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It was six am.  And that meant it was time to get up.  Zelda rolled over as her alarm blared in her ear, slapping it so it was silent.  She sighed and rubbed her eyes.

“It’s six already?” Tae moaned.

“Yep.  Time to get up,” she patted his back and yawned.

He sighed, laying there for a few moments before crawling out of bed to head to the shower.  Before Zelda could even get out of bed, her youngest had burst into the room and was attempting to climb the bed.

“Mama!  Is’ time to wake up!” Jinsu exclaimed once his tiny head was peeking over the edge of the bed. “I wanna go to work with Appa today!”

“You’re gonna leave me alone today?” Zelda asked as she reached down and pulled him up onto the bed.

The toddler puffed his cheeks out and pouted. “No…don’ wanna leave Mama alone.”

Zelda giggled. “How about you ask Appa when he gets out of the shower?”

“Ok!” Jinsu grinned and giggled, bouncing up and down on the bed.

Zelda patted his head of dark blonde curls before picking him up and scooting off the bed. “Do you want to go see if the boys are awake?”

“Yeah!” Jinsu wiggled out of her arms.  Once he was on the floor, he went running upstairs.

Zelda went to wake up Ara, her second youngest.  Then it was time for breakfast.

◇◆◇◆◇

Except that breakfast wasn’t peaceful.  Jiho was trying to eat both Zoro and Hyeon’s food, and Tae was trying to break up the fight.  Ara was falling asleep on her plate, and Jinsu wasn’t exactly getting all his toast into his mouth.  Zelda sighed and shook her head.  The breakfast table was never quiet during the week.

Tae was out of the house at seven, taking Jinsu with him per the tiny boy’s request, and Zelda had half an hour to get everyone ready for school.  Zoro and Hyeon were both in middle school now, so they could handle themselves.  And Jiho was also pretty efficient at getting himself ready.  Ara still wanted Mama’s help picking out her outfits, but today, she wasn’t feeling good.

“Mama, tummy hurts. . .”

Zelda grimaced. “Do you feel like you’re gonna throw up?”

Ara nodded.

“Ok, let’s get you to the bathroom.”

◇◆◇◆◇

They ended up barely making it out of the house on time to get all three older kids to school.  Thankfully, everyone made it before the bell rang, but just barely.

Zelda sighed when she saw Tae’s lunchbox sitting on the counter when she got home.  She wasn’t going to get a break today, was she?  Ara was hiccupping as she clung to Zelda.

“Do you want to go see Appa?”

Ara nodded.  And so back to the car they went.  Ara had only puked once, so Zelda was holding out hope that she wouldn’t do it in the car.

Jinsu came running down the hall when they arrived.

“Maaaammmaaa!!!!” He squeaked as he ran up and hugged her leg.

Tae laughed as he followed the little boy down the hallway.

“Are you having fun with Appa?” Zelda asked Jinsu.

“Yeah!  We gotta go in Uncle Yoonie’s recording studio today!”

“Oh, really?” Zelda glanced up at Tae, raising her eyebrow as if to ask, ‘He let you bring Jinsu in there?’

Tae shrugged and chuckled.  Zelda handed him his lunchbox.

“Thanks for bringing it.  Eating vending machine food for lunch isn’t as fun as it used to be.”

Zelda laughed. “Maybe try not to forget it next time.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Tae saluted, making both of the kids giggle.

“Mama, you should come see Appa’s office!”

“Oh, I don’t know, baby.”

“Pleeeeaaasee?”

Well, how was she supposed to say no to that?

◇◆◇◆◇

Zelda and Ara ended up sticking around until lunch.  Ara was feeling better, so she was up for chasing her brother around the building.  The trainees that Tae and Jungkook were training for the day were more than thrilled to have their practice crashed by not one but two little kids.

Right after lunch, Zelda got a call from her very distressed 11-year-old.  It was days like this that she was thankful she’d kept those flip phones she’d had as a preteen.

“Mama!  I left my science presentation at home!” Hyeon cried. “It was the one we printed last night, and I had the trifold with all the pictures on it and-”

“Ok, hang on.  Where is it in your room?”

Hyeon started blabbering again about how it was on top of the pile of papers on her desk as Zelda asked Tae if she could leave Ara and Jinsu with him.

Five minutes later, she was back at home going through the pile of papers on Hyeon’s desk.  There it was.  The stapled stack of papers they’d printed out the night before.  Zelda shook her head.  She’d specifically told Hyeon to put this in her backpack last night.

When Zelda arrived at the school with her daughter’s work, Hyeon profusely thanked her before sprinting back to her science class.  Now it was time to head home and start dinner.

◇◆◇◆◇

Around three, Zelda was about to get ready to go pick her oldest three up from school when Tae called her.

“Hey, so I’m heading home in a few minutes.  Do you want me to pick the kids up from school?”

“That would be great!  Are you going back in tonight, then?”

“Yeah.  We have a few more things to get done, so I’m going to head in at six.  I’ll probably be home before ten, though.”

“All right.  When you pick Jiho up, please make sure he has both of his lunchboxes with him.  He left his other one at school on Friday, so I had to send him in with a different one today.”

Tae laughed. “I’ll do that.  Does Zoro have his violin lessons tonight?  Or is that tomorrow?”

“That’s tomorrow night.  Don’t worry about it.  Was Ara ok after I left?”

“Yeah.  She wouldn’t eat any of the cookies Jimin offered her, but she hasn’t thrown up at all.”

“That’s good.  Hopefully she’ll be fine in the morning, then.”

◇◆◇◆◇

Half an hour later, Tae walked through the door with all five of their kids.

“Jiho, shoes off.” Tae insisted.

Cue a loud, annoyed sigh from the 9-year-old.

“Jinsu, can you give Mama the lunchboxes?  Zoro, you should go wash that cut and put a bandaid on it.  Jiho!  Shoes!”

Zelda stifled a laugh as she took the pile of lunchboxes Jinsu was holding up to her.  She quickly cleaned them out and stacked them on top of the fridge.

“Zoro, I’m gonna need your lunchbox before you go to bed,” Zelda informed her 13-year-old as he tried to put his shoes in their place on the shoe rack.

“Ok.  Hang on.”

A moment later, he chucked his lunchbox at her before rushing off to his room.  Tae huffed as he sat down on one of the stools in front of the kitchen island.

“I don’t know how you do this and cook dinner every night.”

“Practice.  Lots and lots of practice.  Dinner should be ready in an hour or so, so you can shower if you’d like.”

Tae shook his head. “I’ll shower tonight when I get home.  Is there anything you need help with?”

“Nah.  Go relax.”

◇◆◇◆◇

The house was dark when Tae returned that night.  Zelda was sound asleep on the couch with Jinsu in her lap.  One of the showers upstairs was running, and the kitchen was completely clean.  It was five till ten.

Tae headed to the couch and picked Jinsu up before taking him to the room he shared with Ara.  Then Tae headed back to the couch to get Zelda.  She stirred slightly when he scooped her up off the couch.

“Tae?”

“Shh.  Go back to sleep.”

She smiled faintly before cushioning her head on his shoulder and falling back asleep.  He smiled down at her.  Raising five kids was definitely exhausting.  He laid her down and tucked her in before taking a quick shower.  Then he joined her in bed.

She was still sound asleep, so he settled for pressing a kiss into her forehead.

“Sleep well, Zel.  I love you,” he whispered before letting himself drift off to sleep next to her.