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Yoongi hates animals. Especial those fluffy furry ones that curl up next to you when you sleep and tickle at your skin. God, the way that their big wide wet eyes stare up at him innocently just sets his stomach turning with sickness. Why can’t they just leave him alone and find someone else’s legs to rub on cutely.
So when he and Jimin finally decide to move into their own apartment together, it was crucial to Yoongi that there was a no pets policy at the complex that they choose, much to Jimin’s disappointment.
“But hyung,” Jimin had whined when Yoongi had told him his one and only rule.
“No, Jiminie,” Yoongi shook his head at Jimin’s pleading when he tried to use his signature puppy eyes to make Yoongi change his mind. Half the time, Yoongi regretfully admits that when Jimin stuck out his bottom lip in a pout, eyes wide, and arms folded into front of him, Yoongi caved and Jimin knew it. He could get Yoongi to do just about anything if he looked sad and cute enough.
But this time Yoongi forces himself to put his foot down. It is for Jimin’s own good, he thinks. He’ll just get so caught up in taking care of their pet that he would forget to eat or sleep. Ok, maybe not to that extent, but Yoongi wants Jimin to himself and didn’t want to share him with some horribly adorable animal.
When they finally found the perfect apartment complex, that Jimin loved because it was close to the dance studio and Yoongi loved because it had a pet bane, Yoongi thinks he is finally free of Jimin’s constant bickering about getting a stupid pet. Unfortunately, Yoongi was wrong.
“We could, like, hid him in the bathroom, hyung. They would never know!” Jimin explains one evening while they’re curled up warmly on the couch.
“No Jimin,” Yoongi says sternly for, he thinks the hundredth time, “Some way they would find out and we’d get kicked out.”
Jimin snorts, “They wouldn’t kick us out,” he mumbles into Yoongi side.
Yoongi raises his eyebrow, “How do you know that, huh? There might be hidden cameras all over this apartment.”
Jimin turns away from him frustrated, “That’s ridiculous Yoongi, there’s like some privacy law about that, gosh,” he shakes his head at Yoongi's stupid theory.
Yoongi smirks at him, “Is there some privacy law about this?” Yoongi asks him smugly while reaching out his hand to tickle at Jimin’s neck. Jimin jumps away quick, while giggling.
“Stop it, Yoongi!” Jimin yells out through a fit of laughter. Yoongi sighs and takes his hand back slowly, “Ok….” He leans back dramatically like he’s done with messing with Jimin, but when Jimin is least expecting it, he pushes his down on the cushion in a quick attach.
“Hyung!” Jimin tries to push Yoongi off of him, but losses all his strength in a fit of laughter as Yoongi ticks at his stomach. Yoongi smiles down at his boyfriend in the happiest state he has been in in a long time.
*
The next day, Yoongi flips through the TV channels while waiting for Jimin to come home from the studio. His dance group has a competition coming up soon so Jimin had been coming home later and later each night. Yoongi yawns loudly and sets the remote down next to him. He could just go to bed, but he knows he wouldn’t be able to sleep until Jimin was home anyway.
Suddenly, the front door opens with a click and Yoongi smiles at the sound of Jimin returning home. When Yoongi turns to see Jimin standing in the dark entranceway, he notices that Jimin’s coat was bulging in places and it looks like he was holding the bundle tightly to his chest. No, Yoongi thinks when Jimin’s left pocket starts to move and Jimin reaches to calm what ever he was hiding in his coat.
“Hyung…” Jimin draws out, blushing when he sees Yoongi’s frowning face.
“Jimin, what did you do?” Yoongi asks him not wanting Jimin to confirm his worst nightmares.
Suddenly, a small quiet meow comes from inside of Jimin’s coat and his eyes widen at Yoongi’s face, which was turning slightly red in anger.
Before Yoongi could curse Jimin for bringing those things into his house, Jimin rushes over to him flustered, “Yoongi, they were just stranded on the side of the road in a box! I couldn’t just leave them there. Plus the sign said, ‘to a good home’. We’re a good home, hyung.”
Yoongi moans, unable to even thinking of something to say. He leans his elbows on his knees, rubbing at his forehead.
