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"Can I pick you up for dinner?" Seokjin asks in an overly sweet voice. It has Yoongi's insides churning as he looks at the scene. The sugar glider makes happy noises when Seokjin literally picks it up to be fed.
"Aigoo, you're all grown up now," Seokjin says, amused. Yoongi should be working on the bridge of the song Namjoon asked him to look at. Instead he watches as Seokjin carefully feeds the sugar glider. It looks so small in Seokjin's big hands, Yoongi feels something that resembles fondness. Except it can't be. He doesn't. He needs to work on this song and stop looking at Seokjin doting on his kids as he calls his pets.
"You're all my kids," Seokjin said once, when Jungkook complained about being neglected. He had come to their bedroom, asking wide eyed and hopeful if Seokjin was up for a quick run to the convenience store.
"But you love them better, hyung," Jungkook replied, sulking. It amused Yoongi, how Jungkook was never afraid to sound naïve or act like a child in front of them. Yoongi couldn't afford such luxuries.
Seokjin laughed a bit. One of the sugar gliders was running around the room inside a transparent plastic ball.
"You big baby," Seokjin told Jungkook as he started putting on his coat. Yoongi wanted to snort at how easy Seokjin was for Jungkook. Except he didn't because they were all easy for Jungkook.
"Yoongi-yah," Seokjin said in a manner that suggested Yoongi he was going to ask something from him. "Can you look af-"
"No," Yoongi said. He knew how much Seokjin hated to be interrupted, but Yoongi didn't care. He also knew he was being childish, but he was a busy man, he had no time to look after Seokjin's pets. It was Seokjin's responsibility, and really, he didn't have to go with Jungkook to the convenience store. Jungkook was not a baby anymore. He could take care of himself alright.
But Seokjin was out of the door before Yoongi could say anything else. Shouting that he was going to be back soon.
The sugar glider's ball collided with Yoongi's foot under the desk. Yoongi looked at it, frowning. He picked the ball up and stared at the little animal inside. He realised it was Odengie. It had darker rings across its eyeballs.
"Your owner is truly ridiculous," he said. He didn't want to think about the fact that he was talking to a sugar glider. So to keep his dignity intact he pretended he was talking to himself.
But then Odengie started making that noise it made whenever it was delighted. (Seokjin had made Yoongi watch sugar glider videos, to know how to recognise the different noises they can make.) Yoongi took Odengie out of the ball and cradled it in his hands. "Ah, why are you so happy?" He asked, smiling despite himself.
When Seokjin came back, he found Yoongi on his bed with the sugar gliders. They were all sleeping, and when Yoongi woke up in the morning, he found Seokjin curled up next to him. The sugar gliders were back in the cage.
"You could've woke me up, hyung," Yoongi said later, when they were having breakfast.
"But you were sleeping so cutely, Yoongi-yah," Seokjin replied. Yoongi hid his blush behind his massive cup of coffee and muttered something about how Seokjin could've gone to sleep in Yoongi's bed instead.
Now, Yoongi watches how Seokjin picks up the other sugar glider to be fed. He still hasn't even started with the stupid song, and he's getting irritated at the noises Seokjin and his kids are making.
"Hyung, can you just," Yoongi says a bit too roughly. "I'm trying to work on this song Namjoon sent me."
Both Seokjin and the sugar glider turn to look up at him with their stupid big eyes. Yoongi hates himself.
"Sorry," Seokjin says in a small, apologetic voice. "Was I being too loud?"
Yoongi knows he should say no. That they weren't being that noisy. That the song is fine. The bridge needs a little touch, but it's no big deal. They can add some vocals to it to make it work. But the sugar glider is purring in Seokjin's big hands, and suddenly Yoongi feels like the entire world is unfair. That things like sugar gliders and Seokjin's big gentle hands should not be able to make him feel like this. So instead he says, "I can't concentrate if you two are going to make all that noise."
"Sorry," Seokjin repeats. He quicky covers the sugar glider—his hands still tender—and puts it back on the cafe. He walks out of the room, then. Probably to go to Jimin's room to sulk and talk crap about Yoongi behind his back.
Yoongi is left alone with his stupidity and the sugar gliders still making delighted noises inside their cage.
He finds Seokjin alone in the living room, after an entire hour of Yoongi's brain replaying the scene where he lashed out at Seokjin for no reason at all. Trying to concentrate on the song was useless. He felt the sugar gliders staring at him from their cage, reminding him how much he fucked it up. After a while Yoongi felt like he was suffocating. He had to get out of there.
"Hyung," Yoongi begins. Seokjin looks up at him from the couch. He's staring at the TV, but Yoongi can tell he's not paying attention to whatever the person on the screen is trying to sell.
"Hey," Seokjin says.
When they first started living together, Yoongi couldn't understand how someone like Seokjin could be real. He thought he was faking being nice and that he was going to show his real ugly self, eventually. But it never happened. Seokjin was just nice like that. He was quick to anger, but also quick to forgive.
The light from the TV reflects on Seokjin's face, and he looks so vulnerable, so impossibly young it makes Yoongi's heart ache.
"I'm sorry," Yoongi says. "I didn't mean to yell at you. I was just stressed because of the song." It's a lame excuse. The song has nothing to do with it.
"Maybe we should change rooms," Seokjin says. He's still staring at the TV and not at Yoongi. "I know sometimes the kids make noises at night, and I worry they can wake you up. You don't get enought sleep as it is, I don't want you getting sick."
"No," Yoongi panics. He can't fathom sharing a room with anyone else. Ever. "I don't mind the sugar gliders, hyung. Really. It was my fault. I'm sorry."
Seokjin finally turns to look at him. There's a hint of a smile in his face. Yoongi can see it in his eyes. "Okay," Seokjin says. "Because, honestly. I don't know what I'd done if you agreed to change rooms. I would've died in Jungkook's basement."