Alright here's the continuation that I promised two chapters ago. Thank you for being patient while I updated a few other things!

No new current jams I'm afraid. Just a lot of repeated stuff. Though Ateez's comeback is fast approaching. I guess I'm enjoying Verivery's Thunder more.
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Junmyeon's POV

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I sat up and gasped for air, my heart beating erratically and frantically in my chest. I glanced around, expecting blood and searing metal. But all that greeted me were my comforter and my nightshirt, and plenty of darkness. I settled against my pillows, splaying my hand on the empty spot next to me that should have been occupied. I blinked a couple times, the world swimming in and out of focus.

A nightmare. A bad one at that. I'd been fortunate enough that, after the accident, I only had a couple, mostly stemming from my fear of losing Yixing. But tonight our disagreement weighed heavy on my mind. It must have manifested itself as a dream. But this time I was behind the wheel. Yixing lost me. Another fear of mine, though never as prominent as the first. I let out a long, frustrated sigh. I wanted him back here, so bad.

Being a parent was hard. I wasn't going to deny that. Even harder than running my country. Making tiny humans happy was exhausting work. And, while mother and father had been nothing but supportive of me after my teen years, I didn't want my children going through what I went through. They would grow up knowing they were first and foremost. My country needed to be run, but never at their expense. No solo dinners. No pawning them off on teachers and advisors. Being a dad was hard.

But it was also my favorite job. For as many hardships as it brought, it brought me just as many joys. Hearing my children speak for the first time. Watching their first steps. Laying down with them at night and feeling the steady rise and fall of their chest as the slept. Filling their whole world with love. No one ever told me how fulfilled I would feel when I had my babies. They were my everything. My favorite things. It wasn't an easy job by any stretch of the imagination, but I would never wish this away.

"Daddy?" I opened my eyes and twisted to my side, coming face to face with DaeHyun hovering near the head of my bed. Dressed in his space pajamas, his favorite stuffed lamb tucked between his arms, his blanket trailing him as always. It was moments like this I wanted to freeze. When my babies were small. His lower lip wobbled slightly, and I sat up, lifting him into the bed with me. "I miss Papa," he admitted softly.

"I do too pumpkin," I agreed. "It feels weird without him here, huh?" He settled himself on my lap. He was almost too big to do it now, but he still insisted, and I wasn't about to stop him. I felt him nod against my chest. "I'm sure he's doing alright in China, with Uncle Luhan. You know Uncle doesn't let Papa out if his sight when he's there." Another nod.

"I wanted to see Li Jie," he said next, playing with my fingers that rested on his knees. "I wanted to go with." I closed my eyes, placing my cheek against the top of his head. "Does Papa not love us anymore? Is that why he went without us?" His voice cracked over the last couple of words. I hugged him a little harder after that.

"Papa loves us so, so much pumpkin," I explained. "Daddy and Papa just got a little angry at each other and daddy took off with you guys. I'm sure he would have taken you with if I would have let him." I shifted us so I could look at his face. My heart cracked in two at the tears coating his lashes. "Trust me Dae, you and baby sister mean the world to us. Never, ever question if we love you, because the answer, in any scenario, will always be yes. A million times yes. A trillion times yes." I watched as his eyes got comically wide, and smiled softly at him, running a thumb under his eyes.

"That's a lot," was all he had to say. I let out a breathy chuckle. He let his lamb dance its way up my arm. "I wish Papa was here right now," he added after a few moments of quiet. "I want to sleep with you guys." I kissed the top of his head. "Hey, are you okay daddy?" He suddenly twisted in my grasp, kneeling so we were face to face. "Why were you up?"

"You clever boy," I praised, earning a shy smile in return. "Daddy just had a bad dream is all. And without Papa around it's a lot harder to get back to sleep." I wasn't dependent on Yixing, but after spending so many years with him, it felt natural to be together all the time. It was also natural to seek him out in the middle of the night for a quick hug before drifting off to sleep again. DaeHyun pursed his lips thoughtfully. Finally he gently shoved my shoulders.

"Lay down," he instructed. Albeit confused, I did as he asked. He stretched out beside me, his lamb squished in between us. A few moments of silence greeted me as he seemed to think a few things over. Then:

The moon is bright, the wind is quiet.
The leaves hang over the window.
My baby, fall asleep quickly.
Sleep, dreaming sweet dreams.

The moon is bright, the wind is calm,
Gently moving cradle,
Mother's baby, close your eyes,
Yeah sleep, sleep, dreaming sweet dreams...

"Oh pumpkin." I glanced down to a peaceful, sleeping face. I felt tears again, though these were happy tears. I knew that song. That was the lullaby that Yixing sang to him pretty much every night since the day he was born. The song that DaeHyun had taken to singing to ChaoXing when she cried during the night. He probably assumed, since it made him feel better, it would probably make me feel better too. And he was right. It was exactly the kind of reminder I needed too. That everything woukd be alright. That what we were going through... It didn't matter in the long run. Not these petty things. What mattered most was DaeHyun and ChaoXing. Luhan and Heechan. All of our friends and family. Each other.

We'd gotten through so much in the years we'd been together. We would get passed this too. It was taking longer than I ever expected, but we would come out the other side still standing. I had no doubts about that. Because that man meant everything to me, and damn it all I was not losing him. Not now.