“Jimin,” Yoongi says after an uncomfortable silence, “We can’t have cats,” He whispers the last word like there were spies just through the walls ready to pounce on anyone that even talks about having pets.
“Yoongi, I told you! They’ll never know,” Jimin whispers back and starts up his adorable pleading face once again.
Yoongi stares at him in shock. How dare he try to make this situation better when he was so anger? Yoongi shakes his head firmly, “No pets, Jimin.”
In his coat, one of the kittens almost escapes to rush across the room, but Jimin catches it just in time and pulls it in closely in his arms.
Yoongi squints his eyes at Jimin questioningly, “Jimin, how many are there?”
Jimin looks down blushing, “Six”, he mumbles incoherently.
“Six?!” Yoongi whisper-yells at him, completely done.
He hates to do this to Jimin but he has to for his own sanity and the promise he made when he signed the lease on their apartment, “Go put them back, Jiminie,” he says it kindly in hopes that Jimin will sigh, agree with him, and turn to get rid of the things.
But to Yoongi’s disappointment, Jimin’s face lights up with a smile like he had just thought of the cure to cancer.
“Yoongi,” Jimin starts grinning widely, “What if we keep them-”, Yoongi raises a hand to cut him off but Jimin just begs for him to hear him out, “We can keep them,” Jimin continues, “For the rest of the week and then,” he emphasizes the word then by leaning closer to Yoongi, “I’ll give them to Taehyung after the competition this weekend!”
Jimin seems so proud of himself for his idea and Yoongi’s heart can’t help but feel light at Jimin’s pleased expression. Something in Yoongi’s face makes Jimin jump forward in joy and kiss Yoongi happily on the cheek, while still trying to balance the kittens in his arms.
“Thanks, hyung! I knew you’d understand,” Jimin beams ecstatically and before Yoongi can protest that, no, he never agreed to anything, Jimin was bouncing around the house, grabbing a large laundry basket and towel, and setting at creating a small home for the kittens.
Yoongi just watches him with a frown as he sets the towel inside the basket, unzips his coat, and places each kitten down carefully. Jimin smiles down at all six of the them, rubbing underneath their tiny chins.
“This is going to be great, trust me,” Jimin tells Yoongi without looking away from the meowing kittens.
Jimin picks up the basket in his arms, “I’m going to but them in the bathroom,” and with that Jimin moves into the other room, leaving Yoongi alone on his couch to wonder what had just happened and why he did nothing to stop it.
*
The next day, Jimin comes home with a large bag of cat food hidden in his jacket. When he pulls his purchases out of the bag, he show each to Yoongi happily. Yoongi notices how Jimin starts rambling wildly like he does when his so full of joy that he might burst. A small smile plays on Yoongi’s lips that he tries to hide, by leaning on his wrist against the kitchen table.
“Oh, I also got this,” Jimin produces a squeaking mouse toy from the bag and holds it up proudly. Yoongi moans and covers his eyes at the annoying sound, as Jimin waves it in his face, laughing.
Yoongi watches Jimin happily rabble on about the other items he bought, not entirely listening to him.
“And make sure that you feed them this stuff twice a day, ok?” Yoongi shakes his head of his thoughts of how adorable Jimin is.
“Wait, I’m gonna have to feed those…. things,” Yoongi waves his hand in the air toward the bathroom where the kittens were pushed securely behind the door.
Jimin frowns and sighs, “You weren’t listening to me… again.”
Yoongi blushes. Sometimes he gets so lost in watching Jimin’s animated expressions when his talks that he forgets to actually listen to what he was saying.
“Yes, you have to feed them, because, like I said,” Jimin mumbles, “I have my competition, out of town, this weekend. So you’ll have to make sure they stay alive. Please don’t kill them, hyung,” Jimin pleads grabbing Yoongi’s hand.
Yoongi snorts and pulls his hand away, “I’m not that cruel,” Jimin eyes him wearily like he doesn’t believe him.
“Whatever, So this stuff three times a day?” Yoongi questions, reaching for the disgusting looking vegetable and meat concoction.
“Twice, hyung!” Jimin grabs the carton from his hand and sets it back on the table.
“Ok, ok. Twice. I got it,” Yoongi confirms with a nod, “Trust me Jiminie. I got this,” he leans back in his chair and crosses his arms confidently.
