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It had been a very chaotic morning so far in the ATEEZ household. The group had yet again made the mistake of not talking the night before a day off, and had ended up with 6 members little. Yunho and Mingi were the only ones big, left to look after a baby Jongie, 3 year old Hwa, Woowie, Joongie and Sangie as well as a 5 year old Sannie. By lunch time the house was a minor mess, but the two caregivers were too focused on looking after the littles and holding back their own headspaces.
The majority of the littles have already eaten lunch, now sitting in the living room with Yunho, watching cartoons and playing with various toys on the ground. Mingi and Jongie were the only two missing, Jongie too young to eat the usual littles meal so Mingi had stayed back in the kitchen to prepare Jongie’s bottle while the other caregiver entertained the other five littles. Or at least that’s what he was meant to do.
Yunho looks up from solving a dispute between Sangie and Woowie over a stuffed toy to see Mingi in the doorway, thumb teasing at his lips like it often does when bordering on being little and a worried expression on his face.
“What’s wrong, Mingi?” Yunho asks, doing a quick check of the room before standing and moving over to the younger, his expression soft and caring.
“Didn’t mean too but I’m slipping, Yun.” Mingi confesses, looking at Yunho nervously. They usually try and keep at least two caregivers active in the house to avoid too many issues. Yunho shakes his head and sighs, looking at Mingi with a small smile.
“It’s okay, darling,” The pet name makes Mingi feel smaller, “You can be little if you want to, I can look after you all, I promise.”
“Are you sure?” Mingi looks up at Yunho with absolutely adorable puppy eyes.
“Of course,” Yunho rests his hand on Mingi’s arm and looks into the room behind him, ignoring all the questioning littles’ eyes on them, “How about you go have a seat with Hwa and Joongie? I’m sure they’ll let you play.”
Mingi nods and moves over to the littles, plopping himself down and slipping his thumb into his mouth. Yunho quickly grabs a spare pacifier out of a drawer and kneels down next to the tallest little, “Here, sweetheart.”
Minnie happily replaces his thumb with the pacifier as Hwa and Joongie catch him up on the game they were playing with various blocks and action figures. He barely gets a second to dwell on the adorable way that all the littles tend to accept each other, no matter how long ago they were caregivers, before he remembers that Mingi had left Jongie in the kitchen. He quickly stands up, but is derailed by a call of ‘Hyungie’ from his right.
He looks over to Sannie, the little that had called him, “Can you wait a minute, sweetie? Hyungie needs to get Jongie from the kitchen.”
Sannie ignores Yunho’s plea, instead asking, “Hyungie want Sannie to be big?”
“No, bubs,” Yunho shakes his head, giving the little a pat on the head, “Thank you for the offer, but Hyungie’s gonna be alright on his own, okay darling?”
Sannie nods, seemingly content with Yunho’s answer and turn back to playing with Sangie and Woowie. Yunho gives one last scan of the room, making sure everything’s okay, before speed walking over to the kitchen.
He walks in to find Jongie happily playing with his bear on the table and sucking on his pacifier. Yunho sighs in relief, happy that the boy kept himself occupied. Jongie doesn’t even look up as Yunho enters the kitchen and walks over to the microwave, seemingly in his own world. Yunho opens the microwave, which was flashing to say it was finished, finding a perfectly warm bottle of milk.
Yunho opens the bottle, smelling it. His eyebrow raise in surprise when he smells honey and vanilla, Jongie’s favourite flavour combination for his milk. He realises that even though Mingi was slipping, he still remembered to put Jongie’s milk on just how he likes it. Yunho’s heart swells with pride over the idea. He closes the bottle and tests the temperature of the milk once more before moving back to the table and picking up the little, who only protests a tiny bit at being interrupted from his very intense teddy bear game.
Yunho carries the baby back into the living room, where the other 6 littles are playing peacefully. He sits down on the couch and is quickly joined by Hwa and Sannie. Sannie gives crabby hands for the little in Yunho’s lap and Yunho huffs a small laugh as he passes over the little to Sannie and the bottle to Hwa, who is sat on Sannie’s opposite side. Recently the two littles had become obsessed with looking after younger littles, especially giving them their bottles.
“Be careful, okay sweethearts?” Yunho asks, earning smiles from both littles.
“Yes hyungie!” Both reply.
Yunho watches as the two feed the baby, gladly taking the few moments of relaxation in the chaos of the day. He can feel his headspace digging at the back of his head and the exhaustion that only ever came with caregiving gracing his body but he stays alert. Luckily Hwa and Sannie feed Jongie well and the baby seems quite content. Yunho leaves the youngest little in the older littles’ arms as he goes into the kitchen and washes out the bottle.
When he reenters the living room, Jongie is practically melted onto Sannie, his eyes closed, almost asleep. Yunho smiles at the two and, despite Sannie’s complaints, takes Jongie out of the room after informing the rest of the littles that he’s putting Jongie down for a nap.
However, when Yunho tries to put the baby down he refuses to let go and Yunho ends up in the bed with Jongie. He tries to extract himself from the little, but Jongie’s grip is tight.
“Jong, you need to let Hyungie go.” Yunho smiles. Jongie, as expected, doesn’t respond, likely too little to understand the words. Yunho sighs and relaxes into the bed, figuring that once the little is asleep he’ll pull away. He lets the little settle against his chest and soon his breathing levels out like he’s asleep. But Yunho doesn’t pull away.
Yunnie’s regressed. He is regressed and he doesn’t even realise it happens until he hears a voice coming from the doorway of the room.
“Hyungie?” Woowie asks. Yunnie’s eyes widen as he looks up at Woowie and Joongie, his accompanying little. Yunnie realises he wasn’t meant to regress and instantly tears brim in his eyes.
“Yunnie little.” Yunnie whispers, trying not to wake Jongie even in his state. Both Joongie and Woowie’s eyes widen and they look at each other, communicating silently. Woowie nods and Joongie and Joongie nods back, both having decided something unanimously.
“It okay that Yunnie little.” Joongie smiles and Woowie leaves the room, Joongie sitting over on Sangie’s bed. “We have cuddle piles. Everyone have nap like Jongie.”
Yunnie goes to sit up slightly before remembering that the baby is asleep on his chest. He settles back down and checks Jongie to see if he is disturbed at all but the little is still as out as he was before. Yunnie hears the shooshing before he sees the rest of the littles enter the room, pillows and blankets in their arms.
Minnie and Sangie make their way towards Sangie’s bed while Sannie moves over to Yunnie and Jongie on Jongie’s bed. Woowie and Hwa manage to climb up onto Woowie’s bed and soon everyone is settled, ready to rest. Sangie gets up to turn off the main lights and shut the door while Joongie turns on the two nightlights in the room. They hop right back into bed, cuddling up to Minnie and shutting their eyes.
“Sleepy sleepy tighty tighty everyone!” Sangie voice sounds. The sentiment is repeated until everyone quietens down and falls to sleep, all eight littles wrapped in each others’ arms.