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Yixing's POV

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I sat propped against the headboard, watching as the red numbers on the alarm clock flipped from 3:06 to 3:07 in the morning. Sleep seemed like a distant dream. I tried, so hard. But after nearly two hours of tossing and turning, my mind never settling, I gave up entirely. I tried watching videos off the iPad, but that didn't seem to work tonight. I opened the nightstand and pulled out a book I'd been slowly working through for months. After rereading the same sentence four times because I kept spacing off I gave up on that too. I turned on the TV, but infomercials didn't appeal either. I glanced beside me, to a spot that should have had a lump of a person on it. But it didn't. Only me in a big, lonely room.

I missed my family.

I thought coming here by myself was what I wanted to do. Take a break. Let everythintlg cool down. See Luhan, Yu Yan, and Li Jie. A break, right? But now that the night had calmed down and I let my thoughts wander, I realized that this WASN'T what I wanted. I wanted to be with my family, working everything out. I wanted to feel Junmyeon's back pressed to my side, his breathing even as we laid together in bed. I wanted to look over and see ChaoXing in her crib because she always slept better in China when she was with us. I wanted to wake up nearly off the bed because DaeHyun had wiggled in between us in the middle of the night and had slowly moved me over. I wanted to have breakfast at our small family table in my favorite lounge, listening to DaeHyun tell us about his dreams, his little lamb stuffie sitting on the table next to his plate, a gift from Li Jie. I loved my domestic life so much. Being a dad was challenging. But it was also one of my favorite things.

Second only to being Junmyeon's husband.

"Sire?" I glanced up as Luhan hovered in the doorway. "Why are you up Xing? It's the middle of the night."

"Why are you up," I countered. He inclined his head. "I can't sleep Lu. Not alone. Not anymore. Not after having someone next to me every single night for damn near ten years." He jutted his lip out in a pout, but didn't say anything to that. I sat up a bit, the comforter tumbling away. "I miss them. A lot more than I even imagined." It felt...empty. I never even thought of how lonely I'd felt growing up until my room filled to the brim with love and comfort and people. My tiny little family. "Junmyeon's love may be suffocating, but he's also comfort. He's steadiness. I might be a rock foundation for his drama sometimes, but his love is just as much a fondation for me. And without it here it feels like I'm teetering on the edge about to plummet, but this time there's nothing to catch me. I always thought of the palace as my home Lu. It always was. But now it's not. My home is my children." But more than that.

Junmyeon himself felt like home. And right now I desperately wanted to be there. I wanted him. So bad. I ached at the thought of ever thinking I needed a break from this. Those three people... they were my world. They were my every reason. The best part of me. I was so dumb to run from them.

"Actually," Luhan said, shuffling to the side a bit to allow the doorway to open. "I've brought guests." I turned a quizzical look to him, but soon a huge grin split my face as I scrambled out of bed. I ran across my room and practically threw myself at my husband. "I'll leave you guys alone," Luhan decided, turning towards his own room. "Take care sire."

"Oh baby I missed you," I said, peppering Junmyeon's face with kisses. He laughed, shoving me off. I finally turned my attention to my sleepy son, who gazed up at me steadily. "Hello baby boy," I greeted, opening my arms wide. He tumbled into me. "What are you guys doing here?" I asked at last, hoisting DaeHyun up. Junmyeon eased the diaper bag off his shoulder and let it fall to the floor.

"None of us could sleep," he said, shiftint ChaoXing to his other hip. She stirred, but soon dropped off again. "Well, except ChaoXing. But..." He trailed off, and I filled the silence by surging forward and connecting our lips once again, the same firework feeling exploding in my stomach. "I had a nightmare and couldn't sleep," he rushed out. "So I thought we'd come see you." I led my family inside the room, letting DaeHyun crawl up into bed as Junmyeon and I settled around him. He perched ChaoXing on his chest. I reached over amd softly ruffled her hair.

"I'm sorry," I apologized. He glanced my way. "I'm sorry. I definitely shouldn't have done what I've done. It was uncalled for." Junmyeon glanced to the ceiling.

"Did you mean what you said?" he asked, and my brain crashed to a halt as it tried to process that. "When you were talking with Luhan. If you had known we were there, would you have still said it?"

"Yes," I answered automatically, without hesitation. "Of course I meant every word of it. Your love IS overwhelming Junnie. You know it is. You love harder than anyone else I've ever met. But it's not a bad thing. Not in the slightest. It's the best thing. My favorite thing." I flicked my gaze to DaeHyun, who seemed to have fallen back asleep, Jie (the lamb) smushed to his chest. "These guys too. You mean everything to me Jun. That's never going to change, no matter what happens."

"I want to be one hundred and still crazy about you," he piped up. I laughed lowly, snaking an arm over DaeHyun and finding Junmyeon's hand. We twined our fingers. "There's still a lot we've got to figure out, huh?" he asked. "And a lot we still have to work through."

"But there is definitely nobody else I'd rather have by my side as we do it," I cut in, and he grew silent. "In this life, in the next, and in every life after, I promise you Jun, I'm going to find you so we can be in love all over again. You're the only one I ever want, forever and beyond."

"You're corny," he said, the last word slpit in two by a huge yawn. "But I love you for it." After that he didn't speak again, lulled to sleep by our children around him. I could feel my own eyes growing heavy. Yes, there was much we still had to discuss in the morning. Tackling his fear of us being apart. He would more than likely always have that littlw voice at the back of his head trying to fill him with doubt. A voice that warned him away from opening up. And I would never blame him. All I could do was be here and remind him, time and time again, that he was the beat thing that had ever happened to me. That our love wasn't perfect, but it was worth it. So, so worth it.

Goodnight my beautiful family, I thought as I drifted off to sleep. I love you guys so much. Forever and beyond.

...

Ah this is cute. Probably not what everyone was expecting either. And in truth I wasn't planning anything going into this.