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Yoongi is seven years old when he first meets Jimin.
It was nothing new for him, new children always come, stay for a few months and then leave. He is used to it by now, watching the flow of new faces like it's a river passing by. He, on the other hand, doesn't leave this place, ever, because nobody wants him. One time he even heard one of his teachers say it.
He doesn't know why.
So when he sees Jimin and one of the teachers makes him greet him, he doesn't think much of the chubby five year old in front of him. He just wants to go back to play, his attention completely absorbed by the new toys somebody donated to the orphanage that morning. Yoongi was told there'd be a guitar, and he knows if he is not quick enough other children will steal it from him.
The seven year old doesn't notice the smaller boy silently drying his tears.
***
It's been a couple of months since Jimin got to ths orphanage. Usually children of his age wouod already be out, surely a distant relative would show up, or a willing family to take them. Nobody ever came for Yoongi and Yoongi just accepted it, that he was alone. But when nobody comes for Jimin as well, he starts to get suspicious.
He starts to notice him a little more, how he doesn't play with others, how he tends to stay always close to the teacher. Jimin is small, smaller than him, and he always crouches, always makes himself smaller than he already is.
And nobody ever comes for him, not even just for a visit. It's the first child to not get visits, besides Yoongi himself. Yoongi has never seen something like it before.
One day when he is back in his room and sees a little duck plushy he managed to get his hands on, it reminds him of Jimin, with his big eyes and pouty lips. He doesn't understand why, but he feels the urge to gift it to the boy that evening.
"This is for you", Yoongi explains to him when the younger child looks at him in disbelief, "Keep it in your room, otherwise the others will steal it from you" . Jimin looks uncertain but takes it in his hands either way, almost afraid Yoongi will take it back any second.
When Yoongi does nothing, Jimin realizes it's really his toy and hugs it tight in front of Yoongi. "Thank you", he says with a little lisp on his pouty lips.
Yoongi feels warm inside.
***
From that moment, Jimin becomes a sort of shadow to Yoongi. Following the elder boy around, sitting beside him at lunch, even napping beside him during quiet time. It's not like Yoongi is annoyed, he is just not used to the attention. It feels weird to always have someone by your side and he kind of feels protective towards the younger boy.
He teaches him all the little secrets of the orphanage he has learnt thorugh the years. Where he could hide from the teachers, which cook was more prone to give them chocolates, how to hide his stuff from the others. And Jimin always listens to him with big eyes, always eager.
When a year passes and Yoongi and Jimin are still there, he is pretty sure that nobody will come from them anymore. He is the first one to ask the teachers to share a room with Jimin, since both were alone in theirs. They didn't care much, shushing them away, much more interested in one of the teachers' wedding or something like that. When he turns around though, Jimin is smiling brightly clapping his hands.
Yoongi feels even warmer when the younger hugs him.
Their little room becomes their santuary.
Whenever one the teachers is mad at them, or when a kid at schools teases them a little bit too much, they would stay in there, pretending like the world outside didn't exist.
Some nights, when Jimin feels particularly lonely, he snicks out in Yoongi's bed, silently crying in his shoulder. Yoongi lets him, because even if he doesn't admit it, he feels lonely too.
***
Years go by, but Yoongi and Jimin always stay.
It's not always easy, Yoongi comes to realize. He is becoming older and he starts to realize that what he lives is not normal. It is not normal to wait for months to have new shoes, since the one he has are too small for him. It's not normal that he can never ask for one of the toys he sees on tv. It's not normal that when he goes to school all the other kids hug their parent goodbye and he doesn't.
And Yoongi thinks it's not normal that Jimin lives thorough the same thing, not when Jimin is always so kind, so behaved, so warm. Yoongi thinks that Jimin deserves new toys, even if it's a silly fairy barbie doll that he thinks it's useless but Jimin desperatly wants.
And Yoongi knows that Jimin always eyes the other children when their parents hug them. So one morning, when Jimin's eyes are particularly shiny from tears, he decides to be brave, even if the other children will make fun of him for it, and hugs the other child wishing him a good day at school.
From afar, Yoongi sees Jimin drying his tears and smiling.
***
They always ask themselves what will happen to them when they are older. Sure, they cannot leave the orphanage before 18, except if someone adopts them, which will never happen now that Yoongi in 12 and Jimin is 10.
Adults don't like children with baggage, thay have been told. They are diffucult, they need a lot of work and parents want the perfect baby that they get to raise, not a pre teen with issues and an attitude.
So Yoongi and Jimin simply gave up on the idea of the perfect mom and dad to come and pick them up.
"Besides, I don't want to be adopted anymore", Jimin one night tells Yoongi.
They are wrapped up in one bed, and are quietly talking among each other so that the teachers don't hear them, "why is that?", Yoongi whispers.
"They would take me away from you", Yoongi slightly hears, Jimin's voice lulling him to sleep, "You are my family now".
