Chapter Text
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When Jimin hears the director scream “Cut!” he lets out the longest sigh and in a flash he starts sprinting towards the dressing rooms, Taehyung right on his heels. They change from their work clothes without even bothering to remove their make-up.
It’s the first day of their holiday break tomorrow so they’re excited to get home. Things weren’t the same as back when they were rookies when they would be working their bones out in the cold winter air filming live year-end shows. Now they can just pre-record everything, even the red carpet is pre-recorded which Jimin is extremely thankful for. Because this holiday, for the first time in his life, he’s actually excited to get home.
Mina’s first Christmas needs to be perfect. Is what Taehyung told himself and anybody near him who would listen. So it’s no surprise that once he feels the first breath of winter air, he splurges on all the Christmas decors he can get his hands on. He buys Mina a present and wraps them happily at least once a week.
He doesn’t even listen to Jin’s “You know she’s like one year old and she won’t remember any of this right?” or Jungkook’s “Well this is technically not her first Christmas? That was back when you were in Japan right?” He won’t because first “She’s almost two and I’ll take all the pictures I can and she will see every single one of them, then she’d know she has the best Christmases ever” and second “This is her first Christmas, at home, with all of us. So shut up Kook!”
Jungkook and Jin give him an eyeroll but a week later Taehyung sees them both wrapping up a few presents for their little girl too. Hoseok sometimes visits their apartment too, helping with the decors.
Now, a few days before the 25th, their apartment is overflowing with Christmas trinkets. He huffs up at his work proudly as soon as they get home and Jimin just giggles at him as he gives him a peck on the cheeks.
A couple of seconds later and they hear padded little footsteps coming their way accompanied by sweet giggles. Jimin crouches on the floor, ready for the hug. He sees their little angel with the biggest smile on her face as she walks faster, she stumbles on her last few steps but Jimin’s there to catch her and hoist her up earning more giggles.
“Why hello there our little angel” Jimin says as she gives her kisses all over. “I missed you today, baby.”
Taehyung moves right behind Jimin, wrapping his arms around the both of them as he does the same thing Jimin did with the little girl.
After a while, Jimin hands Mina over to Taehyung so he can talk to Soomi, their hired help for Mina, who was right by the hallway, watching them with a smile. “Sorry we were a bit late, Soomi-ssi. I know we said we’d be home by 6 but the recording took an hour longer” he starts.
Soomi gives him a little head shake and says “No, not at all. It’s absolutely fine.”
“Have you packed for the holidays? I asked Manager Seojun to get you a car so you’d be more comfortable going home” Jimin asks instead.
“Oh you didn’t have to Jimin-ah-” she starts but Jimin just shakes his head and says “I think it’s already ready downstairs. Have fun during the holidays okay! Oh and me and Tae placed your Christmas presents in the car so you wouldn’t have a hard time.”
Soon after Soomi takes her leave with warm greetings, Jimin and Taehyung take turns looking after Mina while the other showers since Mina’s already had her dinner.
When Jimin emerges from the shower, he follows the laughter leading him to the living room where he finds Taehyung on the couch, Mina on his lap laughing and Home Alone playing on the television screen. He’s sure Mina doesn’t understand what’s happening on TV but she laughs along with his daddy anyway. Endeared, Jimin watches them both for a while longer leaning over on the wall. He brings out his phone just wanting to capture the moment before Taehyung can call him over to join them.
The three of them spend their free days mostly at home, playing, watching movies and just spending time together.
On the 24th, Jimin decides they need to bake Christmas cookies so he wakes up early to get all the ingredients ready. Jin, annoyed at being woken up when he’d been up all night playing, is on the phone with very firm instructions. Still he ends the call with “I’ll come right over to check on you after sleeping but please for the love of all things good, do not burn your apartment.”
