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Jeongin wakes up with a jolt, a loud bang followed by a shout, spooking him out of a nap. It’s not typically how Jeongin wakes up from a nap.
Sometimes Felix is there, pulling him up and altering his voice that Jeongin knows to be deep, into a high pitched coo, spewing a mixture of Korean and English words towards Jeongin.
Other times it’s Hyunjin, poking and pulling at Jeongin’s cheeks until Jeongin wakes with a grumble and swats the older man off.
If Jeongin’s tired enough, he wakes up in a completely different location from where he started, having been moved mid sleep. It’s been a long time since Jeongin refused to nap, drowning himself in boredom out of pure spite because he knew it threw off their schedule.
But this was definitely not normal, Jeongin jumps awake from his nap, his mind still partially shut off and none of his limbs feeling functional. Turning his head, Jeongin is only greeted by the sight of the crib bars, still pulled up into the locked position.
There’s nobody in the room, which means that loud noise must’ve been an accident. Jeongin turns his head back from it’s crooked position, hoping to catch the last frays of sleep and nap some more.
It’s only a mere minute into Jeongin’s attempt at another nap when the door actually does crack open, only noticeable by the drastic increase in noise coming from down the hall when it does.
The door shuts straight away, footsteps now padding over. Jeongin can only huff out. From his own experience, Jeongin knows his nap time is over. Once he’s up, and caught, Jeongin struggles getting back to sleep, and with whatever ruckus was happening in the house, there was no chance Jeongin would manage to sleep through anymore of it.
Opening his eyes only the slightest, Jeongin is now met with the familiar sight of Felix, smiling bright and happy. Jeongin shuts his eyes upon the sight, unwilling to let himself be caught staring too hard and giving the older man any ideas.
“Oh I know baby, papa is very sorry, your cousin and uncles are here and forgot to turn their voices down, it’s our fault for not reminding them honey,” Felix starts up as he makes work of unlocking the crib bars and pulling them down.
Jeongin rolls his eyes underneath his still shut lids, mentally preparing for the surefire wreck his cousin, Seungmin, would have surely been making in Jeongin’s play area.
Seungmin is “older” than Jeongin, according to Hyunjin and Felix and all his uncles, but he sure acts more like a child than Jeongin ever has in all his time here.
Seungmin actually calls his kidnappers papa and daddy, two names Felix and Hyunjin exclusively use in reference to themselves around Jeongin. Unfortunately for them, Jeongin had faked sleep so often during his imprisonment that he had long ago caught wind of their real names, and now exclusively referred to them as such in his own head, while maintaining his absolute silence otherwise.
Seungmin, unlike Jeongin, was entirely too loud and entirely too brainwashed. Seungmin spoke in half gibberish and an annoyingly endearing lisp. Not that Jeongin would ever admit that to anyone else.
Seungmin was loud and destructive and in the same torture simulation as Jeongin, with slight tweaks. Seungmin was allowed to dress himself and walk around, Seungmin could ask to use the bathroom rather than be forced to piss himself in a diaper and have someone else inspect his privates everytime it needed changing.
So sure, Seungmin was older, but Jeongin hadn’t been given the same grace to allow himself to be the same age.
He had been stuck in the more soul sucking simulation of the two, giving an unfair advantage to Seungmin immediately.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Jeongin can’t help the whine that squeezes itself out of him when Felix pulls him up with his freakishly underrated strength. Jeongin flops against him straight away, unwilling to cooperate and make any part of this easier.
Jeongin knows it can’t be easy hauling an adult his size around all day, and with his legs being rendered useless from whatever drug they fed him, Jeongin is in someone’s arms more often than not.
Felix transfers Jeongin into his arms and pulls up in one swift motion, leaving Jeongin to shut his eyes again as the sudden height change leaves a sickly feeling in his stomach.
Felix pats Jeongin’s butt and cheers softly at the diaper being dry. Jeongin rolls his eyes under his lids once again, barely gathering himself to get comfortable before Felix starts marching towards the door.
The closer they get the louder the volume increases, and Jeongin knows the only peace he might have for the next few hours would be if he could fake another quick nap right on top of Felix. Jeongin’s certainly done it before.
