Work Text:
Jisung should have known better. He'd recognized the signs, but had ignored them, and now he was paying the price. The situation wasn't dire, not really, but all the same, he felt awful. The moment he opens the front door, bags of take out in hand, he knows he fucked up.
"Minho, baby, it's okay," he hears Chan say in a kind voice, a little loudly. But he has to be in order to be heard over the sobbing and hiccuping.
"N-No," Minho cries, "not okay. Wh-Where's Jisungie?"
"I think I just heard him, baby kitten, it's okay."
Jisung's heart is pounding as he kicks off his shoes and races around the corner to the kitchen. What he sees breaks his heart.
Standing in the middle of the kitchen is Chan with his arms wrapped tightly around a distraught Minho. On the floor beneath them is a sizable puddle. Jisung sighs internally when he looks up from it to the dark grey of Minho's sweatpants, which are absolutely drenched. He quickly sets down the bags of food on the dining table and rushes over.
"Oh, my kitten," Jisung says softly, causing Minho to startle and turn around in Chan's hold. His heart breaks looking at him. Minho's eyes are red and puffy, and his face is streaked with tears. "Hi, sweet boy, come here." He opens his arms.
With some difficulty, he notices, Minho stumbles his way out of Chan's arms and into his.
"Wet," Minho sobs, collapsing into his arms, "Jisungie, kitten peed his pants."
"Yeah, sweetheart, you had an accident, but it's okay. It's Jisungie's fault, not yours."
He should have known when they had to physically carry a sleeping Minho up to the apartment after a particularly rough dance practice that they were going to have a little kitten on their hands. He should have acted accordingly, but instead he was tired and thinking with his hunger brain. In fairness, he had gone out of his way to Minho's favorite restaurant to get his favorite foods, but all of that was moot because he'd left his baby to slip into headspace alone.
"Did you slip after practice, baby?" Jisung smiles in understanding when Minho nods. "I'm sorry I didn't catch it, kitten. I'm sorry I didn't change you before your nap."
"It's okay… Sh– Shouldn't have had an accident. Kitten was bad."
"Hey, no. Minho, baby, you're never bad for having an accident. You're not bad for losing control of your body—it's hard for baby kitties to control everything, right?"
Minho nods and sniffles. "It's really hard," he mumbles wetly. He leans into Jisung and wraps his arms around him, and it's clear to Jisung that he's struggling to stay upright with the way he's wobbling.
"What about a shower, baby kitten? Hm? What if we get all cleaned up and then into comfy clothes? Doesn't that sound nice?"
"Okay," Minho whispers. "Up..?"
Jisung blinks in surprise; Minho rarely ever asks him to be picked up, and never in his headspace, but who is he to complain. "Yeah, baby, come here." He thanks all that is good in the universe that he had started going to the gym again as he scoops Minho up into his arms, ignoring that his own clothes were now getting damp with the man's urine.
"Hyung," he murmurs, "can you, um, check the bed and possibly changes the sheets?"
"Of course."
He carries them to the shower and quickly gets them clean, knowing Minho doesn't really love bathing while in his pet headspace. Jisung then towels them off, wrapping them both up and carrying Minho to the bedroom. By this point, Jisung has begun to pick up on something.
"Aigoo, is my kitten feeling small?"
Jisung had had to make Minho sit down on the seat in their shower, the man having trouble standing and holding himself up. By the time they've made it to the bedroom, Minho seems to be struggling to even hold his head and upper body up. Carefully, Jisung helps lower him onto the bed.
Chan comes in and looks around. "What can I get you? Some clothes? A diaper?"
"Yeah, but…but grab me a nighttime one, will you? I, um. I think we have quite a small kitten on our hands—like, really small," he says as he watches Minho drool a little around the stuffed mouse he'd been given the moment they laid down, babbling tiny meows under his breath. His eyes are shining and innocent and completely glazed over.
"Does that affect which diaper you put him in?"
"Well…" Jisung blushes a little and looks down at Minho, who is blinking slowly up at the ceiling as he chews on his plushie. "He's only been in this kind of headspace twice that I know of, and, um, he seems to lose control of a lot of things—motor skills, words, most movement, his bladder, and…well."
Chan frowns as he hands Jisung the nighttime diaper. "And what?"
"I guess let's just say we've had to change a different kind of diaper both times…"
"Oh. Oh." Chan looks at him surprised. "Is he really going that small, that deep?”