By the time Taehyung is awake, he sees Jimin in the kitchen. Toast is already on the dining table and pancakes are on the pan. He immediately gives him a hug from behind from which Jimin immediately melts. “Morning baby” Jimin greets. In answer, Taehyung twists around so he can give him a kiss. When they break apart to breathe, Jimin just chases his lips for another round. Safe to say that that batch of pancakes went to the trash.
When Taehyung deems Jimin’s been kissed enough for the morning, he goes to check on Mina.
Half an hour later and he hears giggles coming from the bathroom just as he's starting on the strawberry yoghurt for both of his babies.
Later when a freshly bathed Mina and Taehyung are on the table for breakfast, Jimin talks about what he's got planned today. They're both excited and happy about it.
A whole packet of flour and almost two dozen eggs later and they successfully make five pieces of chocolate chip cookies. The rest are either burnt or uncooked but Seokjin doesn't need to know when he reaches the apartment by noon. He helps Jimin cook up two more batches of cookies, enough to fill their cookie jar, as well as lunch.
At exactly 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Jimin is woken up from a nap by two weights suddenly jumping on him.
"Jiminie, wake up! It's snowing! It's snowing outside!" the taller screams excited while their little girl babble along with his dad as she settles on Jimin's lap.
They struggle a bit to put Mina in two layers of heat tech clothing and a giant thick coat. When they deem her finally ready to go outside, she pouts behind her scarf and fluffy ear muffs. Jimin just kisses her pout as he hoists her up to go down to the community park.
When they reach the park, it's deserted which Taehyung is extremely grateful for. Jimin puts Mina down gently, in case she didn't like the feel of the now thick snow below her boots. But as soon as she touches the ground, she jumps happily and runs around following her daddy, hands up and giggling trying to catch the falling flurries.
Jungkook finds them later as they're each making snow angels, with a camera on his hand. He captures a couple of photos before he's hit by a snowball courtesy of Hoseok who followed him. Soon after, the five of them are in a fierce snow fight. Jimin making the needed ammunition for Mina who just throws everything without aiming. But still whenever she hits someone they do the whole dramatics of getting hit and falling to the ground.
They have fun until Jimin's deemed it's getting a lot colder and Mina should get warmed up. They go back to the apartment and see that Yoongi is already there making hot chocolate for everyone.
Dinner time comes with the arrival of Seokjin and Namjoon, a whole feast in tow. They're from Namjoon's parents, who had promised early on to cook for them.
The whole group leaves when Mina's finally been put to bed, wanting to be the last ones to be seen before she closes her eyes to sleep.
When Taehyung and Jimin are finally alone in their bed, they talk. They talk about the day, how it was so perfect. How it was the best Christmas Eve yet. How they can't wait until next year's. They sleep with smiles on their faces, tangled up in a blanket cocoon like two peas in a pod.
--
Christmas day and as soon as Mina walks out of her room, Jimin holding her hand for support, she squeals and runs towards the living room. Situated right below the tree is a mountain of presents wrapped in green and red. She takes a couple from the top of the pile and throws it around laughing with glee.
Lunch time comes and all the members are in the living room eating eagerly, waiting to witness Mina opening her presents.
The lovely girl giggles as she wraps her tiny fingers in each wrapper and tear them apart little by little. Most of the times, uncle Jungkook has to help but she doesn't mind. They think she enjoys the sound of the wrapper being torn apart so much that she doesn't even mind what's inside them and just casts the toys aside one by one.
Afternoon comes and Mina's out like a light for her afternoon nap, tired from all the tossing and tearing. The group has left soon after exchanging gifts with each after too.
As Jimin puts away the last of Mina's toys, he feels long arms wrap around tightly on his midsection. He hums in satisfaction as he places his hands over the others arms.
"Angel, I haven't given you my gift yet" he whispers as he gives the shorter a peck on his ears.
"Oh?" Jimin asks in surprise.
"Yeah, come with me" Taehyung answers as he grabs Jimin's left hand and intertwines them. He takes him towards the living room where there's one more box left unopened. "Here, open it baby" the younger says as he hands over the box.