The best way to gather information, or get out of a playdate with Seungmin, was to fake sleep. Jeongin knows they hate to “wake the baby” and that Seungmin is much quieter when the entire room is actively looking out for Jeongin’s eardrums.
Making up his mind, Jeongin melts himself down into Felix even more, tucking his arms up and laying his head right on Felix’s shoulder. It was always a surprise as to how comfortable it actually was being held and resting in someone’s arms. For how humiliating it was, Jeongin hated that it was genuinely nice.
Eyes still shut, Jeongin feels Felix let out a small gasp, stopping by the door before actually leaving.
A drawer can be heard pulling open, followed by a small rustle, and then the drawer is shut and Felix is making a sound Jeongin has only heard when people call for cats, urging Jeongin to turn his head more.
Jeongin knows what this is, and while he usually spits the thing out, Jeongin needs anything he can take to help the certainly dreadful situation he’s about to be put into.
Felix makes another cheering sound as Jeongin turns his head, the rubber tip of a pacifier poking at his lips until Jeongin lets Felix push the object in.
Jeongin doesn’t bother opening his eyes after it settles in, despite the last strands of sleep already pulling away from his mind. Felix didn’t need to know Jeongin was in fact now wide awake.
The door finally opens and Jeongin is hit with a blast of cold air, making him involuntarily shiver and therefore curl into Felix even more.
“Oh it’s so cold I know, we can make daddy grab your favorite blanket in a few alright? How does that sound munchkin? Hmm,” Felix starts rambling off as they start heading off down the hallway towards the living room where Seungmin can now be heard hollering in laughter.
All Jeongin can do is press himself even further into Felix’s neck, hiding himself away as best as possible.
Jeongin knows they’ve made it to the living room because Felix announces it to the entire room, effectively snapping everyone away from their conversations.
“Look who’s up,” Felix fake gasps as Seungmin now screams from excitement. Jeongin jerks and presses himself even further into Felix’s neck. He hates yelling so much, and it was unavoidable around Seungmin.
“BABY, BABY INNIE,” Seungmin starts, and immediately cuts off as someone comes to slap a hand over his mouth, muffling his words. Thank god.
“Seungmin you know better than to yell around your baby cousin and you know what i’ve said about volume levels,” Someone, probably Minho, if Jeongin had to guess, reprimands.
Felix continues walking until Jeongin feels them both sinking down onto the couch, a hand immediately coming from the side to rub his back. Hopefully Hyunjin’s. Jeongin was not a fan of anyone else touching him.
Jeongin suppresses a laugh. Seungmin being reprimanded over volume seemed like a never ending ordeal, as the older man seemingly never shut up around Jeongin, and was constantly told off about it.
There’s a whine and then Seungmin is apologizing to Minho, but not Jeongin. There’s a brief moment of silence that allows Jeongin to hear soft classical music playing from the corner, Felix’s favorite radio station that was playing more often than not.
“Sorry about that, you know Minnie, he just loves his cousin so much,” Jisung, Jeongin thinks, apologizes on Seungmin’s behalf. Jeongin keeps his scoff to himself, questioning how incompetent of fake parents Minho and Jisung had to be to not recognize that Seungmin should be apologizing to Jeongin for his own grating yell.
“No worries, Jeongin knows it’s all from love, hmm,” Felix speaks for him now, his voice now back to it’s normal tone.
Jeongin fights the urge to speak for himself, knowing he’d be breaking his near 5 month streak if he did so. Speaking meant facing more humility, it meant calling Felix and Hyunjin papa and daddy, and it probably meant a whole lot more forced social interaction with the other freak kidnappers they all associated with.
Jeongin is determined to not let a peep out, only involuntary sounds that can’t be controlled. Jeongin shivers at the idea of accidentally losing his ongoing war with his own self. Not happening.
“Oh right, love, could you go grab his blanket please?” Felix asks Hyunjin.
The hand on Jeongin’s back stops as the body mass next to Jeongin disappears.
“Of course, be right back,” Hyunjin exclaims as he disappears out of the room.
Noise picks back up in the room as Felix starts a conversation with the person on his other side, his language switching to english instantly leaving Jeongin with nothing to follow.
