CHAPTER 4
ᴏғ ᴀʟʟ ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴀɢᴇs, ᴀ ᴄʜɪʟᴅ?

"Minho! Minho! Minhooooo!" The small child cried frustratedly, having been locked in their room for the past 3 minutes turned out to be the most detrimental and the utmost worst possible thing to do to a child.

It wasn't his fault, honestly, children were adorable. But when you are forced to look after the most annoying and loudest child to possibly ever walk the earth they become a lot less cute and a lot more strangleable.

Not that he would ever strangle or hurt a human child purposely, he wasn't that evil. He still had morals.

He couldn't help but curse Felix and his good looking adult human. Curse the fact that he received a small, snotty, loud, messy eating 4 year old human. How could fate do this to him? After all the good karma Minho had built up over the years this is how he's rewarded?!

"Minho!" The child screamed again, it had only been 3 days and it had consisted of the child screaming, throwing food, pushing, biting and even puking on the demon. So he had taken the last result and locked the child in it's bedroom (which he forgot to check if it even had a bed) for only a short few minutes before it began to scream and repeatedly try to break the door down.

The demon flopped down onto the sofa (which was covered in paint and a suspicious yellow stain) as the noise seemed to get quieter the more he ignored it. Yet he did feel a little bad for it, but he didn't know what else he could do.

He pulled out his human card and frowned down at it.

As he sat down staring at it, he remembered how he had first met his small human child. The orphanage looked as disgusting on the outside than it did on the inside, and as soon as the demon walked in he could feel the sadness and loneliness all those children felt.

Quite honestly, it broke his heart.

Sure demons weren't the nicest beings in the universe, and Minho had eaten a few children souls in the past only because nothing else was there at the time. But that was different, because he hasn't actually seen the humans before they were souls, didn't know how they looked, how they smiled, how they breathed, how they cried.

But now he did, he saw all those small children look so hopeful when he walked in. Them sat in their little play room in their best clothes that Minho knew they only put on when people came in to look at them, how they laughed and bowed politely.

And then Minho saw his little bundle of sadness, tucked away in the corner, a small truck with missing wheels in his grasp. His card burned in his pocket as the orphanage sister showed him to her office and let him sign the adoption papers.

Obviously, the demon government had already sorted everything out prior to their first meeting, so Minho could take him home that day.

So when the small boy was called to the office, a once sad frown now turned into a wide smile as he saw that he was finally getting a home, Minho's heart ached. And immediately the card shot up to 12% without him having to say or do anything, just the fact that he was being adopted made him infinitely more happier.

Yet, now it had been days and the percentage didn't increase, only screaming and shouting and throwing food had increased in their small two bedroom house in Busan.

Before Minho had started, he didn't think it would be that hard to make a human happy. Buy them a few things, take them nice places and saying nice words should have worked, but it didn't.

The new toys, the trip to the park, his forced smiles and comments only seemed to add fuel to the fire.

No more sound came from the room besides a few small sniffles, and instantly Minho shot up from the sofa and made his way to the nursery at the end of the hall.

He was supposed to make this small boy happy, yet instead Minho was emotionally abusing him! That was beyond wrong and simply something a being like Satan would do.

He opened the door gently, just incase his child was near the door. He got his answer when the door wouldn't open anymore, and a small force was pushing back.

"No." A quite voice said, "Minho go."

The demon smiled sadly, the first time the boy was quiet in days and it's because he had tired himself out over screaming and crying.

"I'm sorry bubs." Minho replied instead, holding the door open with his foot, "I'm so sorry." He repeated, and kept repeating until the small hands pushing against the door stopped and it opened.

A bush of messy dark brown hair and red puffy eyes greeted him, his small face swollen and flushed. It made Minho want to wrap him up and keep him somewhere safe.

"Minjun sorry too..." he stated softly, hands balled into fists, like it absolutely pained him to say those words of apology.

Minho couldn't help but let his smile grow as he kneeled down to meet the boys height, with a genuine gaze, "Minjun is sorry? Well, Minho so really sorry! This much sorry!" He said exaggeratedly, holding his arms out wide to show just how sorry he was.

And as soon as he said that, the small child ran (more like wobbled) quickly towards him and into the unintentional hug, squeezing his torso tightly with his small hands. The demon surprisingly found himself hugging back, hating how Minjun probably needed a hug and some softer, more genuine words hours ago- and not to be locked in an empty room all by himself to cry himself to sleep.

Well, atleast they could both decide that that would not be happening any more.

―

It was about 2 days later when Minho flew out of bed (literally, his t-shirt now has two gaping holes in the back from his wings) to grab the house phone in under a millisecond, as Minjun was fast asleep in his room after a 3 hour session of re-reading the 'gruffalo'. There was nothing worse than putting Minjun to sleep and Minho was not ready to do that again.

