"What do you think?" Yoongi sniffs, wrinkling his nose cutely as his inner critic starts to peek out. "I know it's still really rough. It's just the first draft."
"Don't be silly. It's perfect." You sigh, looking around to the handsome men you're so fortunate to have in your life. "I wouldn't change anything about it. I wouldn't change any of this," You gesture to Aera all of them, and the house in general. "Not for the whole world. I love you all so much. I'm so grateful to all of you. For everything."
They echo your love, leaning in one at a time to kiss your lips.
"Kitten, None of this would have happened if you hadn't met Jungkook at that vending machine." Namjoon reminds you, his dimples burning into your memory as he smiles down at you.
"Yea, I'm really glad hyung made me go get a soda for him." Jungkook's laugh rings out like a clear bell. "I still remember how you looked so flustered when I called you noona."
"I'm just glad you agreed to our whole arrangement." Taehyung chuckles deeply, kissing your hand with his devil-may-care smirk "Thank you for even considering living with all seven of us, baby."
"Only because I was.......am a whore." You quip to keep from crying again, earning a laugh in return.
"Only in the best way, Jagiya," Jimin chimes in. "But more importantly, you've been so understanding and patient and forgiving with all of us, but mostly me, I can even begin to tell you how grateful i-i am for you." His voice cracks slightly as emotion catches in his throat.
"Here Here," Jin seconds, bringing out his sweet romantic side. "Princess, you have the patience of a saint to deal with all of us. And to wait for all of us to gather up our courage to tell you how we really feel."
God, it has been such a whirlwind the past few months, you tend to forget just how much you've been through together.
"You've made us so happy Angel. Even before Aera you were the best thing that ever happened to us, and even more so now if that's even possible." Hoseok chuckles, pulling on a silly face with that brilliant sunshine smile.
"Guys, you're gonna make me cry again." You whine, dabbing the tissue under your eyes again.
"Happy tears are always okay, babygirl," Yoongi hums sweetly before dead panning. "but not now, you can't cry because we'll all cry again, and then who's gonna make dinner?"
You all have a good laugh and you beam down at your daughter. Your babygirl, your little princess, your jagiya, your kitten and angel. Your baby with these seven amazing men you've chosen to share your life with. She's so peaceful when she sleeps. You run a hand gingerly over her head feeling her fine hair.
"There's one thing I do regret though.." You say cryptically drawing many looks of confusion. "I wish we would have listened to that after dinner, now she's going to be crabby when it's time to eat again. "
You smile widely at the relieved men, and they smile back. Wiping your eyes and nose again, you pass Aera off to the waiting arms of Taehyung and join Yoongi and Jin in the kitchen, the way you do every night. The way you hope to for many many nights to come, in this perfect world with only the 8 of you.
The end.
No, no, no. That's not the end.
Not even close.
"Aera don't run so close to the fire pit please." Jin shouts from the deck as Aera runs across the grass.
A bubble wand makes streams of bubbles for Bam, Yeontan and Moni to follow as she goes winding back and forth in the big yard. The dog's jaws snap playfully at the iridescent bubbles, ambiently floating in the harsh August heat.
"Okay!" She calls back jovially, redirecting her course from the route by the camper.
"I'm sure she'll be fine." You say, strolling up to the main deck in front of the house.
"Yea probably, but she could still inherit Namjoon's propensity for chaos and destruction." Jin speaks louder and chuckles, as Joon looks over his shoulder at the mention of his name.
Joon gives you both a questioning look ducking out from under the large event tent set up right in front of the pool. To house all of the grandparents come to celebrate Aera's 6th birthday.
"What?" He asks, "Did you need me?"
"No dear, Jin's just being a smartass. How are those ribs coming along baby?" You ask, padding over to Yoongi standing over the grill. The wild flames lick up between slabs of meat, sending a delicious aroma into the air. "Our guests are just wondering how much longer it will take for dinner."
You gesture to the crowded tent full of in-laws chatting lightly, check the odd watch occasionally.
"It's almost ready." He hums, picking up one of the slabs peering at either side of it."I've never known a six year old who would request ribs and pie instead of pizza and ice cream."
It's true. The other night you sat down with Aera and asked her what she wanted for her birthday. She said she wanted ribs and cherry pie, and bubbles, that was it. No other toys, no other foods. Just ribs, pie and bubbles.
