Chapter Text
That night, Jisung had gone to sleep in his littlespace, tucked up safely and securely in his own bed by Minho, who had made sure that Minji the squirrel plushie was also secured in Jisung’s arms before turning out the lights and retreating to his own room. Of course, he had been worried Jisung might have wanted him to stay- Chan would often hate being left alone to sleep when he was in headspace- but Minho had checked multiple times if Jisung had wanted to sleep with any of his hyungs, to which Jisung had shook his head silently.
But when he awoke, he was very much back in his adult headspace and feeling refreshed, albeit a little unsure of how to feel that his hyungs now know about his headspace. Last night had happened so quickly, it was hard to process it all at once. And… fuck , he’d called Minho ‘appa’. That was awkward… that was literally the first time Minho had even met little Jisung, and without being able to talk things over out of headspace Jisung had already labelled him as his main caregiver?
Groaning, Jisung buried his face into Minji’s soft fur, pulling the duvet over his head before throwing it off of himself and getting out of bed resolutely. If he kept putting off the inevitable discussion, it would only continue to eat him up from the inside out.
Unsurprisingly, not everyone was up just yet, due to the varying schedules each member had, so the only members who were both awake and still within the dorms were Jeongin and Seungmin, who were sat at the table eating cereal. Seungmin looked like he was about to faceplant into his bowl.
“Morning, guys,” Jisung vocalised, moving to the cupboards to get out some cereal for himself.
“Jisungie hyung!” Jeongin’s eyes were crescents as he grinned happily.
“Morning, hyung,” Seungmin yawned. Jisung was relieved that there was no awkwardness, at least?
“Oh, Chan hyung wanted me to relay the message that we’re having a family meeting tonight,” Jeongin added. “We gotta talk about your littlespace!”
“G..ah, thanks Innie,” Jisung laughed a little at their maknae’s bluntness. “You got it.”
********
“FAMILY MEETING TIME,” Chan screamed as he entered the dorm that night, surprisingly early for his usual hard-working self. “TEN MINUTES.”
Faint choruses of “okay”’s and “got it”’s echoed around the dorm from respective members and rooms, and as expected, within ten minutes everyone was settled on the sofas in the main living room, comfortably invading each other’s personal space because honestly, what even is personal space? Felix was hoarding Jeongin on his lap and Minho had Jisung secured on his own as well.
“Well, I guess you’re wondering why I gathered you here today,” Chan joked, keeping everyone’s spirits up and the mood light.
“I wonder,” Jisung said sarcastically, drawing laughs from everyone else.
“Yes indeed, we have to discuss your regression, Sungie,” Chan sobered up a little, wanting to give his full attention to the matter at hand and not get distracted by humour. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
Swallowing with a little difficulty all of a sudden, Jisung thought for a minute before speaking again. “I… I don’t really know? Obviously I hid it just like you did, hyung, but when you told everybody about your littlespace I felt too scared to speak up as well… I felt like it would look like I was trying to take your attention away from you. And then time passed and I just felt like I couldn’t say it at all after that.”
Jeongin stood up, fast, from Felix’s lap, dragging the freckled elder with him as he waddled over to Jisung (waddled because Felix didn’t release his iron grip even by a little bit. It surprised nobody). He wiggled into the space in between Minho and Seungmin and wrapped his arms around Jisung’s waist, resting his chin on his shoulder. Felix released the maknae (finally) and settled for sitting on the floor instead, resting his head on Minho’s knee, next to Jisung’s thighs.
“Hyung, we’d never think that. You know you can always come to any of us about anything at all, right? We’d never think you were trying to steal someone else’s attention,” Jeongin spoke, voice light and concerned.
“Yeah, Sungie. We’d never think that,” Chan echoed. “Were you… ever going to tell any of us?” his gaze wandered meaningfully over to Minho.
Jisung snorted. “No, probably not… maybe Minho hyung, but that’s different because we’re dating. I can’t really hide that from him forever.”
Felix let out a scandalised squeal. “Not even me, your twin?”
“I don’t know, Lixie.”
“Well, Seungmin spoke up with authority, “it’s out in the open now. And little Sungie is CUTE. Just know we’re all here to support you, hyung.”
“And I finally have a play friend too!” Chan beamed, face lighting up. “I can’t believe you never told us. We could have bonded in littlespace AGES before now.”
“Well, I guess we can now,” Jisung gave a tiny laugh, reaching for Minho’s hand to play with his fingers to give his hands something to do. “Uh… Could we also discuss the matter of, uh… caregivers?”
“YES, that was going to be my next topic,” Chan gasped. “Do you remember what happened last night?”
“Yeah, I uh,” Jisung flushed red, “I called Minho ‘appa’.”
“So Minho, how do you feel about that?” Hyunjin interjected cheerfully.
“I’d be happy to be your main caregiver, Jisungie, if you’ll have me,” Minho smiled. “Not gonna lie, I was over the moon when you called me that.”
“He sounded so tiny, didn’t he!” Jeongin agreed, squeezing Jisung’s middle.
“You- you would?” Jisung stammered in disbelief. “I thought that would have creeped you out, we hadn’t talked about it at all beforehand-”
“Shush,” Minho interrupted him kindly, interlacing their fingers and squeezing Jisung’s hand. “Of course I would, baby. No questions asked.”
“Okay,” Jisung properly relaxed for the first time that day, letting him fall back against Minho’s chest. “Okay. Wow. Okay…”
Hyunjin snickered. “And we all wanna be your secondary caregivers, Sungie, if you’ll let us. You’re too cute to have us not want to be.”
“You’re all sure?” Jisung gazed around the room, looking each member in the eye.
“Sure as ever,” Felix assured him. “Always.” This was followed by similar reassurances from the rest of the group before Chan cleared his throat once more.
“Okay, just a few more things to clear up, then. Only answer if and when you’re comfortable, Sung, but I have to ask: how old is your usual age when you regress, and how often do you need to regress?”
Thinking for a moment, Jisung snorted as Felix wound his entire body around Jisung’s right leg. “Usually I’m around three I think? And it depends, usually I try not to as much as possible for fear of being caught, so I’m used to repressing it. I can ignore it for a few weeks at a time usually.”
Chan gently chided him. “No, not how often you can go without regressing,” he reminded the younger gently, “how often you feel the need to.”
“Um… maybe every week?” Jisung mumbled. “But I can definitely do it less often than that!”
“Ok, so at least once a week,” Chan finalised. “At least. It’s not healthy for you to repress or ignore it, Sungie.”
“I know, I just don't wanna inconvenience you guys,” Jisung murmured. Minho bounced his legs beneath him in indignation.
“When Channie hyung needs to regress, is it an inconvenience to us?” Minho asked.
“No, but-”
“No buts, then,” Minho finalised fondly. “It’s a way for you to relax and destress, so it’s not an inconvenience for anybody. We love you. I love you.”
“... Thank you,” Jisung breathed, feeling like he could breathe properly again. “I love you all too.”
“Ok, I think we’ve all got the main topics down and discussed now, right?” Hyunjin announced, standing and stretching, grinning when his spine cracked loudly. “In that case, I’ll be right back.”
“Okay, did anybody else want to talk about anything?” Chan asked the group, nodding when everybody stayed quiet and shook their heads. “Okay, cool, well I’m starving. I’ll go get started on food.”
One by one the group dispersed, leaving Jisung, still comfortably sat on Minho’s lap, with Jeongin latched onto his waist and Felix wound around his leg.
“Suuuuuuuuuung~~” Felix sang. “Next time you regress can I be there too?”