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when jin comes home, he finds there’s a monstrous fort where the den used to be.
their biggest blankets are clipped together to create one giant sheet that stretches between all their couches. what lies beneath isn’t hard to guess, as the couch cushions are all missing. there’s a golden glow illuminating the blanket fort, by which shadows are cast against the fabric; the outline of dinosaur figurines can be seen fighting under the blankets, their shapes enlarged.
taehyung is the only one home, not having felt well earlier, so jin knows what all this means: it’s a small day. how small depends on how poorly tete feels, and because taehyung hasn’t popped out to greet jin at his noisy arrival, he must be quite small indeed.
jin weighs his options. if he immediately checks on taehyung, it’ll be hard to leave him again to get anything the boy might need. so, contrary to his instincts, jin goes to the kitchen rather than invading the fort first thing.
tucked away behind holiday themed serving dishes are a handful of tall baby bottles, adult-portioned cartoon plates, and utensils that are easy for clumsy hands to grip. jin takes out a bottle made for hot liquids and a bear shaped plate, the one their little cub loves most.
quickly, he prepares a soothing tea that’ll be just warm enough to drink without being hothot, honey mixed in like a certain babybear insists is best. jin screws the suction cap on and gently shakes the bottle to disperse the chamomile and honey while pulling a few things out of the refrigerator. taehyung isn’t likely to have eaten on his own if he was feeling little, especially if he’s feeling unwell, so jin makes basic sandwiches stacked with proteins. he uses a heart cookie cutter to press out shapes, stacking the small heart sandwiches onto the bear plate. a handful of grapes, pretzels, and banana slices pile in around the sandwiches.
from the secret spot in their cabinet, jin grabs a bib without paying much attention; if it’s orange, green, or brown, it’s taehyung’s. he really leaned into the woodland animal theme when choosing what baby gear to buy, so the orange bib is most likely a fox face.
now that he has everything, jin heads back to find his little bear. there isn’t a peep coming from the fort, not even when jin parts two of the blanket curtains to enter; his gasp of surprise is the only sound in their den.
taehyung had to have constructed the fort when big, anticipating a sick regression was to come soon enough. it was so very /him/, elaborate and beautiful and wow.
all the couch cushions made up the base, and he’d spread his favorite forest green blanket over them as if to give the appearance of grass. more blankets were piled up and partially laid out, begging to be wrapped around someone’s shoulders. pillows were stacked all around the fort, so many they had to come from everyone’s bedroom… or maybe just jungkook’s. that kid had enough to fill the entire fort by himself.
taehyung’s dearest plushies were scattered about along with some harder toys, like the plastic dinos jin saw battling in the shadows. the fort’s light source was a baby lamp with cutouts on the shade that cast shapes wherever the light shone, a golden glow speckled with shadowy stars. the white light of his laptop screen shone against one blanket “wall,” toddler cartoons playing with the volume off. there were some baby picture books discarded about the blankets. taehyung had even pinned a string of paper star cutouts to the “roof” blankets so that it hung down like a pretty little decoration.
and there amidst it all, curled up on his side, knees up to his chest, is taehyung himself. he has noise-cancelling headphones snug over his ears, the band containing some of his wild bedhead. he is still in the pajamas jin saw him in that morning. if he didn’t even wash up earlier, he must be feeling quite poorly indeed. his face is partially obscured from jin’s view, but once he climbs into the fort further, jin finally sees his tete’s face.
two big, thoughtless brown eyes stare at the intruder, no great surprise or emotion coloring his expression. his lips stay curved in a frown, eyebrows low on his forehead. it’s so unlike taehyung that jin knows he’s down far. far enough that he probably should’ve called someone to come home to be with him.
but jin’s here now. he’ll take care of everything.
tete watches passively as jin tries to walk across the cushions without spilling the meal or without standing up too tall and knocking down the blanket hideaway. once he’s close enough, jin lowers neatly to sit criss-cross at tete’s side, plate in one hand and bottle in the other.
he opens his mouth to speak, but then his eyes catch on the headphones. the laptop is playing old care bears shows without volume, yet jin doesn’t think tete’s headphones are linked to the audio. no, the headphones are probably to block out any “noise” in the silent room. taehyung tried to explain it once, when he was big. he spoke of how the space weighed heavy on his eardrums, how even the silence rung in his ears, so jin doesn’t dare urge him to remove the sensory gear.
tete’s hands are balled into loose fists against his chest, elbows tucked in where he’s curled up like a ball of baby. in them are clenched two dino toys, but the moment jin presses the heat of his bottle to tete’s fingers, he drops one to hold on. he doesn’t pull it to his mouth, just grips the warmth instinctively.
