Chapter Text
"No Sir, I just really can't do tomorrow. There'll be nobody to take care of the kids." Seokjin repeated into the phone as he tried not to let food burn. "No Sir, of course I'm not making excuses, I honestly mean it. My husband won't be home at that time and my usual babysitters aren't available." He smiled tiredly to Namjoon who poked his head through the door with a worried look whilst holding onto a half-asleep four year old.
"I would really love to be there at the restaurant tomorrow if I could Sir, however my oldest child is only eight. I cannot leave them alo-" Seokjin sighed into the phone and his husband bit the inside of his lip when he heard the man on the other end of the phone yelling. "No Sir, I don't wish to lose my job."
Namjoon put his hand on the older's shoulder and rubbed it to gain his attention, smiling reassuringly. "Tell him you'll make it. We'll figure something out."
Hesitating, Seokjin trustingly nodded, "alright Sir, I'll work something out and will be there tomorrow. Sorry for wasting your time... Yes Sir, thank you, Sir." Hanging up finally he groaned, turning the stove off when he was certain the food was cooked enough. "I'm gonna kill that man."
Hearing his husband chuckle, Seokjin turned to snap at him but his words died at his throat when he saw the man standing in sweats smiling tiredly, his hair disheveled, bags under his eyes and their son resting on his hip with little chubby arms clutching onto the man's shirt and cuddling a toy rabbit as he fought sleep.
"Hey, don't worry about it. We'll find a babysitter and if worst comes to worst I'll stay with the kids tomorrow, this isn't worth losing your job over." Namjoon attempted to convince his stressed partner as he began to run his hand through his child's hair, trying to help sleep in it's battle against his son.
"You know how I feel about leaving them with strangers." He whined.
"I don't feel all too comfortable with it either. But we have little to no choice on the matter sometimes. We either need to figure out what to do with them when Yoongi and Hoseok aren't available or invest in a babysitter we can permanently rely on." The younger man said and began to rock the child when a little yawn was released by the four year old.
Seokjin smiled at the scene and reach forward to grab onto Jungkook's small hand, rubbing against the back of it with his thumb. "What do you suppose we do now?"
"I have a friend who's single and has got a kid as well, he must know a babysitter or two we can get by tomorrow." Namjoon thought out loud, "I can still call him, it's only nine."
"Yes it's only nine, but my baby is still awake because he's a stubborn little boy isn't he?" Seokjin cooed and poked Jungkook's nose.
"No!" The boy whined, "I'm not little."
"Of course not, you've grown up so much lately haven't you? Come here..." Seokjin eased the child into his arms from Namjoon's who was now pouting.
"And he was nearly asleep."
"Oh please, he was just fooling you. Let's get him to bed. I need to check on the other two anyways."
---
"Alright, so here's the plan." Namjoon squatted in front of his three children while Seokjin stood back and watched in amusement, trying to calm down the slight anxiety that rubbed the back of his mind due to the upcoming events. "I have to go to the studio with Yoongi Uncle and Appa has to go to the restaurant for an emergency, Jiminie-"
The boy raised his arm high over his head, "present!"
Namjoon winked at him before continuing, "Jiminie is going over to a friend's house and I'll be dropping him off. That leaves two troublemakers alone at home. So, we've called over a nice lady to look after you for the night until I come home."
"We don't need anyone!" Taehyung objected, tightly clinging onto a squirming Jungkook. "I can look after us."
The two adults shared a glance at the child's insistence, half amused at how none of the children objected when their father just called them 'troublemakers'.
"You can't look after yourself, you can't even reach the top cupboards." Jimin folded his arms.
"Yeah...well, well neither can you!" He retorted back and stuck his tongue out.
"Alright, alright." Seokjin stepped in. "Let's not fight right before the babysitter gets here." He ruffled Taehyung's hair affectionately. "I know you're such a big boy, you're six years old now. But I would just feel better if someone was watching over you guys as well so somebody can watch the house after your bedtime, okay? So could you behave nicely to the lady for me?"