Yoongi drops off to sleep with a smile. In his heart too, he knows Jimin is the only family he will ever have, no matter what.
***
They talk about their dreams too.
Jimin is a much better student than he is, he just started high school and it's clear that the he is pretty smart. Yoongi on the other hand, doesn't care much about school. I mean, he gets by, but nothing more. He wants to work with music, he tells Jimin, whatever he can. It's a stupid dream, especially for someone like him. I mean sure, the school was kind enough to gift him a keyboard and a few lessons and the teacher even told him that he is kind of good. But he also knows that as soon as he is out of here, he will be alone in the world, and he will need a job that pays the bills.
Still he likes to dream with Jimin.
Jimin likes to dance, Yoongi often watches him dance in their room and he thinks he is talented enough to be a professional. Sure he doesn't understand much of dancing, but Jimin's moves are smooth and he is elegant.
He is pretty.
Yoongi is sixteen when Jimin is dancing in their room for him when he realizes that Jimin is pretty. He like his small face when he concentrates on the bit of the music, his pout accentuated and his eyes focused. His hair is getting longer because the teachers won't give them money to cut it already, but Yoongi thinks it suits him, how his bangs fall untidy aroung his face.
That night, when they sleep again together in Yoongi's bed, the older tells him so.
Jimin is glad that the night is hiding the blushing of his cheeks for him.
"You are pretty too, hyung", Jimin tells stuttering a little.
This time Yoongi blushes.
***
Yoongi has seen enough romantic movies in his life to know what is going on with him. The sweating, the blushing, how his heart beats faster when Jimin smiles at him, or holds his hand.
It doesn't feel forced the transition of their relationship, after all it's always been the two of them.
Yoongi find himself more willing to touch the other's hand, to pinch his cheeks, to hug him close and never letting him go.
When they kiss for the first time, it's quiet, gentle and just for them. They are walking home from school and they are teasing each other. Jimin is pouting so cutely and Yoongi can't help himself than give him a peck on the lips. Jimin is shocked and for a moment Yoongi thinks that being engorged by a black hole in that moment doesn't sound so bad.
Jimin laughs lightly, having noticed his panic, "It's okay, Yoongi hyung, I like you too".
Jimin kisses him back and the world feels right again for Yoongi.
***
They need to keep their relationship quiet, otherwise the teachers will separete them.
And it's a little bit thrilling, Yoongi must admit, when he shares knowingly looks with Jimin, when he holds Jimin's hand under the table at dinner, when at night they have to share quiet kisses in their room.
Yoongi is seventeen when he decides to get a job after school. It's not much, he works as a barista, but it's a beginning.
In a year or so, he will not be in the orphanage anymore. And Jimin won't be with him anymore.
It scares Yoongi, a lot.
But Jimin assured him that he will wait for him, that he can visit him, that nothing will change, "I love Yoongi hyung", Jimin tells him when Yoongi is almost having a panic attack thinking about his future, "I love you so much", Jimin adds, "And I know you can make it".
If it wasn't for Jimin, Yoongi would be lost, he thinks. They start to look for a job for Yoongi, a small house to rent for him. And when Jimin talks to him, explains him things, even when he jokes with him, Yoongi's worries fly out the window.
The last night Yoongi is allowed in the orphanage, Yoongi and Jimin don't sleep at all. The love each other through tears and smiles, and they hold each other till day comes.
***
Life is not easy for them, they have to figure everything out together, since they nobody to help them.
But every step they make, every success they manage to achieve is filled with pride. They work hard, both him and Jimin. They take multiple jobs to make a living, waiting for a big chance.
When Jimin turns eighteen, Yoongi is waiting outside the orphanage with a bouquet of roses. They say goodbye to the building, it's not sad or bitter sweet. The building's bricks look cold, dead to them. But their hands are warm, and they don't need anything else.
***
They marry each other when Yoongi is 24 and Jimin is 22, and the cerimony is small, just a few friends they made along the way.
Their friends often joked with them that they have been married for at least 15 years already, might as swell make it official, right?
When Yoongi drops on one knee in their small kitchen one night, asking Jimin to be his forever, the younger still cries though. Because their love is never taken for granted, their love is precious.
Their love needs to be celebrated.
***
When Yoongi is 25, the occasion of his life presents itself. A label wants to sign him as a producer.
So he runs to the dance studio where Jimin works and takes Jimin in his arms in front of his all class. The children are giggling uncontrollably in front of them, but Yoongi doesn't care as he kisses him again and again and again.
Jimin giggles as he tries to escape for him, "Hyung, what?"
"I got the job, Jimin-ah", he basically screams.
Jimin stops in his arms, "you did?"
Yoongi nods as Jimin's eyes fill with tears.
They did it, together.
***
Yoongi is 25 when, one night, he comes back from work and he finds Jimin curled up in their bed.