“let appa help,” jin whispers, knowing tete can’t hear. he pats his lap after to communicate what he’d said, and that’s enough for tete.
the cuddly little bear bumbles up from where he’d burrowed into some blankets and pillows to crawl into his appa’s lap, bum fitting between jin’s crossed legs and head leaning back to rest on jin’s throat. the position gives jin a face full of floofy black hair.
as tete settles, jin pulls a big blanket up and around them both, cocooning them together. tete busies his hands with pulling several plushies to him, piling them up around he and appa like a puppypile of friends. jin velcros the bib around tete’s neck without him noticing, his tongue sticking out a bit as he surrounds them with stuffies.
when tae finishes positioning his plushie pals, jin rests back against the couch and props his elbow on a cushion to hold the bottle of warm tea to his boy’s mouth, tete latching on and steadily drinking the soothing liquid. he melts like that, bleary eyes staring off into space as appa helps him drink.
the only time tete moves is to rub his head against jin’s chest, intentionally moving a noise-blocking cushion off his ear. he pushes it between appa’s collarbones, the pressure enough to keep quiet the bigbig space but still allow him to hear appa speak. jin takes that as a signal; much of caring for a tiny tete is relying on signaling.
“little cub, so small today.”
there’s no response, not like jin is expecting one. he adjusts his a grip on the bottle so he can press a finger against tete’s cheek. it’s boiling hot.
“is my lil cub feelin’ sickie? warm chubby cheeks, having a quiet day… yeah, my baby bear has to feel poorly. but appa’s here now. appa nini’s with his fuzzy bear, his cuddle cub.”
jin watches as tete’s eyes well up with tears. his pursed lips pop off the bottle but don’t swallow his sip of tea, the liquid spilling down his chin. that’s why jin brought the bib; their littles aren’t afraid to make a mess, and they’d not have it any other way.
“‘pa’pa,” tete babbles once before sniffling.
that he can’t even verbalize the two syllables of “appa” tells jin he’s in absolutely in babyspace, so his must be feeling quite unwell. it does comfort him to know tete recognized the name “appa” enough to react to it, babbling his title in that sad little voice. jin’s fingers itch for his phone to call another, but he wasn’t about to jostle his tete.
“appa’s right here, sweet boy,” jin soothes, rocking tete gently. “i know you don’t feel well, but appa bear brought fruits for my cub. have some nibbles and it’ll make you feel better, maybe. some fresh snacks for my cub, giving his hungry tummy something to eat.”
he isn’t sure it would work, but tete probably hasn’t eaten much today. having something in his stomach might help, and that’s all jin could think to do until someone else comes home. then, they could help poke some medicine into tete’s mouth; that certainly would be a two man job.
his words don’t mean anything to tete who is too deep to understand, so he presses a cool grape to tete’s mouth. his baby opens immediately, accepting whatever appa gives. the implicit trust means everything to jin. this is what he treasured most, the bond they had.
it tastes good, not like medicine, so tete doesn’t spit it out. his mouth pops open for another bite, and after feeding him a banana slice, jin can’t stop his praises.
“doing so well, tete honey. eating your food, nourishing your body. being appa’s good boy. making me proud, behaving so well. let’s have a big bear bite of sandwich now, hm? get some stuff in tete’s tum to make him strong.”
the words feel nice to say, but jin realistically knows he could recite the terms and conditions of a software update and tete would enjoy the low sound vibrations of his appa’s voice just as well. all the words are going right over his head yet jin would say them anyway. he keeps cooing and mumbling as he feeds tete his food, pressing the bottle to his lips every few bites.
there is only one moment when tete seems to catch appa’s words, and he apparently doesn’t like what he heard.
”cabe, a–ppa.”
that’s all he mutters between bites of sandwich and banana, but it is enough for jin to know where he misstepped. he tries hard not to laugh and succeeds by grinning wide instead.
”you’re right, baby. silly appa. this is a handsome /cave/, not a blanket fort. a perfect cave constructed by a perfect little bear. the best cave appa’s ever seen, in fact.”
tete doesn’t hum in satisfaction or even smile, but he does eat his banana with more enthusiasm after the correction.
it is only when his meal is gone that jin detects any other sense of genuine interest in his quiet little cub: tete lifts one clenched fist to appa’s nose and opens it up, a tiny dinosaur figurine resting in his sweaty palm. when jin takes the offering, tete wiggles around to face the lamp.
then, jin remembers what he’d come home to: shadow shapes illuminated against the blanket wall. baby wants to watch a shadow puppet show. jin has done sillier things for his little boys, so he doesn’t hesitate to pull the lamp closer and hold the dino in front of it.
tete watches with empty, soft eyes as the spiky spined dino shadow prances about and stands on his tail, flying through the air and spinning around. then dino goes away and a bunny bounces into the star-speckled glow. two long ears (as long as appa’s fingers and shaped the same) curl and flop. after bunny hops about, other creatures come. they don't look like any animals jin knows, but that’s okay. they aren’t loud nor do they move too fast, so tete seems perfectly content with watching them.
it is only after a lengthy solo performance that jin’s joined on stage. tete reaches around to push his little plush bird in front of the lamp, its size too big to make a detailed shadow but entertaining to the baby cub nonetheless. tete moves it about, pushing it against jin’s dino figure and letting them dance together… or maybe fight? jin isn’t sure. he prefers to think the former.
half an hour later when hoseok comes home, he is greeted much the same way jin was: dinosaur shadows cast against the glow of a huge blanket fort. the only difference now is that quiet, soft giggles come from inside the bear cave.
despite the light sickies, it is a good night for appasaurus rex and his baby bear cub.