{completed} cuties » stray kids

safe secrets » minchan

little!chan
soon-to-be-caregiver!minho

this is probably the best request i've ever received - it was very funny to read so thank you for requesting ruby1011 and i hope you enjoy!

~*~

Minho sighed from the doorway, watching Chan work himself into a work-induced coma. When he manged to get Chan out of his studio, Minho considered it a major win. He thought he had finally succeeded in getting Chan to take a break, and he held that thought very close to his heart, but when he dragged Chan back to the dorm only for Chan to go to his room and continue working there, Minho felt deflated.

He knew Chan was reckless and that he would never stop working until everything was perfect, and so Minho decided to take matters into his own hands again.

"Chan," he called, and Chan only hummed in response. "Come on, you've been working like this for three days. You need to sleep."

"Min, I'm great. Promise!" Chan spared a hazy glance over his shoulder to smile at Minho in a way that he obviously thought was reassuring. But Chan looked tired.

Minho hummed shortly in response, standing up straight from against the wall with his arms folded and walking over to where Chan was sitting at his desk. He was writing lyrics, and from what Minho was reading, they made absolutely no sense.

"Chan, I-" Minho started but was cut off by a loud yawn that had Chan whimpering at the end. "Will you go to sleep now?"

Chan sighed heavily, pouting. "Yeah. I will."

Minho smiled triumphantly as Chan stood from his chair sluggishly before he collapsed onto his bed, sighing at the softness and warmth surrounding him. Minho couldn't resist stroking his curly blonde locks as Chan fell asleep almost instantly without even changing. He'd always thought Chan looked gorgeous like this - bare-faced, hair not combed or conditioned or styled. Just natural Chan. Minho wished sometimes that the stylists would never change how Chan looked, that they would let him grow out his curls and go on stage with no makeup on. But of course that was never the case.

He was about to leave Chan like that when he looked around the room and realised how messy it was. There were clothes strewn about on the floor, over wardrobe doors, on the floor where Chan had tried to throw them in the hamper and missed. Mugs - Minho presumed they had been used for coffee - and crumpled pieces of paper overflowing from the bin were creating a very unsettling atmosphere in the room, and if Minho knew anything, it was that a tidy living space was a healthy living space.

It wasn't too late, and Minho knew that once Chan got to sleep, nothing could wake him, and so he started cleaning. He started by emptying the bin and putting a new bag in its place and then he began filling that one with rubbish. He took the mugs to the kitchen for him to wash in the morning and filled Chan's hamper with the clothes on the floor before taking it to the wash room. He started a wash with all of Chan's dirty clothes and returned to Chan's room to see if there was anything else that needed cleaning.

Looking around, Minho noticed something pink sticking out from the closed door of the wardrobe, obviously caught between the doors when Chan closed it. Minho didn't even think before opening it, the last thing he was expecting to find being a pink teddy bear. Kneeling down, he picked the bear up and his eyebrows creased in confusion. When he looked back down into the wardrobe, he saw a box that he had never seen before and pulled it out. He probably shouldn't have, but Minho knew he was trustworthy.

The box was filled with various childlike objects. More plushies of varying colours, colouring books and...sippy cups? Minho picked up a mint green one and underneath it was...a dummy? A dummy. Chan had a dummy. For a moment, Minho's mind whirred, until something finally clicked. He had read something a while ago on Chan's laptop when he was trying to order something for Felix - a tab Chan had left open about something called Little Space. He didn't stay on the tab for too long, but he was there long enough to see something about dummies and colouring books and regressing to the mindset of a child.

Chan must be a little...

Minho heard a little whimper from behind him and whipped his head round so suddenly he almost got whiplash. Luckily Chan hadn't woken up, only stirred, and his mouth was now half-open, drooling steadily. Looking back down at the dummy in the box, Minho shrugged to himself before picking it up and making his way over to Chan quietly.

Kneeling down in front of him, Minho carefully brushed the nipple of the dummy over Chan's parted lips, and was amazed at how Chan's mouth opened automatically even in his sleep as he took the dummy between his lips. He looked at ease now, a lot less stressed and a lot more calm. It was something that warmed Minho's heart, and before he had time to think twice, he had grabbed the pink teddy bear from the box and was writing something on a post-it note.

He checked over it for any spelling errors before he gently stuck it to the bear's stomach, and then he knelt down in front of Chan again. He couldn't resist running a hand through Chan's hair again as he put the bear in front of Chan's chest. The older immediately reached for it, clinging to the stuffed toy. Minho stopped himself from cooing as he stood up, smiling as he looked at Chan with his dummy and stuffed bear.

Before Chan could wake up, Minho left, not wanting to be discovered, but for the rest of the night, he couldn't get the image of Chan looking so small and precious out of his mind. Maybe he should speak to Chan about it in the morning.

- You're very cute, you can tell me anything ❤️

~*~

i know we're upset. i know we're angry. and it's ok to be feeling this way. we've been betrayed by someone we trusted, respected and looked up to. it's ok to be upset. we helped stray kids get to where they are as much as the members have. we've supported them and we will continue to support them. from now, i'll be removing he who shall not be named (because i feel sick just writing his name) from all of my one-shots. i'm sorry if these consist of requests made prior to the incident, but it wouldn't be just of me to leave him in my stories.

and please remember guys:

stray kids everywhere all around the world. you make stray kids stay. 💕