Glancing down at his toes, he finally let go of the still struggling Jungkook, who was hugging onto his toy rabbit, in favor of jumping forward to hug his father. "Kay kay!"
At that moment the bell rang loudly and Namjoon sighed in relief before another disagreement rose, picking up Jungkook on his way towards the front door. "Here we go."
Opening the door revealed a petite young woman in her early twenties. Her long hair with neon blue streaks was tied back appropriately into a bouncy ponytail; she wore a plain lose T-Shirt and dark jeans; light and natural makeup decorated her face and she smiled politely at the family with both hands clasped together in front of her as she bent forward for a quick bow.
"Annyeonghasseo," she softly greeted. "My name is Kim Haneul and I'm twenty two years old. Please take care of me."
Bowing their heads the other two adults introduced themselves, "thank you for coming on such short notice." Namjoon apologized.
"No problem at all, Mr. Kim. It's worth it to spend the night with these little cuties." She cooed at Jungkook who in response hurriedly hid his face into Namjoon's neck.
"Sorry about that, Kookie's just shy to new people." He ran a hand through the boy's hair, trying to coax him out.
Seokjin felt someone tug his hand and looked down to find Taehyung, "Appa, she has the same family name as us."
Chuckling softly he nodded, "I'm sure you'll find a lot of Kims in Korea, Taehuyng."
"Dad," Jimin tugged at Namjoon's trousers. "Dad, look at her hair. Her hair is so cool!"
Haneul raised a hand to her mouth, giggling behind it. "Oh, what cuties. I can't wait for tonight."
"Unfortunately, Jiminie's coming with me." Namjoon told her, "Seokjin'll just explain how some things work and then we'll be on our way."
---
"Joonie, I'm worried." Seokjin whispered once they closed the door behind them so Jimin couldn't eavesdrop.
"Jin, don't be. She's babysat before and the kids have also been away from us before. Just three more hours and then it's bed time, then two more hours and I'll come home with Jiminie. Now let's hurry, the kid is about to explode from excitement." He pecked his husband's cheek and hurried off to the car, pulling their son along with him.
Slowly releasing a breath, Seokjin nodded. It's just one night. And if the kids like her, they can call Haneul again and this'll be very convenient for their little family.
---
"Alright, boys so guess what time it is?" Haneul clapped her hands.
Taehyung held onto Jungkook's hand as they both stared up at her. "I think it's five cause when the big hand is on five then it's five o'clock." The older responded confidently.
Haneul cooed behind her hands, "aw sweetie, it's six o'clock. It's the number the small hand is at which tells the hour, the bigger hand is for the minutes."
"Oh, well it's six then!"
Her smile twitched a bit, "now, Taehyung, you have to apologize for any mistakes you make."
The boy tilted his head and frowned, swinging Jungkook's hand forward and backward while the four year old simply tightened his grip on his rabbit. "But I didn't do anything wrong?"
"Yes, you did." Haneul corrected, "you made a mistake on telling the time. Now say sorry."
"But that's not wrong." He insisted.
"Taehyung, I want an apology." She said firmly.
Pouting, he gave in. "I'm sorry, Haneul Noona."
"That's better," she praised before turning her attention on the younger boy, giving a little gasp. "Now, who's this little fellow?" She gestured to the toy rabbit.
Jungkook snatched his hand away from his brother and straightened out his toy to show off to the newcomer, "His name is Mr. Bunny. He's a bunny like Kookie."
"Aw, that's so cute! Just like you two." She grinned at them. "What I wanted to say before was that it's snack time, who's hungry?"
"Me!" Jungkook squealed and raised one arm, the other clutching the rabbit. Taehyung followed suit but if someone knew him better saw him then they'd easily tell that he held back a little from his normal enthusiasm for food. He didn't like this babysitter very much, which is new since Taehyung liked everyone, but she frowned upon something Appa and Daddy wouldn't have frowned upon. Why was that?
Two hours had past since then and no other problems occurred. Currently, the two children were sat in front of the TV, eyes wide as they watched Ash and Pikachu battle with Team Rocket once again.
