Chapter Text
As far as Jungkook knew, no one was aware of his little secret. He was in university now, and shared an apartment with his best friend Taehyung. Not even Taehyung knew. The truth of the matter was that Jungkook had been involved in something called little space for the past two years of his university-going life. At first he was ashamed, having stumbled across what appeared to be some sort of freaky kink at first glance. Yet something about this seemingly strange community on the internet opened him up to something soft, nurturing, and caring that Jungkook realized he had been desperate for for a very long time.
Nothing about it was sexual in his eyes, as little space, which was more likely to go under the term of age regression to Jungkook was simply something that allowed him to destress and let go of anything that worried him in his adult life. Jungkook had always felt smaller in a sense, always sort of liked things that weren’t necessarily for adults—things like Iron Man movies and action figures, soft clothes and banana milk. In fact, Taehyung frequently teased him, occasionally coming up to him when Jungkook was watching Iron Man for the third time in a week, ruffling his hair and cooing “aigoo, my little baby Gukkie is watching his favourite movie again”, giggling when Jungkook’s cheeks heated up and he stuck his head into his blanket.
It was small moments like those where Jungkook often thought of telling Taehyung about his whole “little situation”. It wasn’t like Jungkook didn’t trust Taehyung, in fact he had several friends who he did trust with all of his heart (Taehyung included). Friends like Namjoon and Yoongi, who through their maturity and kindness ended up helping Jungkook with whatever he needed or inquired. Jungkook was worried as to what his three friends would think of him. If he himself was so closed off to the idea before he actually looked at it in depth, what would their reactions be? Jungkook always tried his hardest to seem older than he really was, his wardrobe black from head to toe, which was smiled at by Yoongi and frowned at by Taehyung, Yoongi relating to the clothing choices and Taehyung wanting him to “expand his horizons more” as he liked to put it. Jungkook was even in university for business, and it certainly was the time for him to start growing up, but he felt as if he was doing the exact opposite.
When Jungkook had first decided that he wanted to go out and buy things that he would like to use and play with in little space, he had almost worked himself into a panic by thinking about all the things that could go wrong if someone found him with real, actual, baby stuff in his possession. Yet he still created a checklist for himself in his head, going to the nearest store during Christmas time so it would look as if he was purchasing something for a niece or nephew. Walking down the store aisles with all the special Avengers toys made Jungkook grin from ear to ear, but he had to remind himself that he actually (believe it or not) was a student and had to “ball on a budget” as Taehyung liked to say. (Well of course, Taehyung had actually picked up half his sayings off of Hoseok, who he looked up to as someone older as well as a friend.) Jungkook ended up getting a few small toys and broke through enough of his self-loathing attitude to say “fuck it” and get a pacifier and teething rings as well. Jungkook didn’t end up taking out either of those from the box shoved underneath his bed until he was too little one day to keep his fingers out of his mouth and had to resort to something else to keep the pages of his colouring book from getting wet from his own fingers.
So here Jungkook sat on his bed on a casual weekday evening after classes, wearing the comfiest (and cutest) sweater he could find, making his Iron Man action figure fly and beat up Captain America. Taehyung wasn’t supposed to be home until later in the night, texting Jungkook with a thousand hearts saying he would be out eating with Jimin, Hoseok, and Seokjin. Times where Taehyung was gone for a few hours tended to be risky for Jungkook to go into little space as sometimes he would be so caught up in what he was doing he wouldn’t even notice that Taehyung was home until he heard a knock on his bedroom door. Jungkook would always say that he was “changing, and don’t come in!”. He thought that he really ought to make a different excuse because there was no way that Taehyung wouldn’t catch on that Jungkook was changing apparently every time he came home. Yet Jungkook was feeling so little this night and regressed for the first time in a couple of weeks. Jungkook was actually feeling smaller than usual on this random Thursday evening, so small that he was even getting bored of his Iron Man toys and just wanted to cuddle with his pink stuffed bunny, Cooky. So Jungkook moved from his spot on his bed to the floor to reach under his bed for his little box, an old nike shoebox that was shoved to the brim with almost all of his little things (which weren’t very many). He softly hummed to himself as he opened the lid, grabbing out Cooky and petting his soft fur.
“Hiya Cooky! Sorry that you were in there for so long. I’ll cuddle you now!” Jungkook giggled, his words slightly slurring together but ending with a twinkling lightness that his voice doesn’t usually sound like.
Jungkook pulled the soft bunny into his arms and stood up on wobbling legs, teetering out of his bedroom as he started to wander around the apartment in search of something to do. There was one big problem with Jungkook being little by himself. He had no one to take care of him, to play with him or give him snacks or to tuck him into bed when he felt all warm and fuzzy. Little Jungkook was all alone, and with no one to play with but his own toys he felt bored a lot of the time and would find different ways to entertain himself. Today he was just wandering around like a lost puppy, eyes wide and lips set in a pout as he held Cooky with all his might. He ended up in the living room, curled up on the couch in his and Tae’s soft “couch blanket”, arms wrapped around Cooky and eyes fluttering shut. Now, Jungkook tended to make sure that he didn’t fall asleep in little space unless it was late and he was tucked in his bed in the safety of his own room. But tonight he was tired, and it was nearing the end of his week of classes, and he felt warm and safe in a cocoon of soft blanket. He was completely and totally relaxed, all stress out of his mind and body as his breaths evened out and he fell asleep on the couch.
