Work Text:
Felix walks into a commotion. It should be strange, really, seeing their youngest and eldest member wrestling with each other, however Felix barely bats an eye at the tangle of limbs on the floor, rather opts to step over them and makes his way to the couch where Chan sits, engaged in a TV show like their potential disbandment is not happening a few feet away from him.
“What’s that about?” Felix asks. Chan doesn’t look away from the TV screen,
“Documentary about particles.”
Felix is momentarily confused before he sighs, nudging him to get his full attention,
“Not that.” He clarifies, “That!” Felix points to where Jeongin is now straddling Woojin’s waist, a devilish look gleaming in his eyes. Felix is suddenly very worried for their eldest member.
Chan snorts.
“Oh, that.” He tilts his head like he’s trying to remember something extremely insignificant before letting out an ah-ah!
“Jeongin called me a dickhead.”
Felix’s eyes widen,
“Where’d he learn that? ”
“Maybe from another fellow Australian?”
Felix shifts, recalling how often he’d directed that word at Jisung whilst watching him play God of War last week.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” He lies, then before Chan can press further, “That still doesn’t explain why Woojin is wrestling him. Shouldn’t it be you?”
The older shrugs, eyes back to staring holes in the TV,
“Woojin asked if he could fight him and I said yeah.”
Felix raises an eyebrow, convinced that Chan and Woojin have just completely given up on them all at this point. They haven’t even been debuted a year yet, but he’s pretty sure Woojin rolls his eyes every time he remembers people born after the year 2000 exist.
“Okay, I win.” Jeongin finally stands from his place on Woojin’s waist, who grunts and kicks out a leg for the youngest to trip over. Jeongin skilfully dodges it.
“Hyung.” He starts, making his way to Chan who sighs- the sigh of a parent with more children than fingers on his right hand. “Please consider it.”
The leader barely spares their youngest a glance, too focused on his lame science documentary.
“I already said no, I’m not thinking about something I have no intention of changing my mind about.”
Jeongin lets out a screech, jumping right into Chan’s lap- a full six year old tantrum that Felix has never witnessed in all his years of knowing him. Despite Jeongin being their youngest, he’s often well-behaved. Sure, he’s cheeky and gets up to mischief and often (pretends to) forget to use honorifics, but he never throws tantrums.
“This is unfair! You said to come to you with ideas and that’s exactly what I’m doing!”
“Jesus, Yang Jeongin, I will not incorporate the shark song into our new album!”
Felix bursts into laughter, shocked at the absurdity of the situation. All of this over a- shark song?
“It’s not funny!” Jeongin pouts, cheeks flushed red, “I just want to participate!”
“Participate with what?”
Felix’s head whips towards the door where his boyfriend is walking in. Changbin lights up upon seeing Felix on the couch, smile softening almost immediately,
“Hey,” The dark-haired boy says gently. He takes Felix’s hand, entwines their fingers, “I’ve been looking for you everywhere. ”
Felix feels himself redden,
“I thought you were heading to the studio.”
“Wanted to take you with me.”
“Gross.” Jeongin fake gags, imitates putting two fingers down his throat to show his disgust at the situation. Changbin ignores him,
“What did you want to participate in?” He asks again.
“Chan won’t put the shark song on the new album.”
Changbin furrows his eyebrows,
“Isn’t that copyright?”
“Not the actual song, just something that resembles it.” He pauses, widens his eyes and puts on a huge pout for emphasis, “Please, hyung?”
Changbin hums, and Felix notices how he has his familiar thinking face on- the one that appears late at night and early in the morning, the one he often falls asleep to and always wakes up to.
“I suppose I could do that for you.”
Felix feels Chan freeze next to him. Jeongin’s mouth opens into a huge smile,
“Really? I knew there was a reason you’re my favourite hyung!” Changbin ruffles his hair when he falls against him.
Chan is glowering.
“Binnie…” He begins. Changbin rolls his eyes,
“I’ll make it good hyung. You can trust me.”
--
“I’m so single.”
Minho snorts gently tugging his hand out of Jisung’s grasp to turn his attention towards the boy who just spoke. Jeongin is lounging on the huge arm chair, his long legs taking up all the space in a most uninviting gesture, as he glowers at the crack in the kitchen door. When Minho tilts his head he can see Seungmin feeding Hyunjin from a plate of strawberries, matching blushes decorating both of their cheeks.
“So single,” Jeongin repeats, like the first time wasn’t enough. The words are muttered, obviously not intended for anybody else to hear, but Minho can’t help but let out a light chuckle.
“Jeongin-ah,” He sighs fondly. Jeongin jumps at the sound of his name,
“What?” He responds irritably, but his ears are red so it dissipates any plans he had of appearing either nonchalant or confident.
“What’s wrong?” Minho asks teasingly, “Are you jealous? I thought you said relationships are gross.”
“They are.” Jeongin insists, “Super gross.”
Jeongin shifts a little, eyes darting between the loved-up couple in the kitchen and Minho and Jisung squished up together on the couch. He narrows his eyes,
“Hyung,” He starts innocently. Minho falters for a second. He knows that voice. He also knows what Jeongin is capable of when he’s bored and looking for something to do- or more specifically, someone’s life to ruin.
“Yes?” Minho responds, voice cautious but also with a warning tone. Jeongin ignores it completely.
