Chapter Text
“Shit, shit, shit,” Jeongguk swears, bouncing around the house. “I swear to God --baby, no, don’t eat that,” he reprimands, when 3-year old Jeonghyun makes grabby hands at a particularly frightening plastic toy. His eyes meet Jeongguk’s and makes a noise akin to protest. Jeongguk decides he’ll be fine if he stays in their play pen (and keeps away from plastic objects).
Taehyung comes out of their bedroom with all the glory of a sniffling 5-year old Taeyong cuddled up in his arms. Taehyung’s trying to soothe his tears by playing with his hair and rocking him back and forth.
“Shit, babe, what’s wrong?” Jeongguk asks a little breathlessly, from looking after their other son. Taehyung lightly chides him for swearing in front of their son but his eyes soften at Jeongguk’s disheveled appearance.
“Nothing, except little Tae-Tae here has caught a cold from one of his friends and an especially sore throat,” he replies gently, and croons i know, baby, i know when Taeyong makes a pained noise from where his face is buried in the crook of his papa’s neck. Jeongguk inches closer and does the same thing, fawning over their toddler.
“I knew we shouldn’t have let him go to pre-school, babe,” Jeongguk whispers firmly, as though his son wouldn’t be able to hear him when his mouth was right next to Taeyong’s ear. Taehyung gives him one of his are you serious? Looks before whispering back,
“It’s just a common cold Gukkie, giving him proper education has nothing to do with this, you’re just being especially dramatic this morning.” Jeongguk, of course, rolls his eyes at this whilst watching Taehyung engage in a ridiculously verbal conversation with Taehyung (that only included Taeyong making odd noises and his daddy replying with other strange noises).
“Jeongguk, don’t you have a 9 o'clock meeting to attend to? It’s already 8:15 babe, and that place is 20 minutes away,” Taehyung tells him.
Jeongguk makes an incorrigible noise of distress, “That meeting’s not important--”
“Yes it is, it’s a proposal, Guk!”
“--how am I supposed to leave you alone with one sick child and another babbling one?” The younger of the two finishes, face set in disbelief. Taehyung tsk’s at him and places a sympathizing hand on his chest.
“I’m not completely helpless, Jeongguk, I’ve taken care of a 2-year old before when Taeyong was younger and a cold is just a cold!” he replies, “Plus your (“ Our, ” Jeongguk corrects him) solo album with the others is coming out a week from now, this is important.” Jeongguk’s helpless when it comes to his husband but--
“ Go ,” Taehyung adds firmly for emphasis.
The younger of the two huffs and gives his husband a lingering kiss before declaring, “Alright, fine, but I’m taking Hyunnie with me.”
Taehyung pffts at him (“If anything, that’ll make me even more worried.” “Are you doubting my parenting skills, Kim Taehyung?” “That’s Kim- Jeon Taehyung to you.” Taehyung earns a loving nuzzle at that. “How could I forget?”) but lets his husband do so.
“Come on, up you go, baby boy,” Jeongguk croons at Jonghyun, who cries out when his elephant stuffy is dropped in the process of being held. Jeongguk acquises and picks the stuffy up, placing it in their maknae’s small hands.
“Daddy’s taking you with him to work, would you like that?” Jeongguk asks, pressing an obnoxiously loud kiss to Jeonghyun’s chubby cheeks when he’s met with a blank stare and a giggle at the kiss. After he gathers Jeonghyun’s stuffies and two bottles of his formula into his backpack, Jeongguk dresses up the toddler (with a lot of burpies involved).
“Baby? I’m going now,” Jeongguk yells out as he and Jeonghyun stop at the door. There’s some shuffling from their sons’ shared room and Taehyung emerges, looking out of sorts with his disheveled brown hair. Taehyung carries the maknae into his arms, presses a kiss to his face, and murmurs a soft good morning, Hyunnie and gets a big smile in return.
“Did you bring his formula?” Taehyung asks, Jeonghyun squirming in his arms.
“Yes, babe.”
“Diapers?”
“Yup.”
“Extra clothes in case he makes a mess?”
“Newly washed and packed!”
“His elephant stuffy?”
“For God’s-- yes, Tae, how could I forget?”
“What about--” At this, Jeongguk sweeps the baby out of his arms with a protest from his husband ( be careful! He’s especially tiny…) and replies,
“I’ve got everything, babe,” with a huff, swinging the door open. Taehyung offers the gentlest smile and pulls Jeongguk close to him, kissing the living daylights out of Jeongguk. He’s a little flushed in the face from such a kiss and can’t help but stealing another one from the elder.
“I love you,” Jeongguk murmurs against his lips. Taehyung hums.
“I love you too. Be careful, alright you two?” Jeongguk nods and Taehyung shoos them both out, claiming we’ll never get anywhere if we continue making out, Jeon Jeongguk! And waves to them happily as Jeongguk makes his way to their car.
“Wave to Papa, Hyunnie,” Jeongguk stops and tells their son. Jeonghyun attempts a wave though it looks like he’s trying to grab something from the sky. Taehyung’s beyond happy though, as it looks from the window, because he makes a heart with his arms and blows some too. Jeongguk laughs at his antics before continuing to walk.
He buckles Jeonghyun into his car seat in the back, making sure the toddler was content with his elephant stuffy (which he was, too busy nuzzling with it to pay attention to his dad). Jeongguk sneaks a glance at his son through the rearview mirror and starts the car.
“It’s going to be a long day, Hyunnie.”