bringing your daughter to practice | zcl
➸ request from anon; hellooo!! could i request dad!chenle bringing 1 year old caihong with him to practice??? tysm !!!
➸ note; omg hi yellow anon bestie i hope you like this <333
➸ word count; 1393 words
➸ caihong; aged 1
nct masterlist
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‘Dada, singer!’ Caihong shrieks the same two words almost every morning when she sees Chenle leave.
When it first became apparent that Caihong was actually beginning to listen and process what the two of you were saying, you had mentioned quite a few times that ‘daddy sings’. Somehow her tiny brain made the connection that Chenle left every morning to ‘go sing.’
Since she was still only one, nearly two, she couldn’t exactly communicate her curiosity, but you could still see it in the way she always asked Chenle to sing and stared longingly at the front door.
Eventually Caihong’s speech developed to the point where she was explicitly asking to ‘go with daddy’ when he left, leading you and Chenle to discuss possibly taking her along to the studio.
‘It’ll be fun, it will be a great opportunity to get her out of the house,’ Chenle reassures you.
‘Are you sure she won’t be in the way? I know how fussy and how she can just appear from nowhere and become a trip hazard-‘
‘Hey,’ Chenle interrupts your mini rant with a short kiss, ‘everything will be fine, okay? I’ll call you if I need you.’
You breathe a sigh of relief, ‘alright. I will.’
‘Good. Now you enjoy your time alone, ok? your facemask is still in the fridge and the bath bombs are in the bottom drawer.’
‘Thank you Chenle.’
‘It’s my pleasure,’ he kisses you again, ‘and I’ll be back to give you a shoulder massage before you know it!’
‘Mhm, still, make sure she behaves,’ you hum, leaning across to give Caihong a kiss on the cheek. Caihong then turns her head, to properly give you a kiss on the lips.
‘Have fun beautiful,’ you smile, ‘be good for daddy.’
‘Bye Mama,’ she waves her hand, and with that, she and Chenle leave.
You watch out the window while Chenle buckles her into her carseat and drives away into the early morning.
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‘Zhong Caihong!’ Renjun hollers, skipping down the corridor towards Chenle and the giggling baby.
‘She is in an incredible mood for an early morning,’ Chenle comments haphazardly.
‘She’s so precious… complete opposite of you,’ Renjun quips, laughing at Chenle’s face of annoyance.
At that point a few other of the members appear, sans Haechan.
‘Ahh there’s my favourite niece!’ Jisung beams, taking Caihong out of Chenle’s arms who is still shrieking at all of the newfound attention.
‘Chenle, they need you in the studio, Donghyuck’s just finishing up,’ Mark relays the managers information.
Today they were recording the baking track for a rearranged version or Rainbow that they were going to perform at an end of year award show. It wouldn’t be too difficult of a task, only light vocals to go alongside eventual live vocals.
You and Chenle always said Caihong’s name was a bit of an accident. Chenle pushed very hard for it, for reasons you didn’t originally understand until it dawned on you one day that Caihong was literally rainbow in Chinese. Chenle swears up and down he didn’t name her that as a sort of mark of fondness towards his life with the dreamies, but you knew otherwise.
Entering the studio, Chenle was given the usual water and lyric sheet. Reading over the lyrics always make him somewhat emotional, considering he could apply it to both his six best friends and his daughter.
‘Ready to go?’ The assistant asks through the intercom and Chenle holds his thumb up as an affirmative.
After a few seconds, the intro begins to play.
‘At the end of the cold rain, on the blue sky
I look at the rainbow light that is particularly clear.’
‘Uncles,’ Caihong mutters into Mark’s ear as she watches the remaining members stretch and get ready for dance practice.
‘Clever girl,’ Mark praises, bouncing the little girl in his arms, ‘you’re absolutely right.’
‘A rainbow that connects you and my heart.’
‘Where’s Mae?’ Caihong questions, referring to Mark’s daughter who she occasionally saw at various gatherings.
‘She’s at home with her mummy/mommy,’ Mark explains.
‘Oh.’