“Do you love Jisung?”
“Jeongin-” Minho hisses, but it’s too late, as Jisung is already shifting next to him at the sound of his own name, blearily becoming conscious from the light nap he had been taking.
“Who loves me?” He asks sleepily. Minho sighs, gently tucks the blanket up to Jisung’s chin and brushes his hair out of his eyes.
“Everybody loves you Sungie,” He says softly. Jeongin snickers, but Jisung, satisfied, closes his eyes and within a few minutes is dozing once more.
“Especially Minho-hyung.” Jeongin decides to say. Minho glares.
“Jeongin, what do you want?”
Jeongin looks up with his big doe eyes, the prettiest pout sitting on his lips,
“Cuddles.” He sighs, “I’m so touch deprived.”
“Aww,” Minho coos at the younger, like he’s a baby animal or something equally delicate and worth protecting, “If you really wanted me to hug you, you could have just asked.”
Jeongin crosses his arms,
“That’s not it.”
But when Minho lifts the other end of the blanket he crawls right under, and when Minho lifts his arm, Jeongin doesn’t think twice before snuggling against his chest. He sighs. Teasing his hyungs is fun; but being cuddled in their embrace is far better.
--
“You’re kidding,”
Chan rolls his eyes at Hyunjin’s words, used to the younger’s melodramatic behaviour. He’d originally come to keep Hyunjin company on his walk home from school as he was in the area anyway, but they’d barely walked for five minutes before their chatter was cut off by a phone call from Changbin. Chan could only hear one end of the conversation, but Hyunjin had let out more no ways and oh my god s than Chan could count on both his hands.
Finally, Hyunjin puts the phone down, turning to Chan with gleaming eyes- how he manages to do so whilst walking speedily is beyond him.
“What is it?” Chan asks, exasperated.
“Jeongin got his braces off.”
“Oh my god, no way, you’re kidding!”
Hyunjin has never seen Chan walk faster in his life- they reach the dorms in record time, and Chan even drops his keys in excitement, which makes Hyunjin cackle at the ridiculously dad behaviour the elder is portraying.
Jeongin is perched on Changbin’s lap on the couch, happily eating from a large bowl of chips as he watches TV with Jisung and Felix on either side of him. They look cosy. Chan thinks about leaving them be for a fleeting second, before he loudly announces his presence.
“Oh god,” Jeongin mumbles, shoving his face into Changbin’s shirt who laughs heartily and strokes a hand through Jeongin’s hair. “Please don’t be embarrassing.”
Chan lets out an offended sort of whine, ignoring Hyunjin’s snickers who had disappeared into the kitchen since they step foot in the house,
“I just wanna see!”
Jeongin sighs, mutters something about getting it over and done with before bearing his teeth in a ridiculous sort of smile that looks more like a growl. Chan coos.
“Ah our precious Jeonginnie, did it hurt baby?”
Jeongin turns a violent shade of red, using his left leg to kick a giggling Felix, and his right arm to punch a hysterical Jisung.
“I’m not a baby!” He whines (like a baby.)
Chan laughs as he walks over, then uses his index finger to gently tip Jeongin’s chin back. The younger flushes.
“You look cuter than ever.” Chan remarks, giggling at Jeongin’s startled expression, before he takes over Lap Duty ™ so Changbin can stretch his legs.
---
“This can’t be right.” Jeongin mutters, nose scrunching up and eyebrows furrowing. He pauses for a second, tilts his head like that will make the math equation any simpler, before furiously rubbing out his answer with the stub of rubber at the end of his pencil. Jeongin throws the pencil to the ground in anger, and burrows his head into his hands. He lets out a muffled scream.
“Jeongin?” A soft voice calls out. Jeongin refuses to lift his head, but he knows who it is. There’s only one person in their dorms who would quietly call his name for screaming, rather than telling him to shut up.
“I’m okay, hyung.” Jeongin sighs, mouth muffled by the sleeves of his sweater.
Woojin begins to speak, but he doesn’t finish his sentence, so Jeongin expects him to leave. To the younger’s surprise, Woojin’s presence is suddenly right next to him.
“Let me take a look at it.” He says gently.
Jeongin mutters something inaudible, before allowing Woojin to tug his homework out from under his crossed arms, though he stubbornly still does not lift his head.
“Oh,” Woojin says softly after a minute or two, “You forgot to add the extra zero.”
Jeongin rests his chin on his arms, looking at Woojin quizzically.
“The zero?” He repeats.
“Yeah, everything else is right, but this part is long multiplication so you’ll need to…”
Jeongin watches in silent awe as Woojin gently takes the pencil out of his grip and begins to scribble an array of numbers and letters. He places the answer in a large circle, and to Jeongin’s surprise, when they punch the calculation into the calculator, it’s correct.
“See,” Woojin smiles, “Easy.”
Jeongin looks at him, his proud smile and caring eyes, and rushes to gather him in a hug. Woojin is pleasantly surprised, but he squeezes the younger boy back into his embrace, burying his nose in Jeongin’s hair.
“Thanks, hyung.” Jeongin mumbles. He pauses, “You’re so nice to me. Sorry for sitting on you last week.”
Woojin laughs heartily,
“You literally do not need to apologise for that. At all.”
Jeongin smiles, and when Woojin presses the lightest kiss to the top of his head, he only burrows further into his warm chest.