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“Where is it, you little thief?!”
Taehyung blinked up at the accusing finger in his face. “Where’s what?”
Jimin looked down at him, eyes narrowed in suspicion. Whatever had upset Jimin had also left him clearly disheveled. He almost looked like he had just rolled out of bed. His hair stuck up at odd angles, and he was shirtless despite the chill in the apartment. Taehyung wondered what had his soulmate in such a tizzy before he was even dressed.
“My favorite hoodie, it’s missing,” Jimin told him, dropping his hand.
“Why would I take your hoodie?” Taehyung laughed. “I’m clearly not wearing it, and it’s too tight for me anyway.”
Jimin scowled at him. “You’re the only one who’s been home since it went missing.”
Taehyung shook his head. “Are you sure you didn’t just misplace it?
“Of course not,” Jimin huffed. “I know that I threw it over the back of the chair in my room before I took a nap.”
“Well, I didn’t take it. Someone else must have,” Taehyung said with a shrug.
“Who would….” Jimin trailed off in confusion. Suddenly, his head snapped up, eyes wide in realization. “Jungkook!”
Taehyung watched him race back the way he came down the hallway with fond exasperation.
⸻
Jungkook closed his bedroom door shut behind him hurriedly. He had heard Jimin interrogating Taehyung in the living room and needed to escape before the older man came investigating for his belongings. He would have to sneak past the two of them, but if he could just get out the front door….
“Jungkook!” The maknae heard the shout of his name and squeaked, hurrying back towards his room. He had almost reached the door, intent on locking himself inside and pretending he wasn’t there, when two hands grabbed him around his waist. He was pulled in a strong grip, and the breath was knocked out of his lungs when his back hit the wall next to his door. The hands stayed tight on his waist, keeping him from escaping.
“Hi hyung.” The bunny hybrid grinned down at Jimin nervously. The human stared up at him impassively.
“What are you doing at home, Jungkook-ah? I thought you had work to do today,” Jimin said, voice dripping with faux nonchalance. Jungkook struggled not to rub his legs together out of nervousness. He tugged a little bit against his hold, trying to see if the other would let him go. At his silence, Jimin only raised an eyebrow at him. Jungkook clearly wasn’t going to get away without giving some kind of answer.
“Well…” he hedged. “I’m just— I’m taking a rest day!” Jungkook winced. His answer sounded fake to his own ears. Jimin obviously wouldn’t believe him.
The human hummed in response. “Resting with my hoodie?” Something glinted in Jimin’s eyes, and Jungkook gulped nervously. Jimin studied his face for a few seconds, and all Jungkook could do was stare back. Whatever Jimin found there seemed to make his decision. His grip on Jungkook’s hips loosened, and he took a half step back. Jungkook’s sigh of relief came a beat too soon.
“I’ll be taking it back now,” Jimin said, reaching for the doorknob next to them. Panic shot through Jungkook’s chest.
“Hyung, wait!” He tried to stop him, but Jimin quickly swung the door open. What he found made Jimin stop in his tracks.
Jungkook’s bed was shoved as far into the corner as it could go. Piled on top of it was an array of soft fabrics that Jimin couldn’t make heads or tails of at first glance. The more he stared, the more he pieced together what he was looking at. There tucked half under a pillow was his hoodie. Tucked between it and the wall was a plushie that Jimin knew had to belong to Namjoon. Half the bed was covered in a patterned blanket that he vaguely recognized as belonging to Hoseok. Shorts that had to belong to Taehyung sat at the end of the mattress, tangled with what looked like one of Yoongi’s scarves. There was even a set of pajamas that Jin had complained had gone missing forever ago.
What was more strange, however, was the items on the floor surrounding the bed. Various shoes littered the room, which Jimin supposed made sense with Jungkook’s affinity for boots. What he couldn’t make sense of was… everything else. A nonsensical collection of random objects lay cluttered throughout the room. He spotted cups and headphones and random accessories, most of which Jimin was sure didn’t belong to Jungkook. The hybrid was usually pretty tidy and particular over his space. Jimin couldn’t wrap his head around all of this mess. Then, something clicked.
“Jungkookie,” Jimin started, softer than before. “Is this a nest?”
Jimin didn’t know as much about hybrids as he should after living with Jungkook for so long, but he knew that some tended to nest, especially as they got older and their hormones started to change. He was relieved when the bunny hybrid bit his lip and nodded. “Did you steal hyung’s hoodie for your nest?”
“I didn’t mean to!” Jungkook whined embarrassment at being caught, pulling at one of his ears. “I just went to your room to tell you I was home, but you were sleeping. The hoodie was on the chair, and it just smelled good!”
“It smelled good?” Jimin blinked in surprise. Jungkook caught what he said and snapped his mouth shut, cheeks flaming scarlett red. Jimin looked back over the room with new eyes.
“Is this a bunny hybrid thing then?” Jimin asked as he studied the bed. It was more bare than he thought a nest would be, only Jungkook’s normal bedding and a couple items pilfered from each of his hyungs.
Jungkook squirmed a little before answering. “Um, kind of. It’s more of an omega bunny thing.”