It's the simple things in life that really matter when you're turning 6.
Taking your intel you go back down to the lower level in the grass to report back to your hungry guests.
"Ribs are almost ready. Once they are done we'll bring out the salad and please help yourself to the lemonade or if you'd like a more adult beverage I'd be happy to play bartender."
Your announcement ends and you make your way through the chattering crowd to the table with the lemonade and chips. Grabbing a cup, you pour out some lemonade. In your peripherals you see Taehyung and Hoseok's mothers sidling up to the table.
Turning, you smile benignly at them, it's clear they have a question burning them up from the inside.
"Sooo, How much longer?" Mrs. Park asks, giving a pointed glance down to your rounded stomach.
"Oh gosh," You think, casting your gaze to the tent above trying to do the math in your head. "5 months? Wow yea 5 months. Time goes so fast these days."
"Trust us it only gets faster." They laugh heartily, and it draws over Jin's mother and then Jimin's, and Jungkook's, then finally Namjoon's and Yoongi's mothers as well.
Your gaggle of mothers huddle by the punch bowl, leaving their men and your men to socialize and fend for themselves.
Meanwhile, the mothers grill you about the expectant baby. To be fair it has been since christmas since they all saw you last. And you weren't pregnant then.
"So what names have you picked?"
"Is it a boy or a girl this time?"
"It's a girl again," You answer once your head stops spinning. "And no, no names yet, we are open to suggestions."
Naming one child was hard enough, let alone two and now three.
Speaking of two, where is he? You scan between the mother-in-laws looking for your son. It's been a while since you've heard your three year old screech.
He was pulling on Mickey's tail just a minute ago when you went to make the salad, but now poor patient Mickey is sitting all alone.
"Excuse me, I need to find my child." You say jokingly. Mostly.
Now to be honest you have really leveled out in terms of mothering anxieties. Having number 2 really taught you that. And by that time Aera was about two and a half years old, so you knew what to expect when your son was born.
Pushing out of the huddle you go over to where a few of your husbands are sitting around a table, talking with some of the grandpas.
"Ah, our beautiful, beautiful expecting mother," Taehyung coos, drawing you closer to the table with a sneaky hand on your butt. "Perhaps you can settle our bet."
"Kitten, we were just discussing the pass betweens we put on the houses. Do you remember, was that before or after Aera was born?"
"Definitely after," You scoff, "Don't you remember having to bundle her up just to get to a different house all winter?"
"Oh.. yea.. Yeah I do remember that now." Joon smiles sheepishly.
"Told you," Jimin pokes fun with his words and quite literally pokes Namjoon in the side a few times.
The pass betweens he's referring to are the new additions to the houses, like big insulated hallways that connect all three houses like one big mansion. And he's right. If you had to put Aera in a down coat and bundle a toddler at the same time just to get dinner you might have snapped.
Again, speaking of the boy.
"Sorry, to interrupt your building talk, but where is Iseul?" You ask, looking around the circular table for an answer.
"Jungkook took him to Party house, to get him cleaned up." Jimin tells you, "He went running after Aera, and fell and scraped up his hands and knees a little. Nothing serious."
"Oh, okay," You shrug. "As long as we know where he is."
It's not that you're not caring when it comes to your son, but this isn't uncommon, you really wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be Joon's, with how accident prone he is.
Aera is wild sometimes, but rarely does she get hurt and she is very graceful like a little dancer. Iseul on the other hand is wild and is never without some kind of bump or bruise.
Of course you have your own speculations as to which father they look like more, but that really doesn't matter. Each of the men treat the kids exactly the same, loving them the same, just like you all agreed you would.
"He was fine, Kook just wanted to make sure he didn't get infected, there was a good bit of dirt in the scrapes." Tae tells you leaning back craning his neck towards the house at the far end of the yard. "Here they come."
Sure enough you glance back over your shoulder and see Jungkook carrying Iseul on his hip, doing a funny little hop with each step making your son cackle.
He stops just a few yards from the tent to put the toddler down. Immediately when Iseul's feet touch the ground he's off and running at full speed again, making a bee line right for you.
"Eommaaaa!" He shouts, barreling towards you, not slowing as he approaches, running right into your legs, wrapping his tiny arms around your left thigh.