He is afraid Jimin is still suffering from that bug that has been bothering him in the past few weeks. He sits beside him on the bed and goes to check his temperature.
Jimin is not running a fever but he is crying, looking at Yoongi with red puffy eyes. He has been crying for a few hours at least, Yoongi thinks.
"Minie, what happened? ", Yoongi asks his husband, visibly worried. When he left Jimin in the morning, everything was fine, his husband bubbly and cuddly as always. He can't possibly figure out why his love is crying right now. But he knows that Jimin needs his time, it has been like that since they were children. So he slides behind him in their bed and hold him, doesn't expect an answer right away.
Jimin takes one of Yoongi's hands that has been resting on his hip and places it on his heart and then on his belly.
When he does so, Jimin cries intensify and it hits Yoongi all at once.
His grip tightens against Jimin, out of protection, and he tries to shush his husband tracing kisses on his neck and gently caressing his belly.
Yoongi waits there until he hears Jimin's breath evens out, letting his husband rest.
***
Yoongi knows why Jimin cried. He knows why he feels heavy in his stomach as well, the same heaviness Jimin must have felt. Because they know what they lived through, without a family.
Yoongi and Jimin did not have parents, they did not have a home filled with love while growing up. Sure they have each other, but they don't know what it means to be kissed by their mother, to be praised by their father.
So Yoongi understands Jimin's fear now that a baby is growing is his womb. Their baby.
It came for a shock for both of them, totally unplanned. And it's not like they never talked about having babies.
But it always felt like something to distant, when they were both so young and struggled so much to make ends meet. They joked about it, how cute their baby would be, their little nose, hands, tiny feet. But it did never feel like a possibility for them, with a life as unstable as theirs. Still Yoongi noticed how Jimin used to linger on the babies scrolling around while shopping, how his eyes followed closely their tiny feet and bubbly smile.
It was never a question of if they want to have a baby, but if they are ready to have one.
That night, after Jimin wakes up and Yoongi makes sure he eats something, they talk. They talk all night like they used to do in their bedroom at the orphanage, quietly and careful even though now they are in their house and no mean teacher would scold them.
"I'm sorry, Yoon", Jimin statters and Yoongi heart breaks once again seeing his shiny eyes, "I should have been more careful, I didn't mean to do it, I-I... don't what to do", the younger admits.
"We don't, that's true", Yoongi agrees because there's no use in circling around it. They are as unprepared as they can be, "But that never stopped us, Minnie".
Jimin looks up at him, his lips still pouty and Yoongi would do nothing more than just bite into them, "Did we know anything about bills? About jobs? About landlords?"
Jimin shakes his head, "It's different Yoon, this is a baby. We can't fuck him up, not like our parents did to us"
Jimin rarely talks about his parents. He was young when social workers took him out of mothervs hold, but he rembembers something, the hunger, the cold, the darkness. But Jimin is not his mother, he never will be. And Yoongi tells him everyday how kind, smart and wonderful he is.
Jimin looks so scared in front of him, small just like the first day he saw him. But Jimin is not small now, he hasn't been in a while. He is strong, and capable and Jimin is not scared anymore. "Jimin, you are my family", Yoongi reaches for him to hold his hand, "You are the only family I know and you never let me down. Not once. You already proved to me plenty of times that you are the kind of person that would never leave their family. If anything this baby is going to be so lucky to have you as their parent".
"You too", Jimin tells him, and Yoongi doesn't understand, "You never let me down as well"
Yoongi thinks that he could never do that to Jimin.
***
Jimin's pregnancy is an adventure for both of them. Yoongi finds himself staring at Jimin longer than usual, watching his step, his mid section, completely enamored by his husband.
He laughs with Jimin when his trousers don't fit him anymore, and he cries with him when they hear their baby's hartbeat for the first time.
He watches as Jimin starts to get bigger, how he talks to his bump when he thinks Yoongi is not listening, how his back slighlty curves to accomodate this new life.
Yoongi cannot keep his hands off of Jimin, his back, his cheeks, his bump. The elder makes sure to completly worship his husband before going to bed everynight, caressing his growing bump and talking to their child.
It makes Jimin laugh what they call Yoongi's baby voice, "It's weird when you do it", Jimin tells him, but Yoongi keeps on doing it because he loves Jimin's laugh so much, and also because he loves this baby so much.
Yoongi's heart fills up with joy everytime he sees Jimin waddling around the house, holding his heavy bump in one hand.
They never thought growing up that they could make it. Nobody around did, really. Their teacher, their caretakers, their schoolmates. For people like them, the future is already written, and everybody kind of accepts it without blinking an eye.
Yoongi honestly thinks that Jimin saved him from his future, he brought light is his life, companionship, love. And now Jimin is giving him more, he always gives him more.
He thought he couldn't love Jimin more than he did, yet when he gives birth to their daughter he feels like a man with two hearts.
With his daughter in his arms, and his husband by his side, Yoongi finally feels like his family is completed.