Chapter Text
There’s a few minutes of silence while Minho collects his words and everyone else takes in the situation, noting the kids show playing on the TV and Jisung’s oddly quiet nature. Minho breaks the silence by asking, “Has anyone ever heard of age regression?” All the members, save for Chan and Changbin now, shake their heads. “Age regression is when someone reverts back to a younger state of mind, typically as a coping mechanism. It can be very useful for coping with stress, dealing with trauma or just relaxing,
People that age regress are called littles. When someone is regressed, their mind is genuinely back at that age. Jisung is a little, he uses it to cope with his anxiety and to relax after especially stressful weeks. The people that take care of these littles are called caregivers. Caregivers ensure the little is safe, taken care of and loved while they are in this vulnerable state of mind.
I am Jisung’s caregiver, I help him when he is regressed. Usually, we have a schedule for his regression to ensure there are no accidental “slips” as we call them. But today, I think he was frustrated and tired and when he got hurt it threw him into his head space. Jisung’s little age usually ranges from 2-5 years old, this means his brain is genuinely in the mindset of that age. You guys may ask any questions you have now.”
“Is he still little right now?” Felix asks, Minho nods “Yes, he is. Right now his age is probably around two, he’s very small today.” There are noises of understanding and then Seungmin asks, “Chan and Changbin hyung seem to already know what's going on, when did they find out?”
“They found out when Jisung accidentally slipped in the studio a few months ago.”
“Bin and I have been around little Jisungie a few times and he's the sweetest, cutest boy ever.” Chan says with a fond smile on his face, hearing this Jisung peaks half of his face out of Minho's chest and looks at him before getting shy and hiding again.
“What is he like when he’s little?” Jeongin questions, Minho replies with “It depends on the age, usually he gets energetic and excited, bouncing around with toys and stuff. But sometimes he gets clingy, and when he's really small like today he is quiet and cuddly. If he doesn’t get his nap he will get grumpy though.”
There's a few moments of silence, the younger members looking deep in thought, especially Hyunjin. “If there aren't any more questions, I did promise someone ice cream and I think everyone here deserves some today,” Minho smiles at everyone. Jisung perks up instantly at the mention of ice cream, lifting his head out of its hiding place and staring at Minho with sparkly eyes. Minho watches some of their faces soften at how excited Jisung looks.
Minho pulls up a food delivery app and finds an ice cream place, he puts vanilla with sprinkles and plain chocolate in the cart for him and Jisung before passing the phone around to let everyone choose their ice cream. Once the ice cream is delivered and on the way there is another lull of comfortable silence, sometimes someone will occasionally say something to another member.
Some members are on their phone, Jisung is invested in Bluey and it looks like Felix is too, honestly. Jisung moves under Minho’s arm to remove his pacifier, he doesn’t say something for a second, seemingly struggling which makes sense with how tiny he is.
He finally gets out with a giggle, “Channie-’yung ‘nd Lix-’yung are B’uey ‘n Bin’o,” Chan smiles very big at that but Felix looks like he's thinking really hard. “I’m sorry but I don't know what he said,” Felix frowns, looking to Minho for help. “He said Channie hyung reminds him of Bluey and you remind him of Bingo,” Minho smiles warmly at the concern Felix has for trying to understand. He watches Felixs’ smile become wide and bright before he looks at Jisung and coos, “Thank you Jisungie, you’re the sweetest ever, I love you.”
Jisung smiles bashfully and giggles, “ ‘ove you,” He puts his paci back in and lays his head on Minho’s chest again. 20 minutes goes by before there is a knock on the door, “I’ll get it,” Chan says, heading towards the door. Jisung has sat up and is wiggling excitedly at the prospect of ice cream. Chan comes back to the couch with the bag holding the ice cream.
Minho slides off the couch and grabs his and Jisung’s ice cream out of the bag, setting Jisung’s on the coffee table with his spoon. “Here, lovebug. This is your prize for being so brave today,” Jisung babbles excitedly and sits down, taking his spoon and uncoordinatedly digging into his ice cream. The others are seated in various places, some on using the coffee table as well.
Minho is seated behind Jisung while Felix and Jeongin are next to Jisung. There’s hums of satisfaction over the taste of their ice cream, Jisung still babbling happily between bites. After a few more bites he turns around to Minho and opens his mouth, signaling he wants some of Minho’s. Minho complies, feeding him and also giggling at how messy his baby is.
Everyone starts making their own conversation, Felix and Seungmin having a conversation pertaining to their dorm. Felix is interrupted by a tap on his shoulder, he turns around to see Jisung’s ice cream covered face and laughs.
“Some p’ease, Lixie-’yung,” He points to Felix’s cup of ice cream, just as Minho is about to tell him to mind his own ice cream business Felix picks up some of his ice cream, chocolate with brownies in it, on his spoon and puts it in Jisung’s waiting mouth. Jisung wiggles in delight and giggles before turning back to his ice cream.
