Trash of the Count's Family Anthology

I am sorry.

Cale sat blankly in the room. Multiple conversations were held, but he was too short to reach them. The multiple things that people were saying that he just couldn't give a crap about were harder to catch. All of the sounds of the area were louder than the blurry conversations that were being talked at him. 

He stood up, stopping the conversations that were made around him. He sighed slightly.

"I'm going home. I miss the kids." Cale said simply before calling the waiter. He paid for the meals, despite his hyung planning to before running away. He walked all the way home while still being stuck inside his head. There was a singular part of him that guided his legs towards his  home. Step by step, he walked towards his house.

He found himself outside his house, and when he pulled his door open he found a unspecified weight had collapsed onto his shoe-clad feet. He looked down to the sleep-addled children who were blearingly back up at him. The slow realisation and the slight goofy smiles that they adorned afterwards brought Cale out of his head.

"What are you kids doing?" He said as they lifted their heads off his feet and turned to face him. Hong smushed his face against his knee, and Cale subconsciously went to pet the top of his head. His hair was tangled over the knuckles of Cale's fingers, and he gently pulled his fingers through his hair.

"We missed you." A muffled sentence escaped Hong as he attempted to meld to his human's leg. His left side of his face was pink from sleeping on it, and when he looked up to Cale, his face tilted to its side. It was as if the sleep made his head too heavy to keep up.

Cale felt an arrow of regret stab into his heart. He never should have left them, what was he thinking? What the hell even is a boy's night out but a jealous attempt to undermine the girl's special time?? He controlled the possible heavy-handed useless thoughts away that might've escaped his ming and took a deep sigh. 

"You missed me? Why? How long did you stay awake for?"

Ohn looked away, stifling a yawn. Her blinks were slow and every third blink was longer than the others. Her legs wobbled slightly and she spoke softly, almost as if to keep herself in the sleep trance. "We woke up when you left. The bed was cold. We got cold." She gave him a look as if he should've known the reason why they missed him. 

Cale looked towards Raon, who's claws were firmly clutched onto Ohn's night dress. He hadn't even opened his mouth in his child-like worry that it would make him more awake. He left an hour or so ago, meaning that they were waiting a full hour for him. Why? He put his useless thoughts in the back of his head and made a different decision.

"Alright, let's go back to sleep." Cale scooped his children up and into his shaking arms as he took off his shoes. He then quickly shuffled into his bedroom he dropped the kids onto the bed with a oof. He stretched his back and flopped onto the bed. The children giggled before snuggling into him. Cale held them close and stifled a laugh as he watched Hong sneak under his vest on top of his chest.

"Am I not uncomfortable?" His chest was flat and hard. There was only a thin muscle underneath the shirt where Hong was curled up on. He should probably eat more food. If he remembers to. Record really does like be an asshole sometimes.

"Mm. Tight blanket hug."

"Sure." He rolled his eyes, before pulling the blanket up on all of them. He then turned into his side and curled his arms around the other kids. He smiled against the pillow as they all fell into the laps of sleep. His clothing was tight and layered and hot but he did not mind as he watched their mouths curl upwards as sleep gently tucked them into sleep. 

As he felt sleep slowly coax him to sleep with sweet words and gentle touches, he smiled at the children whomst weren't able to see it. He felt their fur brush against his nose and upper lip as he curled them closer to his chest. He kept them close to his heart physically to attempt and show how much space that they owned in his heart. 

He whispered a small secret to their unconscious ears, fully aware they would not hear it. It was a tradition he had picked up when he had started to sleep later than they did. He may not have had the courage to tell them while they would remember, but baby steps, right?

"I love you."

- short as heck -