“Oh,” Jimin responded a bit breathlessly. He turned back towards Jungkook, but the hybrid refused to meet his eyes.
“It’s for comfort, to have my— to have your scents close by,” he explained, but Jimin caught onto the little slip-up.
“Your what, Jungkook-ah?” The look in Jimin’s eyes was calculating, and Jungkook knew that he wouldn’t be able to get away with lying, not when Jimin was so honed in on him like this.
He answered in a tiny voice, “My colony.”
“Your colony?” Jimin asked, clearly confused by the response.
“Well, you’d probably know it as a pack,” Jungkook clarified even as he wrinkled his nose in distaste. He hated the human generalizations for hybrid terms. Why would a rabbit hybrid call it a pack?
It took a few moments for Jimin to understand what Jungkook was implying, but once he did, his expression opened up in wonder. “Oh bun, you think of us as your pack?”
Jungkook had never planned to have this conversation in the middle of his nest full of stolen things. Hell, he’d never planned to have this conversation period. He’d been content to stay quiet and keep hiding away their possessions when the urge to nest rose, but there was no regret when he told Jimin, “Yes hyung, all of you are my colony.”
“Jungkookie.” He blinked in shock as Jimin all but launched himself at him. Arms curled around his waist, small hands scrabbling at his back to fist in the material of his shirt. Jimin pressed them chest to chest in a bone-crushing hug that Jungkook would swear left him struggling to breathe. He stumbled on his feet as Jimin clung desperately to him, head finding its way to rest in the crook of Jungkook’s neck.
“Hyung?” he asked a little dazedly from the sudden affection.
“I love you, Jungkookie,” Jimin responded, voice muffled where his face was hidden against Jungkook’s throat.
“I love you too, hyung.” A comfortable warmth spread through Jungkook’s chest. “Would you want to… sit in the nest with me?”
Jimin pulled back just far enough to stare up at Jungkook with a bright, excited smile. “Can I?”
Jungkook nodded, small and shy, and was immediately manhandled across the room into the bed. Jimin was mindful of the items strewn throughout the room, careful not to knock anything over in his quest to bundle Jungkook into the nest. The hybrid’s heart fluttered at the effort. Before he knew it, his back was hitting the mattress as Jimin climbed onto the bed next to him. He grabbed at his hyung to tuck up against his side, and the two curled up as close together as possible between the members’ stolen possessions. Jungkook hummed in contentment and ran his hands through Jimin’s hair while his hyung grinned up at him. It settled something in him to finally have one of his hyungs in his nest. Getting caught stealing turned out better than he could have hoped for.
“So we’re really your colony, huh? All of us?” Jimin questioned as he let himself melt into Jungkook’s ministrations, knowing that grooming like this was normal behavior for an omega rabbit hybrid like Jungkook.
“Yes, hyungs are all my colony,” Jungkook admitted in a soft voice.
Jungkook watched something mischievous cross over Jimin’s face as he asked, “Are we your alphas then?”
“Ew hyung!” he shouted in protest, even as he tried to hide his laughter.
⸻
Namjoon came home to a suspiciously quiet dorm. He was the last to arrive back from the company building and expected to be greeted with the normal chaos that came with seven rowdy men living together. Instead, all he saw was an empty living room and kitchen. Moving deeper into the apartment, he strained to listen for any noises that would clue him into where everyone was. The silence was almost disturbing until he entered the hallway and noticed Jungkook’s bedroom door cracked open slightly. He walked slowly towards the room, being careful not to make any noise as he gently opened the door further. What he saw inside wasn’t what he expected.
He took in the sight of the objects strewn across the room, noting some things that he was sure belonged to him and had been missing for a while. What really caught his attention was the others. All 6 of them were curled up with each other on Jungkook’s bed in various stages of consciousness. Jungkook was clearly the center of the tangle with Jimin and Taehyung sandwiching him so tightly between them that Namjoon thought it was a miracle the hybrid wasn’t suffocating against Taehyung’s chest. Jin was sleeping propped up against the headboard behind him. Namjoon felt fond as he noticed his position almost looked like he was sitting over the maknaes protectively. Yoongi and Hoseok lay together on the edge of the bed closer to the door, the older sleepily reaching over Hoseok to hold Taehyung’s hand. Namjoon stepped back to close the door and let them get their sleep but paused in his tracks as Jimin groggily blinked his eyes open.
“Hyung,” he whispered into the quiet room.
“You can go back to sleep, Jimin-ah. Hyung will close the door,” Namjoon soothed.
“No,” Jimin complained, voice rough from sleep. “Y’gotta come lay down too. We all gotta nest with Kookie.”
Understanding hit Namjoon. He looked around at all the items on the floor and almost hidden between the men on the bed. “He’s been taking our stuff to nest with.”
“Mhmmmm. Said we’re all his pack. You have to lay down with him too, hyung,” Jimin explained, and Namjoon’s heart felt warm.
“His pack, huh?” Namjoon asked. He shut the door behind him quietly and stepped gently over to the bed. He hushed Hoseok when he whined as Namjoon climbed onto the bed. He settled on the mattress at the foot of the bed against the wall in a mirror to Seokjin and joined the others in keeping their bun safe and nested between them, his heart full.