"Show mommy what happened buddy." Jungkook instructs his son as he strolls under the shade of the large tent.
"I fell." He tells you matter of factly showing you his bandaged palms thrusting them up at you almost proudly.
"Oh yea?" You ask, crouching down next to him, putting a hand around his waist softly. "You got a booboo? But you're okay, huh?"
"Yea, I okay." His gaze wanders around the tent without a care in the world, his hand fiddles with your skirt hem. Iseuls glance settles on Jimin's lap and he points with great insistence. "Up!"
"Sure bud, come here," Jimin beckons, leaning down with his arms outstretched ready to receive his son. "Ready, Rocket? 1, 2, 3 Blast off!!"
Iseul squeals as his dad lifts him high up in the air before being brought down slowly. Jimin makes rumbling engine noises as the boy lands on his lap, smiling brightly at the joy he has wrought.
"Again!" Iseul demands, squirming until he slides off of Jimins lap. So Jimin does the Rocket ride again. And again, and again. And on the 5th demand Jimin shoots the rest of you, snickering onlookers with a pleading glance.
The grandpas hold up their hands passively, stating that they had done their time, now it was your turn to play the games over and over again.
"Iseul." Taehyung calls, letting go of your hip to bend low in the chair on his child's level, grinning from ear to ear. "Do you want to show Grandpas how many jumping jacks you can do?"
"hmm-" Your baby hums, curling his shoulders forward, drawing in, shying away from the challenge.
"Daddy and I will do it with you." Taehyung promises him, standing up and gesturing to Jungkook who nods fervently. "Come on, let's show them."
Jimin gave the 3 year old a little nudge forward, and that was all the convincing he needed to stand in between his fathers and show off how they had taught him to do jumping jacks.
The grandmas catch wind of the cuteness going on and come to gather around your son, as he does half jumps raising his arms at the wrong time. But the heart is there. The crowd awes in chorus, and of course you are very endeared by your baby, but your eye is drawn more to your muscular men doing the jumping jacks as well.
"Hey! Calling all hungry guests!! Aera! Ribs are ready!!" Yoongi calls waving his tongs above his head wildly. "Hoseok is grabbing the salad, but we can start plating up the ribs."
Aera turns on a dime and races back to the house, her pretty purple sundress and long dark hair flowing in her own wind as she runs back towards your house. It's insane how beautiful your baby has become in only 6 years.
She is still a child, but she'll always be your beautiful baby.
"Ribbsssss." The birthday girl cheers, stomping up the stairs to the deck, slamming down the vial of bubbles on the picnic table, grabbing one of the plates from the top of the stack.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Show me your hands, princess," Jin asks her, gingerly taking the plate from his daughter. Reluctantly she unfurls her fingers and presents her palms. "Wow!" He exclaims exaggeratedly. "So much dirt! You could grow mushrooms on those hands!"
Aera giggles at her dad's antics. You climb the stairs with the rest of the guests, as you watch her rush forward at Jin, laughing when he backs away pretending to be afraid of the dirty hands.
"Oh boy, those are dirty." Yoongi adds in surprise. "I thought you were only playing with bubbles."
"I was." She says quite innocently, waving her hands now at Yoongi.
He scrunches his nose and sets down the tongs, moving very slowly at first like a cat getting ready to pounce, then all at once he swoops in past her dirty fingers. Tickling her sides making her squeal and wriggle, nearly making her scrunch into a ball on the deck.
Finally she gets away from the tickle monster and tries to grab her plate again.
"Ah-ah. You need to go wash your hands first, little miss." Jin holds the plates out of her reach.
"I'll take her," you offer, and extend a hand to Aera. "Come on baby, let's check on daddy with the salad too."
Your little girl takes your hand and together you go into the main house.
Hoseok is busying himself at the sink washing silverware.
"Can we sneak in and wash our hands? The Bubbles were very messy." You gesture for Aera to show her hands again and Hobi's eyebrows raise in shock.
"My goodness! Yes they were!" He smiles brightly, chuckling at his oldest baby, "Yea, just one second we didn't have enough clean forks in the drawer." Hoseok slides to the side and pushes Aeras' step stool in front of the sink. "Hold on angel, the water is really hot, right now. "
He takes great care to regulate the water and steps back gathering up the forks that are clean along with the big bowl of salad to take out to the guests.
