Chapter Text
for how technologically inept mark is, he still sure does believe in the triumph of science and technology over fiction and fairy tales.
this is the reason why--when he wakes up one day with a slightly heavy weight on his chest and gentle but incessant pokes on his cheeks and nose, when he opens his mouth to curse off whoever this is that dares to wake him up on a saturday morning and on his day-off, the nerve , and when he then opens his eyes to glare at the offender--the first thing that he does is let out an undignified squeak which promptly turns into a shriek when the finger that’s poking his cheeks accidentally pokes him in the eye.
mark has never thought that this will happen to him in the near future--maybe at least in thirty years or so. after all, what are the odds of someone from his members bringing their child from their secret woman and letting said child sit on his chest and wake him up with chubby prodding fingers and adorable giggles?
"makk-hyung!" the child atop of him chirps with a bright wide smile that mark will coo over and find cute if only he isn't still shocked and frozen. when the stinging pain from his eye wears off, mark takes the chance to observe the child, to see which of his members is the probable father of the toddler. the child has curly hair that frames his chubby face and squishy cheeks, his eyes are sparkling with unbridled innocence and happiness, and what piques mark's interest the most is the toddler's small button nose and heart-shaped lips.
after all, only one of his members has the same features as this child (who now resorts to playing and pulling on mark's ears when he realizes that this big brother is not paying him the attention he needs).
before mark can even freak out or any of the sort, however, the door to his bedroom crashes open, revealing a sweaty and frazzled jaehyun.
"mark, don't freak out okay, it's fine, oh my god everything is fine --holy shit, we just need to find donghyuck because he's not in our room when i woke up and none of the members saw him and his phone was left in his bed and oh my god don't freak out or i'll really panic because he’s missin --"
and jaehyun's panic only stops when his eyes fall on the toddler on top of mark's chest; his mouth hanging open and his eyes showing clear confusion.
"jae-hyungie!" the boy squeals in happiness before he shimmies his way down mark's bed and trots his way towards the door, only to launch himself into a stupefied jaehyun's arms who instinctively bends down to catch the child.
mark and jaehyun, both lost in confusion and badly-concealed frenzy, are then left with nothing to do but look and gape at the child who’s now animatedly narrating about the pancakes he wants to eat and his excited little babbles of 'hyungies give hyuckie noms 'n hyuckie love them forever!'
johnny only sees it in twitter, where fans will coo at the idea of donghyuck being the adorable son of single (or married, depending on who he’s paired up with) father johnny. it honestly always warms his heart whenever he reads those tweets (or fanfictions, but ten will only tease him if he discovers johnny likes loitering around this site called AO3) because he considers donghyuck as his surrogate son or brother. there is this natural charm to donghyuck that always prompts johnny to smother the younger with affection and care, and he notices that donghyuck will laugh a little softer, smile and cuddle a bit longer, and glow brighter whenever johnny crushes him in a bear hug or ruffle his hair or allow donghyuck to smooch the elder's cheeks. donghyuck is still a kid who needs lots of protection and validation from the hyungs, and johnny is more than glad to give everything (and some chocolates on the side) to the sunshine child who deserves them all.
and a child donghyuck really is, because the moment johnny steps into the kitchen and sees mark and jaehyun cooing at a child who looks no older than 3 or 4 years old (not to mention the toddler is also playing with a plastic spoon and some pancake syrup), the first thing that leaves his mouth is,
"am i in a fanfiction right now where hyuckie is a squishy child and i'm his hot single dad?"
jaehyun snorts and the sound makes the child look up from his syrupy spoon and towards johnny, before a wide blinding smile appears on the toddler’s chubby cheeks. "johnny-hyungie hyuckie appa?"
"of course!"
and the child, if he’s happy a while ago with his pancakes, becomes more positively glowing at the words that came from johnny's mouth.
"oh my goodness, i'm so going to tell ten-hyung that you've been reading fanfics and all those AUs in twitter." mark grumbles as he gently lets the child down from the counter and carries the wiggling and giggling toddler towards a beaming johnny's arms.
"so let me get this straight, none of you even thought to, oh i don't know , maybe try to find out if this is really donghyuck and why he turned into a child in the first place?" is what leaves taeyong's mouth as he looks at the quite adorable (and highly concerning) scene in front of him.
taeil is lying face-down on the floor as the toddler bounces on the man's back with giggles spilling out from his lips; yuta and sicheng are not doing anything to help their hyung. johnny is busy taking millions of videos of the energetic child ( "for blackmail purposes, when hyuckie starts to rebel and tells me i'm not his dad" ) and cooing at every single movement the child makes. jaehyun is busy boasting on the phone to the U members that donghyuck has graced 127 with his adorable toddler presence, while mark is stressing out and begging the Dream members on the phone to "please don't go here and see hyuck--oh my god jaemin i can hear you and chenle stomping your way here, stop!" . only doyoung and jungwoo have the brain cells to initiate cooking a decent breakfast (because 10% pancake and 90% syrup is not a good breakfast for a hyperactive child).
