soft - seventeen littles.

Sandcastle | 18

"LAST ONE IN THE WATER IS IT!!" The whole group handn't even left their car before vernon screamed at the top of his lungs, sprinting towards the ocean. The littles didn't seem to think for very long either as they, all in fairly deep but older headspaces, ran after the youngest caregiver and into what they found to be cold waves making them shriek and giggle along with mingyu and dokyeom.

Slightly more calm, seungcheol and jeonghan helped hoshi unload some of their stuff. S.coups noticed fairly quickly how his partner seemed to be looking for something and couldn't help but laugh at his cuteness when he found the right bag and looked to him with puppy eyes.

"Yes, you can go play with them," The oldest chuckled to himself as the cg ran off to the sand, calling to the others. "SANDCASTLE COMPETITION!" Whilst jun and soonyoung put up shade the group ran out of the shallow water and over to jeonghan.

Hand in hand with seungkwan vernon seemed way too excited. "Oooh am I gonna beat your ass at this jeonghan!" Jeonghan scoffed playfully. "Listen, I don't think you understand the amazement that is my superior sandcastle skills," Dino tugged at his sleeve gently. "And chans too obviously."

The little burst into fits of giggles when his eomma scooped him up despite him still being wet from the sea water and booped his nose. At this point the other caregivers had finished setting up and so the trio came over, having heard the majority of the shouting.

"Sounds like a good idea, I can judge?" Seungcheol said before pressing a kiss to both his boyfriends, dino's on his head. "But thas not faaaiirrr!" wonwoo whined, something mingyu would usually reprimand, but what could he say, the kid was right. "Cheollie loves channie and hannie the mostest!"

"Well I can judge if you want?" Hoshi thankfully spoke up, jun nodding as well. "Me too, it'll be fun." Both woozi and minghao looked betrayed for a moment. "I'm sure hoonie and hao won't mind being a team, right sweet?" Junhui brushed the8's hair away from his eyes and the little knew he couldn't say no to his pretty cg so nodded.

Suddenly jihoon had no problem with it and him and his friend took a bucket and two spades to get straight to work. For the other shaped buckets and things jeonghan and vernon got a little to competitive so the remaining four teams (jeongchan, verkwan, meanie and seoksoo) played rock paper scissors, the oldest there loosing to which hansol smirked despite coming after mingyu and dokyeom himself.

And so it began. In all honesty the dedicated judges were having quite a good time, hoshi catching up on some sleep he missed on the drive there, jun reading his book which he'd neglected for months and seungcheol just lay watching the others work so seriously it was funny, except jihao who were just enjoying themselves and josh and dk who were more or less just playing in the sand together.

The peace was short lived seeing as just when his eyes were beginning to drift shut, the oldest was dragged from his fatigue by his spouses shout. "YAH CHWE HANSOL GIVE US BACK OUR SHELL YOU THEIVING SON OF A-" Thank god s.coups covered his mouth. Still seemingly annoyed after seungcheol removed his hand, jeonghan pointed to the younger and spoke in a more reasonable tone.

"He took our shell! Get it back." He put on his best cute face which didn't do much to him seeing as he'd already used it once today. "Firstly, use your manners around the kids, you're always like this when you get competitive, and secondly.. babe its a sea shell, just find another," He turned to his little who was mumbling to himself, "Right baby?"

Chan didn't know what he was agreeing to but he just nodded. Appa was always right. Pretty proud of himself for being all dad like s.coups turned around, completing missing jeonghan sticking out his tongue childishly though it didn't go unnoticed by junhui who was peaking over his book causing him a slight smile.

An hour and a half later the alarm on soonyoungs phone went off, waking him up and drawing him over to his and juns little. "Hey baby, you done?" Not even looking up the younger shook his head and kept working. "Five more minutes dada, please." Seeing as he said please hoshi basically pretended the timer hadn't gone off until the pair shot him a thumbs up.

"TIMES UP!" The sudden noise made minghao jump and his eyes grow damp but before he could cry woozi had wrapped his arms around him and was soothingly rubbing his back. Both their caregivers felt a sense of pride at the adorable moment as he calmed down, jun going over anyways to take over from jihoon, telling him what a good job he did as he picked up the calming little.

The four castles were... different... and barely 'castles' of any sort. Jeonghan stood quite proudly in front of his and dino's complex creation, with symmetrical shells and small passageways to god knows where. On the other hand verkwan had made what looked like 50% the castle from frozen mixed with 50% battle royal base. It was kinda cute how it showed off both of the couples sides.

It was blaring my obvious that woozi, minghao, joshua and seokmin were just enjoying themselves, seeing as the team of littles had accomplished a rather sad looking but adorable castle, *cOUgh* lump *cOUgH*, and josh was still drawing pretty patterns into the sides of their lovely block with a stick, his caregiver watching on proudly.

"So?" There was a hint of impatience in jeonghans voice as s.coups picked up chan and bounced him a little seeing as he was growing dozy. Before he could get an answer they were interrupted. "I think it's time we had back!" Mingyu yelled from a few feet away.

Wonwoo has gotten bored halfway through and so instead him and his daddy now trailed back to the group soaking wet and shivering just enough to know they should be getting changed.

"Yeah, I agree, minghaos falling asleep already, and so is chan from barely anything. I think it's time we pack up, we've had a good few hours and the drive itself was fun as well." Junhui's words were met with nods as they all began to head to the car, sleepy eyes and all. The only thing was that vernon and jeonghan were still stood there in anticipation, their eyes following the others as they moved away from their 'art'.

Jeonghan cleared his throat making seungcheol turn around and raise an eyebrow. "So who won?!" With a smirk knowing he'd gotten the better of his boyfriend, s.coups shrugged and began his walk back to the car. Hansol was trying not to laugh at the situation but jeonghan sent him a look. "This isn't over.." Suddenly turning serious and gaining his own look of determination vernon glared back.

"Round 2 next time?" The two shook hands before they were called by mingyu who had a towel wrapped around his shoulders to dry off his dripping wet black hair, already dressed in another hoodie, wonwoo sleeping gently against the window also dressed in warm clothes along with all the other littles who were covered in blankets.

Seungcheol, having put down dino who was now cuddled between seoksoo with his elephant stuffie, slid into the front seat next to a well rested hoshi. "Should we just go?" Soonyoung laughed. "I think chan would strangle you in big space if you left his eomma on a beach, and I don't even want to think about what seungkwan would do to you.. although it would be a quieter drive.."

Before the thoughts could progress further both boys had jumped into the car and were quickly hushed by the others, settling down next to them. "Too late." "What a shame, could've had a good sleep." S.coups looked genuinely upset for a second before going smiley again and stretching.

"Well I might do anyways, you ok driving alone?" Hoshi nodded. "Nothing better, I can choose my own music for once." He chuckled. Then there was silence. A long, beautiful, peaceful silence. "Night soonyoung." Smiling to himself the younger started the engine. "Sleep well hyung."