It must be Chan then, the only other associate of Felix and Hyunjin’s that Jeongin knows speaks english. And if Chan is here then so is Changbin, meaning Jeongin’s evening just went from fucked to entirely fucked.
It was hard enough surviving a play date with Seungmin, but more so when all of Jeongin’s uncles were over to watch him as some form of public humiliation.
Jeongin feels a hand come up and pat over his head, scratching at his scalp the slightest for only a moment before pulling away.
Jeongin hates it when the others touch him. It was one thing with Felix and Hyunjin, Jeongin, at the very least, has come to tolerate them, but he’s sure they all know to not cross the line with him otherwise.
It hadn’t been that long since Jeongin had been shoved into Chan’s arms unexpectedly as Hyunjin ran to save the burning chicken he had been making for dinner.
Jeongin had not felt safe at all. Jeongin knew Felix and Hyunjin were strong enough to hold him and carry him around like a baby doll, but Jeongin did not have any sort of faith in the others, and he made that very clear.
Jeongin had cried out so sharply it alerted the entire house. Chan had brought his hand up to Jeongin’s back to try and thump on it, but Jeongin had already determined he was going to be sick.
If he was going to be kidnapped and forced to live out his life as a baby, he deserved some comfortability. And while Felix and Hyunjin were not his favorite people, they were Jeongin’s only people, and he was not a fan of the unfamiliarity that came without them.
Felix had come by in no less than ten seconds to save Jeongin, quickly taking Jeongin into his own arms and ushering off to his own room down the hall. Jeongin was fortunate nobody had tried anything of sorts with him again.
Jeongin is draped with a blanket as soon as Hyunjin comes back and is happy enough to feel the warmth the blanket provided as Hyunjin sits right back down where he had been previously. His hand returns to Jeongin’s back and for a few moments there is finally peace.
Hyunjin talks with Jisung, both of them rambling much too fast about a new drama they had started watching around the same time.
Felix is still talking in english, and a few good paces away Jeongin can hear Changbin and Minho talking at a much more lax speed, right over Seungmin who is probably using their limbs as active parts of his playtime.
Jeongin remembers his own legs being the stomping grounds of many dinosaurs and plastic cars before.
The peace lasts a little while more, until Jeongin’s back and neck start cramping from the awkward position and Jeongin knows his time of hiding is up. Slowly, Jeongin opens his eyes, most of his view is nothing but darkness, Felix’s shirt and hair doing a great job also keeping Jeongin hidden.
Finding the strength, Jeongin slowly lifts his head up, blinking in quick succession as the living room lights hit him. Jeongin comes in direct eye sight of Chan, who doesn’t waste a second before cooing out towards Jeongin. Felix turns to Jeongin and presses atleast three kisses to his cheek. Jeongin only grumbles a bit.
“Love, do you mind grabbing his bottle?” Felix asks Hyunjin as he peeks over Jeongin to look at the older man.
“Of course my love,” Hyunjin replies as he too comes over to press a kiss on Jeongin’s cheek.
Jeongin catches Hyunjin and Jisung trail off into the kitchen before drawing his attention back to Felix.
“My baby, did you have a good nap hmm? I know it was shorter than normal but everyone wanted to see you,” Felix exclaims happily. His smile is so beautiful Jeongin hates to call it obnoxious, but sometimes he really does wish he could knock it off for just a bit. Maybe it’d make Jeongin feel better about this situation.
In front of him, Chan starts to make horrifying faces at Jeongin, clearly trying to pull a laugh from him. Jeongins lurches his head back and whips it over to the left to watch the three people on the floor. Chan drops back into an english conversation with Felix straight away, his tone showing his disappointment clearly. Jeongin smiles just a hair. A win is a win.
Felix smooths out Jeongin’s hair while Jeongin now focuses on Seungmin’s play antics.
Everyone is over at Jeongin’s house, so the play area is all squishy mats and more soft and squishy toys than hard plastic ones. Of course Seungmin has brought his own toys, the obnoxious ones with sounds and lights because nothing about him can be quiet.
