Chapter Text
Minho thinks his head is going to explode.
He hasn't regressed for weeks and it was going to be the death of him, too many schedules meant not enough time to regress. There had been multiple times this week where he'd almost broke down, Minho was way too stressed to be healthy at this point. What was worse was the fact nobody seemed to notice his struggles which he understood, he really did, everyone was simply busy.
Chan, Changbin and Jisung had been in the studio for most of the month only coming home for a few hours to sleep before heading straight back. Seungmin had vocal training far too many times for Minho to count as well as Jeongin, to him, their voices were already absolutely perfect. Just when he thought he might be able to regress with Hyunjin and Felix, they had been putting in extra hours into dance practice and each evening they looked as if they were about to fall asleep.
Currently, it was midday and Minho finally had his first free day in what feels like literal weeks- years in fact. Nobody was in and it wasn't doing him any good just lounging around feeling useless, the man decides to slip on his shoes and take what was supposed to be a simple walk to the company building. Of course, anything that was planned to be simple always ended up being the complete opposite. On his way, it had started to heavily rain and much to his luck he hadn't taken an umbrella with him, his hair was sopping wet by the time he got to his destination.
"Hyung, you're all wet," Felix frowned coming over with his hoodie to slide it over his head, Minho felt the need to slip grow closer at the attention on him, the feeling weighing down on him was relentless these days. Felix continues fussing over the man, it was habit at this point but Minho didn't mind. His wet hair did eventually dry but along with that, his muscles grew painful from all the dancing with no breaks. Hyunjin had suggested they go back, Minho didn't have it in him to even try to argue.
Despite this, neither of the two boys seemed to notice Minho's discomfort, they didn't see the way his eyebrows scrunched together, the way his fingers gripped onto the edge of his shirt and the way he kept to himself. These were all signs he was about to slip into headspace, Minho himself had never picked up on these habits but everyone else had. It had always amazed him how they just knew he was going to regress, today though, everyone must have been too busy to notice.
Once back, he gets a warm shower which he reluctantly has to leave after Hyunjin demands his turn. He stands in front of his wardrobe wondering what to wear, as he skims his hands along with the hangers, an item falls. Rolling his eyes, he picks it up feeling the soft fabric under the pads of his fingers. It’s the same hoodie he always wears when little, it takes him a good couple of seconds before deciding.
Screw it, he’s regressed alone before back when nobody knew of his headspace, what’s the worst that can happen?
And he's gone.
Regressed from feeling the warmth of his favourite hoodie.
Maybe that was unusual but little Minho didn't care, repressing his headspace must have caused him to completely lose control of everything. The boy stares at the pastel hoodie and happily slips it over his head, an arm may have got stuck but he quickly figured everything out.
His stomach growls and it’s only then that the little realises just how hungry he is, big Minho hadn’t eaten anything since 7 AM.
“Cookies!” He gasps running down to the front room to ask one of his caregivers, he wasn’t allowed in the kitchen unsupervised and he certainly wasn’t allowed to eat cookies whenever he felt like it. Not after the cookie incident a few months ago…
He sees Felix sitting on the couch, earphones in looking as if he were about to doze off. To the right of him sits Hyunjin who’s absentmindedly scrolling through his phone while Seungmin looks to be in the same mood as Felix. Minho was sure he’d seen Jeongin head to his bedroom, it just seemed like everyone was on the edge of falling asleep today. He doesn’t blame them, little Minho pouts at the scene deciding against asking them.
He remembers Chan telling him not to disturb someone who is sleeping unless it’s an emergency, cookies didn’t quite scream emergency to him. Getting cookies can’t be a hard task, first, he’d have to find where Changbin had hidden them though which may be difficult.
Silently, he bypasses the couch watching as nobody pays attention to him. He feels upset that no one has noticed yet, at the same time, he’s happy because that means they can rest rather than waste their energy on him. Jisung would sit him down and tell him how much they love caring for him, that he isn’t a burden but, for now, Minho doesn’t think like that.
Jisung would be sure to sit them down together later.