Jimin just tsks at Yoongi’s appearance, “I hope so,” he mutters under his breath while rolling his eyes cutely.
*
When Jimin says goodbye to Yoongi for the whole weekend, Yoongi’s heart aches at the sight of him leaving. He never likes to see Jimin go out of town for his dance performances. Half the time, Yoongi just ended up moping around the house, with nothing to do, while watching the clock and counting down the hours until he’d get to see Jimin’s smiling face again.
Yoongi sighs when he returns home that day to an empty house late at night. He decided that if he stayed at the studio late into the night, he wouldn’t feel as lonely when he came home to a house without Jimin.
He moves to the kitchen pulling out the nasty smelling cat food that Jimin had hidden behind some cups and plates in their cabinet. Yoongi fed the horrible creatures that morning. They almost jumped him, when he set the meaty lump of food into a small bowl before them. He literally had to pick one of them up off his arm in disgust as it snuggled into his wrist.
Yoongi walks through the dark apartment to the kittens sleeping softly in the laundry basket behind the bathroom door. Bending down on his knees, he chuckles his tongue at how ugly the things look, all curled up next to each other, their little stomachs rising and falling with each tiny breath.
He peels the top of the tin can off and slaps the food into a small bowl, setting it down in the basket next to the kittens. None of the kittens stir from their dreams when Yoongi places the food down. Yoongi groans. Fine, he thinks, let the things starve, at least he could tell Jimin that he at least had tried to keep the things alive. They were just so stupid that they ended up killing themselves.
Standing up with a yawn, Yoongi brushes off his knees and heads to get ready for bed. He knows he probably wouldn’t get much sleep tonight in his cold bed without Jimin’s body next to him to keep him warm.
Sadly, Yoongi slips under the covers and wills his mind to forget about how lonely he was without Jimin there. Suddenly, Yoongi’s eyes open with a start when he hears soft meowing from the bathroom. He groans and rolls over, grabbing his pillow around his ears to muffle the annoying sound. Unfortunately, the pillow is no help against the maddening sound of the kittens.
Yoongi frowns as he steps out of bed towards the bathroom. Bending down again in front of the kittens, Yoongi squints into the darkness as the kittens run around the basket, stepping over each other to get at the food Yoongi had left beside them.
“Christ, calm down. There’s enough for everyone,” Yoongi whispers at them, judging himself for being stupid enough to talk to the animals like they understand him.
Yoongi gasps down at the kittens when, as if they understood him, they back away from the food and begin to meow up at him.
Yoongi rubs at his headache forming from their annoying sounds, “God, just shut up, ok?” He says it partly to himself, but miraculously the kittens stop meowing and just start to stare at him cutely.
He smirks down at the kittens. That’s right, Yoongi thinks, as he moves to stand back up and head back to bed. But just then, the kittens start meowing at him again. Yoongi turns to look back down at their adorable faces and they stop making their loud noises to look back at him.
Yoongi doesn’t know what to think. All he knows is that if he sits there on the floor staring at the things they were quiet as a mouse, but if he moves to leave, they make a racket until he sits back down with a groan.
“Fine, fine. I’ll stay here, God,” Yoongi watches as one of the bigger kittens moves to jump playfully at one of the smaller ones, crushing him under his weight. Yoongi reaches out his hand to move the fluffy thing off of the smaller kitten.
“Hey, don’t kill your brother, ok? That’s just wrong on so many levels,” he whispers down at the bigger kitten angrily, who looks like he was bowing his head in an apology.
Yoongi finds himself smiling down at the kittens happily. They were just so soft to the touch and he couldn’t believe anything could be that fluffy. Reaching out his hand again, he cautiously strokes at the neck of one of the fur balls closes to him. The kitten purrs softly leaning into his touch. Yoongi’s heart feels light at the sight of the kitten’s wet eyes gazing at him lovingly.
The kitten then moves away from him and curls up in the corner to fall asleep, while his brothers race around the basket playfully. Yoongi grins at the smart kitten that would choose to sleep over anything else. Suddenly, he’s struck with a new emotion towards the smart kitten, probably because of how he reminds him of himself.