Changbin is racing Seungmin’s car while Minho records a video of the two. Sometime’s Jeongin questions if Seungmin only had two kidnappers or four. Minho and Jisung were clearly the main perpetrators, but Changbin and Chan were questionably close to them at all times, and they clearly knew Seungmin a bit too well for people supposed to be just friends.
Jeongin kicks that thought away. Why should it matter to him anyway. Seungmin clearly had some kind of fantasy about the way his life turned out. Why else would he willingly act the part. Why would he not put up a fight and try to defend himself. It never made sense to Jeongin.
In the beginning, Jeongin had more than a few words to say, and a lot of fight to give. It was just no match for the power imbalances at play. Not only were Hyunjin and Felix significantly older men with entirely too much money and free time, but they actively drugged Jeongin to make him compliant. Jeongin knows this as a fact. After only a week into his capture Jeongin had quite suddenly lost all use of his legs and they had been delighted rather than concerned.
Crawling was an exhausting task and standing up was laughable. Not only that, but the muscles Jeongin had spent years on at the gym had dissipated concerningly fast. The change to Jeongin’s body, by all means, was not normal. And he was definitely kept well fed, so there had to be some kind of drugs involved.
Even just the other week while Hyunjin had been changing Jeongin, one of the sleeping outfits Jeongin frequented was now baggy and loose, winding up in the trash and prompting Hyunjin on a shopping spree.
Any normal person should be concerned with the dramatic muscle and weight loss, but it only seemed to enthrall Hyunjin and Felix, almost like they planned it this way. With Jeongin partially paralyzed and nearly shrinking, it was certainly a hell of a lot easier for his kidnappers to live out their fantasy about being one big happy family.
Jeongin zones out so hard, he jumps when Hyunjin comes back to the couch, one of the dastardly bottles Jeongin absolutely hated in hand. It was humiliating enough being forced to drink from it when it was Just Hyunjin and Felix around, but with an audience of 5, Jeongin was already dreading the conversations bound to happen.
“Here love, i’ll take him,” Hyunjin speaks to Felix, who stops mid sentence to help shift Jeongin over from one lap to the next.
Hyunjin shifts Jeongin down to the crook in his arm, his other hand already moving to take out the pacifier Jeongin had, truthfully, forgotten about. Felix takes it and then jumps back into conversation. Jisung sprawls down next to Hyunjin, right in Jeongin’s eyesight, and it’s immediately horrible. Hyunjin has already poked the rubber part up against Jeongin’s lips, but with the outside set of eyes staring him down, Jeongin refuses to take it.
He hates to do it, but Jeongin whines and turns his head into Hyunjin’s stomach, hoping his actions speak for him.
“Looks like he’s shy, maybe the blanket will help?” Jisung offers. A saving grace from the problem itself.
“You’re right, my sweet little innie is still so shy hmm, that’s okay daddy will cover you,” Hyunjin coos out sweetly as the blanket wrapped around Jeongin is pulled up and adjusted so there is complete and total privacy. Now the only things Jeongin can see is Hyunjin’s torso, his shirt today is one of the obnoxious I Love My Husband shirts Felix had bought a few months back, and the light breaking through the blanket’s barrier.
Hyunjin’s brings the bottle back though, and all Jeongin can do is accept it this time. The milk is suspiciously delicious like always, and perfectly warm. It takes a good bit of effort to actually drink through the bottle tip, turning an already humiliating task into an extended torture.
“I think it’s so sweet how attached he is to you two, I mean with Seungmin just about any stranger could take care of him and he’d be happy as a clam, I definitely envy you both just a hair that your baby is so dependant on just you two,” Jisung starts rambling straight away, sighing towards the end.
Jeongin rolls his eyes again, open this time. Talking about him while he was clearly conscious and coherent, and digging on his own kidnapped man child simultaneously. Sounded just about right. And it figures Seungmin wouldn’t give a rats ass about who played pretend with him, all Seungmin cared about was attention and it didn’t matter who gave that to him.
And besides, Jeongin had no choice but to be dependent on Felix and Hyunjin, what kind of observation was that? There was no physical way Jeongin could take care of himself anymore. Not after he had been rendered down so far he was starting to forget who he was before he had been taken.
“Agh, I love it honestly, I know some of the others had complained because it definitely becomes complicated in emergencies when we need another set of eyes, but I could never find it bothersome, I love being one of the only things that matters to him”. Hyunjin replies.
