Work Text:
There were toys scattered all over the floor, Hyunjin had been going from blocks to cars to colouring and to whatever else he decided to pull out of the toy box. Seungmin, who was sat on the couch watching over him, was having an internal crisis at all the mess laying in front of him. The only thing that stopped him from mentioning it was the fact Hyunjin seemed to be having the time of his life and that Jisung was burning holes into his head every time he was about to say something.
"Let him have his fun," Jisung muttered so only Seungmin could hear him, after all, this morning hadn't exactly been stress-free. When they had gone to wake the little up he was already awake and crying alone, at the sight of Jisung in the doorway he had wailed his name. They had never quite figured out what was wrong, Jisung had said it was probably a nightmare since the boy looked to be more than alright now.
The time came when the rapper had to go out, Chan had said he needed assistance with something in the studio that he and Changbin couldn't work out without him. He hadn't thought much about it when he'd left and Hyunjin had frowned and called out to him given that he had been watching over him and now he was leaving. That was natural.
"Minnie," Hyunjin pouted, "When Sungie back?" He asked as if he hadn't just walked out of the door seconds ago, it would be another couple of hours before he showed his face again, Seungmin didn't quite have the heart to tell him that though.
"He'll back soon, Channie just needs to talk to him," Seungmin explained to the little who nodded trying to focus his attention back on playing with the absence of one of his caregivers. Hyunjin had seven caregivers, he loved and cherished them all but, despite having seven, he didn't have a main caregiver yet. Every member had their strong and weak points, which made it better to have various caregivers who could all look after him correctly.
Chan, for instance, was best at calming him down whereas Jeongin wasn't as good at that, his strong point was playtime. Seungmin was great at cooking dinner for him and Felix was exceptional at baking treats. Minho seemed to be the best at getting him through a successful bathtime, Changbin could easily distract him and put him to bed without a fuss. This left Jisung, he was just good at everything though he did have a weak point and that in itself was Hyunjin. He couldn't say no to the boy, whatever he asked for he would cave in and buy it for him.
Soon enough, Hyunjin started packing away the toys he’d been playing with all afternoon with the added help of Jeongin who had come along to help out. Jisung still wasn’t back, Hyunjin was very aware of this fact and wanted nothing more than to snuggle up to him and fall asleep.
“What’s this sweetheart?” Jeongin asked picking up a piece of paper, on the sheet, there were two stick men; one had long blond hair, half up and half down whereas the other figure had a mop of brown hair and by the looks of it he was holding the other stickman's hand. It was a little hard to make out what it was supposed to be given that the little wasn’t exactly Picasso.
Hyunjin toddled over eyeing the drawing, “Sungie,” He pointed to the one with brown hair, “And this is Jinnie,” He said with a figure on the figure resembling himself. Above the two were writing, messy but readable words saying something along the lines of ‘Jinnie loves Sungie’.
“For Sungie when he comes home,” He explained with innocent eyes, “Jinnie misses Sungie,” He huffed out half expecting the man to suddenly reappear through the door which didn’t happen but he could dream.
Seungmin and Jeongin exchanged a look, they both knew Jisung probably wouldn’t be back for a lot longer than they’d once thought and this was due to a rushed phone call from Chan saying that the three of them wouldn’t be back till late. The last time they were told ‘till late’ they had all come back at around three in the morning.
“Do you think he’s leaning more towards Jisung Hyung?” Jeongin asked Minho who’d been making a drink for Hyunjin, at the words he spun around with a concentrated look on his face.
He hummed, “Possibly, why don’t you just ask if you want to know?” Minho posed, littles can’t lie- well, Hyunjin can’t lie at least. Every time he had tried to lie to his caregivers he would just end up going all red and stutters his way through words. It would have been adorable if he wasn’t trying to lie to their faces. Okay, even if he was trying to lie straight up it was undeniably adorable.
So that’s what he decided to do, he would ask Hyunjin.
While he was busy watching finding Nemo on the tv, the youngest approached him with a smile, “Hey Jinnie love,” Hyunjin looked up at the man with a wide grin holding out his arms for a hug to which he greatly accepted.
“Innie come to play with Jinnie?” He asked, eyes full of hope and Jeongin would be a horrible person to deny the offer.
“Of course,”
So maybe he didn’t get to ask but what he did get was a happy Hyunjin playing princesses with him.
A few more hours passed by and Jisung eventually came home, somewhat earlier than Chan and Changbin would later arrive. Upon arrival, he saw Hyunjin fast asleep cuddling up to the plushie that he had bought him a good couple of months ago.
“Oh thank God you’re back, he wouldn’t stop whining for you,” Felix said with a frown on his face, seeing Hyunjin sad made him sad. At the new information, Jisung furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
“What do you mean?” He never gets like that when someone leaves, he’ll just go and play with another member.
“I thought he was going to cry at one point,” Felix explained, “He refused to go to bed without seeing you, so,” He said gesturing over to the boy sleeping away on the couch.
Jisung nodded, still very confused at this new behaviour, and walked over to the couch. Felix had told the truth, Hyunjin’s eyes were slightly red and there were the remains of tear tracks down his cheeks. Taking a look at the time, he saw it was coming up to midnight. Suddenly, he felt very guilty.
“Jinnie baby,” He whispered brushing a hand through his hair and with the other he ran his fingers softly on his cheek. The little stirred, a quiet whine slipping out. Eventually, his eyes opened and at the sight of Jisung perched on the edge of the couch, he flung himself forward into his embrace.
The caregiver would have fallen backwards if it wasn’t for his quick reflexes. Something else caught Jisung off guard which was the wet feeling on his neck, Hyunjin was crying.
“Hey hey, what’s with the tears princess?” He asked while trying to soothe the boy.
“Missed Sungie,” He cried with a death grip on the latter’s hoodie as if he thought he was going to vanish at any given second.
Jisung held him close, “I know I know and I’m sorry baby for being gone for so long,” To that, Hyunjin stayed silent just basking in the warmth of Jisung.
Wordlessly, the man carefully carried him out to his bedroom knowing full well if he were to place Hyunjin in his bed he’d just come crawling back to Jisung.
“Sungie stay?” Even if it was meant as a question, to Jisung it sounded more like begging.
Jisung smiled warmly at the boy, “Of course love, I’m not going anywhere,” From this moment onwards, Jisung made sure to always be in when Hyunjin has regressed to save the upset and simply because it hurt his heart to have to leave his little alone.
His little.
It had all taken off a couple of weeks after Jisung had gone to the studio and came back to sleeping Hyunjin.
He found himself sat on the couch with all the members, Minho to his right and Chan on his left. Hyunjin was sat on the floor playing with Changbin, they’d been building towards for far too long now and not only was Changbin bored, Hyunjin too was starting to want something else to do.
And that’s how Hyunjin ended up cuddled up in Jisung’s lap falling asleep fairly quickly.
The question that had been on Jeongin’s mind for far too long was now ready to be asked, “Jinnie, who’s your main caregiver?” Hyunjin wrapped his arms around Jisung tighter.
“Sungie is,” Hearing all the shocked gasps in the room, especially from the man himself, Hyunjin continued to mutter something else, “But Jinnie loves e’ryone,” With that, he fell asleep.
Jisung sat in the silence, blushing cheeks and beaming ear to ear.
“Look who’s gone all red,” Seungmin teased giggling while he poked his cheek, Jisung batted his hands away keeping his smile plastered where it belongs.
Hyunjin was his little.