au where single dad taehyung is staying at jungkook’s place for a few months while his apartment is renovating & they’re not even dating but every time lil soobin wakes them up crying jungkook sleepily says, “I’ll go”, and taehyung sighs heavily in love

“how is he?” taehyung asks when jungkook stumbles back in the room,

“just hungry.” jungkook yawns.

“are you sure im not taking up your bed i can—“

“shh..” jungkook mumbles, swats a hand in taehyung’s direction, “its for all the times in college i was sexiled & you took me in.”

taehyung smiles gently, relieved the dark hides it as watches jungkook drift off to sleep, eyelids fluttering shut & let his delicate lashes rest—taehyung smiles to hide the fact that his heart still aches for the boy he’s been in love with since they were in 5th grade,

but taehyung has another boy in his life now. he screwed up, but hes been blessed with soobin and he’s going to put him above everyone else, even if jungkook manages to prove everyday why he’s still one of taehyung’s most favourite people in the world.

**
“no, let him play with iron man.” jungkook huffs.

taehyung rolls his eyes, “kook i don’t think soobin is functional enough to tell the difference between iron man and cap yet.”

“you’re never too young to pick the right side,” jungkook chides, “we gotta start them tiny.”

taehyung laughs, watching as soobin sits upright in jungkook’s lap, one of his fingers clasped in his baby’s tiny right hand while his left hand is trying to break off iron man’s head by slamming it into the floor. taehyung’s heart throbs.

it doesn’t hurt to yearn, does it?

**
“can babies eat raisins?”

“...why?”

jungkook shrugs, chewing on the tip of his pen, “i just wanna know everything there is to know about babies so i can help you take care of soobin best i can.”

taehyung’s heart grows 10 sizes. “sure, if they’re not too big.” he says fondly.

jungkook’s tongue sticks out at the corner as he jots down the point in his little notebook, and taehyung thinks he might just perish.

**
“i think you might’ve caught that cold from soobin,” taehyung sighs, brushing jungkook’s sweaty bangs out of the way just as he sneezes,

“great.” he mutters.

“i told you to stay clear, i could’ve taken care of him.”

“no, how is that fair?”

jungkook is too doped up on cough medicine to realize what he’d said makes no sense—because that’s perfectly fair, because he’s nothing to soobin, yet he can’t find himself keeping away from the kid for too long. jungkook’s just as attached to him as he is to his father.

“is soobin sleeping?” he asks & when taehyung hums in response, he asks groggily, “can you play with my hair like you used to?”

there’s no pause, “of course.”

jungkook’s head ends up in taehyung’s lap, and even though he knows he’s no longer the most important person in his best friend’s life, it feels good to be as close to him as he can—even though it doesn’t make it any easier to get over him.

**
“koot.”

“what’s he saying?” jimin blinks, waving soobin’s rattle in his face. the baby grins, reaching out to grab it and misses, nearly falling flat on his face if not for jimin’s hands that catch his tiny body,

“koot.” soobin just giggles through tiny spit bubbles again.

jungkook shrugs, testing the warmth of soobin’s milk on the palm of his hand, “beats me. he’s been making that weird noise all morning.”

“koot!”

“see?” jungkook snorts, walking over with the bottle and plops down next to jimin. “what does it even mean?”

jimin looks at soobin thoughtfully for a moment before, “oh my god,” he says with a grin, then looks up to jungkook slyly and lifts soobin into his lap, “I know what he’s trying to say. listen.”

jungkook just stares back at the little human, “is he imitating a train?”

jimin rolls his eyes. “how are you this dense even with babies?”

“what’s that supposed to mean?” jungkook frowns.

“little soobin here is trying to say... kook.”

“that’s ...my name.” jungkook says dumbly.

“yup.” jimin pops the p, then laughs, “wait till tae finds out his baby’s first word is your name, he’s gonna kick your ass.”

jungkook drops the baby bottle.

**
“is everything okay? you’ve been really quiet since I got home.” taehyung asks jungkook later when they’re in the bathroom giving soobin a bath.

the baby is propped up in his little tub, babbling as he smacks poor iron man around again. jungkook squints at him cautiously,

“what?” jungkook snorts lamely, “what’re you talking about?”

“well, you keep staring at soobin like he’s going to eat you.” jungkook looks up to see taehyung's brow raised incredulously, "kook, did you get in a fight with my 1 year old while i was gone?"

"pft. no. that's ridiculous."

soobin looks up at him then, lips breaking into a wide, and heart-wrenchingly familiar grin that’s identical to his fathers, the same grin that puts jungkook's heart into mega overdrive,

soobin points at him, “ko—“

"time to get out of the tub!"

jungkook lifts soobin up from the armpits, giggles filling the air as taehyung looks up at him in utter, but fond confusion. jungkook grabs a towel, pursing his lips as he pats down soobin, who won't stop grabbing at his nose. if he can get soobin to say dada+

+before taehyung realizes his first /real/ word, then maybe he won’t drop kick his ass and leave. jungkook can’t lose him again. so he gently pulls soobin’s fingers off his nose, squints at the little munchkin in his arms and whispers, “say dada.”

soobin just blinks.