Jeongin rolls his eyes again. As if his kidnappers were people that mattered to Jeongin.
“But Seungmin is most definitely clingy on you and Minho, I just think he has a lot of love to give, and it probably is a little confusing with your two guests over just about every day,” Hyunjin remarks as his voice drops towards the end, clearly teasing.
Jeongin hears Jisung slap Hyunjin’s arm and he mentally thanks him for it. Serves him right for claiming Jeongin only cared about Hyunjin and Felix.
“Do you think we’re screwing up by testing it out? I mean he clearly loves them both and I know Min and I would love for them to completely join the family but I always stress if it’s perhaps too confusing for him,” Jisung asks, his voice quieter and not as loud as it tends to be.
Jeongin gulps down the milk, entirely invested in the conversation happening above him. Sounds like his theory from earlier might actually be true. Soon Seungmin would be stuck with 4 kidnappers. That’s what he deserves, Jeongin thinks to himself.
Before backtracking and questioning why exactly Seungmin deserved an even worse fate when he was technically in the same position as Jeongin, Jeongin tries to push past his more rational thoughts. It’s a fleeting thought, Jeongin thinks, as he doesn’t like to imagine a scenario where Seungmin was actually just too far and deep into his own kidnapping to turn back. Jeongin would much rather accept that Seungmin was actually just as willing in this whole scheme. It made it easier for Jeongin to direct his anger towards him.
If there’s one good perk to being the baby, it’s that Jeongin got to listen in on conversations that Seungmin tended to be kicked out of the room for. Sure it’s because they’re all under the impression Jeongin genuinely cannot hear them, although they all must know that not to be true, but Jeongin will take any small wins in the life he now lives.
“Are you kidding? Not at all, Minnie is clearly thriving. That kid is the most energetic little guy i’ve ever met, and from what i’ve heard you haven’t had any confusion at home. I think he’s just happy for more people to play with,” Hyunjin concludes.
“Ahh you’re right, Seungmin’s definitely a character but I think we’ve been more nervous incase he suddenly changes his mind overnight, it just took us so long to get here we don’t want to backtrack any of our progress,” Jisung manages to finish before Seungmin is interrupting from the floor.
“YOU SAID MY NAME,” Seungmin shouts. Jeongin jumps again, not a fan of his loud voice. Hyunjin shifts and pulls Jeongin in closer. Jeongin really does hate the yelling.
“Yah Lee Seungmin, what have we said about shouting around the baby? Quiet down or we will clean up your toys,” Minho reprimands Seungmin again.
“But they talkin about me daddy,” Seungmin huffs out. Jeongin can hear the tantrum already if someone doesn’t get on top of it.
“We talk about you all the time love, but that doesn’t mean you need to be apart of those conversations, your ears are too little for them sometimes,” Jisung chimes in from his spot on the couch.
Jeongin keeps drinking the milk, minding his own business. Glad to be under the protection of the blanket.
“But, but, why does the baby get to be talkin bout me too,” Seungmin finally stomps out. Jeongin sighs and squeezes his eyes shut. There’s a headache already forming and the evening has only just started.
“Innie’s not talking about you Minnie, he’s just drinking his milk, and you know he can’t talk anyway, he’s too small, what could he be saying?” Jisung questions, a teasing tone on his lips at the absurd remark from Seungmin.
Of course Jeongin wasn’t talking. He was the baby. For the first time in a while, Jeongin stops to consider his near 5 months of silence had probably done him more harm than good. Stupidly, Jeongin had been playing right into their hands. Babies don’t talk.
Jeongin slows down on the milk, irritated about the statements being made about him once again and annoyed about his revelations.
Jeongin can speak, he just chooses not to. He gets cooed at enough, it would be unbearable if Jeongin actually gave these people material to work with. Perhaps it was better to be the baby, seeing how Seungmin operated, Jeongin considers that he might of actually had the upper hand.
Seungmin only whines in response to Jisung, finally moving on and forgetting the conversation. Jeongin suppresses yet another eye roll, he’s done a lot of those today. Of course Seungmin gets away with his yelling and no real apology once again. He’s overly spoiled and it’s definitely starting to shine through.
