the six littles had been taking it in turn pushing one another down the hill for a while now, and finally, they were starting to tire out a bit. a break was much needed.
slowly, they shuffled over to their caregivers, plopping down on the ground with little whines and groans. jeonghan raised a brow. "is everything okay?"
all six began to complain about how tired they were, even though they'd barely been playing for an hour. the four caregivers snorted, deciding that they should get lunch out of the way to give the littles some time to charge their batteries back up a bit. the sun was still high in the sky, after all. it would be a bit disappointing to have to go home already.
each of the seventeen littles were handed juice boxes, everyone except for joshua drinking grape juice. the eldest had orange. namjoon glanced towards their bag, seeing that there was indeed a juice box in there, but he already knew what was going to happen if he gave it to yoongi. the little always squeezed the box, ending up soaking wet and very pouty. on the other hand, they were risking a lot of embarrassment on his part if they handed him a sippy cup.
normally, yoongi would be having a nap at this time, so in actual fact, he should be having a bottle. that wasn't going to happen, though. there was no way he'd accept it in front of his friends, after a day spent trying to look cool.
seokjin finally made his decision, and pulled out yoongi's underwater patterned sippy cup. he bit his lip in anticipation as he handed it to the boy, who's cheeks heated up immediately. he opened his mouth to complain, but was quickly stopped by jihoon butting in with a gasp.
"wow! look at that! you've got fishes on your cup!" he exclaimed, earning the attention of the other four, who seemed completely mesmerised. seokjin and namjoon both let out a simultaneous sigh of relief, and yoongi's lips curled into a little smile.
"yeah," he replied, nodding his head. "hobi-hyung bought it for me!" there was a proud sort of tone to his voice as he watched the other five stare at his sippy cup in awe. his embarrassment slowly melted away, much to the relief of his caregivers, and before they knew it, he was sucking happily on the orange juice inside.
seokjin had relaxed some since seeing yoongi get along good with the other five. he couldn't say he was pleased to see his baby's clothes covered in dirt, or bruises and grazes littering his arms and legs, but unless yoongi himself complained, he wouldn't intervene.
he knows he can't shelter him forever, and that is the sad part about all of this. yoongi most likely won't need little space for the rest of his life, which is why seokjin tries his hardest to appreciate and cherish the moments he does get with the boy. maybe that can often lead to possessiveness, unwillingness to let go of what they've got. he's guilty of that, sure, but it's just so hard to think that yoongi won't always be his baby.
namjoon snaps him out of his trance with a little squeeze to his knee, and seokjin blinks a few times before giving him a reassuring smile. instead of fearing the future, he wants to live in the present. they're happy right now, yoongi sat carefully between his legs, sippy cup in his mouth. he looks adorable, too. how could they not be happy?
however, jeonghan, who's sat facing yoongi, can see the boy's eyes start to droop closed. the seventeen littles had naps, too, but rarely. they weren't as little as yoongi, so sleeping during the day was usually reserved for when they were sick or didn't get a very good nights rest. jeonghan coughed a little to get seokjin's attention, and once he had it, he nodded towards yoongi.
"are you sleepy, sweetheart?" the eldest said, keeping his voice as quiet as he could as he leaned down to yoongi. the boy shamelessly nodded his head, and even from here, seokjin could see the way his eyes were half closed. how on earth he was tired was beyond him, seeing as he'd napped on the train. however, it had only been short.. plus, he'd been running around..
namjoon leaned down and scooped yoongi up into his arms, sitting the boy down on his lap. seungkwan caught sight of the action, and raised his brows. "is yoonie going to sleep?" he asked, looking to seungcheol for an answer. the leader nodded his head, brushing a strand of hair away from the boy's eyes. "mhm, yoongi's littler than you lot, so he needs a nap sometimes, alright?" he said, explaining it in a way he hoped would get through to them.
it seemed to work, as they all pressed their index fingers to their lips and shushed everyone who wasn't talking. "we'll go play again," joshua said, and the other four nodded. they all stood up, tiptoeing off to the far end of the playground where they would no longer have to whisper. seungcheol only laughed, looking back to the other three.