Conversion continues while all the members eat, Jisung is hyperfocused on scooping his ice cream and getting it in his mouth. Minho watches Seungmin lean over and tap Jisung on the shoulder to get his attention before whispering something in his ear. Jisung starts giggling small, hiccupy uncontrollable giggles.
Minho narrows his eyes at Seungmin, unsure as to what he has just put Jisung up to. He finds out soon enough when he sees Changbin set his ice cream down to turn around and saying something to Hyunjin and Jisung reaches across the coffee table to take the cup and quickly hand it to Seungmin. Jisung is all giggles while doing this, not really being able to do anything but make noise with how small he is feeling.
Seungmin quickly picks up a spoonful of Changbin’s ice cream and tells Jisung to open, giving him a big bite. Changbin turns around at this exact moment to find his ice cream gone. His precious strawberry chocolate ice cream was stolen and being fed to Jisung.
His jaw drops and he is silent before yelling, “YAH! Kim Seungmin, why do you have my ice cream?” All the other members giggle watching this go down. “I wanted something different than tiramisu, plus I didn't take it,” Seungmin laughs and winks at Jisung who happily babbles. Changbin couldn’t even be mad at Jisung for stealing his ice cream, he would give him all the ice cream in the world if he could, but he knows Seungmin put him up to it.
He cackles fondly and shakes his head, trying to win his ice cream back from Seungmin and Jisung. Mostly Seungmin, Jisung is just letting out these breathless, mischievous giggles while watching Seungmin and Changbin fight.
Eventually, everyone finishes their ice cream, including Jisung who is actually wearing half of his. Minho offers to throw everyone's trash away so he can go to the kitchen and grab a wet cloth for Jisung’s face. “Bug, you are wearing half of your food. What am I going to do with you?” Minho comments fondly, making Jisung turn towards him so he can wipe his face.
He starts wiping while Jisung protests about it. Once he’s sure every bit of ice cream is off of his face he pulls back and gives his little baby a kiss on the nose. Jisung giggles and leans in to return the nose kiss, making Minho’s heart flutter fondly for his little one.
All the members watching the interaction had small smiles on their faces, little Jisung was adorable and watching him interact helped them grasp the concept a lot easier. Jisung hopped back on to the couch, seemingly about to settle back into Minho’s side before he got off the couch and yelled ‘wait’ before taking off down the hallway.
All the boys were surprised at how quick he was taking off, especially for someone who hurt their foot earlier, maybe ice cream really does heal you. Minho knew what he was grabbing, and he couldn’t wait to see what they would say.
After just a couple minutes Jisung came running back into the living room holding a piece of paper. He stood slightly wobbly in front of everyone and held the paper up for all of them to see. Changbin recognized it, it was the drawing of the whole group he saw in that chest during the first play date he and Chan had with Jisung. “ ‘s allll ‘f us!” Jisung proclaimed with a wide grin on his face.
Everyone was silent for a second before Felix sniffled and started crying a little bit, Chan may have shed a tear too. They all felt just how much Jisung loved and looked up to them right now. He had been waiting for who knows how long to share this because he’s always thinking of his friends and family like the sweet baby he is.
Hyunjin got up and walked over to Jisung, taking the paper to examine it. He saw the tall stick figure of him next to the other members, his name on top of his head and hearts drawn around him. His lip wobbled and in that moment he truly understood Jisung. He didn’t really understand how his mental age got younger, he was having a lot of trouble grasping it. But after watching him interact with the other members and then show this drawing, he truly saw that Jisung was just a little boy right now who was always thinking of them.
He held the paper gently in his hand and looked at Jisung, who was looking back at him with full curiosity. He quickly pulled Jisung into a hug and squeezed him tight, Jisung squeaked and let out the sweetest giggles. When Hyunjin pulled back he smiled at Jisung who grinned back before bounding over to the couch, settling himself between Jeongin and Minho. “Appa, all ‘f ‘em ‘ove me,” he announces ecstatically. Eventually Jisung does settle properly, as does everyone else. It was getting late into the evening and everyone was exhausted from practice.
There was quiet conversation around the room, the majority of the excitement of the day wore off so some were drifting off. Jisung fidgeted around for a minute before glancing over Jeongin, spotting the blanket he was looking for. “Innie-’yung, ca’ ‘ave tha’ blankie?” Jeongin looked at him and didn't say anything, the other swore there were some tears in his eyes. He was just called hyung for the first time, he was officially a hyung, an older brother. He had a baby brother.
Jisung gave him a weird look because of how long he was staring at him, not moving so he rushed to give Jisung the blanket. “Thanks ‘yungie,” he sighed as he cuddled up next to Minho, continuing to watch the episodes of Bluey that had been autoplaying this whole time. When Jeongin looked up and around the room he saw all of his members smiling at him, seeming to be heartwarmed by his and Jisung’s interaction. It seemed like today, all 8 of them were radiating happiness. It also seemed like little Jisung fit perfectly into their family, and none of them could be happier.