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Jin and Namjoon stood at the doorway of the playroom, content. They watched as Jimin went back and forth between ‘cleaning’ the plush carpet with his popping vacuum toy and stirring pots and pans inside his kitchen playset. They watched Jungkook surround stuffed animals one by one with giant foam blocks, giving each species their own designated space throughout the playroom.
“Minnie!!!” Kookie called. “One of the baby elephants- he pooped! Now his cage is dirty!”
“I’m on it!” Jimin grinned, running over with his toy vacuum. He dragged it over the area filled with elephant toys a few times, then shouted “Done!” as he waddled back to his station. Jin and Namjoon chuckled as quietly as they could, not wanting to bother the littles or make them feel shy suddenly.
“And now the lions, the lions need lion chow!!!” Jungkook ordered.
“On it! Wait, Kookie, what goes in lion chow?” both of the littles paused for a second until they saw their hyungs in the doorway.
“Hyung! What do lions eat?” Jimin asked.
“They eat meat, baby. Lots and lots of meat,” Namjoon answered.
“I got meat! My kitchen’s got meat!” Jimin then got to work gathering all the plastic ‘meats’ he could find in his play kitchen and cooking them up on the stovetop.
Jungkook then dashed over to the closet, pulling out a small plastic bin filled with his favorite figurines.
“No no no…!” Jin warned. “No Kookie, no Calico Critters when Tae Tae’s in the playroom.” He glanced over to the littlest baby, not even a real ‘little’ because his headspace was so young. Taehyung was kneeled in front of the play room’s massive fish tank, bouncing up and down on his diapered bottom as he watched the colorful fish swim by.
“But...but I want bunnies...!” Jungkook whined.
“Your zoo already has plush bunnies. You don’t need those.”
“Tae Tae’s not gonna get at ‘em!” Truth was, Jungkook spread out when he played and didn’t clean up very well. The last thing Jin wanted was for his teething baby to find one of the plastic figurines and choke on it. Jungkook just wasn’t big enough to clean after himself properly, and Taehyung was prone to getting hurt while in his headspace.
“Hyung said no ,” Namjoon warned. Jungkook stared at the pair for a second before running off to tend to his zoo. Namjoon sighed, letting his gaze wander over all three littles.
“You know Joonie, you could always join them,” Jin smiled. Namjoon just shrugged.
“You haven’t regressed in what, two months now? I can tell how stressed you are lately.”
“I’m just not feeling it, Hyung…” That was half-true; he wasn’t like the others who could drop in and out their headspace at a moment’s notice. His littlespace always felt like such an ordeal, so he rarely bothered.
“You’re gonna snap at this rate, Namjoon.”
“I am not gonna snap!” he sighed, but then stopped to sniff the air quizzically.
“Hyung, do you smell that?”
“I don’t- oh dammit! ” The two turned back to their youngest little, glaring as he rolled around on the carpet, cooing happily. Jin marched over and pulled Taehyung to his feet.
“Tae tae, you know better! You’re supposed to visit the potty for making poops!”
“Baa...ba... aaaaah!!! ” Tae vocalized angrily as his hyung lead him out of the playroom. Jin was dragging him away from the fishies and his teether, and he didn’t like that. He hadn’t even realized that he’d used his diaper, so he didn’t understand why he couldn’t keep playing like Kookie and Minnie.
“Namjoon-ah, come help me get him into the bathroom!”
“Sorry Hyung, Yoongi just texted me. He needs me down in the studio ASAP.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!!!” Jin huffed. He watched Namjoon give kisses to each of the littles before dashing to the front door of the apartment.
“Aish, that liar.... I didn’t even see him look at his phone!"
Jin felt his phone buzzing on his nightstand. Surprisingly, it was from Yoongi.
Code L with Purple in the studio. Come ASAP.
It was their special code, in case anyone’s phone ever got stolen or hacked. Namjoon was purple; ‘L’ meant ‘little.’ Great , Jin thought. I knew he would snap.
On my way. What number?
Jin got up and straightened his bangs, then searched the apartment for what he thought Namjoon would need. He felt his phone buzz again.
Idk. Pretty low. Nonverbal.
Joon must have been feeling really little. Jin crammed a pacifier in his back pocket and stuffed the rest of his stuff in his backpack before heading out the door.
When he arrived, he could already hear Namjoon’s wailing from down the hall, but still tried to look cheerful as he entered the studio.
“Joo-nie~? Nam-joon-ie~?” He sung. He saw Hoseok trying to hold Namjoon in his lap and bounce him, although the little’s thrashing was making that difficult.