Haneul sat on the sofa quietly on her phone and glanced at the time. "Uh oh, kids we're a little late for dinner. I'll go set it up and you wait here, kay?"
"Okay, Noona." Taehyung replied distractedly. He had decided that the new babysitter wasn't so bad, other than making him apologize she was very friendly and mainly just left the two boys on their own while she hovered somewhere in the room on her phone.
Luckily, as soon as the show ended dinner was ready and they were being called to the kitchen. Taehyung jumped onto his chair while Haneul helped Jungkook up into his, the youngest still clutched onto the rabbit, fiddling with one of the ears as he watched the babysitter flutter around the kitchen before she sat next to him to help Jungkook eat.
"Your father said you had to be watched when eating cause you tend to play with food instead of actually put it in your mouth," she said to Jungkook while Taehyung had already began eating. "I want you to only eat and nothing else until you've finished your plate, understand?"
The child just stared blankly at her before looking back at the plate in front of him and opened his mouth. "Ah."
She sighed, "he also said I might have to feed you."
With that they ate with silence, Taehyung making Jungkook giggle by making funny faces when Haneul wasn't looking and her attention was solely on her phone. The older boy finished before his brother and was excused to go continue watching TV. Taehyung left to sit on the couch, but from where he sat he could see through the doorway leading into the kitchen and had perfect view of the other two, and he again made funny faces to which Jungkook had to cover his mouth to suppress his giggles.
Some time later Haneul had left for a few minutes for the bathroom, leaving the boys to their own devices until she returned. Jungkook was still at the dinner table while Taehyung was now paying attention to the cartoon playing in front of him. Jungkook managed to eat a few spoonfuls before he started to hit the food with his spoon, smashing the meal up. The older ignored him in favor of the cartoon but it didn't matter much anyways, it was a normal occurrence and their parents never minded that much, in fact apparently Jungkook ate the mashed food better.
So Taehyung thought the behavior was fine, thought that it didn't matter much and thought it was normal for four year olds to play with their food while loudly singing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song on the top of their lungs.
But Haneul didn't think so.
"Kim Jungkook! What did I say about playing with your food? Stop it at once!" She yelled at him with her hands at her hip, glaring disapprovingly at the child. Jungkook for his turn stared up at her with a grin, not entirely understanding the change in atmosphere and continued to make a slight mess. Taehyung though, sat up and turned the TV's volume down, recognizing that tone and worriedly watched his brother ignore the angry babysitter.
"Well, fine. If you don't listen to me then you will lose certain privileges! I'm going to count to three Jungkook, and by then you had better be eating or else."
Privileges? What were those? Taehyung watched in confusion, he didn't know Jungkook had anything called a privilege, what exactly was he going to lose if he didn't stop?
"Two... Three. That's it. This behavior is unacceptable." And with that said, she went forward and began to tug at the toy rabbit.
Taehyung gasped, hands flying to his mouth. She was taking away Mr. Bunny! Jungkook held on, suddenly understanding the change in atmosphere and shrieked. With frustration, Haneul ripped the toy out of the child's hands and took it to the living room where she placed it on a high self.
"No!" Jungkook shrieked and jumped off the chair, running over to her and tugging at her jeans. "No! No! No! Bad! Give me back Mr. Bunny! I want my Mr. Bunny! Tae Tae! I want Mr. Bunny!"
But Taehyung could only sit there wide eyed, watching as someone forcefully took away his brother's favorite toy for the first time. Appa had given it to him when Jungkook was just a baby and now this mean lady had placed it on a high self.
Annoyed and feeling a headache come on, Hanuel groaned before she crouched down and gripped onto the four year old's arms. "Would you be quiet! Stop yelling right now!"
"No! Bad lady!"
"What?!" She had gone red in the face and to Taehyung's horror, she violently shook him. "What did you call me?"
Taehyung had sat still when she yelled and had even sat still when she took away Mr. Bunny, but now she was physically hurting his little brother and no, that is not how things worked in the Kim household.
