Work Text:
The first thing Donghyuck registers after waking up is he’s alone on the bed. Donghyuck shifts to lie on his back, blinking at the ceiling as he tries to gather himself. He spends a few minutes expecting to hear the sound of water falling from the shower or any other noise that the other two would be usually making in the morning. After realizing that it’s too quiet, Donghyuck sits up in a rush and climbs down the bed.
He checks nearly the entire house only to confirm that his husband and daughter aren’t home. Donghyuck sighs after glancing at the clock on the wall while walking back into his room to get his phone and make a call. He is about to grumble after the third tone, but then he hears his husband’s voice on the other side.
“Good morning, my sun.”
Donghyuck inhales as his endeavor to stay calm. “Where’s Lala? Did you take her to school?”
“I did,” Renjun answers. Donghyuck wants to ask why he didn’t wake him up but Renjun talks again. “Why didn’t you ask where’s her Baba? You’re not worried about him?”
His husband almost sounds like he’s pretending to be upset, Donghyuck can’t find in himself to defy the cute attempt. It’s almost nine and Donghyuck is sure that Renjun has arrived in his office, so he must’ve dropped their daughter to school first.
“Did you two have breakfast before leaving?” Donghyuck asks instead of answering Renjun’s questions earlier, because that’s what he’s more concerned about. “I can’t believe I woke up this late, there’s no way you two getting ready in complete silence.”
He hears Renjun chuckling. Donghyuck immensely doubts that they didn’t make any sound this morning, so he wonders how could he stay in deep slumber through the noise –especially from their five years old kid who’s always so bright and chatty.
“I tried to wake you up actually,” Renjun says. “But you looked like you need more sleep so I chose to let you have it. Don’t worry, Lala had cereals and I grabbed sandwich in the mart down here in the lobby.”
As much as it’s relieving to hear, Donghyuck feels sorry that he didn’t get to help his husband and daughter to prepare. He’s so drained from the current project he’s been working on, so perhaps his body was set to get the rest he craved for because it’s finally his day off.
“Sorry that I didn’t help you two prepare,” he muses.
“It’s okay, Hyuck,” Renjun softly utters. “Sleep more if you need to, there’s still a few hours left before Lala finishes her school, right?”
The subtle concern brings warmth all over Donghyuck’s entire being. He’s glad that Renjun isn’t here to watch how he’s blushing over the little things that he still can’t get used to even after years of being married. Renjun has always been sweet to him, that’s what made Donghyuck sure to spend the rest of his life with him in the first place, but still Donghyuck wonders why he’s this weak for Renjun.
“I had enough sleep, thanks to Lala’s Baba,” Donghyuck says. “There are things that I think I can do while waiting for the time to pick her up. We’ll probably stop by the mart, do you crave anything for dinner?”
It doesn’t even take a second for Renjun to answer, “You.”
Again, it’s a relief that Renjun isn’t here to see how flushed Donghyuck is. So he’s trying to manage not to sound flustered at the tease. “Hmm? Are you sure about that?”
Renjun chuckles again on the other side. “I’m always sure about that.”
It almost break Donghyuck’s defense but Renjun talks again. “Sorry, babe, I have to do something. Take care on your way. Kiss Lala for me when you pick her up?”
“I will,” Donghyuck smiles. “Don’t skip your lunch, Jun.”
Renjun hums, bids him a see you at home and the call ended. Donghyuck’s phone screen turns back to the photo of the three of them which he set as his wallpaper. From the picture it can be seen that Renjun was the one who held the phone, Donghyuck tilted his head and pressed his cheek against the top of their daughter’s head. It was taken a few months ago when they visited zoo, Lala was so excited that day.
Donghyuck takes his sweet time to relax for a while before taking a shower. He checks Lala’s room afterwards and is welcomed by the unorganized toys and books scattered every where. It wasn’t that messy though, Lala sometimes put her things back to where it’s supposed to be but it seems like she still needs more encouragement to do so.
There isn’t much time left before he has to go to Lala’s school but Donghyuck made sure to at least do the chores that probably would be easier to be done when he’s alone like now. He chooses to wrap up his activities so he can go soon, he prefers to be there early and wait for the school bell rings rather than letting his daughter wait for him.
The sun is up exactly above his head when Donghyuck goes out, he then stops the first taxi that he sees approaching on the road. Lala’s school isn’t that far, within fifteen minutes Donghyuck is arrived at the front gate. When the bell rings, he hears high-pitched loud cheer from across the classes. The kids come out from their class in twos and threes, some of them even got stuck on the door because they bumped into each other.
Donghyuck has his eyes to the door of Lala’s class, waiting for her to come out. When she appears, their gazes meet right away and Donghyuck expects her to run to him like what the other kids do when they see their parents, but she doesn’t. Lala just walks casually towards him, both her hands are occupied to hold what seems like a craft, that’s why she probably prefers to walk calmly.