Jisung nods. "I think so. We obviously know his headspace isn't really an age thing, but…but I would definitely call this headspace a newborn kitten kind of thing." He sighs. "It likely won't, but there is a chance it could get rough tonight, hyung, if that happens again. Last time, I was consoling a very small, upset and embarrassed baby kitten for over an hour, and then a very upset and embarrassed Minho for over a day. It was…hard. I think we got through it, though, so maybe it'll be easier this time, if it happens at all."
"God, I'm sure it was rough. That's got to be a hard thing to realize your body is doing, even if it’s doing it out of relaxation and a peaceful headspace.”
"Yeah, but I tried to explain to him that it's okay, and no one is upset or disgusted with him, and that it's all very natural, especially for kittens so small. It took some time, and some convincing, but I think this headspace is so restful for him, that he's struggling to reject it outright. I think he likes it, so we're making space for that to come with some…more challenging things."
"Damn. Bless you, Jisung. Minho is so lucky to have such a good owner."
He blushes again and is only snapped back to it when Minho lets out a happy squeal as he shakes his mouse plushie and it rattles softly. Both men chuckle.
"God, he's so sweet like this."
Jisung nods in agreement. He would change one hundred diapers a day, give twenty baths, if just to have Minho this at peace all the time.
"Okay, sweet kitten, let's get you changed and dressed." Carefully, he helps Minho into a nighttime diaper, which is a bit more of a challenge with Minho being so small and less able to help him. He smiles when his kitten lets a pleased sigh as he tapes the sides up snuggly. He then helps him into an oversized t-shirt. With Minho being so small, he forgoes the usual ears and collar, but he does put him in his paw socks.
Minho blinks up at him in surprise the second they're on his legs. He wiggles around, rubbing his feet together and kicking them softly in the sheets before suddenly he's giggling and clapping.
"Aw," Chan chuckles and pets through Minho's hair, "does our baby like his paws?"
In reply, Minho merely babbles a sound much like a meow and smiles. He grimaces a little and whines when Chan begins to wipe away the drool around his chin.
"So…what do we do with such a very little kitten?," Chan asks.
"Hmm, well. It's hard for him to play with most toys like this, but we had some luck with tummy time, as well as with the plush mouse. Let's start there."
Carefully, Jisung scoops Minho up into his arms, supporting his neck as as his head wobbles. "Arms around me, baby," he murmurs, helping his kitten do so. Minho sinks into his chest, resting his head on Jisung's shoulder with a sigh. "Fishy, sweetheart?"
Minho nods, a knuckle already sucked into his mouth.
Chan grabs the bottle-shaped pacifier and wipes it clean before presenting it to the little kitten. Minho opens his mouth wide to accept it, humming happily and wiggling in Jisung's arms as soon as he's sucking on it.
He carries Minho out into the living room and asks Chan to lay out one of their soft blankets before laying Minho down on it on his back.
"Hi, sweetheart," Chan says in an excited voice when Minho blinks up at him, smiling and giggling behind his pacifier. "Is hyung silly?" He pulls one of Minho's wands from the container of toys, one with little feathers and a bell, and begins to gently run along Minho's arms. The little kitten looks up at him in surprise. "Oh," Chan gasps playfully, "does that feel nice, baby?"
Minho reaches out clumsily, trying desperately to grasp the feathers as they float above him. He wiggles around, his arms flailing not too dissimilarly to when he plays in his usual headspace, but far less coordinated. High pitched giggles erupt every time Chan brings the wand down to tickle at Minho's face; Minho's feet kick happily with each laugh.
"God, he's so fucking precious," Chan whispers. "I've never seen him like this."
“It’s really fucking special,” Jisung murmurs in agreement. “I hope as he becomes more comfortable with it, you will more often. I think it's going to become more normal than not, if we can get over the one hump."
Jisung and Chan eventually help Minho roll over onto his belly, where the kitten tries, and largely fails, to prop himself up on his forearms, his feet kicking out behind him. Minho makes little frustrated sounds around his pacifier as he kicks, his hands slapping lightly at the floor.
"What is it, baby kitten? Where are you trying to go?,” Jisung asks, brushing back Minho's bangs to see tears of frustration welling up. "What do you want, baby?"
"Nng, nng," Minho babbles, too garbled to quite call a word or a meow. His hands reach out from underneath him, causing him to topple to the ground; this happens a couple of times before Jisung finally spots what he is after.
"Aaahh." He reaches under the couch and pulls out a plush fish. He squeezes it and it crinkles and squeaks. "Is this what you wanted, baby kitty?"
"Mm! 'Ishy," Minho slurs wetly around his pacifier. "'Ishy!"