"honestly what do you expect, donghyuck as a child is so adorable and soft that all rationalities flew out of their minds. no thoughts; head empty, just squishy little donghyuck." yuta quips from beside a stressed taeyong on the living room couch; his eyes never leaving his phone screen. "besides, that is lee donghyuck in the flesh and i'll show you--" and yuta slides down the couch and crawls on the floor. "hey sweetie, can you tell hyung what your name is again?"
the toddler perks up at the attention and momentarily stops squishing his arms around taeil's neck to beam at the expectant japanese. "hyuckie! sunshine hyuckie!"
johnny then lets out a loud ‘oh my god someone hold me before i pass out’ and taeyong just sighs and he pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration. "fine, fine. but that doesn't explain why he turned into a child overnight!"
yuta shrugs; showing his phone to taeyong who squints his eyes and sees a google page with the words "what to do when a teenager magically turns into a squishy and smol toddler" .
"yuta, all this says is that it's maybe because he's been cursed!"
"donghyuck likes to piss off people--maybe he sassed a dark shadowy figure last night on the streets when he went to the convenience store."
and taeyong just groans, knowing full well about donghyuck's affinity in finding joy in people's annoyed expressions, and with how vast the earth is, it really might be because of magic.
before he can further stress himself out however, short chubby arms suddenly cling around his legs as a form of a tight embrace and he looks down only to come face to face with a pouting donghyuck. "taeyongie-hyung no sad! not allowed! hyuckie sad if hyungie sad!"
and taeyong thinks that maybe, just maybe, having an adorable little ball of sunshine in the form of toddler donghyuck isn't so bad at all.
"hyung, you don't understand, this is a form of life and death situation!"
"you aren't going to die, jaemin-ah."
"yeah, well, if you don't show us hyuckie then i really might die! we need to see if he really turned into a cute child!"
"i literally sent jeno hundreds of pictures proving that yes, donghyuck really turned into a child while he was sleeping. i thought your favorite motto is ' pics or it didn't happen '?"
"you can't use my words against me, doyoung-hyung! we need to see him and squish his cheeks to prove it's real! we're going to protest here outside and have chenle scream every five minutes if you don't let us in!"
"suit yourself then. see you later, kiddos." and doyoung smiles into the screen of the intercomm and promptly closes the connection; the pouting faces of the dream members being the last thing shown on the screen.
"just admit you want to monopolize all of hyuck's attention to yourself and go!" taeyong teases as he gently carries donghyuck into his arms and transfers them to doyoung's waiting ones, the maknae immediately snuggling into doyoung's neck. when the child’s secured in the man's arms, doyoung starts humming a lullaby and gently bounces the sleepy child nestled on his chest.
"that might be true, but donghyuck is sleepy--he must have gotten tired from all of you playing with him. he needs sleep, and we need to talk about what we are going to do. this is still an emergency, you know that right?"
a collective sigh is heard, and it’s only then that the gravity of the situation actually sinks in.
"first question," mark murmurs from beside doyoung; donghyuck's fingers tightly enclosing the canadian's right pointer finger and mark not having the heart to escape from the hold. "why did hyuck turn into a child in the first place?"
all of them honestly do not know the answer to this question. after all, there is no logical explanation for this unusual happening. they don’t know that de-ageing is even possible in the first place, nor do they know what triggered the body change. all they know is that donghyuck needs their help and presence more than ever--as a teenager or a toddler, their maknae needs them.
"second question, what do we do now?" the second youngest continues, and the hyungs can’t bring themselves to assure the young man that everything will go back to normal soon as they’re just as lost as mark is.
"do you think the management will allow us to have a few days-off? regular and regulate promotions just ended, the concert tour is coming near but we already practiced the songs and the dances, so maybe they can give us some break to, i don't know, try bringing donghyuck back to normal?" jungwoo quietly asks; his wide bewildered eyes trained on the toddler dozing off.
"i'll ask the managers tonight," taeyong assures as he lightly squeezes the newest member on the shoulders. "for now, we have to take care of donghyuck and look for possible help to turn him back, okay?"
and everyone nods--albeit they are still unsure of whatever is happening--but for donghyuck's sake, they will do their very best to bring back things to normal.
for their beloved sunshine, they will.