The sound of keys being put in the front door and it opening did nothing close to waking the boy, Jungkook being dead to the world once he was asleep. It was late and Taehyung was home, kicking off his shoes and walking down the front entrance of the apartment to head to the kitchen to grab a drink of water. Taehyung had to walk past the living room to go to the kitchen, and he noticed Jungkook sound asleep on the couch. Taehyung softly smiled at the sight, Jungkook’s head the only thing peeking out of the blanket he’d managed to wrap himself in. Not wanting to wake the boy before he had to, Taehyung headed into the kitchen to clean up the last of the dishes and get his drink of water, (while sighing, it was Jungkook’s night to clean) going back to the living room to wake Jungkook up. Jungkook had classes in the morning and would have to go back to his own room where his alarm would set if he didn’t want to miss them in the morning.
“Jungkook-ah, wakey wakey.” Taehyung sat down next to the boy, gently grasping him by the shoulders and patting him a couple times.
What Taehyung wasn’t expecting was for Jungkook to whine, actually whine loudly and snuffle back into the blanket. When Taehyung had to wake up Jungkook in the mornings for class when he slept through his alarm he wouldn’t get a single peep out of Jungkook until he pinched his nipples hard enough to make Jungkook hit him. (It seriously was the only way to wake Jungkook, but Taehyung always tried to be gentle with him first as he didn’t like to be mean to his dongsaeng without reason.)
Taehyung was quite taken aback by Jungkook’s reaction. “Are you feeling alright, Guk?” He asked, feeling Jungkook’s forehead with his wrist. Jungkook felt no warmer than usual.
Jungkook peeked his head out of the blanket again, eyebrows knitted in a frown, confused as to why he was being woken up. He didn’t say anything, just blinked his eyes up at his hyung.
“Okay, Jungkook, you need to go sleep in your own bed.” Taehyung spoke slowly, reaching out to make the boy sit up. Taehyung was confused as to first of all, why Jungkook was sleeping on the couch in the first place, and second of all, why he wasn’t just going back to his own bed.
Jungkook started to get worried as he began to wake up even more, slipping out of his headspace and realizing that he’d have to somehow get back to his own room without Taehyung noticing Cooky.
“S-sorry hyung, I must’ve lost track of time a-and accidentally fallen asleep.” Jungkook tried to explain without stuttering, but his nerves got the better of him.
Taehyung noticed Jungkook’s odd discomfort, but thought nothing more of it than the boy being woken up suddenly and obviously very tired. He gave Jungkook a comforting smile. “It’s okay Guk, let’s just get you back to bed.”
At this point Jungkook had no idea what to do. Taehyung was already unwrapping the blanket from Jungkook and moving to sit him up, Jungkook’s head still on the brink of fuzziness as he tried to think up an excuse for holding a stuffed rabbit under the blanket. It was too late now. Jungkook sat with his head down, hands in his lap as he fiddled with Cooky’s ears, afraid as to what Taehyung was going to say.
Taehyung looked Jungkook up and down, a little more phased by the fact that Jungkook was wearing a sweater that was a colour other than black rather than the stuffed animal that sat in his lap. Taehyung didn’t want to say anything that would cause Jungkook to be even more uncomfortable than he already was now, and quite frankly, Taehyung found it quite endearing that Jungkook had a stuffed animal in the first place.
“Okay, come, let’s get you to bed.” Taehyung smiled, taking one of Jungkook’s hands in his and walking him over to Jungkook’s room.
Jungkook’s light was still left on, and Taehyung had to push a box sitting in the middle of the floor out of the way in order to not trip on it. Jungkook still hadn’t said a word, Taehyung deciding to not push the stuffed-animal-in-hand situation any further than it had to go for the night. What really took Taehyung aback for the third time of the night were the action figures laying on Jungkook’s bed. Again, nothing seemed too out of character for Jungkook. Taehyung knew that Jungkook loved Iron Man and having figurines seemed to be normal to him. After all, people collect different things, right? Taehyung simply moved the toys onto Jungkook’s night stand and pulled back the covers for Jungkook to climb into bed. The younger climbed in without a word again, Cooky held tightly in his arms, and looked up to Taehyung, eyes watery and nose red as he sniffled.
“Don’t cry Gukkie, we’ll talk in the morning okay? You don’t need to worry.” Taehyung reassured the boy, sitting on the edge of the bed.
Jungkook’s bottom lip started to tremble and he looked to be about two seconds away from bursting into tears. Now, Taehyung had only seen Jungkook cry twice in his whole life. Once was when they were kids and Jungkook got stung by a bee, and the other was when Taehyung decided to play a prank on Jungkook by telling him he was moving overseas. (Taehyung felt so bad after that he bought Jungkook ice cream for a whole year.)
Jungkook’s tears began to fall and he immediately hugged Taehyung, hiding his face in Tae’s shoulder, muffling the sound of his child-like sobs. At this point, Taehyung was so concerned about his best friend that he didn’t know what to do, other than to hope that Jungkook cried it out and fell asleep so they could talk in the morning. Taehyung almost felt like crying himself seeing Jungkook so upset. Taehyung could tell that it had something to do with the stuffed animal, and the toys, and the strange way Jungkook was behaving, but he had no idea why. So Jungkook kept crying and crying, soft little whimpers tearing their way out of his throat until he began to tire himself out. Taehyung held him until his sobs died down, Jungkook’s breathing evening out. Taehyung took a look at the boy on his shoulder, snot on his face and fingers in his mouth. Taehyung sighed, wiping Jungkook’s face gently with his already wet shirt (soaked with Jungkook’s tears), and laid the boy down in his bed, setting the stuffed rabbit next to him and tucking him in. He took a look at the younger fast asleep, and gently pressed a kiss to his forehead as he flicked off the light and left the room, closing the door behind him.
Taehyung pulled out his phone and dialled the first person who he thought could help the most.
Namjoon.