"Stop!" He immediately jumped up and ran to them, "you're hurting him! Stop it!" He shoved her but he was too small for that to work so began to punch her arm with little curled up fists.
She stopped but turned to him, her jaw dropped wide eyed. "How rude! Did you just hit me?" Haneul released Jungkook who fell to his butt and Taehyung glanced at him, his face was red and wet from tears, he was hugging himself and his little body jumped from harsh sobs that were coming from fear and slight pain.
"You were hurting Kookie." Taehyung snapped at her, not being able to control an anger he'd never truly felt with such intensity before.
"Did you think it was okay to hit me? Hit a Noona?" She snapped back.
He glanced back at his brother again, the younger was curling up and sobs uncontrollably escaping his throat. He was gasping and hiccuping, calling for Appa with the little breath he somehow managed to suck in.
"Yes."
Suddenly Taehyung found himself being yanked into the kitchen, he turned his head over his shoulder and felt terrible for leaving Jungkook behind while he cried uncontrollably but was too weak to actually shake Haneul's tight grip off of him. Next thing he knew she was rummaging through the drawers and he watched as she found what she was looking for, a steel ladle. He watched in confusion as she muttered angrily to herself and stood still as she harshly lifted his sleeve up to his elbow.
"How old are you?"
Blinking up at her Taehyung answered, slowly losing any adrenaline and feeling quite weak. "Six."
"Then you get six smacks on your arm with the ladle's handle."
He snatched his arm away from her grip and clutched it protectively with his other, staring at her in horror. "You... You can't do that. Appa and Daddy only put us on the naughty corner when we're bad." He tried to give us other options.
"Well, I'm not your parents, am I? And if that's the only discipline you children get then that's probably why you're so out of order." She replied and tried to grab his arm again.
"Stop," he begged in desperation and attempted reasoning again, "Daddy'll get mad at you."
"He won't know," she hissed in frustration before finally getting a hold of the boy.
"I'm sorry," he tried one more time, tears pooling in his eyes and he tightly squeezed them shut, hearing his brother's faint hiccups from the living room.
"Bit too late now."
Haneul brought the steel handle onto the sensitive skin right below the elbow, not holding back on her strength. Taehyung jumped at the loud 'whack' sound that echoed in the kitchen. The handle came down once again on the exact area and hurt intensified. He cried out, trying to pull back his arm but Haneul had a tight grip on his wrist.
Four more times she brought it down on his sensitive arm. By the end of it Taehyung's face was red and contorted in pain, tears were running down his cheeks and he was openly sobbing. He desperately wanted Appa who would know how to make his arm feel better and take care of him as well as Kookie; he wanted Dad who promised Taehyung that he'd beat down any monsters who tried to hurt their family and he wanted Jimin, who as the eldest brother would know what to do.
But they weren't here, Taehyung was the responsible one and Kookie was in the living on the floor crying and so was he with a throbbing arm. He felt his sleeve being pulled down and a gentle hand clean away his tears. "Hush Taeyhung, it's alright. It's bath time now and then we can go to bed, okay?"
He looked up at her through his fringe in confusion at her soft voice, she was being nice now, only moments after physically punishing him. Pretending as though it had never happened. But he didn't want to make her angry any further and nodded at her kind, smiling face.
She gently tugged him by the wrist and he followed behind her, trying to control his sobs when he spotted Jungkook gasping on the floor. "I'm going to go start the bath, alright sweeties? You boys just stay put."
Once she was out of sight Taehyung wiped away the tears on his cheeks before falling onto his knees and collecting the shaking Jungkook in his arms. The younger took a few seconds to realize where he was before gripping onto his brothers shirt and rubbing his face into his neck, "Tae Tae, she's mean." He whined. "Want Appa."
Taeyhung glanced up at the toy rabbit that would have been able to soothe the boy but it was too high for him to reach so he settled for rocking the younger. "Appa's coming soon, Kookie." He reassured hoarsely. Taehyung pulled him up and dragged them both to the television that was still on, 'SpongeBob Squarepants' playing on screen. "Let's watch TV."