Hands get washed and then rewashed once ribs are had, and a change of dress was also in order. Yoongi put quite a bit of sauce on the grilled meat.
You should have known cherry pie would also end up...everywhere...
And for Iseul it sure did.
His hands, his forearms, his mouth, the front of his shirt, all of them covered in sticky staining, bright red cherry goo.
He wasn't even feeding himself!
Hoseok made sure to never set the plate of his son's pie down on the tray of the high chair. And yet somehow pie is on the back of the toddlers head, clumping his somewhat long hair together.
"Good god.... it's everywhere." Yoongi exclaims, pulling Iseul out of the highchair and onto his lap. "Did you get any in his mouth?"
"I think he ate more than I did." Hoseok jokes earning a laugh from the tent.
"Yea you're definitely getting a bath tonight buddy." Taehyung laughs coming back with a wet dish towel to wipe off the messy boy. Yoongi holds Iseul on his leg as Taehyung takes care of the sponge bath. "Did you like the pie?"
"Yeah, yummy in tumby" Iseul giggles as Tae tickles his stomach with the washcloth.
Surveying the crowded tent you can't help but smile to yourself. Everyone talking, laughing, getting along, so unlike the first time you announced that you'd be staying forever. Grandchildren really did change everything. Kids changed everything for your poly amorous little family. They can be tiring and difficult sometimes, but it's nothing the eight of you can't handle. And you would exchange the nights your sleep is interrupted by a baby crawling in bed with you because of a nightmare, or scraped knees or the terrible toddler tantrums, not for anything in the world. Because with all those somewhat unsavory times, comes some of the most beautiful moments in life.
Like hearing Aera and Iseul laughing together while playing with bubbles. Or watching each of your men bond with their children reading them to sleep, watching as their eyes close softly.
The way Aera begs to help Yoongi when he's working on new music, or how Iseul is utterly enthralled by Jin cooking, and he loves "working out" with Jungkook (hence where he learned the jumping jacks).
And Hoseok and Jimin love to throw dance parties in the living room, it's so sweet to watch them try to dance, and end up just jumping and wiggling around. Or when Taehyung takes them out to the edge of the yard by the camper for painting time, all three of them come back with unique little pieces of art.
School isn't Aera's favorite, and it won't be Iseuls favorite either when he starts next year, but it is so cute to see how patient Namjoon is when teaching, heading up the homeschooling efforts.
Sometimes you wish you could let the kids go to regular school but with your family situation you can't really risk either one of them blabbing that they have 7 dads. For now however they have cousins who they can make friends with, when they aren't on vacation, and later down the road you can put them in regular school when they are old enough to understand.
You're very lucky and you're reminded of that every day. Seven adoring husbands who make your nose bleed when they take off their shirts. Two beautiful children who are your entire world, and one on the way. It's not perfect, but it is perfect for you.
Helping Jin you gather the paper plates and dirty forks and ferry out the small number of present boxes and bags that Aeras' grandparents had brought, it is her birthday after all.
Aera sits on Taehyung left leg helping as Joon crouches next to her chair, tasked with the job of handing Aera the next gift and gathering up the tissue paper and wrapping bits that get discarded as the present outer shell is torn apart.
Of course your baby never forgets her manners, saying thank you for every gift, until she has worked through the whole pile. You and the rest of her fathers stand behind the horde of grandparents. Hoseok's hand rests on your waist from the left and Jungkook holds your hip from the right with Yoongi and Jimin standing shoulder to shoulder, Iseul settled securely on Jin's shoulders, clutching onto his fathers forehead.
"Thank you! I love all of my presents."
"Hold on honey, we have one more for you." Jimin says, speaking from the back of the cluster of elders.
"Do you remember telling me you were annoyed with Iseul always getting into your toys?" Jungkook asks.
"Yea," Aera rolls her small eyes, putting her hands on her hips, making you all snicker. "He's always getting into my stuff. I wish I had my own room."
"You're a big girl now, and with your sister coming, we think you're ready for your own room. So tomorr-oh!" Aeras eyes light up as Joon speaks, kneeling beside her. She slides off the chair and throws her short arms around his neck. Hugging her back Namjoon looks like a giant, when bear hugging his baby. "Tomorrow some men will be here to make plans for adding your room onto the house. So start thinking about what kind of colors you would like"
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She cries, squeezing his neck.
