Work Text:
"Rawr!" Jimin yelled as he lifted a dinosaur above his head. Jimin continued to make growling noises as he crashed the dinosaurs around on the floor.
"Can I play with that one next?" Kookie shyly asked Jimin.
"Here you go!" Minnie quickly handed the dinosaur over, not even thinking twice about sharing.
"That was so nice, Minnie. Thank you," Namjoon said from his place on a chair off to the side. He was in charge of watching all the littles this afternoon, and so far, they were content to play on the floor with their many toys. Well, except you. "Don't you want to play with the dinosaurs, honey?" Namjoon asked you as he turned in your direction where you were sitting off to the side, staring longingly at all the toys scattered across the playroom floor.
You looked up at Namjoon with wide eyes, surprised that he was speaking to you. You'd been sitting there quietly, happy to watch Minnie and Kookie play with their toys.
"Allowed?" You asked quietly. He was asking if you wanted to play with Kookie and Minnie's toys? But they weren't yours!
Namjoon paused for a second, shocked at your question. "Of course you're allowed, baby!"
"But, not mine," you spoke quietly, too afraid that he would realize that was true and take back what he said.
"That's okay, "Namjoon reassured. "In this house, we share all our toys."
"Share!" Jimin repeated loudly. Namjoon laughed fondly. Jimin hadn't even been paying attention to what was really being said, but when he was in a slightly younger headspace, he liked to repeat things.
"Why don't you pick out a toy to play with?" Namjoon turned to you again. "Whatever toy you want to play with, I'm sure Kookie and Minnie would be happy to share with you."
The two boys in question nodded their heads vigorously when you looked over at them.
You were still scared to actually pick out a toy. Your last caregivers had never bought you any toys for your own, so you were stuck playing with whatever happened to be lying around the house. Your imagination came in very handy when all you had to play with were eating utensils and paper and a pen (and not even colored ones!).
What if Joonie was lying to you? What if he would get mad when you picked out a toy because the toys were bought for Kookie and Minnie? What if you picked out the wrong toy and the other two littles got mad at you? There were a lot of options to choose from after all.
"Baby?” Namjoon spoke up, sensing your discomfort. "It's okay, I promise. We'll be happy with whatever toy you choose!”
The two littles had already turned back to their playing, but nodded again when they saw you look over at them for approval.
Okay, you could do this. Just pick out a toy.
You looked around at all the toys scattered all over the floor. There were the dinosaurs that Kookie and Minnie were playing with. Those didn't really interest you at the moment. Maybe you could play with them another time.
Off to the side, there were some kitchen items, even a small kitchenette was against the wall! But you were too small to cook anything! That'd be silly! Jinnie and Yoonie did all the cooking!
On the other side of the boys was a stack of coloring books and probably no less than five boxes of crayons (though you sometimes had trouble counting, so you couldn't be sure. You just knew it was a lot! ).
You were about to crawl over to the coloring books to get a closer look when a brightly colored box in the corner caught your eye. It was pink, purple, and blue, all your favorite colors! And it was overflowing with stuffed animals!
Before you could even think twice about it, you had already crawled halfway across the playroom floor.
You vaguely registered Joonie fondly saying, "Ah, the baby bucket. I should've known."
You reached the bin and plopped down in front of it, eyes wide. Sure, it had lots of stuffed animals, which you couldn't wait to play with, but you could tell there were lots of other toys hidden underneath!
Carefully taking each stuffed animal off the pile and placing it next to the bin (these weren't your toys after all, and you knew you were going to want the chance to play with them again), you finally got a good look at the treasure trove that was hiding underneath.
The first toy you took out was a colorful set of keys. They were so pretty! One was blue, another was green, and the last one was yellow! You shook them in your hand, fascinated by the quiet clinks they made.
You shook them for a few more moments, giggling as they moved around on the plastic ring holding them together.
You were so caught up in your fun that you didn't notice the fond look Namjoon was giving you (and the photos he may or may not have been taking and sending to the group chat).
After another minute, you decided you were bored of the keys and wanted to see what other toys were available. You gently set the keys down beside one of the lion stuffed animals before reaching your hand back into the bin.
The next toy you pulled out was a stack of rings. You turned it over and all the rings fell off the stand. You giggled as they rolled over the floor around you. Setting the stand on the ground, you gathered the rings, wanting to stack them back up and make a pretty rainbow!