"ah, they're too sweet," seokjin murmured, shaking his head slightly. "the rest of our group aren't even littles, and they still don't know how to be quiet when he's napping."
meanwhile, yoongi was already fast asleep, his legs dangling either side of namjoon's, his arms wrapped loosely around the younger's neck. his breathing had gotten considerably heavier, too. seokjin reached back, slipping the boy's pacifier back into his mouth with a hum.
"he's gonna need to be changed when he wakes up," namjoon said, keeping his voice quiet for the sleeping boy. "is there any bathrooms or anything around here?"
jeonghan and seungcheol exchanged a look, each thinking for a moment. "there's a campsite extension a little over that way, in the middle of there and here, there's a small hut with bathrooms in it," jeonghan explained, sitting up slightly and crossing his legs. "it's not too far, and you'll know it when you see it," he smiled.
seungcheol gave a low whistle. "gosh, i'm so glad we're past the potty training stage. finding a bathroom in public with five whiny littles hanging off your arms is not fun," he laughed, to which both seokjin and namjoon cringed. "doesn't sound it. i don't envy you. we suggested potty training to him a while ago, and he was all for it until it came to actually acting on the suggestion. he says it's too much effort to get up and walk to the bathroom, but i think he just enjoys being babied." namjoon paired his words with a shrug.
the eldest of the seventeen crowd nodded in agreement. "a few of them were a bit like that, too, but once one of them was done, the rest of them wanted to be big boys too," he chuckled. "you guys don't have any other littles, sure you don't? i guess that's why he's reluctant. i'm sure he'll warm up to the idea one day. or not.. depends on the little."
seungcheol and jeonghan were definitely a lot more experienced than seokjin and namjoon. they spoke from experience most of the time, and they seemed to just.. know what they were supposed to do. seokjin often found himself overly frustrated because he couldn't help yoongi with a dilemma, namjoon the same.
"we could definitely learn a thing or two from you guys," seokjin sighed, a breathy laugh accompanying his words. "yoongi kept this to himself for a long time, and when he finally did let it out, we weren't really given much time for research or anything. we learn from experience, i guess."
seungcheol and jeonghan clicked their tongues in unison. "you're not the only ones. i can't even remember who came to us first, honestly.. suddenly, though, we had five littles and it was a lot to take in. there's a lot of learning involved, you just have to be willing to dedicate yourself to it. you can't really mess up, in their eyes, you're literally a god," jeonghan laughed.
seokjin and namjoon felt a bit better.
they talked for a little while longer, before yoongi awoke. the nap on the train led to a much shorter sleep than usual right now, which was good. at least he'd be given more time to play. it was still early enough. namjoon offered to go and find the bathroom, much to seokjin's gratitude, and he led yoongi off, bag over his shoulder and sleepy little balancing on his other hip.
just as soon as he left, there was a loud yelp of pain, and all three caregivers jumped, pushing themselves to their feet. the other five littles were already on their way over, minghao in the middle of them all with tears streaming down his cheeks. he was limping a bit, and all eyes immediately went to his knees. sure enough, there was a decent sized cut on his left leg, a droplet of blood trickling down and pooling along the seam of his socks.
"oh, my poor baby," jeonghan frowned, pulling the crying little into a hug as soon as he was close enough. the other four stood back, pouting slightly. "he fell off the slide, daddy!" joshua explained, fidgeting with his hands. seungcheol nodded in understanding, ruffling the boy's hair slightly.
jeonghan stood back a bit from minghao, using his thumbs to wipe away the boy's tears. "you four are very good for helping him over, y'know. the best of the best. go on and play some more. thank you again." he paired his words with a little smile, trying to reassure the others that all was okay. it seemed to be enough for them, and with one last wave to their fallen brother, joshua, chan, seungkwan and jihoon ran off to the swings to continue their game.
jeonghan sat minghao down on the blanket with him, seungcheol heading off to play with the others for a while as a reward for helping out their fellow little. seokjin watched the two in front of him closely. he'd never really been sure what to do in the instance that yoongi hurt himself other than an immense amount of cuddles, so he was keen on seeing how jeonghan handled it.
the man reached into their bag, pulling out a tissue from one of the smaller compartments. he poured some water from a water bottle over it, and pressed it carefully to the boy's knee. they'd have to improvise, since they didn't necessarily carry a full first aid kit around with them. minghao winced, starting to cry a little harder than before, but it didn't last long. jeonghan took the opportunity to slip the boy's pacifier into his mouth while he was distracted, and it seemed to do the trick. his eyes were still watery, but he wasn't sobbing, so that was good.