Stepping into the kitchen felt foreign to the little, there were so many complicated looking things that he’d only ever really seen Seungmin or Felix use. Though, he’d once seen Jisung attempt to cook him dinner when everyone else was unavailable and he thinks maybe it’s Jisung that should be banned from the kitchen and not him.
His eyes drift to the oven, he knew he’d be scolded if he went anywhere near the thing. Minho’s mind had been set on finding the chocolate chip cookies but as soon as he opened the cupboard seeing instant noodles staring back at him, he had changed his mind. There were a few times that he’d been sat at the table watching someone cook them up for him so he feels like he had enough knowledge.
First, a saucepan.
With a thud, his bottom meets the tiled floor as he brings two small hands forwards to open the bottom drawer. He doesn’t care for sizes as he simply picks the first one up. The clanking of the pans makes him freeze thinking someone may come in and punish him but no, nothing. That’s when he hears the tv, they must be concentrated on whatever was on.
Minho smiles hoping that if he can successfully show them how good he can be, he might get rewarded. The thought of making them all proud has him bouncing on the spot clapping his hands once the pan has been put on the stove.
“Water, Min needs water,” He whispers to himself skipping back over to the fridge to take a bottle of water out. Part of him recalls that these specific bottles of water belong to Changbin for when he goes to work out, he wouldn’t miss one. Should be fine.
Once again, he doesn’t care for measurements deciding to just pour it all in and hope for the best. How was the hard part, how on Earth does a stove work?
Okay, 4 rings so 4 controls.
Minho frowns feeling as if he were learning maths, this isn’t what making food should feel like.
His finger comes into contact with one of the buttons, everything lights up which seems to be a good start. With a few attempts, the ring lights up a bright red. He hovers his hand above feeling the heat rise from it, with a satisfied smile, Minho pushes the water-filled pan on top of the danger ring of heat.
“Chef Minho!” He giggles at his new self given title, he would make sure to tell Felix all about it once the younger sees just how good of a job he’s done at cooking up noodles alone.
Through all of this, he hadn’t noticed the noodles still sitting untouched in the packet. With an over-exaggerated huff, he tears open the packet letting all the contents fall in, along with the seasoning packet…
He gasps not thinking twice as his hand goes straight into the bubbling water to grab it. With a loud shriek, he falls to the ground letting the tears stream down his cheeks all while gripping his hand for the life of him. His head falls to his knees trying to block out the sounds of boiling water coming from above him, he misses the rushed footsteps entering the kitchen due to the volume of his crying.
"Minho!" Felix gasps rushing over to him making sure there were no signs of injuries, from Minho's continuous squirming and sobbing it was quite difficult to tell. While Felix tries to suss out what was going on, Jeongin rushes in turning off the stove to prevent further injuries.
Seungmin advances forwards crouching down beside Felix, "Baby, come here," He calls out carding his hands through the little's hair, Minho lets himself be carried to the couch by Seungmin while he shakes in his arms.
Hyunjin jolts awake from the crying coming from right beside him, "What's going on?" He frowns seeing Minho balling his eyes out like it was the end of the world. Jeongin explains the past 3 minutes to Hyunjin who gasps getting up to fetch something from another room, he soon comes back with Minho's lion plushie that they'd won together at the fair.
He tucks the plushie, Roar, between Seungmin and Minho's body. The little gratefully accepts the lion hugging it close to his body, Roar may be one of the most unoriginal names but Minho loves it with his entire heart. Minho didn't notice Felix leaving the dorms in a rush, then again, he had been too preoccupied crying out in pain.
"Min sweetie, what's wrong, hm?" Jeongin tries again after their last unsuccessful attempt, "Did you get hurt?" He questions, the small nod Minho gives is enough for Hyunjin, Seungmin and Jeongin to start examining him all over again.
Hyunjin pouts as if he is the one who's been hurt, "Where does it hurt angel?" Minho lifts his hand flinching back when anyone tried to touch it, it was only a little bit red since the water wasn't scorching but, to a little, it was almost disastrous.