You started to stack the rings, but you didn’t think they were in the same order as when you took it out. But that was okay! It still made a pretty rainbow!
Once all the rings were stacked, you turned it over again, determined to make another rainbow.
You started stacking the rings again, this time in a different order so you could make an even better rainbow.
After you finished stacking all the rings, you decided that that wasn't the toy you wanted to play with. Setting it off to the side like you did with the keys, you turned back to the box, curious about what you'd find next.
You weren't sure what the next toy was. You'd never seen anything like it before. It looked like a blue rectangle, and it had a handle, which you quickly grabbed to pull it out of the box, excited to solve the mystery of what the toy did.
Carefully setting the toy down in front of yourself, you gave it a long, hard look. There were little colored rectangles in a row, and in front of them were different kinds of buttons. Buttons! You knew what to do with buttons!
You quickly reached out and pushed the first button down hard. Not knowing what to expect from the toy, the little zebra figurine that popped out of the rectangle behind the button scared you.
You sat there for a second in shock before tears quickly gathered in your eyes and a sob burst out of your chest.
You thought toys were supposed to be fun, not scary!
Before you knew it, strong hands were picking you up off the floor, and Joonie was quietly shushing your cries. A couple seconds later, your pacifier was pushed into your mouth, helping to calm you down. You hadn't had a pacifier for long, but you were quickly becoming dependent on it while little. The caregivers had even taken to attaching it to a clip on your onesies so you could have it at a moment's notice.
"Shh, it's alright. Joonie's here," Namjoon soothed, bouncing you up and down in his arms. He made his way back over to his chair so he could rock you a little better. "You don't have to play with that toy ever again."
Now that you were in Joonie's warm arms, you felt safer. Joonie would keep the bad toy away from you.
"What's wrong with the baby?"
You looked up to see Jimin waddling over to you and Namjoon.
"We just had a small scare, that's all," Namjoon reassured. " See, we're all better now, right?"
Namjoon turned to look at you, which is when you noticed your tears had stopped. you turned your face to Jimin and gave a shy nod, still sucking furiously on your pacifier.
“I help!” Jungkook called before hopping up and running over to the small pile you made next to the baby bin. He looked around for a minute before bending down to grab something, which he quickly hid behind his back before skipping over to you and Namjoon.
“For the baby!” Jungkook smiled happily, holding his hands out in front of you.
You looked down and saw one of the whale stuffed animals that you had taken out of the box earlier. You quickly grabbed it and hugged it to your chest, warmth blooming at the nice gesture.
“That was very nice, Kookie,” Namjoon cooed. “Thank you for being a good friend.”
Kookie smiled. He then leaned over to kiss you on the forehead before he hopped back over to his pile of toys to continue playing.
“I help too!” Minnie said, following Kookie’s lead and heading to the baby bin. He returned a moment later, holding out a stuffed lion. You repeated your earlier actions, holding both stuffies close to your chest, hiding the lower half of your face in their fur.
“Thank you, Minnie,” Namjoon said with a smile.
Minnie continued to copy Kookie’s actions as he leaned over to peck you on the forehead before heading back to play with the other little.
“Are you feeling better, honey?” Namjoon asked you quietly after the two boys had settled with their dinosaurs again. “You had quite the scare! That was such a mean toy!”
You nodded into the stuffies’ fur. That toy was really mean! How were you supposed to know the zebra would pop out?
Before Namjoon could ask you another question, you let out a big yawn, your pacifier falling out of your mouth. Namjoon pulled one of his arms out from under you and looked at his watch.
“Oh my! It’s your naptime! How about we get you a bottle and get you settled down?” Namjoon asked as he stood up and shifted you to his hip.
You nodded again, a smile breaking out over your face. Bottle time was your favorite time! And you had to admit, you were feeling tired, so you were looking forward to naptime. And since your scare, you weren’t sure you wanted to continue playing with the toys right now anyway.
Namjoon quickly made your bottle and brought you back to the play room to keep an eye on Minnie and Kookie. He settled you over his lap again and placed the bottle in your mouth. You began sucking it down furiously, wanting the comfort from the suckling motion as much as the actual milk.
Namjoon started to rub your tummy, careful not to dislodge the two stuffed animals you still clutched to your chest, and before you knew it, you were out.
And if the scary toy ended up in the trash after Namjoon explained what had happened when the rest of the caregivers got home, then you were none the wiser.