Not long later, Chenle is finished with the final recordings, and joins everybody else in the dance studio to begin stretching.
Jeno is pretty much done warming up, so decides to humour Caihong by pretending to bench-press her.
’Nono don’t,’ Caihong utters her nickname for Jeno, still shrieking wildly.
‘Ugh yeah, you’re probably right, you’re getting heavier and heavier.’
At this point Chenle comes over, ‘come on Caihong, let’s leave uncle Jeno alone and sit down for a bit.’
Chenle takes Caihong over to a sofa in the corner of the practice room, where she can sit with a female member of staff as well as being in Chenle’s sight.
While the members work on their dance routine for the awards show, Chenle watches out of the corner of his eye as the staff member attempts to distract Caihong with various toys from her backpack.
Chenle feels somewhat sorry for the staff member, as he knows how easily distracted and bored his one year old can get.
One minute she wants to play with the Peppa Pig figures, next minute she wants the Snorlax build-a-bear she (you) had made a few months ago, and the next she’s standing up on the sofa, giggling before jumping so that she lands on her bottom.
‘Do you want water Caihong?’ The staff member asks, eventually assisting Caihong in drinking from a tiny cup.
After half an hour or so, Caihong was becoming increasingly restless, bored from lack of stimulation and missing her father.
‘Maybe we should have a break for a bit,’ Mark suggests, seeing Caihong out of the corner of his eye.
‘I agree,’ Renjun nods, ‘but only so I can play with my niece!’
Chenle chuckles, crossing the room to reach his daughter.
’Thank you for looking after her,’ Chenle thanks the staff member, picking up his daughter and bringing her back to her uncles.
When lowered down to the ground she immediately gravitates towards Renjun and Mark.
‘Hi beautiful girl!’ The members fawn over her, commenting on how big she’s gotten and trying to engage her in some play.
‘Who’s that?’ Jaemin asks, pointing to her Snorlax teddy.
’Snore-lah!’ She shrieks, thrusting the teddy at Jaemin, who takes it.
‘Did you come here to see your daddy?’ Jeno questions.
’See daddy sing!’ She squeals, still giggling.
‘Wow, Chenle, her speech is so good,’ Haechan commends the younger member, clapping him on the back.
‘I know,’ Chenle nods, ‘she says so much now, sometimes we have full blown conversations. It’s scary. Makes me realise she’s growing up.’
’Daddy sing,’ she repeats, this time placing her tiny hand on Chenle’s knee for effect.
‘You want to hear a song?’ Mark asks her, leaning closer to her level.
‘Yeah!’
‘She likes Dear Dream,’ Chenle informs them, ‘it’s her favourite.’
‘I guess we know what we’re singing then,’ Jisung chuckles.
‘Ready?’ Mark, ever the leader, questions the others.
‘One, two, three..’
Chenle starts; ‘Don't forget a single thing on a distant night a star will comfort you that'll be me.’
Caihong noticeably perks up a bit, recognising the song.
Renjun continues, ‘No one can understand our importance to each other.’
Then Donghyuck, ‘you exist in my heart.’
All seven then begin to sing, loudly and obnoxiously, sounding almost like a drunken choir, prompting Caihong to laugh melodically.
‘I’ll be your home oh oh, I’ll be your home.’
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‘Did she have a nice time?’ You speak before you see Caihong dead to the world in Chenle’s arms.
‘Oh,’ you trail off mid sentence, keeping quiet as to not disturb the sleeping girl.
‘She has a great time. We had a nice sing-a-long together, although she wasn’t really saying any real words, just shrieking the melody.’
‘Looks like she’ll be taking after you,’ you chuckle.
‘Oh I don’t think I could handle the threat of another singer in this house,’ Chenle laughs quietly.
‘You’ll just have to learn how to deal with it,’ you respond, ‘thank you for taking her out for the day, I’m sure she had so much fun.’
‘She did. I’m gonna go try and get some PJs on her and then I’ll put her down for a nap.’
‘Alright,’ you nod, ‘then I may just have to cash in that massage.’
‘Definitely.’