However the smile that blooms upon her face as she’s approaching draws a smile on Donghyuck's face as well. Lala isn’t his nor Renjun’s biological daughter, but Donghyuck swears that she resembles Renjun a lot, especially their smile and he wonders perhaps it’s because she learned to smile from Renjun.
Donghyuck squats to match their eyeline as he greets, “How’s your day, petal?”
Lala grins at the nickname, she loves that. “Great. Look what I made!”
She sticks out her arms to show what she’s holding. It’s a clay craft which seems supposed to be a bear, Donghyuck notices the slight dents all over its body but he still finds it a great work of hers.
“This is so adorable,” Donghyuck cheers, proceeding to plant a soft kiss on her forehead. “You did great, petal.”
Lala sing-songs at the compliment. Donghyuck offers to hold the craft for her, but she refused by saying that she’ll take care of it by herself. She seems so fond of her art work, so Donghyuck lets her to have it her way, but he still takes her little bag off her shoulders and carries it for her. When they’re about to leave the school’s frontyard, there’s someone squealing his daughter’s name.
Lala and Donghyuck turn to see the little figure who approaches them. It turns out to be one of her classmate, she walks with her mother.
“Hi, Lala,” the little girl’s mother greets his daughter and bows at Donghyuck afterwards.
Donghyuck bows back to her and he hears the little girl asking, “Lala, it’s your Daddy, right?”
Lala nods innocently. But her classmate frowns at that.
“Then who was the guy who dropped you at the gate this morning?”
“It was my Baba.”
The answer seems to draw more confusion in the little girl’s face, like she's processing something in her head. “Why do you have two dads?”
It’s an innocent question that Donghyuck actually expects his daughter would get. A part of him wants to answer it for her, because he knew that probably it would be hard for his daughter to grow up with such questions tailing on her. After all, Lala didn’t choose to be picked by same-sex couple who wanted to raise a child and she had no idea how the world works in such a confusing way most of the time.
As Donghyuck tries to let out his voice, he hears his daughter speaks first.
“What’s wrong with that?” Lala asking back, nonchalantly. “I have two dads because I can.”
The little girl still looks confused and her mother puts her hands on both her shoulders, whispering something that Donghyuck caught as a preventation to ask further. Donghyuck truly doesn’t care of what other people think, all he cares about is just what Lala feels and thinks, and he just can’t stop staring at his daughter who just handled the question surprisingly well.
Lala looks up at him and Donghyuck rubs her head gently before taking her to walk out. Just like what Donghyuck has planned, they stop by the mart on their way home. It’s the mart which has Lala’s favorite toy claw machines, she made Donghyuck promised to her that she could get at least two toys, but in the end Donghyuck felt like wanting to let her get more because she deserved it for being so brave today. She squeals in joy when she ended up getting four toys.
Donghyuck makes sure to get all the things he needs to buy in the mart and perhaps add more things that aren’t on the list. He’s lucky that Lala is content enough to get the toys from the claw machine that she doesn’t ask to buy anything else, but still Donghyuck decides to buy some of her favorite snacks.
When they’re home, Donghyuck lets his daughter to help him putting the things they bought to where it’s supposed to be placed, he peppers her with kisses after they’re finished, earning the loud giggles that Donghyuck addicted to.
Lala then busily plays with her new toys while Donghyuck makes their lunch. The rest of the day was spent with a lot of activities that it takes a while for Donghyuck to make Lala get into the shower in the afternoon. Donghyuck’s phone rings near dinner time, Renjun calls him to let him know that he will come home late because it’s one of his co-worker’s last day so the whole division would be having a farewell dinner for the person.
The news makes Lala pouts, but it doesn’t take her long to feel upset. After dinner, Donghyuck asks her if she wants to watch movie to kill the time while waiting for her Baba to come home, he thinks that it’s okay to let her stay awake until late this once, tomorrow is Saturday after all and she doesn’t have to wake up early.
Donghyuck sets up the movie in their living room, they snuggle up to each other on the couch with blanket covering them. Lala chose to watch Finding Dory, it doesn’t matter how many times she has watched it, it still entertains her. But by the first half of the movie, Donghyuck caught her slowly dozing off and he can’t help but smile at the view.
Donghyuck pecks the tip of her nose before bringing her litte body up on his arms, taking her to her bedroom. His daughter blinks a few times when Donghyuck puts her in the bed, she sleepily asks, “Baba isn’t home yet?”
“He’s already on his way home,” Donghyuck softly answers. “Do you wanna wait for him?”