It soon became apparent as to what had happened, Jeongin had lept off of the couch to fetch a bowl of water seeing as Minho didn't want to move over to the taps. Jeongin runs the tap until it's a nice lukewarm temperature after google told him not to use ice or cold water, why? He didn't know, he's learnt not to question things.
"No, no, no, hurts," Minho whines when he sees the bowl of water in the younger's hands, Seungmin frowns as Minho hides his hands from being touched.
"Sweetheart, it'll hurt more if you leave it," He tries to explain, "Jinnie will go and buy you whatever you want if you let us help," Hyunjin snaps his eyes up to glare at Seungmin, knowing Minho, his wallet was going to suffer.
Maybe telling him that wasn't a great idea but they were desperate, it worked in their favour when Minho held his hand out letting Jeongin place it in the water. The little took it surprisingly well given he had a tendency to be a bit overdramatic at the best of times, or all the time.
A few tears continue to fall but they soon stop with time and hugs.
It was then that Seungmin asked the question that everyone had seemed to forget, "Why were you in the kitchen kitten?" Seeing the way Minho's bottom lip begun to wobble he finished it off by telling him, "You're not in trouble, you're our good boy," He boops his nose smiling at the way Minho squeals.
"Min wan'ed food, hyungies tired," Seungmin frowns, Hyunjin and Jeongin sporting the same expression. They couldn't believe they hadn't noticed anything different, too caught up in their own heads for most of the day.
Hyunjin made a mental note to really splash out and spend as much money as Minho wanted, god he felt so bad.
"How about I go and cook you anything you want?" Seungmin suggests hoping to cheer him up, Minho nods making grabby hands at Jeongin who happily took him in his arms. While Seungmin cooked up the food, Minho laid across Jeongin with his feet resting across Hyunjin's thighs. To say the least, they may spoil him a fair bit but they wouldn't ever change that.
The front door opens and in comes Chan, Changbin, Jisung and, of course, Felix who had gone to tell them as soon as Minho had started wailing. Minho sits up gasping when he sees the four of them, he whines in his spot extending his arms out to whoever comes over first.
Jisung wins the race as he hugs the little close to his chest, "Did my sweet boy get an ouchie?"
Minho nods his head from where it's tucked in near Jisung's collarbone, "Ouchie," He whispers showing Jisung his hand, everything looked fine to the rapper but he didn't say anything.
"Binnie kiss ouchie better?" He asks innocently looking up at Changbin with wide puppy dog eyes, Changbin could have melted there and then. He strides forwards getting down on one knee just like the princes in the movies Minho keeps watching over and over again.
Minho giggles, "Binnie prince!" He exclaims, he felt like Cinderella.
Chan snaps a photo of the exchange, "Does Prince Binnie want to move aside and let Channie get some love too?" Though slightly condescending, Changbin steps aside watching as Minho joyfully snuggles close to Chan. They all sit together waiting for dinner to be served but in the meanwhile, they play a game of Minho's choice which ended up being a game of chase.
They'd been a tad bit reluctant at first but none of them had the heart to say no to the little, by the end of their games, Jisung looked like he was about to melt into a puddle of sweat.
"Looks like you've done your job baby," Chan jokes passing by Jisung to get a glass of water for the man, Minho was far more energetic little than when he was out of headspace.
"Dinner!"
☆☆☆
"Channie!" Minho calls out jumping onto the man's lap without warning, Chan scrambled to catch the boy in time before they have their second accident of the day. Thankfully, all was well as Minho got himself comfy on the couch wrapped in Chan and Felix's arms. He'd asked for movie night and anything the little asked for was always granted which lead them to watch Tangled again for the hundredth time, Minho still got frightened every time the wicked witch showed her true side and for that exact reason, he had hidden his head in Felix's hoodie.
The movie soon came to an end but that didn't mean the day was over yet, everyone clambered as close as they could together cuddling up giving the little as much love as possible. A lot of laughing and cuddles later, Minho went to sleep in the middle of Changbin and Jisung thanking the skies for having the best caregivers on Earth.