The conversations pick back up and Jeongin realizes too late that he’s finished the entire bottle of milk. Hyunjin, who had held onto it the entire time, pulls back and immediately pulls Jeongin up, the blanket slipping back down and exposing Jeongin yet again to the entire room.
Hyunjin pulls Jeongin up and over his shoulder, thumping a hand on his back a fair few times to get all the air bubbles out. Jeongin hates that they do it and he hates that it works every time.
As soon as Hyunjin finished getting them out, Jeongin knows it’s the part of the evening that he was truly dreading the most.
“You wanna go play with your cousin and uncles baby, let’s see here we go,” Hyunjin coos off as Jeongin is ripped away from the couch and lowered down to the squishy mat on the floor.
Jeongin’s own toys are scattered about, a mess thanks to Seungmin’s reckless behaviour. A few of Seungmin’s own plastic figurines have made their way over as well, and now Seungmin himself comes barreling over the moment Hyunjin draws back, leaving Jeongin alone to the wolves.
“Baby play,” Seungmin states as he crawls over and pulls a few monster trucks with him. Seungmin sits crossed leg in front of Jeongin as he starts setting his cars up in a careful formation. Jeongin spots movement behind and it takes no longer than a few seconds for both Minho and Changbin to surround them both on either side.
Uninterested in Seungmin’s trucks, Jeongin reaches for one of his own soft blocks. At Least they were stackable. During Jeongin’s dedicated play time, he preferred the blocks to the stuffed animals. There was always something to build with them, giving Jeongin something to actually focus on rather than being subject to complete and total boredom.
Fortunately, Seungmin pays Jeongin no attention for the time being, even if he parks his trucks a bit too close to Jeongin’s blocks. Jeongin thinks he hears Minho reminding him to “play gentle near the baby”, but Jeongin has blocked out his surroundings by now.
There’s peace for much longer than Jeongin expected. Seungmin is still obnoxious and drives his trucks around increasingly closer every few minutes, but Jeongin actually manages to start building a home of sorts from his blocks. Keeping his head down to avoid unnecessary eye contact, Jeongin pays no attention to the occasional head scratch from Minho. They aren’t too long and Minho had always been the softest of the uncles in regards to skinship.
Chan, Changbin and occasionally Jisung were too touchy for their own good. They had a sick fascination with touching and poking and it always made Jeongin’s skin prickly. Head pats were better but it had to be done a certain way and only Minho had mastered that technique as of now. Not that Jeongin would ever let the older man know that, that would be calling for disaster.
Focused on his block house, Jeongin doesn’t realize just how close Seungmin’s trucks had come, not until he was reaching out to place another block and a plastic yellow truck barreled right through the structure, the front attachment cutting right along Jeongin’s hand as Seungmin shouts entirely too loud in Jeongin’s ear over his victory in destroying the structure.
Jeongin drops the block and snatches his hand back up, curling in on himself as Minho immediately screams out at Seungmin to reprimand him.
Jeongin hates the yelling. Jeongin hates everything about this, but he hates yelling the most. Not even just because it only ever happens when Seungmin is over or does something to start it, but because Jeongin had a terribly sensitive past with yelling. It’s nearly inescapable when Jeongin is subjected to spending time with Seungmin.
There’s a small line of blood where Seungmin’s car cut through Jeongin’s hand, just barely beading on his skin.
In all the commotion that came after Seungmin’s act, Jeongin misses Felix rushing over towards him. There are tears welling in Jeongin’s eyes that he can’t help.
The yelling, the humiliation, the sharp sting from the cut that's starting to bleed a fair bit more. The day had been fine up until half the neighbourhood had been invited over mid nap.
Jeongin looks up as a shadow covers the living room light and his tears fall in perfect timing. Felix has the saddest look on his face, a frown where his usual smile is. Jeongin is up and away from the scene of destruction right away. This time, there’s no second thought or self reflection when Jeongin immediately tuckers away in Felix’s hold.
He was so done with other people. If Jeongin had to be kidnapped and live this way, he at least wanted to do so peacefully.