"such a good boy," jeonghan praised, cleaning up minghao's leg for him. he made sure all of the blood was gone, getting the sniffling boy to then hold a dry tissue to his leg, while he himself went in search of some bandaids. it took a while, which wasn't that surprising since they had a lot in their bag. five littles called for five sets of little stuff.
jeonghan carefully removed the tissue from minghao's leg, peeling the protective seal from the watermelon patterned bandaid and pressing it over the graze. minghao winced again, but he seemed much more content now that his knee was covered up, sniffling reduced to a minimum.
namjoon and yoongi came into the picture, then, the little clinging onto his caregiver like his life depended on it. "he fell asleep while i was changing him," the leader snickered, earning a small laugh from seokjin. yoongi frowned when he saw the tear stains on minghao's cheeks, and slowly wriggled out of namjoon's grasp.
"you ok-ie?" he asked, his voice quiet and a little shy, too. minghao looked up, nodding his head some. he reached up to wipe at his eyes, before opening his mouth to speak. "i fell off the slide.." he said, his words even more slurred now than before due to the pacifier in his mouth. yoongi nodded his head, then, and went to slide his own pacifier back into his mouth. minghao looked at it.
"your paci has a star on it.. mine's got a star too," he pointed out, the corners of a smile visible on his face. yoongi crossed his eyes, attempting to check and see the truth to that, but he couldn't, so he just nodded. "yeah! i like stars. what's your favourite animal?"
the two littles continued on like that, finding out that they had a lot more in common than they initially thought. they both liked giraffes, both liked the colour purple, both liked paw patrol. it was cute to see them interacting so fondly with one another, and it was a blessing to jeonghan to see that minghao's attention was completely taken away from his knee.
"thank him for me later," jeonghan chuckled, to which seokjin gave a grin. "thank minghao for me. yoongi's finally talking to someone."
the two eventually shuffled off to play again, which caused even more relief for the caregivers. however, soon enough, after everyone had rejoined the game for some last minute fun, namjoon included, it was time to go home. the sun was starting to set a bit, and the youngest little, yoongi, was starting to get tired. that became pretty apparent when he asked for his stuffed toy and his little blanket to carry around with him. so, the caregivers started packing up, the littles all saying their goodbyes to one another. pacifiers and stuffed toys had been distributed to the other five to keep them from whining about having to go home.
"yoongi.. c'mere," jihoon said, beckoning the boy over to him, to which he obeyed. they stood a little way away from the group, the other four talking about how much they didn't want bedtime to come around or something like that. jihoon grinned at the boy once they were out of earshot.
"i have a plan."
— — —
jeonghan let out a small breath of exhaustion after he'd strapped the last little into the car, heading to the passenger seat himself and climbing in. seungcheol chuckled. "don't know why you're tired, you didn't even do any playing. in actual fact-"
the two bickered childishly back and forth all the way home, laughing quietly amongst themselves. it wasn't a long drive, since they lived relatively close to the playground. it barely took twenty minutes as opposed to the hour or more it took the bangtan trio to get there. the radio played quietly for the duration of the ride, some seventeen song ironically enough. it certainly caused an uproar of excitement in the car, anyways.
once the seven of them got home, jeonghan climbed back out of the car to help them all out. minghao first, who'd started limping again to get some pity off of his hyungs. joshua then, who was distracted by a toy train he'd found in the back of car. next was chan, who was as hyper as ever, followed by seungkwan who looked rather sleepy. lastly, jeonghan walked around the other side of the car, opening the door up to help jihoon out.
only, as he was doing so, his jaw almost dropped, and after a yell of seungcheol's name, the younger of the two had his phone out, seokjin's number typed immediately into his call log.
as soon as there was an answer, jeonghan spoke.
"you'll never guess what.."
— — —
\_(シ)_/
- 마이