He picked it up immediately and brought it up to his ear, letting out a quiet but irritated hello.

"Minho, it's only 7 in the evening. Were you asleep?" A deep voice replied, with a mocking tone. The demon could recognise that husky voice anywhere.

"Felix? The fuck you want man?"

"Hush!" The other replied, "you have a child in your house!"

Just like all his other friends, Felix was making fun of Minho for getting given a child. Of all people and ages, a child seemed to be the funniest and worst thing a demon could receive.

"Ha ha." Minho deadpanned, looking down the corridor to the shut room of the nursery, "he's asleep. What do you want?"

The joke in his voice was gone in an instant, replaced with a more serious and anxious underline, "I have an ángelos problem."

The use of the greek word for angel sent a shock wave through the phone. "Fuck." Minho breathed out, "you idiot! If the angel government finds out about the new law then-"

"Yeah yeah I know, world destruction and a political war between us blah blah blah. Seungmin already gave me the lecture."

That made Minho smile a little, "I miss Seungmin. Probably go visit him later, we all know how much he loves me."

Felix and him chuckled at the memory of Seungmin quite literally ready to decapitate him at a party a few hundred years ago. "Ya sure, you can visit him tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? What's happening tomorrow?"

Minho could hear Felix's smile in his words, "You're moving in with me."

The demon let out an awfully loud laugh, then quickly stopped, hoping the child hadn't woken up. "That's a bit quick, you didn't even buy me dinner!"

It was Felix's turn to laugh sarcastically, "wow you're so halarious, I'm being serious. Move in with me so the angel doesn't get suspicious or try to, oh I don't know, kill me in the middle of the night!"

"Don't be dramatic, an angel won't just kill you."

Felix sighed, "he's attached to my human."

There was a silence, and then Minho rubbed his temples, a headache approaching. "Your dead meat idiot. But I fail to see how I, a fellow demon, can stop an angel from hurting you."

"Dude! You have a child! An angel wouldn't even think about hurting either of us if a child is attached to you! Plus, we can make him believe that we just wanted to live normal lives. Not every day does a demon adopt a child."

"That's exactly why he would get suspicious and kill me!"

"Oh please! Who's being dramatic now, huh Minho?"

"No, absolutely not, I am not taking my human child all the way to Seoul just for you to-"

"Buuuuut-" Felix whined, "I have two extra bedrooms and there's a school a few minutes away! Plus, I'm your best friend!"

Minho was about to talk back when the sound of soft footsteps came closer, Felix must of heard them too as he stopped talking and the line went quiet.

"Minho?" A groggy voice called out in the dark, "there's troll in my room." The child whispered quietly, feeling around for his surroundings. Only then did Minho remember that humans couldn't see in the dark as easily as demons, so he got up, the phone still pressed to his ear, as he walked over to the boy.

"Hey baby," he said softly, watching how Minjun jumped at his voice, "It's me sweetie, it's Minho."

The boy made grabby hands up in his general direction and Minho chuckled softly, picking him up gently. Minjun relaxed into his arms and layed his head in between the demons shoulder and neck.

Felix snorted and whispered, "you sound like a good daddy."

Minho rolled his eyes at his immature friend and gently swayed, hoping it will let Minjun fall back asleep. The small hums coming from the boy however suggested that the boy was fighting to stay awake.

Felix was still on the line but stayed quiet, and it continued for a few seconds after Minho contemplated the issue they had.

He didn't want himself or his human child to be anywhere near an angel, but he also didn't want his idiotic best friend to do something stupid and consequently ruin the world by starting a war. "Fine...but when things start to get heated, I'm calling the government in."

Felix chuckled darkly, making Minjun murmur in his half-asleep-state, "see you tomorrow!"

The demon scoffed and threw the phone onto the couch, sleep climbing it's way up towards him. So instead of taking Minjun to his own room (and having to stumble through the maze of toys and crayons) he made a quick line into his own room, placing the small boy down onto the middle of the bed. He grabbed a few of his pillows and put them at one side, just incase his little fighter decided to roll around and Minho didn't want to wake up with his human face first on the cold floor in the morning.

Swiftly he climbed into bed himself, facing the stubborn toddler, who's eyes were still not fully closed.

He couldn't help bit chuckle, "looks like we're moving to the city sweetheart."

All he got was a quiet murmur of words, before they both slipped away into a dream of comfort.

NOTES;
this was so long!
nearly 2000 words!
but, it was worth
it- because hello??
minho and a child?
yes please.

01/12/18