldn't sleep last night."
His voice, now meek and despondent, was reminiscent of the same way it quivered and trembled at the funeral.
"Did you have another nightmare?"
Unfortunately, Christoph, having been forced into this whole "parenting" thing, hadn't the slightest clue as to how to soften his voice down to a tender tone—the kind he'd hear Taeui use pretty often. As such, the question came out more as a demand, if not an insult.
"I— Uhm— No, no, I didn't," he whispered back,
Ah, goddamnit, this was harder than anything he'd ever done.
His gaze met with Taeui's, who tilted his head at Oliver, raising his eyebrows implicatively.
"No…you can…tell me, if you want," Christoph restated hesitantly.
The kit gazed up at him with this questioning look, as if gauging whether or not he really could tell him. When his lips pressed into a thin line, decidedly not speaking, Christoph frowned.
However, before he knew it, Oliver's head was instead resting on his arm, and the boy mumbled, "I don't wanna talk about it."
Christoph stiffened as there was a barrage of physical stimuli now causing a sensory overload in his mind.
Get it off, get it off, get it off, get it off, get it off, get it off. Get it off.
"Do you want more tea, Chris?" Taeui softly asked, pouring himself some into his own cup.
His russet eyes were gleaming with gentle understanding as he slid over a blister pack of pills, nodding towards them. While Taeui poured another round of tea for him, Christoph popped out a pill and swallowed it dry. Following the starchy pill with a gulp of the sweet tea, he let out a groan, massaging his temples.
"I can take Hyeon Jin back, here, let me—"
"No, it's okay," Christoph waved off. He fixed this awkward smile onto his face, eyes still flat as ever, while holding the baby closer. "Just…come here," he murmured, patting the spot next to him.
With his eyes closed, he could still sense Taeui's hesitation, though the rustling and shuffling had his smile growing a little more genuine.
"Ilay's gonna kill me," Taeui muttered, sliding behind the booth and next to Christoph.
As Christoph leaned his head on Taeui's shoulder, mimicking Oliver's actions, the throbbing sensation at the back of his mind was mollified, quietening into a hum.
He still couldn't believe he lost Taeui to that madman of all people, even if their baby was cute…
Five years later, and they found themselves in the same exact spot, but simply…older.
Hyeon Jin, preoccupied with his ice cream milkshake, hadn't spoken a single word in the last 20 minutes they had been there. Beside him, on their side of the booth, sat Oliver with his own glass of iced chocolate. The two had gotten along surprisingly well, with no particular clash in personalities—or, at the very least, none that stood out to Christopher.
More delightfully so was the fact that it allowed him the opportunity to sit next to Taeui.
"Jinnie, eat slowly, I don't want to hear about a stomach ache when we get back home," the panther warned, casting his son an admonitory glance. He sighed when the Hyeon Jin nodded, still shoveling the vanilla ice cream into his mouth while occasionally pausing to sip his milkshake.
"Can I try it?" Oliver requested softly, his ears twitching in intrigue.
Hyeon Jin paused before sliding over his glass to Oliver and taking his glass in return. They both sipped silently, then replaced their glasses with their respective ones.
"How has everything been recently? Oliver would've started Gesamtschule by now?" Taeui gently inquired as he downed his iced tea in nothing short of a few gulps.
Christoph, with more ease than he would've five years ago, shot him a crooked smile and hummed in confirmation.
"He's doing fine. Right, kit?"
Glancing up at being addressed, Oliver toyed with his straw, answering, "Yes, thank you for asking, Mr. Tay. It's been fun so far."
Taeui smiled brightly, forcing Christoph to swallow in reverence, unable to cope with his cheery disposition. He truly and absolutely had not changed in all these years, still laughing and chatting away like it was nothing. Which, now that he thought about it, was probably [nothing]. Taeui was too immune to the passing of time, even if he was (or presumably due to being) mated to a psychopathic bastard.
The man somehow retained that innate radiance.
Oliver caught Christoph's gaze, frowning. He pointedly shifted his eyes to Hyeon Jin while finishing up with his drink.
Oh, right.
"What about you…Hyeon Jin…How is school?"
Both Taeui and Hyeon Jin turned to Christoph confusedly, causing him to frown in response. Wasn't that what he was supposed to ask? Or was it something else? Either way, it didn't seem like such an abnormal question to put forth.
"It's…good, Mr. Christoph. But I think maybe my classmates are dumb, I—"
"Hyeon Jin! I told you, you can't speak about your classmates like that. We're already trying to accelerate your education; you just need to wait," Taeui hissed.
The fawn cast him a bored glance.
"Well, then. It's school, I guess," he mumbled with a subtle roll of his eyes.
Christoph nodded, hearing this, unsurprised to know he was ahead of his classmates. He probably got that from Rick, rather than Taeui.
"You'll like school, Jin. It's fun once you get used to it," Oliver reassured, patting Hyeon Jin's head.
"Whatever you say, hyung…"
Christoph's eyes wandered to the panther beside him, noting its relaxed smile and languid posture. Taeui really hadn't changed at all—at most, there were slight smile lines and his eyes creased a little more when he was happy, but that was the extent of it.
"What is it, Chris?" He asked, following the query with a frown of curiosity.
"It's nothing. I suppose, things really haven't changed, have they?"
Except him. And his newly acquired child.