Hyunjin and Felix were technically bad people. They drugged Jeongin on the street all that time ago, forced him to live like a baby and treated him as such. They partially paralyzed Jeongin and had dramatically altered his body, but they were all Jeongin had known for a long time, and sometimes, they were exactly what Jeongin needed. Because right now, Jeongin couldn’t help but wish for everything except his Hyunjin and Felix to just disappear.
In all his time here, Jeongin had never been yelled at, he hadn’t been punished or smacked and there had never been a question about how Hyunjin and Felix felt towards him.
They loved him. They loved Jeongin.
And perhaps there was a bit of brainwashing at play due to the mess of emotions Jeongin was currently going through, because it was times like this where Jeongin considered returning the feelings.
If only a hair, and only because things did get overwhelming and far too much at times, and they always knew how to fix it.
Jeongin steadily cries on Felix’s shirt as the older man walks away from the noise and into the kitchen. Hyunjin is already there, Jeongin can’t see him but he knows. They converse above him and clean the blood off before putting a bandaid on. Hyunjin kisses the bandaid and Felix follows, and they stay in the kitchen for a moment.
Jeongin is reduced to sniffles, opening his mouth to collect the tears that had come down to his lips and clean them off. Felix must mistake it for Jeongin wanting the pacifier back, because they quickly procure one and pop it in before Jeongin can have yet another internal debate.
By the time they come back to the living room, it’s suspiciously quiet.
“We’re going to head home, Seungmin’s been acting out a bit too much today as it is and that definitely crossed the line for us, staying any longer wouldn’t be a punishment for him so we agreed to head back,” Minho explains.
“Totally understandable, don’t fret too much about it, we were able to clean it all up easily, I think it’s definitely just a quiet evening in order for us here,” Felix responds, shifting Jeongin as he does so. Hyunjin brings a hand to Jeongin’s back and steadily pats on it, calming Jeongin much more than he anticipated. It’s nice, Jeongin notes, fearfully so. It’s too nice.
“I’m glad to hear, Sung already has Minnie in the car but he’ll likely call later to check in, you know how he is,” Minho laughs out in response. His voice raises from down low to up high, probably gathering the mess of Seungmin’s toys.
The front door creaks open while Chan and Changbin can be heard wishing goodbye to everyone, no doubt carpooling back with Minho and Jisung for another night of whatever it was the four had going on.
Jeongin feels one last pat on his head, Minho, followed by a quiet bye before a quick rustle at the door, and then finally, peace and quiet.
Hyunjin sighs and leaves to lock up, while Felix settles back on the couch, not removing Jeongin from his safe spot. There’s still music playing, it’s soft and doesn’t hurt Jeongin’s head. It’s much calmer now, and Jeongin loves it. Hyunjin joins them on the couch again, and there’s nothing but pure serenity now.
They don’t talk, so they’re either on their phones or reading one of the books Hyunjin likes to keep on the coffee table. Jeongin enjoys the small sounds, and finds himself nodding off to them. Hyunjin wraps his blanket around him once again, and it seals the deal, sending Jeongin back off into dreamland so he can finish his nap that was cut short from earlier.
He’ll wake up later in the living room bassinet they keep out, both Hyunjin and Felix still visible. They’ll eat dinner and Jeongin will delight in the actual food he’s served that isn’t the usual baby mush. Hyunjin does whisk him off for a bath after, much to Jeongin’s displeasure, but Felix comes in halfway through and slips a little on some spilled water.
It gets Jeongin to laugh, which has Felix and Hyunjin beaming and cooing, somehow making the bath more tolerable as they take turns doing a couple ridiculous things to see what made Jeongin laugh or uninterested.
When he’s changed into pajamas, Jeongin is brought to Hyunjin and Felix’s room rather than his own bed. It wasn’t very often they had Jeongin co sleep with them, despite having another bassinet in the room for him. But after a more vulnerable evening, Jeongin doesn’t mind. They put on a movie and pepper kisses all over Jeongin as he’s put down to sleep.
From his angle, Jeongin can’t watch the movie, but the sounds ease him to sleep, and for the first time in his entire stay with Hyunjin and Felix, Jeongin finds himself not minding waking up to another day. So long as Hyunjin and Felix were there, things would probably be alright.