Chapter Text
“Lixie, please—”
“No!”
It was their fault, that much Jisung and Jeongin knew. They’d been so busy with their respective schedules, they hadn’t realized they’d been putting off their downtime with Little Felix for almost two months, now.
At first, Felix had sought them out, asking timidly if they could spare an hour in the evenings or something, but they’d both turned him away without really thinking. Jisung was burying himself in producing, and Jeongin was stressing out with his vocal practice because his new coach was impossible to satisfy.
They’d turned him away for two weeks before Felix stopped asking, and then the two weeks stretched to two months without their notice, and by the time they realized they’d messed up it was too late: Felix had been repressing his regression so much, he ended up collapsing in the middle of dance practice.
He was only out of it for a few seconds, but then pain flared in his wrist because he’d fallen on it and the shock was so big he almost instantly slipped into little space – and, while the rest of the members were aware of his age regressing, the choreographer they were currently working with wasn’t. The man didn’t notice anything amiss, thankfully enough, but the presence of an unknown figure in the room had made Little Felix panic and he’d forcefully pulled himself out of his headspace, which definitely didn’t help his already frazzled state.
In the end, he’d returned to the dorms ahead of the group accompanied by a manager. His two boyfriends and caregivers wanted nothing more than to follow him, but they still had a schedule to follow through with, so they decided to make it up to him in the evening, once they returned home.
But they didn’t get to do that, because Felix stayed locked up in his room the entire time. Only Chan and Changbin were allowed entry since they also slept in the room, and no amount of coaxing or threatening from any of the boys could make him come up.
“It’ll be okay,” had assured Jisung, hugging Jeongin to try and reassure him. “We’ll just talk in the morning, alright?”
But they didn’t get to talk in the morning. Even though they’d taken an emergency day off to properly take care of their boyfriend, Felix still refused to come out of his room, and they had to practically ambush him when he came out of the bathroom.
“Felix—”
“I don’t need it!”
Only problem was, even though they were now facing each other at last, Felix simply refused to regress – which was bad, because he’d already been repressing it for too long and it was obviously taking its toll on him.
“Baby, please,” pleaded Jeongin, tears in his eyes. “Please, it’s okay, we’re here now, we’ll take care of you so please—”
“No! No take care of Lixie!” His speech was already slurring, a clear that he was slipping despite his best efforts to fight it off. “Lixie no need!”
“We’re sorry, Lixie,” choked out Jisung, pulling him into a hug. “We’re so sorry, please… Please, just let us take care of you, please…”
His own tears started falling, and Felix slowly pulled away to look at him. His cute face scrunched up in a frown as he cradled Jisung’s face, wiping his tears away.
“No cry, Daddy,” he mumbled, rubbing Jisung’s cheeks.
Jisung let out a watery laugh, kissing his fingers. “Daddy’s okay, baby. He’s just really sorry he made his baby Lixie upset.”
Felix’s lower lip wobbled at that. “Lixie- Lixie was sad and- and lonely…”
“We know baby,” whispered Jeongin, coming to join the hug from behind. “We’re sorry, Daddy and Mommy are so sorry… Can you forgive us?”
“… can Lixie eat cookies for breakfast?”
At first startled, the two caregivers then started laughing, hugging Felix tightly. They easily understood it was his way of saying “I forgive you” and they fully intended to take the chance they were given and make it up to him properly.
“Sure, baby,” finally said Jisung, kissing his nose. “You can have all of the cookies you want. How about we make some together, hm?”
Felix’s tear-stained, slightly puffy face instantly perked up at that, and he offered the pair a blinding smile – and wow, they hadn’t realized how much they’d missed seeing that beautiful smile until now.
“Alright, let’s go make a mess of the kitchen!” Felix let out a happy squeal when Jeongin suddenly picked him up, throwing him over his shoulder. “We’re gonna eat a baby Lixie cake for dessert tonight~!”
“No! No eat Lixie!” laughed Felix, wriggling to free himself. “Daddy, save Lixie!”
Jisung snorted at their antics, quickly following after them. Hopefully, they wouldn’t mess up the kitchen too bad – Chan would definitely have their head if they set the oven on fire again.
.
Felix slipped a little deeper once they were done making the cookies, which meant he became even more of a cuddle bug than usual – and, of course, his boyfriends were more than happy to give him all of the affection he wanted.
Jeongin and Felix ended up cuddling on the couch and watching a random animated movie while Jisung handled the clean-up in the – thankfully – not-destroyed kitchen. When Jisung was done, he went to join them in the living room, and he couldn’t help but coo loudly when he saw them.
Felix had fallen asleep, lightly sucking on Jeongin’s thumb since they’d forgotten to grab him a pacifier before getting settled. The freckled boy looked even smaller when Jeongin held him, and Jisung felt his heart melt at the adorable sight. Silently walking over to them, he leaned down to exchange a brief kiss with Jeongin.
“Do you need anything, love?”
“Ah, maybe one of his pacifiers. He’ll probably be even deeper in headspace once he wakes up.”
“Got it.”
Jisung practically skipped to Felix’s room, where he kept most of his little stuff. He’d forgotten how much he loved taking care of the freckled boy. He used his age regression to cope with his stress, but being his caregivers had the same effect on his boyfriends. How could they have possibly forgotten about that?
The guilt hit him tenfold when he realized he couldn’t find Felix’s little stuff anywhere. He assumed his boyfriend had hidden it so he wouldn’t be tempted to slip, and it hurt him to know they’d let him suffer in silence for so long. Shaking his head, Jisung headed to the room he shared with Jeongin. They kept some of his stuff there too, so it’d have to do for now. Quickly finding a pacifier, he went to the bathroom to wash it before finally heading back to the living room.
He wasn’t surprised to find Felix awake – with how much sugar he’d previously ingested, he was bound to get a burst of energy. And, as Jeongin had predicted, he appeared to be in an even younger headspace now, happily babbling in a weird mix of English and Korean while he kept on chewing on Jeongin’s fingers.
He perked up the moment Jisung returned, making grabby hands at him.
“Daddy!”
“Hi, baby,” he grinned. “Look what Daddy found for you~!”
A gasp of delight escaped the freckled boy when he saw the pacifier. Jisung was quick to hand it over, before picking up his baby and making him spin. The little giggled loudly, holding onto him tightly, and the two of them eventually flopped back down on the couch next to Jeongin to continue the movie.
Jeongin couldn’t help but smile as he watched his two boyfriends snuggle together. He was glad that, despite what had happened, their relationship – both as boyfriends and as caregivers and little – was still strong. Then, without warning, Felix reached out and pressed his palm against his cheek to get his attention. Jeongin chuckled, taking his hand.
“What is it, baby?”
“Love you, Mommy,” mumbled the freckled boy, offering him a gummy smile.
Surprised, Jeongin then smiled back, kissing his knuckles. “Love you too, baby.”
“And I love you two more!” grinned Jisung, wrapping his arms around both of them to pull them into a hug.
Yeah, Jeongin thought, his heart swelling with affection. We’ll be fine.