"You're welcome Sweetheart. Go give hugs and kisses to everyone, and say thank you."
Aera leaves Joons arms and makes the rounds to say thank you, and give hugs and kisses as the party draws to a close.
You sit back and take it all in. clearing the tables and the tent away can wait until later, right now you'd like to be in the moment. And oh what a moment it is.
"Iseul! Iseul, no." One of your men scolds, and your head snaps in their direction.
Your 3 year old is squatted by Grandma Jeon's very nice purse with a fist full of dirt and grass, daring to drop the clump into the bag.
"No thank you." Yoongi gets down on Iseul's level, shaking his head, pointing to the ground where the ball of dirt had been taken from. "Put it down please."
Reluctantly with a scowl that makes you fight back a smile, your son puts the dirt back down and wipes his hand on his already very dirty cargo shorts.
"Thank you buddy, It was very nice that you didn't get grandma's bag all messy." Jimin commends, joining the pair, holding out a hand to his son. "Come with me and daddy, let's go say goodbye."
If you'd have blinked you would have missed it, but you could swear Jimin winked at yoongi when he said 'daddy'. Somethings will never change and that's fine with you.
It only takes about an hour for all of the Grandparents to depart. The eight of you collapse into the folding chairs under the nice shade of the large tent. Basking in the semi silence, interrupted only by your children squealing and giggling playing with the new chalk set on the wooden deck.
"Well, that went well." Taehyung hums, nodding placidly.
"Definitely," Yoongi agrees, leaning back into the chair.
"They are gonna sleep well tonight." Hoseok chuckles.
"Me too." You laugh, between the barrage of activities and the human growing inside you, you are just about ready to sleep right here right now.
"Aera!" Jungkook calls his daughter. "Did you still want to swim today? It's getting late, we should do it now if you still want to."
"Yea!" She cheers.
"Ye!" Iseul squeaks, dropping the chalk immediately at the sound of swimming.
That is something they got from you if nothing else. They love to swim.
"Okay," you breathe, with a smile, heaving yourself out of the chair.
Quickly your daughter meets you just at the steps off the side of the deck, and wraps her arms around your legs. You bend and pick her up into your arms, popping your hip out to accommodate for the small baby belly.
"Whats that for baby?
"I just love you mommy. Thank you for my presents." She tells you, her fingers play idly with your small golden heart necklace from Croatia.
Your heart could explode with cuteness right now. You're gonna store this memory for 10 years from now when she hates you.
"I love you too," Leaning in, you kiss her forehead, and admire your own creation.
Perfect. Just perfect, and it's insane how quickly six year have gone by already. And it's only going to get faster from here. But the best is
"Can we go swimming now?" She asks, cutting into your desire to prolong the moment.
"Sure baby, let's go change."
"I'll get Iseul." Jin proclaims, already marching up the stairs to the toddler, as you take your daughter to the house to change.
You all change, and swim for an hour or so. Just enough for Aera and Iseul to be extra tired.
Together you get them ready for bed, tucking them in, and taking turns kissing them goodnight. You steal a few extra seconds to look over your beautiful babies before you close the door.
Quietly you all tiptoe out of the house and back up to the pool for some grown up time, with the baby monitor close by, of course.
"I'm so lucky to have all of you, and them." You sigh, sitting on the second step down into the pool looking out over the now dark yard and your scantily clad men swimming about.
Taking in each of their faces, from Jin, to Yoongi and Hoseok, Namjoon, then Jimin, to Taehyung, and Jungkook, all of them so perfect they haven't changed at all, It seems like just yesterday Aera was born. Time has gone so fast.
".... I love you all so much." You tell them, for the millionth time today.
"We love you too, so much." They all echo in unison.
The best is yet to come.
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Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I cant believe this is it. I'm legitimately crying, I appreciate all of you who have been here from the beginning. I thrills me to see all of you commenting , you're some of the funniest and nicest people. Its so nice to to see our little community here its sweet and not toxic like some comment sections can be here on Wattpad (no shade to any specific books).
I hope you know how much I love you all and I purple you all so much.
Yes there is still one more chapter to come for a Taekook smut (if you know you know) so stay tuned for that.
I also thought about doing a little Meet the author as well, so if you have any questions, drop them here>>>>>
Okay I love you!!!!!!!!