Inside the box is a hardbound book of sorts but as soon as Jimin picks it up, he realizes it's actually a handmade scrapbook. He already has an idea of what's inside and he feels the tears already threatening to break free.
Inside the book are pictures of all three of them, arranged chronologically with hand written stories beside each photo. And they're not just photos too. There's Mina's birth flower preserved and pasted onto the photo from when they first took her home.
"When did you even take these?" Jimin asks, voice already watery as he points to a photo of him next to Mina from when she was just a month old.
"I took them on my phone. You both looked so peaceful" he answers eyes bright and sincere. Jimin gives him a quick kiss on the lips before moving on to the next pages.
There's the photo Jimin posted on weverse and under it written "When ARMY met Mina".
Their first picnic, their first trip together. Even Mina's first vaccine is included. They're all there, dated and permanently ingrained not only in their memories but for years and even generations after. The story of their little family.
It ends with their family photo by the Christmas tree that they just took last night and under it is written "Here's the family that will love each other for as long as there are stars and longer than all the Christmases that will ever be. Promise."
"Let's have more memories together, yeah?" Taehyung says as Jimin finally closes the book. He's answered with a hug tackle which causes both of them to tumble on the floor.
Taehyung groans as he feels the book that was sandwiched between them dig into his ribs. "Baby. Book. Hurts" he manages to blurt out and in a hurry Jimin removes the object. But comes back to attack his lips with wet kisses which he happily receives. Jimin's tears falling steadily onto his cheeks.
They're both breathless and a mess on the floor but they don't really mind. After a few moments of silence, Jimin sits up and announces that it's time for his gift. "Wait here" he says as he stands and jogs over to their shared bedroom.
Jimin comes back to Taehyung still sitting on the floor and he smiles so wide at that.
"What? You said to wait here. You know I'm good at following instructions Jiminie" the younger says with a smirk.
"That's right you're my good boy" he says ruffling his hair while sitting down in front of him. "Here" he says as he hands over a tiny box and as soon as Taehyung sees it he lets out a gasp.
"J-Jiminie" he starts. And Jimin is just looking at him slightly puzzled by the reaction but before he can ask anything, Taehyung's already jumping on him with a hug. "Yes! Yes! Angel, Yes!"
And Jimin is startled by the reaction but he soon gets it and he giggles amused. "Wait wait baby" he says as he gently pries Taehyung's arms from around him.
"No, no baby. It's not that.. yet" Jimin explains as he opens the box to reveal two infinity bands both encrusted in diamonds. "They're promise rings" he carefully says.
"Oh" Taehyung quietly says "I-I'm sor-" he doesn't get to finish because Jimin interrupts him with a kiss.
"Don't say sorry, baby. Not for that. In fact, I'm actually really relieved that you already have an answer when I do ask the question" Jimin says as he caresses the younger's flaming cheeks.
"One day baby, on a day when everything is just us. When everything is perfect. I will get down on one knee and hope to god that you give me the same answer as you did on this day. Because you deserve that one day, you deserve perfect and more, love" Jimin says as he catches the tears falling down from the other's cheek.
"For now, this ring serves as a promise not only for that special day but a promise of forever of a for as long as our souls shall live. A promise that I will love you no matter what. That my heart will always be yours" he continues as he takes one of the rings and puts it on Taehyung's ring finger.
"I love you so so much" Taehyung finally says as he hugs the other and sobs quietly into his neck.
--
They let Mina stay awake a little over her bed time that night because she woke up late anyway.
She sits in the middle of the couch on both of her father's lap, one leg each, as they watch a rerun of the Nutcracker on tv.
She finds both of their hands and plays with the new shiny ring on each of their fingers. Seemingly knowing what promises lies behind her father's new shiny toys. Promises of a family that will go on for a long time.
The end. 🎄