Reluctantly, Jungkook peeked up from the older's neck and watched the show, both boys had somewhat control over their breathing now and were distracted by the cartoon characters.
"Boys," Haneul gently called as she walked over to them. "The bath's ready."
Jungkook hid his face into Taehyung's neck with a barely audible, "no." While the older boy hugged him tighter protectively, peeking up at Haneul through his fringe.
Sighing, she crouched down. "C'mon Kookie, tell you what, you come have a bath and for bed time I'll give you back Mr. Bunny."
He lifted his head up hesitantly, "promise?"
"Pinky promise," she cooed. "C'mon."
Jungkook peeled himself from his brother and allowed Taehyung to stand up before grabbing onto his hand. Taehyung led the way and followed Haneul up the stairs quietly, not wanting to upset her and change her strange nice mood.
The bath went smoothly enough, Jungkook just sticking to his brother more than usual and Taehyung wincing whenever something touched his throbbing arm. The laughs they had were less than there normally were and the playfulness they had in the water had been toned down massively.
After dressing up Jungkook in his pajamas, Haneul turned to Taehyung who was pulling on his night shirt before she swore loudly. Taeyhung stopped all movements and stared up at her with wide eyes. "You said the F word," he whispered in shocked innocence.
"Your arm. What the hell, how did you bruise so easily?" She glared down at him and he was afraid he'd done something wrong again, he looked at the arm she had previously abused. The area she had hit right below the elbow had a large, swollen and dark purple bruise and Taehyung had successfully ignored the throbbing so far.
"Boys, I need to discuss something with you." She sat down on the floor and helped Taehyung put his shirt on faster, long cotton sleeves hiding the bruise. "You two have to promise me you won't tell anybody about me taking away Mr. Bunny or about me hurting you. Cause I never really hurt you, right?" She smiled. "I'd never do that."
"But you did." Taehyung replied angrily, losing himself for a second. "You hurt me and Kookie."
She scowled and glared at Jungkook who had been nodding his head in agreement, making him abruptly stop. "You won't tell anyone. Especially not Appa or Daddy. Understand?"
They never kept secrets from their family before, Taehyung bit his lip, there was no way he'd let Haneul get away with this whether she was a Noona or not.
"Listen," she placed a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Taehyung, I need you to not tell anyone and I need you to convince Kookie to do the same. You know why?"
Taehyung shook his head, wide eyes watching her cautiously.
"Well, you love your little brother, right? So, I swear to you Taehyung, that if I find out that you or Jungkook told anyone about me hurting you tonight then something bad will happen to Jungkook."
Taehyung's lip shook in horror, all plans of telling his fathers flying out the window. "What bad thing?"
"You'll just have to find out when you tell." She smiled sweetly, "so keep your mouths closed and keep your sleeve down. Alright?"
He wanted to cry. He wanted to cry so bad. But he nodded weakly. Biting his bottom lip in an attempt to stop it from shaking.
"Do you understand, Kookie?" She turned her attention to him.
"No." He stomped one foot in rebellion. "I'm telling Appa and Daddy you was mean."
"Were." She corrected under her breath in frustration. "Taehyung, convince your brother for me, please."
Reluctantly, the older stepped forward and tried weakly. "Kookie, something bad will happen if we tell so we can't, okay?"
Jungkook's jaw dropped in betrayal, "but Tae Tae-"
"If you tell I'll also take away Mr. Bunny forever." Haneul added an extra two cents in.
"Tae Tae..." He whined, eyes filling up with tears.
Taehyung looked away, this was hard enough for him, how hard must it be for the four year old? "Kookie, please just promise? I don't want anything bad to happen."
In defeat the younger folded his arms and turned away, "I promise."
"Great." Haneul clapped her hands. "You boys get to bed and I'll go get the toy."
They both trudged to their respectful beds, all three children having shared a room. Haneul came back and tucked them in, giving Jungkook back the toy rabbit and he snatched it away from her, cuddling it protectively.