“Aww, my baby’s having a hard time~?” He cooed. Namjoon stopped fighting once he saw Jin, but kept sobbing and began making grabby hands at his favorite hyung. Jin sat next to them on the couch and happily pulled the fussing Namjoon into his lap.
“I warned him he was gonna snap eventually. What set him off?” Jin asked while offering the little his paci. Yoongi suddenly huffed from the other side of the room.
“Well...he was having a hard time with the lyrics for this new track. He started crying so I told him to work on something else, but he wasn’t having it. Then he just had a meltdown and started smashing his keyboard onto the desk. When we tried to get him to stop, he started hitting and biting himself. Hobi tried to bring him back down until you got here, but I mean, he’s still pretty worked up.”
Hoseok pointed out the red patches on the side of Namjoon’s head, letting Jin analyze each of the welts. He then gently held Namjoon’s hands and traced all bite marks, some of which had actually broken the skin.
“Oh, Joonie….” Jin gasped. This was why he wanted Namjoon to go into littlespace earlier , so he could get to do it on his own terms. Every time he put it off for months on end, he would eventually come crashing down into an involuntary regression. So while the other littles got to have structured, happy days goofing off in their playroom, Namjoon’s time as a little was usually spent screaming, crying, and was just generally unpredictable.
“Sorry about the keyboard, Yoongi. I’m sure Namjoon will buy you a new one as soon as he’s out of his headspace.”
“Actually, that was his. Kid’s gonna be mad as hell when he realizes what he did.” Yoongi could sound pretty cold when talking about the littles, but really he just wasn’t that good at managing them. That didn’t mean that he didn’t support them 100% though, and he actually enjoyed his role as the cool uncle rather than an active caregiver.
“Well we’re gonna head out now, see if I can’t get this little guy in bed at a decent hour. Joonie, can you say ‘bye-bye’ to hyungs? Say ‘bye-bye?’” They all sat in silence until Namjoon muttered something from behind his pacifier.
“S-sowwy….”
“Aw, kiddo, don’t be sorry! Hobi’s sorry you were having such a hard time!” Hoseok leaned over to kiss Namjoon’s cheek, earning a blush from the little.
Jin pulled Namjoon up, but couldn’t get him to stand on his own, so he settled for carrying the baby all the way back to the dorm (which luckily, was just upstairs). When they got inside, Jin carried him to their shared bedroom and got to work. He pulled out a night time diaper, baby lotion, powder, and the baby’s favorite crab-shaped rattle to keep him occupied. Jin then let Namjoon pick his own jammies, a plush footed sleeper with baby bear ears and a tail.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly until they heard a noise from across the hall. Namjoon froze.
“Relax baby, it’s okay. Hyung’s gonna go look,” Namjoon only let Jin take a few steps into the hall before scrambling after him. Jin peered around the corner until he heard the noise again and realized where it was coming from.
“Oh hell no!” Jin snapped. He marched over to the playroom and yanked open the door to find the startled trio of Jimin, Jungkook, and Taehyung.
“What are you guys doing?! I put you all to bed an hour ago!” The littles quickly looked at each other and their toys, then back at their hyung. Jimin nervously spoke up.
“We...Tae Tae was still little and wandered in here, so we tried to stop him and put him back in bed! But then we got...distracted….”
“Now we little too!!!” Jungkook giggled. Jin opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when he saw Namjoon waddle up to the group. His eyes widened at the site of the colorful chunky Legos that everyone else was playing with. He wanted to play too! He dropped down on his knees and cooed as he reached for a pink block Jimin was holding.
“Namjoon little too?!” Jimin gasped. He proudly handed the block over to the new baby and started looking for more he would like.
“No baby, we gotta go to bed. They do too,” Jin smiled, trying to pry the block out of his grasp.
“Nooo…!” Namjoon started crying. Jin kept trying to pull him up, but the more he tried to redirect the little, the fussier he got.
“No, wan’ bock! Wan’ bock…!” Tears dribbled down his cheeks as he started chewing on his fingers. The other littles were shushing him, trying to hand him legos and stuffed animals to make him happy. Jin stood back and watched. Namjoon calmed down and even cracked a smile as he was gifted and regifted more toys. He clumsily started connecting his legos to the others’, not really trying to build anything, just enjoying the activity of putting blocks together. Jimin and Jungkook told him what a good job he was doing, and he blushed shyly.
Namjoon wanted to play . He actually wanted to be little and be with other littles.
Jin knew he was signing up for four grumpy babies in the morning, but he knew that was okay. It was a good trade-off. He back-hugged Namjoon and kissed his chubby cheek, then walked out of the room to find his four babies’ favorite bottles, warm up some milk, and let everyone enjoy their impromptu playdate.