"Yeah, baby, it's your fishy." Jisung helps him roll back over onto his back and hands him the fish toy. Immediately, the pacifier falls from Minho's mouth and the fish is stuffed into it. "Well…that's fine, too, I guess," he chuckles.
"Uh oh," Chan says, "looks like our baby is using his diaper."
Minho's nose scrunches and his legs curl in a little as the paw prints on his diaper turn blue and the soft padding slowly expands. He lets out a small whimper and looks up at Jisung with watery eyes.
"Oh, it's alright, sweetheart, finish peeing. I'll grab you a clean diaper."
Jisung grabs a nighttime diaper and the pack of wipes they keep in a bag in the living room next to Minho's toys. "Aigoo, my baby did so well," he murmurs as he removes the wet diaper and begins to clean away the excess urine still sticking to his kitten, Minho grimacing at the coolness of the wipes. "I know. Our wipe warmer is in the bedroom, I'm sorry, baby." He secures Minho into the fresh diaper and gets up to toss the dirty one in the trash. "Hyung," he calls from the kitchen, "I'm going to make him a bottle for dinner—there's no way he's got enough motor skills to eat tonight."
"Sounds good. Want me to get our dinner out?"
"Would you? I'm starving…"
He preps a bottle, filling it with warm milk and some of Minho's protein powder so that it has some substance to it, since it seems the man wouldn't likely be eating much more than this tonight. Jisung returns to the living room and carefully scoops Minho into his lap. "Hi, baby kitten, I know you're craving seafood," he teases as Minho continues to drool and chew on his fish plushie, "but how about some actual dinner?"
Minho's eyes light up at the sight of the bottle, and the fish falls to the floor in a soggy heap; Jisung would have to remember to wash it tomorrow. "Mm," Minho whines, pointing at the bottle, and then tries his best little meow—the sound is too cute for words.
"Yeah, let's have some milk, baby." He holds the nipple up to Minho's mouth, who excitedly seeks it out until finally his lips have latched onto it.
With a sigh, Minho relaxes in his arms and begins to suckle, a drop of milk pooling on his lip as he drinks.
"That's it, sweet baby," Chan coos as he settles down on the floor next to them with his and Jisung's food. "What a good boy we have."
Minho whines a little at the praise, a small smile on his lips. His hand reaches up to clutch onto Jisung's and his eyes flutter sleepily.
"I think it'll put him right out," Jisung whispers, leaning down to press his lips to Minho's forehead. He smiles when Minho lets out another sigh of contentment.
As soon as Minho is done, Jisung carries him to their bed and tucks him in, the kitten practically asleep before he even hits the mattress.
"Whew," Chan sighs as they both finish their dinner. "Not too bad this time, huh? I mean, a little more challenging than normal kitten Minho, but also not too bad. We just had to keep him from trying to eat feathers or hurting himself during tummy time," he chuckles.
"Yeah. I'd say the smoothest this headspace has gone so far. I'm hopeful for it. He's so fucking precious in this headspace, hyung. I really want it to feel safe for him to access. Clearly he needs to feel really small after spending his every day being so busy and independent and professional."
"And a good hyung."
"Yeah. Fingers crossed for an easy morning."
The morning isn't as easy as Jisung would have liked, but it could have been worse.
Minho wakes up at 4am in tears when he realizes he had soiled himself in his sleep. Jisung, ever the caring and dutiful owner, cleans him up and gets him in a hot bath and talks him down through the humiliation, which is a little easier as Minho is still in his headspace at the moment.
"Remember what we talked about, baby?"
Minho sniffles and splashes his fingers lightly in the hot water. "It's okay that little baby kitties can't control their bodies," he whispers wetly, looking up at Jisung with desperate, wide eyes, seeking for care and acceptance.
"That's right, sweetheart. And baby kitties' bodies are only doing what they need to do to take care of themselves, and it's all perfectly natural. There is nothing to be ashamed of."
"Jisungie…still loves kitten even when he has accidents and goes potty in his diaper?," Minho asks sadly.
"Baby, Jisungie will love you no matter what you do, how small you are, how much care you need. I will always love you and care for you."
"Love you, too, Jisungie."
He dries them both off and changes Minho into a clean diaper and puts them both back to bed. When they wake up again a few hours later, Minho is wet again, but feeling a little less ashamed than he was before. Still, Jisung spends all morning showering him with love and praise and care, reminding him how much he loves him, and how good of a kitten and a boyfriend he is.
And if Minho slips again into his very little kitten headspace again that evening, feeling safe enough with his owner to do so, that's between him and his Jisungie.