"Good night boys, sweet dreams."
The door closed, the only movement were the stars the rotating nightlight created on the ceiling. Quietly, little feet padded on the ground and Taeyhung found his brother climbing onto his bed.
"Tae Tae-"
"You can sleep here, Kookie." Taehyung whispered before he asked and lifted his blanket for Jungkook to crawl into. They snuggled together, Mr. Bunny between their bellies.
"Tae Tae, will we really not tell?" Kookie whispered sleepily.
"A promise is a promise, Kookie." He whispered back, "we can't tell or something bad will happen."
"Okay." Jungkook said trustingly, if his brother had made him promise he'd be more likely to keep it than if he had promised Haneul. "If you say so."
The older nodded, unconsciously pulling his sleeve down.
---
Namjoon unlocked the front door, cradling a sleeping eight year old in one arm. "Hey," he whispered when he saw the young girl sitting peacefully on the couch. She stood to greet him, bowing respectfully.
"Lemme just put Jiminie to bed and I'll be out here in a minute," he gestured to the boy using his shoulder as a pillow and Haneul nodded in understanding.
Namjoon carried his child upstairs, quietly opening the door. He was glad Haneul had managed to easily put the others to sleep, Hoseok sometimes had a difficult time in doing so and more often than not either Namjoon or Seokjin came home to wide awake children and a sheepish Hoseok around this time. Laying Jimin down in his bed he tucked him in, brushing the child's hair off his face and leaning down to place a caring kiss on his forehead.
He then turned his attention to Jungkook's bed, frowning at the empty but messed up sheets before spotting both of his youngest children in Taehyung's bed. Namjoon lovingly fixed the blanket over them and leaned down to kiss their heads, his paternal instincts taking over slightly as he watched them, star patterns from the rotating nightlight shining peacefully over them. They must have either missed their fathers or had slight trouble with Haneul otherwise they wouldn't be sharing a bed. But whatever the case was, Namjoon was glad they were both safe and sleeping soundly.
Quietly closing the door behind him, he came down to find Haneul slipping her bag on her shoulder. "Thank you so much, Haneul. Here's the money we owe you. I hope the boys weren't too much trouble."
"Oh, Sir, they were no problem at all. They listened very well, there were just a few times they missed you and little Kookie had taken to playing with his food rather than eating it but that was quick to sort out. Otherwise, they were delightful." She smiled and took the money offered.
"So, I take it that you wouldn't mind returning in case we needed you?" Namjoon asked, relieved at the thought of having a permanent babysitter to rely on.
"I'd love to come back, Sir. And hopefully Jimin could join us next time?" She said as she made her way to the door.
"I'm sure he'd like that. He definitely loves your hair," Namjoon said lightly and opened the door for her. "Take care on your way home, Haneul. Thank you again."
"You're very welcome, Sir. Tell the boys I look forward to meeting them again."
---
"See, Jin? Look at them." Namjoon rested his chin on Seokjin's shoulder as he hugged the older man from behind. "Sleeping like lil' angels."
They stood at the doorway to the kids' bedroom. Seokjin had just gotten home and his face screamed worry, not sure as to how his children liked the new stranger who came to their house. Seokjin sighed softly and let the door close before turning around to face his husband who still had his arms around him. "Okay, you were right. You sure they were asleep when you came back?"
"I checked, Haneul said the only trouble was when Jungkook played with dinner and that they missed us now and then, but that's normal." He nuzzled Seokjin's cheek. "And Jimin was half asleep when I picked him up and knocked out by the time we reached home."
"But why is Kookie in Tae's bed?" Seokjin wondered out loud and hugged Namjoon back.
"They must have missed us, they're not used to staying with someone who isn't us or the Min's." Namjoon offered this explanation, running a heavy hand through Seokjin's hair. "You're tired and so am I, the kids are asleep and will come to us if there's a problem in the middle of the night. Let's just go to bed now, kay?"
The elder sighed tiredly, breathing in his husband's scent deeply to calm himself a little more. "Kay."