As much as she wants to see Renjun before she sleeps, it seems like she can barely stop her eyelids from closing. Lala shakes her head and mutters, “I’m so sleepy.”
“Alright,” he runs his hand on her hair, planting a kiss on her head. “Good night, petal.”
“Nanight, Daddy.”
Donghyuck’s heart melts at that. He doesn’t leave her side right away and spends a few moments staring at the sleeping figure of his daughter. Sometimes it’s still hard to believe that he get to raise a child, he’s so lucky to have Lala as his kid.
It’s still vivid in Donghyuck’s memory, the way the two years old Lala looked at him and Renjun for the first time in the orphanage. It felt like they were pulled by the red string, like they knew that they were meant to be together since the first time they locked their gazes.
Donghyuck ended up staying on his daughter’s bed, about to doze off but then he hears the front door being opened. He tries to be quiet as he walks out of her room and when he meets Renjun in the living room, his husband happily lifting both his hands to show the paper bags that he holds, which turns out to be filled with food.
Renjun says that he knew Donghyuck and Lala have had dinner, so he decided to bring home some snacks which don’t have to be eaten tonight. The two of them stand by the counter in the kitchen, Donghyuck gave Renjun the cold water that he asked.
“What’s that?” Renjun asks, pointing at the clay craft that Lala put on the table.
Donghyuck didn’t notice that she hasn’t moved it from the dining table after they had lunch.
“A bear,” he answers. “She made it at school today.”
Donghyuck sees Renjun’s lips slant into a smile and it crosses his mind again about what happened when he picked their daughter up today. He feels like he needs to tell Renjun about it.
“Jun,” Donghyuck calls, Renjun immediately sets his attentive eyes to him. “A friend of hers saw you dropping her off this morning, and that little girl was confused to see me picking her up after school. She asked why did Lala have two dads.”
It’s a topic that they’ve actually discussed way long ago, even when they hadn’t met Lala yet. Adopting a child isn’t a decision that came instantly, both of them went through a long, emotional way before reaching the strong determination to do it. So it’s actually not a thing that they didn’t expect to come.
“You know how she answered?”
Renjun lifts his eyebrows, anticipating the answer and Donghyuck prepares himself to mimic his daughter's gestures as she handled that question. “What’s wrong with that? I have two dads because I can.”
Renjun throws his head backwards as he laughs. “That’s my girl.”
Donghyuck smiles too afterwards, it still warms his heart when he recalls that moment. Even though it’s still early to say that Lala handled it well, he’s glad that at least she learns to confront instead of avoiding it. Donghyuck and Renjun are both trying their best to be decent parents for Lala, but they aren’t perfect, and there will be some things that will come in their way inevitably, so sometimes Donghyuck ponders about it.
“Hey,” his husband calls, reaching for one of his hand. “What are you thinking about?”
He didn’t realize that he was zoning out for a moment. Donghyuck didn’t intend to look like he’s concerned, he doesn’t think that it’s worth his energy to be worried of something that he and his husband have already discussed. But he can’t find it in him to tell Renjun that he isn’t bothered by it, even just a tiny bit.
“I know that we’ve talked about it,” Donghyuck begins. “But sometimes I still feel guilty for—”
Renjun shushes him, squeezing his hand tighter and says, “Don’t be. We may not be perfect, but we can keep trying our best to live the life that we want to have, and Lala is right, there's nothing wrong with that, with us. You’re not alone in this, my dear. The three of us will go through everything together. We’ll be alright.”
Assurance and balance are what Renjun’s eyes and voice emit. The knot in Donghyuck’s chest loosened, he feels at ease once again. But Donghyuck doesn’t know how to answer, so he moves closer to Renjun instead, sliding his arms around his waist and tugs him into a hug, sighing as he’s nuzzling his face into the crook of Renjun’s neck.
His husband encircles his arms around him as well, Donghyuck feels Renjun rubbing the back of his head gently. The world around them is silent as they stay in each other’s embrace, the serenity soothes Donghyuck even more.
“I love you, Renjun.”
Donghyuck finally managed to utter that. Renjun’s voice is firm when he responds, “I love you too.”
There’s nothing more that Donghyuck wants in this world, he already feels perfect by having Renjun. They spend a few more moments in silence while hugging, until his husband opens his mouth again.
“Hyuck,” he calls. “In case it still applies, my answer remains the same. I’m sure about it.”
Donghyuck frowns at that, unable to register what Renjun means. He detached his face from Renjun’s neck to meet his husband’s eyes. “What are you talking about?”
Renjun presses his lips into a line before landing his gaze on Donghyuck’s lips and whispers, “If you ask me again what do I crave for dinner, the answer is you.”
Too bad, this time Donghyuck can’t pretend that he isn’t flushed now that Renjun’s here to see how a shade of red smears over his cheeks.