**
“say dada. c’mon my favourite little human,” jungkook dangles an animal cracker between soobin’s eyes, “just say it.”

“he’s not a /puppy/ jungkook.” namjoon scolds.

“shh!” jungkook waves a hand in the air, “he’s just about it say it. you’re gonna scare it out of him.”

“da.da.” jungkook enunciates.

soobin tilts his head. his tiny hands reach out for the cracker but jungkook pulls it away. “dada.” he repeats.

soobin grins. “doof.”

“no. not doof. jungkook sucks in a breath, /da/-/da/.

soobin burps. then giggles. “koot.”

jungkook groans, dropping his head between soobin’s tiny legs.

“you know, i think he might respond better if you bribe him with money.”

“shut up, hyung.” jungkook mutters.

it’s not long before he feels little fingers tangled in his hair, giggles & the sounds of, “da koot.”

**
“alright little dude.” taehyung says, “it’s nap time,”

“gurf.” soobin huffs, scribbling something with the crayons jungkook bought him.

taehyung chuckles, “yeah, dada knows bath time was rough without kook today bub but we can’t skip nap time.”

soobin yawns when taehyung picks him up from his playpen, nuzzling his cheek against his dad’s chest, “koot,” he mumbles before dozing off,

taehyung tucks soobin in gently, pulling the blanket to his chin & kisses him on the forehead. “koot, hm?” taehyung hums with a smile.

**
soobin is currently fussing around in taehyung’s arms at the local walmart, tugging at his dad’s earring as he searches for a new pacifier on the shelves.

“hey tae! look, im gonna get this for him,”

taehyung turns to be met with jungkook’s toothy grin as he holds up what has to be the cutest footsie pyjama with bunnies on the knees. he cant help the way his heart swells, a smile pulling across his face at the thought of two of his babies with bunnies,

“you know he’ll grow out of that in a few weeks right?”

“that’s okay.” jungkook shrugs, “i’ll just buy him another one.”

“you don’t have to do that.” taehyung says softly.

“i know,” jungkook smiles, “but i want to.”

taehyung still can’t handle the way jungkook is so brazen sometimes—one might think it’d be off-putting but he's always been blunt with such innocence that it fills taehyung's heart to the brim with fondness,

it’s just one of those qualities he has that makes everybody want to love him. taehyung is no exception. and neither is soobin apparently, who’s tiny arms are already reaching out for jungkook, who takes him easily,

and taehyung doesn’t know if it should scare him how perfectly soobin fits in jungkook’s arms, how happy his baby always looks with him—the way soobin can never stop giggling or babbling excitedly whenever jungkook’s around,

taehyung’s imagination goes on a tangent sometimes, and he wants to believe jungkook could actually be there for him & soobin even when he has no excuse left to stay by jungkook’s side.

they’ve already been staying with him for nearly 6 months & everyday taehyung thinks he falls a little more in love—or more like, back in love. it was never really gone, just muted in the years he was away from jungkook, coming back in full forces & slapping him in the face now,

“i know dude, i like it too.” jungkook grins, holding up the pyjama for soobin to see. “you’d look so badass in this.”

“ah?” soobin points at it with his tiny finger, “foop,”

“yeah, man. foop for real.”

jungkook winks at taehyung, who’s smiling so hard, his cheeks may explode.

“doof. foop.” soobin waves his arms with a sequel, looks at jungkook, “k—“

jungkook coughs loudly, & taehyung jerks in surprise. “wow, would you look at all that phlegm.” he says with an awkward laugh,

backing away as taehyung watches him whisper in his baby’s ear,

“i think i’m gonna introduce soobin to walmart’s assortment of lozenges.”

taehyung blinks, “but soobin can’t—“

"lozenges!" jungkook shouts over his shoulder, speed-walking his giggling baby down the aisle.

**
this is getting ridiculous.” namjoon and seokjin say in unison.

jungkook ignores them, continues setting up the little obstacle course he’s made for soobin. he’s placed namjoon and seokjin at each end with a goldfish cracker to try and convince soobin to finally say dada.

imagine how happy taehyung would be if he got soobin to say it? he’d smile so wide. when taehyung smiles, jungkook thinks a fairy is born somewhere. maybe a whole family of fairies. he’d do whatever it takes to keep him smiling. not just for him, but for the sake of fairy life.

namjoon pops the goldfish meant for soobin in his mouth and jungkook glares, pulling out another one, “kook c’mon, you really think tae would care if soobin’s first word was kook?”

“yeah, it’s not even kook,” seokjin snorts, “it’s literally koot. he’s making a farting noise.”

“hey, don’t insult my kid.” jungkook frowns.

the room quiets. jungkook freezes. namjoon & seokjin stare at him.

“t-taehyung’s kid.” he corrects himself, his heart booming in his ears as he tries to cram down a desire he didn’t mean to disclose, “don’t insult taehyung’s kid.”