“You’re my favorite,” Yoongi tells the sleeping kitten. He furrows his brow in concentration, staring at the kitten closely, until he says softly, “I’ll call you…. Swag? How do you like that, Swag?” The kitten stirred quietly in his sleep and Yoongi takes that as a yes.
Beaming, Yoongi sets to naming the other little creatures, “Your name is now…Pizza,” he says to one kitten with small red batches of fur spotting his body like peperoni, “and you’re…Converse!”
The kittens purr up at him excitedly. After naming the other kittens Naps, Mixtape and Smiles, Smiles reminds him of Jimin the most, always running in circles around the basket, Yoongi sits back and grins smugly at his power to name animals.
He sits quietly for a long time, watching the kittens come down from their hyper state, until they settle into curling up next to each other and falling into a sleep. Yoongi realizes by watching the kittens falling asleep, just how tried he is. Yawing, he stretches into a standing position and shuffles off to bed.
When he finally falls asleep, the last thought to leave his mind is how maybe those things weren’t the worst things to happen in his life.
*
On the day Jimin was to come home, Yoongi rushes home early to be there to greet him. Coming home, Yoongi closes the door behind him quickly and races to grab a carton of cat food from the kitchen. Over the past days, Yoongi had bonded with the little furry creatures. He talked to them about his day and the songs he was working on, but mostly how they all need to calm down and be more like Swag was and not pounce at him when he fed them. Setting the food into the bowl and giving it to the kittens, Yoongi beams brightly.
Suddenly, He hears the front door opening and laughter coming from the living room. Yoongi’s heart flies out of his chest at the sound of Jimin’s laughter and he leaves the kittens to rush out to greet him.
In the living room, Jimin and Taehyung were chatting loudly. When Jimin sees Yoongi, he jumps into his arms happily, “Hyung, we won!” Jimin announces to him.
Yoongi feels like he might just burst with emotions, “That’s great, Jiminie,” he tells him while pressing his lips to Jimin’s forehead tenderly.
Jimin ignores Yoongi’s joyous smile and glances at the door behind him, “Are the kittens alive?” Jimin asks him with a smirk.
Yoongi frowns at Jimin’s caring for the kittens more then him, “Yes, Jimin I took great care of them, if I must say so myself.”
“Come on Taehyung. I’ll show them to you.”
Excitedly, Jimin and Taehyung move into the bathroom and start ahhing over the cute animals.
“Jimin,” Taehyung looks to Jimin seriously, “I think I’m in love,” he says as he moves to pick up Mixtape from the basket and stroke at his back.
“See, Yoongi. I told you it would all work out,” Jimin beams at Yoongi standing behind him. Yoongi has no choice but to nod back at him.
“Really, this means a lot to me,” Taehyung says as he moves to pick up the basket full of kittens.
Jimin laughs, “They’re yours now, Tae,” Jimin tells him, patting his friend on the back.
Yoongi’s heart drops when he sees Taehyung walking to the door, basket held closely to his chest.
“I’ll take good care of them,” Taehyung assures them with a thoughtful nod.
Jimin waves Taehyung out the door, but before Taehyung leaves, Yoongi rushes up to him quickly. Yoongi shocks himself as he reaches into the basket and picks up Swag, holding him tightly in his arms.
Yoongi can’t stop himself when he looks down at Swag’s big eyes, “This one’s the best of them. So take extra care of him, ok?” He tells Taehyung earnestly.
Jimin gives Yoongi a confused look, but holds his tongue, as Taehyung promises with his life to look after Swag.
Yoongi sighs with contentment and places Swag back with his brothers. And like that, Taehyung turns and leaves with the kittens, leaving Yoongi and Jimin alone.
Jimin smirks knowingly at Yoongi without saying anything.
“Don’t,” Yoongi cautions him with a hand.
“Oh, it’s nothing, hyung,” Jimin says while chuckling softly.
Yoongi knows he doesn’t want to explain and hurt his pride, so instead he pulls Jimin close and hugs him.
“I’m glad you’re home, Jiminie,” he tells him, a comfortable smile on his face.
“Me too, Yoongi,” Jimin wraps his arms tightly around Yoongi, “So about that pet…” Jimin’s voice is muffled in Yoongi’s shirt.
“Shut up, Jimin,” Yoongi says firmly while Jimin laughs jokingly.